Primal Promise

Six

He'd thought two weeks of sun, sand, and solitude would do him good. Now poised at the door, frozen by the simple act of catching her scent in a stairway, all that zen bullshit had been thrown out of the window. Jameson wrenched the door open and walked through the hallway, heedless of anything but that faint hint of hope.

People sprang out of his way, their faces turning ashen. Likely panicked because when the head man appeared, especially looking so furious, it meant someone's head was going to roll. If anyone had been foolish enough to attempt to stop his forward momentum, they might well have wound up headless indeed. Jameson ignored them, ignored everything, even Herb's voice behind him, begging him to stop, to listen, to wait. Nothing mattered but finding her.

He burst into a room of cubicles, heads popping up over the top like prairie dogs. It might have been an amusing visual on any day but today. Unerringly he navigated the maze until he found an empty space. The bland taupe walls held no posters or decor, the desk was clean and tidy, nothing framed the computer monitor, only a single leather task chair sat inside the dreary space. It was redolent however with her warmth, her sweet natural fragrance twisted up in leather and roses.

"Where. Is. She?" He growled toward the nearest person, a sweaty-browed man with his arms clutching a pile of folders to his chest so tightly they were folding in half.

"He... Tony... the manager, he uh... fired her this morning." The target of his ire spoke up, nervously. "She just left though. You can probably catc.." but Jameson had already walked away.

Herb had just caught up when Jameson barreled past, moving in the other direction, his phone at his ear. "Wait, what..." He looked at the others who looked as clueless as he was. "Jameson!" he hurried after him. His godson was going to ruin everything!

"No, you idiot, her name is Contessa. Some asshole fired her without running it by me first and I want her in my office YESTERDAY!" He threw the phone toward Herb and stalked off down the hall. "Cancel the meetings."

His look thunderous and Herb found himself nodding, even as the voice on the other end of the phone was still talking. This wasn't good. This was not good at all. "Oh!" He put the phone to his ear and listened. "Look like? Just look for the woman walking out the door with a cardboard box full of desk shit, you idiot!" He pressed the button to turn the phone off and then retrieved his own, scanning through the contacts as he walked swiftly after Jameson. It was going to be a very long day.

~  ~  ~  ~

"I-I don't understand," CJ said, even as she was being directed by the arm to turn back, her box taken by the shorter of the men who took up a pace just behind them as the taller lead her toward the elevator. "I was fired."

"I only know what I've been told, Ma'am," He spoke with a polite but detached manner that made her hackles rise. She was not the sort who took offense at genial manners as some dig about her age. It was the patronising tone that pricked at her last thread of patience. "And that was to intercept you and bring you upstairs." Said as he pressed the uppermost button and the doors slid shut.

The Office with a capital O. The big boss, Holt had sent them to bring her back. Tony must have made some sort of accusation. That she was stealing or doing something else nefarious. This was very, very bad. If the accusation had reached the top office so fast, and they'd come after her, it must mean they believed Tony. The cops were probably on their way to arrest her on suspicion of ... whatever.

She vacillated between a panicked terror and what her Aunt had called 'her red'. That fiery, vicious, sharp-tongued temper that she long worked to suppress. It never ended well when it reared its head. She quickly steeled herself. Whatever lies Tony had concocted, she would get it all straightened out soon enough.