“Excuse me?” Jeff’s attention had strayed to something on his smartphone.
“This termination is specifically due to my involvement in the accident two days ago.” She kept her tone carefully calm. “Is there any concern about my ability to fulfill the responsibilities outlined in my job description or the quality of my work?”
It was important to clarify. She didn’t want any nasty surprises if a future employer contacted this company to confirm her employment history. Besides, it mattered to her. She was a good accountant.
Jeff sighed. “The reason for your termination is stated in the paperwork. Just read and sign.”
Sophie gritted her teeth and made a point of reading every line. He stood over her, but she remained seated and made sure she understood the exact terms for her termination. And honestly, she was a fast reader, but she took her time because he was trying to rush her.
Twenty minutes later, she was making her way down the long hallway back to the elevator. Jeff hadn’t even offered to help her with her box to the front of the office, much less out the door and into the hallway. Now she’d be damned if she’d put this thing down before she got down the elevator and to the lobby.
Her ankle throbbed with every step, and her eyes burned with the effort to keep her tears from falling. This had been her dream job after finishing her MBA. Her father had been so proud when she’d gotten this position.
Worse, she was embarrassed. She shouldn’t be. While they had the right to end her employment at will, the reasons provided were ridiculous. She knew that. But it’d been humiliating limping her way out.
She tried to maintain her indignation over their claims, letting it fuel her progress toward the exit, but she got to the lobby wrung out and exhausted. As she stepped out of the building, she thought of the comforting warmth of Brandon’s strong arms around her.
Something between them had changed last evening and she wanted to see him, know that he was there. Beyond losing her job, fear was growing in her chest that her life was only going to get more insane. And the worst thing she could think of would be to find out he’d gone again.
So she called, and asked him to come for her.
*
As Forte pulled up to the front of the building where Sophie worked, he spotted her right away. She was standing out in the open and easily visible. Vulnerable.
Damn it. Something was wrong, but at least it wasn’t of the life-threatening, immediate kind. It was broad daylight, and she wasn’t standing near anything that might unexpectedly blow up…unless you counted the building behind her.
“Haydn, blijf.” The big, black dog remained obediently on his belly in the back of the SUV, safely kenneled in the custom-altered trunk area.
Satisfied that Haydn was good to wait in the vehicle, Forte exited and headed for Sophie.
“Put the box down. I’ll get it.” Damn it. She shouldn’t be on her feet this much, and she especially shouldn’t be carrying boxes around. What the hell?
Sophie regarded him with large, dark eyes glistening with tears on the verge of spilling over.
Shit.
Rage burned up from deep in his chest. Someone had made her cry. Suddenly, he had the urge to run past her into the building and tear the place to pieces for hurting her. But stronger than the destructive impulse was the need to wrap her in his arms and make her safe.
He’d compromise.
Taking the box from her, he herded her back to his SUV. Once he had her settled in the front passenger seat, he placed her box carefully in the seat behind her. Then he skirted around and got back behind the wheel. “Where to?”
“Huh?” Sophie’s voice was strained.
“I’ll take you home if you want to go home.” He turned his upper body to face her and reached out to catch a tear as one finally fell down her cheek. “Or I can take you someplace else, anyplace. You pick.”
At this moment, he ached for her. He could guess what the box meant. She worked so hard, with long hours, taking pride in her work the way so few did in whatever their jobs were. She wouldn’t walk out with all her things like this unless she wasn’t planning to come back.
His years in the military had taught him to be ready to move on. Assignments changed. He could be deployed, and those deployments could change in length of time or locale. He recognized the signs when plans changed without warning.
The career Sophie had built for herself was completely changing, and he wanted to help her keep her footing as her world shifted around her.
“Anywhere?” she asked. “I could ask you to keep driving until we hit the ocean or, say, Canada or Mexico.”
He’d go anywhere if she asked. Leave everything behind if she needed him to. She just didn’t know it.
He grinned at her. “Well, we’d get started and I figure we’d stop in about an hour when you realized you had to use the restroom.”
She gasped and gave him a solid whack to his shoulder.