Chương 5 - Debt of Blood and Paper
Jason retreated until his shoulder blades struck a bookshelf, knocking two vintage hardcovers to the floor with a thud.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Jason blustered, though his shaking hands betrayed him.
"You can't just kick down doors in broad daylight!"
Daniel walked slowly down the narrow aisle, the floorboards groaning under his polished shoes.
He didn't look at the damage he had caused; his focus was entirely on Jason.
"I am Daniel Brooks," he said, stopping five feet from my ex-fiancé.
"And you are Jason Vance, a junior associate at Miller & Thorne."
Jason’s jaw slacked.
"You know who I am?"
"I know that you billing thirty hours of overtime you never worked on the municipal transit audit," Daniel said smoothly.
"I know that your apartment lease is paid three months in advance through an offshore account registered to Marcus’s uncle."
"And I know that you have exactly forty-five seconds to leave this woman’s presence before I make that information public to the Massachusetts Bar Association."
Jason went entirely pale, looking like a man who had stepped off the edge of a cliff.
"You're bluffing," Jason whispered, though he looked ready to vomit.
Daniel tilted his head toward one of the men behind him.
The man pulled a thick manila folder from his leather briefcase and held it up.
"I don't bluff, Mr. Vance," Daniel said quietly.
"I collect leverage."
"Now, apologize to Emily for entering her workspace and threatening her livelihood."
Jason swallowed hard, his arrogant swagger evaporating into nothingness.
He turned his terrified eyes toward me.
"I'm sorry, Emily," he muttered, the words tasting like poison in his mouth.
"I didn't mean it."
"Get out," I said, finding a strength in my voice I didn't know I still possessed.
Jason didn't wait for a second invitation.
He squeezed past the two guards and scrambled out into the street, nearly tripping over the broken threshold.
Daniel turned to me, his gray eyes sweeping over my face to ensure I hadn't been touched.
"Are you harmed?"
"No," I answered, leaning against the counter as the adrenaline began to fade, leaving me trembling.
"You didn't have to break my door."
A ghost of a smile touched Daniel's lips.
"It was locked."
"I am not known for my patience with locked doors."
He turned to his associate.
"Call the contractor."
"Have the entire facade replaced with reinforced steel framing and vintage-stained oak by six this evening."
"Pay him double his standard emergency rate."
The associate nodded and stepped outside to make the call.
"Daniel, you can't just buy my problems away," I said, crossing my arms defensively.
"This is getting out of hand."
"This isn't about buying problems, Emily," he said, stepping closer until I could smell the subtle cedarwood cologne he wore.
"This is about finishing what your friends started."
"They believed you were weak because you were gentle."
"They assumed no one would stand in the breach for you."
He reached out, his warm, calloused fingers gently tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
The tenderness of the gesture contrasted so sharply with the violence of his arrival that my breath caught in my throat.
"I am standing in the breach now," Daniel said.
May you like
"And nobody hurts what I have chosen to protect."
***
