Merry With a Scrooge (The Love Beach Holiday Collection)

2. Laney

Laney

Standing back in the shadows, I watch the drama unfold in front of me.

A woman, hair in disarray, skirt twisted to the side and blouse untucked, is arguing with a bunch of men about a ‘prick who deserved it’.

I’m not sure what level of asshole deserves her taking a crowbar to a very expensive car.

What I am sure of is, the car belongs to Vail Warton Kavanah.

Which means the ‘prick’ is two things.

My older brother’s best friend.

And my future boss.

There’s a lot of commotion, as a group of men try to contain the woman, most are building security I think, possibly a bystander or two.

The short burst of a siren has every one of them stopping in their tracks.

Even the woman at the center of it all stops her screeching rant.

I watch in awe as three police cars round the far end of the parking garage aisle and come to a stop, one behind the other.

Three?

Six cops for a trashed Aston Martin?

It seems excessive.

Edging closer, I do it slowly so I don’t make a sound and to keep from being spotted. I’m hoping to hear more details, but the second the officers pile out of their cars the woman takes up her manic banshee impersonation again.

Never mind not hearing what anyone says, my damn ears are bleeding. Her shrill voice echoes off the concrete walls and floor and roof like the steel ball in a pinball machine.

Except there isn’t anything remotely fun about this.

Within minutes, one of the officers has the screaming woman restrained in handcuffs and marches her toward the first NYPD vehicle.

She’s still screeching about whatever the hell she’s screeching about until she’s in the backseat and the door is closed and silence fills the space.

Don’t get me wrong, you can still hear her going crazy inside the cruiser—and I hope the glass is extra strong because she’s smashing her feet, complete with high heels, against the side window now too—but compared to before, the noise is blessedly muffled.

Everyone’s stature seems to relax, as though they’ve taken a breath of relief now she’s been contained. As if choreographed, they all turn at the same time to survey the damaged car.

“Mr. Kavanah is on his way down and we have someone bringing a copy of the security footage,” one of the suited men informs the closest officer.

“Any witnesses or just the footage?”

“Footage only?—”

“Excuse me.” Stepping forward, I make my way around a nice BMW and almost whimper when I think about selling my 4 series convertible to move here.

Everyone spins my way but it’s one of the officers who speaks.

“Ma’am?”

“I saw some of what happened but not all.”

“Can you tell me what you did see?” the officer asks as he comes toward me.

“Sure. I’m parked in the next row over.” I indicate behind me. “When I pulled in to a vacant spot I saw her a few cars down from me take a tire iron out of her trunk. Didn’t think much of it except that it was weird she walked away and left the trunk open.”

“A car over there?” He points over my shoulder and I nod. Turning, he directs two of the other officers behind him, “Go check it out.”

When they’ve done as asked he returns his gaze to me.

“What else did you see?”

I nod at the Aston Martin. “The back window cave in when she slammed the tire iron into it.”

“Nothing else?”

“No. She’d done the rest of the damage before I walked over here on my way to the elevator.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“I heard banging but until I came through those parked cars I couldn’t see what was causing it.”

“There was no one else around?”

“Well, all these guys were running from the elevator toward her. It’s what made me look her way and see the final blow.” I frown at the car. “I don’t understand that kind of violence.”

“Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident.”

“This has happened here before?” Shit. I know Vail can be an asshole, but he’s a good asshole if that even makes sense. I wasn’t worried about his reaction to me being his assistant, but now…

“Oh, no. I meant in general. People seem only too happy to trash other people’s hard earned belongs in my experience.”

“I’m assuming you mean in your job.” I nod at his uniform.

“Yes.”

“Good thing I didn’t want to go into law enforcement then. I’d hate dealing with this all the time.”

“It’s not all the time. Can I get your name?—”

“Fucking mother fucking cunt!” The yelled words bounce off every surface. “Where the fuck is the bitch?”

“Whoa. Calm down boss.”

Vail comes into view, a tall—built like a linebacker—guy in a suit following close behind.

“Don’t tell me to calm down. Look what she’s done to the Aston!”

Vail comes to a stop. Hands on hips. His gaze stuck on his destroyed car.

After what seems likes hours, but is probably only a minute, he blows out a breath and tips his face toward the roof. “Fuck.”

This time his voice is quiet, the one word drenched in agony, the sound gut wrenching. It tugs at my insides and has me wanting to step over and hug him.

Which is a stupid thought because Vail is the last man I should think about cuddling.

“Mr. Kavanah.” The officer next to me steps forward, hand outstretched. “Office Jones. We have the offender in custody.”

“Did they tell you she assaulted me as well as my car?” Vail’s gaze bores into the officer.

“Ah, no, I’m unaware of that.”

“Yeah, upstairs before she came down and killed my car she tried to kill me with a stapler.”

I can’t help it. The image his words produce in my head makes me laugh. And my attempt to swallow the sound only makes it worse, because the snort-like sound does the same thing as every other noise in this place.

It echoes off every smooth cement surface around us, magnifying it tenfold.

Covering my mouth with my hand I mutter, “Sorry,” into my palm.

Vail barely glances at me before returning his eyes to the officer, but that quick scathing look is visceral, scorching a path from my head to my toes.

Taking a small step back, I angle to the side and hope to remain insignificant to him.

For now.

I have an appointment with HR in thirty minutes where I’ll be given a tour of the offices and have a brief meeting with Vail.

I don’t start work until next week, but I wanted to get all the paperwork and orientation out of the way this week so I can hit the ground running on Monday.

“Can you tell me what prompted the assault?”

The officer hasn’t pulled out a notebook to write anything down and I wonder if I’m going to be required to repeat my statement.

Hell, did I even give a statement?

“Who knows how a woman’s mind works. She quit. I told her HR would contact her about her contract termination and final pay. Then I went back to work. I didn’t even see her throw the stapler. And she was gone when I looked up.”

Vail’s explanation has both the officer and me frowning.

“You didn’t see her throw it?” the officer asks.

“No.” Vail folds his arms across his chest and I have to force myself to look away from his thick forearms.

“The security footage recorded her,” the guy who arrived with Vail adds.

“Right. Okay.” The officer looks toward another one who’s been standing near the cruiser with the car murderer inside. “Can you make any sense of what she’s screaming?”

“Something about prick assholes not even having the decency to fire her before hiring a replacement.”

“Oh!” I didn’t mean to make a sound, mostly because I don’t want to get any more involved than I am. Except now I think I’m more involved than just witnessing this woman’s rage.

“Something to say?” Vail is staring straight at me. His gaze penetrating in a way I’ve never experienced.

Shaking my head, I roll my lips between my teeth.

I get an arched eyebrow and I’m sure his eyes get sharper, dig deeper. “Well, Ms. Sanderson, I’ll speak to you after I straighten this mess out.”

Oh shit.