Protect & Serve(147)

“I’ll have to give you a call back,” he said into the receiver. “Something just came up.”

He hung up the phone and made a motion with his hand for me to have a seat in the chair opposite his desk.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll stand.”

“Have a seat Bria, there’s something we need to discuss.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“So be it. Well, I suppose you already have some idea what this is about.”

“Nope,” I said, defiantly.

He let out a long sigh and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“You understand, Bria, that we here at Jones and Schreiber have a certain image that we must uphold at all times.”

I stared, deadpan.

“And there are absolutely no circumstances in which we can allow incidents like the one that occurred a couple of weeks back to transpire.”

“I understand that sir, but my friend was only being protective.”

He put his hand up to stop me.

“You need to know that we lost a major client over your little melodrama out there. It was a huge account.”

“I’m sorry that happened Mr. Jones, but like I said-”

“For God’s sake, Bria, Kevin had to be hospitalized! The poor man probably won’t be able to return to work for at least another month.”

“But-”

“And you know how word gets around in these circles. We’re being ostracized. This couldn’t have come at a worse time, either. What in the world was that man doing? How could he even think it was remotely okay to attack someone like that? Especially a lawyer from another firm!”

“Kevin was about to hit me… He was harassing me and-”

“That’s just not going to be a good enough explanation.

He shook his head.

“I’ve taken the time to get all of the necessary documents in order. I’m informing you that as of this moment, you are being suspended indefinitely for being party to that disturbance and conducting improper fraternization in the workplace.”

“That’s not fair! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I know it’s a tough pill to swallow, Bria. Maybe we jumped the gun a little bit when we talked about you taking the bar. It may serve you well to hold off for a little while to get your personal affairs in order. There isn’t a firm in this city who is going to put up with that kind of behavior from its employees.”

I sunk back against the wall. I felt six inches tall.

“Besides, as a paralegal, you can do very well for yourself. You can make a respectable career out of it.”

“Yeah…” I wasn’t even looking at him anymore. Everything had come crashing down around me.

“Mr. Jones,” I whispered, “How long will the suspension last?”

The big picture of losing my dream briefly gave way to my short-term survival needs.

“You’ll be informed if we would like you to come back as soon as our Human Resources department concludes their investigation. At this time, I’ll need you to drop your badge and building keycard off with Christine and exit the building.”

I was numb.

Christine held her hand out as I passed by her desk. I tossed the badge and keycard on the floor as I walked by. I’d seen all of this before. A suspension was just a fancy way for the law firm to lay you off without paying unemployment. Their “investigation” would end in my termination without pay or severance. I knew that after today, I’d never set foot in this building again.





30





Luke





They put us up in the hotel where the fight was being held. I was less than twenty-four hours away from the biggest fight of my life and I couldn’t get her off my mind. Everything about this was fucked.

I took a bite out of the chicken breast my trainer had prepared. We had returned to the room after the weigh-ins to get some rest. It marked the end of a torturous week.

That was they typical schedule when you did one of these Vegas events. Arrive at the location on Wednesday and do your open workouts, Thursday was all about photo ops and meet and greets with the fans, and Friday was a few final interviews before the weigh-in. It was a hell of a lot to ask of a guy who was about to get in the cage and fight for his life. It’s not like we didn’t have more important things to focus on.

Some of the reporters even took notice that I couldn’t seem to get my head right.

“You don’t seem your usual self, Luke. Everything go okay in your training camp?”

“Yep. All good, just can’t wait for the fight.”

“You sure? You didn’t suffer any injuries or anything during your training, did you?”

“I’m as strong as an ox. Faster than I’ve ever been, too. I guess you could say I’m taking on a bit of a Zen approach for this one guys.”