But she was somewhat disconcerted to see his eyes soften briefly as he studied her. “Are you okay?”
Too shocked to speak, she nodded her head.
He turned, slammed the door shut and came around the desk, and Maria knew at once that he was seeing the gambling website on the GM’s desktop. The shit was about to hit the fan. While Treadway’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air, as seemingly, the proverbial penny dropped, Garrett placed both hands on the desk, leaning on them so hard the color disappeared from his fingers, as he observed the other man intently. “You ever heard of the Rule Corporation?” he asked in a pissed, sinister tone.
“Ahh. . . yes sir.”
“Good. That’ll make this easy. Get the fuck out.”
“You can’t fire me without a hearing—”
Garrett slowly stood up, his eyes never leaving the other man, watching him as if he were nothing more than a bug to be squashed. “You can choose to continue sitting there, but I promise you, you fucked up by attempting to use force on her and at the moment, my hands are itching to wrap around your fucking throat. So, I repeat. Get. The. Fuck. Out. Now.”
The man paled and began removing his personal belongings from his desk. Maria had never seen him move so fast, but she couldn’t say she blamed him. A pissed off Garrett Rule wasn’t someone you messed around with. Take note, Maria.
Within three minutes, the ex-general manager was exiting the room, cussing beneath his breath the entire time.
Left alone, Garrett turned to her. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Maria’s head was spinning. Besides the fact that Garrett Rule was a force to be reckoned with, she had only one other thought bouncing around in her head. She had to secure the hotel from the viper who’d just left their midst. “Yeah,” she replied, off-handedly rubbing her wrist as she sat down in the chair the GM had only recently vacated. Putting her hands on the keyboard, she began typing.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a booming voice.
Maria frowned, trying to stay on task. “Not now. I need to concentrate.”
“What are you doing?” he asked again, more pointedly.
“Saving your ass,” she answered, without looking up from the screen.
“Saving my ass? What the hell?”
With that, she glanced up and spared him about three seconds. “He has all the passwords, Mr. Rule. And you just humiliated him. Do you think he’s the type of man who won’t retaliate?”
He frowned down at her as if in question. “You’re changing the passwords?”
“Yes.” She looked back to the screen.
“Bank accounts?” he enquired shortly.
“Yes, but that’s not the most important thing. Not at this moment, anyway.”
“What could be more important than that?” he asked.
“In the hotel industry? OTA.”
“OTA?”
Did the man know nothing about the hotel industry? “Online travel advisor.”
“You’re expecting me to trust you?”
Her fingers stalled and she glanced back up. “Do you want to do it? Something has to be done now. He can screw the hotel in the next five minutes if we don’t do something to stop him.”
He hesitated, and then answered, “No, go ahead. And when you’re finished, come meet me in the restaurant.”
She returned her attention back to the screen. “Okay.”
Chapter Two
Garrett glanced at the time to make sure it was past noon before he ordered a bourbon and Coke. There were certain standards he always upheld, and never drinking liquor before noon was one of them. Not that he was much of a drinker anyway, but for some reason, the scene in the manager’s office had affected him adversely. Not the fact that he’d sent the fuckwad packing, that wasn’t it. It was the emotion that had run through his gut when the man had put his hand on Maria, with the sole purpose of inflicting pain and intimidation.
Straight up, Garrett had felt compelled to commit murder.
Firing the guy instead had felt only somewhat satisfying, because he’d known he was going to do that at some point anyway.
He’d damn sure assumed he’d have a day or two to get a new manager on board, but the guy was poison and had to go. So now what the shit was he supposed to do? What he knew about actually running a hotel was next to nil. Buying and reselling for a quick profit? Hell, he could do that all day with his eyes closed.
Why the hell had he wanted to keep this one anyway? The building was okay, if a bit nondescript. It was in a decent location and with the right updates and management, there was no question that it could produce a decent return. But he’d had stronger opportunities with other pieces of real estate that he’d gone ahead and flipped. So what was it about this particular hotel that had made him want to add it the corporation portfolio?