Page 40 of Glitter

“Second, I’m going to call your mother and let her know that my favor to her has run its course.”

Travis growled, his eyes narrowing even further at Roman.

“Oh, yes. You’re definitely fired. Effective immediately. I’ve already contacted building security to come and remove you. We’re just waiting for them to show up.” Roman lifted one of his hands to inspect his nails, ignoring Travis entirely. “I can only imagine what your mother will have to say about that. Military service with good old cousin Bradford overseeing you was the last option for you, wasn’t it? Somewhere in Iraq? Or was it Syria? Either way, I guess that solves your impending housing crisis. If only you’d purchased your own home and not relied on the family trust for everything in your life.”

If I’d thought Travis had paled before, it had nothing on what I was seeing now. The color drained from his face, leaving him a deathly white. “You can’t do that,” he croaked, his voice diminishing with every word.

“I think you’ll find that I can, Travis.” Roman tilted his head to the side. “You seem to have forgotten how much say I have in the Eckersley fortune, considering that I’m someone who not only helped create it, but still actively adds to it.” He leaned over Travis, his hand planted next to his head. “You’ve embarrassed the family name, boy. You’ll be lucky if you’re not disowned entirely.”

“Mr. Eckersley, sir?”

We all looked over to the door to find the building security officer Roman had called for hovering in the doorway.

“Ah, yes. David. Come on in,” Roman said, standing up and motioning him forward with a sweep of his hands. “If you could be so kind as to remove Travis Hafler from the premises immediately, it would be greatly appreciated.” He looked down at Travis, the hint of disappointment still lingering on his face, but there also looked to be some mild satisfaction in his eyes.

“Certainly, sir.” David stepped across the threshold and headed straight for Travis and Amy. He raised an eyebrow at the way Amy had Travis pinned, but it was a more impressed look than one of surprise. That assumption was compounded when he leaned into Amy and said, “Where do you train? Or teach? Do they have vacancies for new members? I’d love to learn how you did that.”

Amy chuckled and nodded. “I’ll drop the contact details to your desk later.”

“Much appreciated,” David said as they rolled Travis over and zip tied his wrists together.

“Travis,” Roman said as he kept a close eye on his relative. “I’ll forward all your belongings to your mother by the end of the week, as I assume that will be where you’ll end up. Whether you want to or not.”

I shivered slightly at the hint of a threat in Roman’s words.

“Come along now, Travis.” David lifted Travis to his feet with a grunt and hauled him out of the lunchroom, stumbling occasionally whenever Travis tried to drag his feet.

As soon as Travis was out of sight, Roman turned around and focused on Blue. His jaw ticked as he looked Blue up and down, forcing Blue to grip my hand harder. I squeezed back to let him know I was with him for whatever he needed.

“Blue, correct?” Roman asked, his fingers interlocked tight with tension in front of him, but he did not fidget.

Blue nodded, still clutching the pieces of his phone to his chest with the hand that wasn’t holding mine.

“Not only do I need to apologize for how Travis treated you, but I also need to apologize for how the Eckersley’s Institute has treated you. For how I treated you.” Roman bowed his head slightly in deference to Blue. “I received several reports about Travis’s conduct over the past few months, but his placement here was… delicate.”

I narrowed my eyes at Roman. He might be the head boss here, and he could easily fire me, but the lack of oversight he’d run on Travis had caused so many issues. As head of Eckersley’s, Roman needed to be held accountable for his role in the whole debacle.

It appeared that Roman could sense my displeasure as he lifted his head and stared at me with very little emotion.

Even though I was fully aware that I wasn’t wearing the standard business suits that everyone else wore at Eckersley’s, I stared back, not flinching at all under his powerful gaze. Blue needed me, and nothing was going to distract me from looking after him. We just needed to get away from all this chaos first.

Roman tilted his head to the side as he appraised me, blinked slowly, then he nodded once and returned his attention to Blue. “I’m truly sorry, Blue. For everything you’ve been forced to endure here at Eckersley’s.” His eyes dipped to Blue’s phone. “Let me know what type of phone you prefer using, and I’ll have a replacement brought to you by the end of the day. Alternatively, you can purchase your own, and I can reimburse you for the cost later.”

“Okay,” Blue said quietly, his tone wrecked. With his head down, it was obvious he was emotionally drained to the point of needing to be anywhere other than here.

Seeing such an outgoing, effervescent man reduced to this was breaking my heart in two.

“If it’s okay with you, Mr. Eckersley,” I said, gripping Blue’s hand in mine. “It’s been a long morning. I’d like to take Blue home so he can rest.”

Roman nodded, a soft smile finally appearing on his stern face. “Of course.” He turned to locate Matthew and called him over. “Matthew, Blue will take the rest of the day off on full pay. I’d also like to see him work from home for the rest of the week if he’s up to it. Is that achievable?”

“Of course, sir.” Matthew looked Blue over and frowned slightly when he saw how utterly defeated Blue looked. His hand rose to settle on Blue’s shoulder, squeezing slightly. “Whatever you need, Blue. Anything at all.” He waited for Blue to look up at him and slowly nod in resignation, before returning his own worried nod. He glanced at our joined hands and a knowing smile appeared on his face. “You said your name was Henry, right?”

Cautiously, I nodded.

“Look after him for us, please? He’s precious to us.”

“Of course.” I turned to look at Blue before squeezing his hand and saying quietly, “He’s precious to me, too.”

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