Page 48 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“Derek is at the office. He’s on something.”

“Do you want me to come up?”

“I think I’ll be okay. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”

Derek could be very combative if he thought he was being ganged up on. I was hoping to get him isolated in a room and then talk him into leaving and going home. I wasn’t sure what my game plan would be because that would depend on what he was on. If he was drunk, then he would be feeling sorry for himself, and I’d have to apologize for all the wrongs that had been done to him and play into his victimhood. If he was on coke, he’d be aggressive and paranoid, and I’d have to agree with him that there was a conspiracy, and everyone was out to get him. If he was on pills, he’d be combative and angry, and I would have to do my best to de-escalate the situation by remaining calm and seemingly complacent to his demands, making him feel and believe that he was in charge.

We pulled up to the building, and I walked in to find Jack speaking to several security guards. I assumed they were coming up with a game plan.

“Declan.”

“Jack.”

“We’re ready; just give us the word.”

I nodded and walked over to Hannah who was waiting for me at the elevators.

“How bad?”

“He’s on something.”

“What?”

We stepped onto the elevator, and when the doors closed, she continued, “His eyes are dilated. He’s not making sense. He’s manic. He’s aggressive.”

So, coke or pills. Or maybe both.

The ride up was silent. I was trying to get in the right headspace, so I didn’t lose it on him. When I stepped off the elevator, I heard Derek’s voice. He was yelling at someone.

I came around the corner and found him face to face with Leo Grant, our contracts attorney. “Derek, let’s just go in the conference room.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” He pushed Leo, who easily stood his ground.

I walked up behind my brother and grabbed him by both his arms, hauling him backwards into the elevators. It happened so fast he didn’t have time to fight me. Before he knew what was going on, the doors were closing.

“What the fuck!?” He tried to pull his arm away from me. “Get off me!”

I held him tight. “You need to go home and sleep this off.”

“You’re not my dad! Stop trying to act like it.”

“I know I’m not your dad. We don’t have a dad because he wrapped his car around a pole and died because he was drunk and high, remember?”

For some reason, today, I just didn’t have the patience to placate him. He was thirty-four years old. I was so tired of cleaning up his messes, of making excuses for him, of smoothing things over, of pretending that he wasn’t the family fuckup.

When the doors opened onto the first floor, he jerked out of my hold as we walked off.

“Fuck you, Declan!” he screamed as he turned to face me.

“You need to leave, Derek.”

“I don’t have to go anywhere! Why doesn’t my card work?”

Right. So, this was about me canceling his cards.

““Your card doesn’t work because you no longer have a position here.”

“You can’t do that! I have just as much of a right to this business as you do! It’s my name on the building, too.”

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