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CHAPTER ONE
Miles
“I QUIT,” he said quietly, because while he would’ve preferred yelling, his delusional boss wasn’t worth the strain on his vocal cords. He might be the CEO of a construction business, but the man had no idea how his own crews operated. The fact that he was lowering wages and making them cut corners made Miles seethe. The money was one thing. Cutting corners meant increased risk to his crew, and he wouldn’t stand for that.
As it was, he’d fought for his crew for years now, but this? This was the last fucking straw. When he contested the lowered wages, his boss suggested lowering his crew’s wages more to increase his own. He might’ve been raised by an outlaw biker, but good morals and justice had always been part of their lives, even if that justice wasn’t always served in a legal way.
His boss spluttered, clearly not expecting him to quit over something he didn’t consider a big problem.
“Mr. Holland,” Bruce finally managed to get out. “That is a rather irrational reaction and?”
“I’ll expect my last paycheck on Friday, including the bonus you promised me two months ago,” Miles said, his gaze hard and unyielding.
He already knew that bonus was going to those of his people he had no doubt would walk away with him. His decision affected them the most, so he would do what he could to make the transition as easy as possible.
Bruce’s jaw dropped, and Miles didn’t stick around long enough to hear his protests.
He turned and pushed out the door, unsurprised to find Mika flirting with Bruce’s assistant. She was leaning over the poor man’s desk, his eyes ping ponging between her eyes and breasts. She’d taken her pink wavy hair out of the usual braid, and it was cascading over her shoulders, nearly touching the desk. She’d left her pink high-vis vest in the van, and with her jeans hugging her curves just right and her top being low-cut, it was no wonder the man was damn near drooling. Mika was a gorgeous woman, and it hadn’t helped her in their line of work. Not one bit. He didn’t tolerate sexism and discrimination in his crew, but they all talked smack and took the piss out of each other, Mika maybe more than most. She always gave as good as she got, and while others had been skeptical when he’d hired her, he hadn’t had a single doubt in his mind that if anyone tried anything, she would eat them for breakfast. She was a woman with a tough exterior, but once you got to know her, she was a loyal and kind person, and he was proud to call her a friend.
Mika snapped her head toward Miles when she heard the door shut behind him, brows jumping as a gleam entered her dark brown eyes.
“Did you fix it, or did you quit?” she asked, tongue-in-cheek.
“I quit,” he answered, not slowing down as he walked past her toward the elevator.
Mika blinked rapidly, her face losing color in an instant.
“Wait, what?” she blurted out, jogging to catch up with him. “You actually quit?”
“He’s a sleazebag who wanted me to cut everyone’s pay to get more for myself.”
The disgust on Mika’s face mirrored his own feelings on the matter, and he wasn’t surprised when she started to cuss the man out, flipping a bird or two in the direction of his office.
The elevator doors opened right before they reached it, and he waited very impatiently for the three people inside to step out before he walked in and pressed the button for the lobby.
“What are you gonna tell everyone?”
He waited for the doors to shut before he let out a loud sigh and rubbed his hands down his face, shoulders slumping.
“The truth?”
There were those who would resent him for quitting on them, but he couldn’t do this anymore. He didn’t want to work in a place with such subpar standards and thereby perpetuate them. He tried his best to keep his people safe on their job sites, but there was only so much he could do with a budget that didn’t allow him to purchase new hard hats when the old ones fell apart.
The elevator came to a halt, and he looked up to find they’d reached the right floor. He followed Mika out, both staying silent as they passed multiple people in expensive suits.
He’d parked the van outside because they weren’t allowed in the damned parking garage, and he was dreading the parking ticket that was likely waiting for them on the windshield.
It was the last thing he needed right now. He could feel the anger and betrayal burning right under his skin. He tried his hardest to shove it all down, to keep himself in check, but once he saw that piece of paper flapping in the wind from under the windshield wipers on the van, a litany of curses escaped him.
He ripped the ticket free and shoved it in his pocket. He couldn’t even send it to the company for reimbursement because he knew they’d just take it from his paycheck. Cheap fuckers!
He opened the door to get behind the wheel and subsequently slammed his fist against it repeatedly.
“Fuck,” he exclaimed, a growl escaping him before he dropped his head back against the headrest and squeezed his eyes shut.
This wasn’t the turn his life was supposed to take. He was thirty-three, damn it! This was not where he was meant to be at this age. He was supposed to be married, maybe have a few kids or pets, and certainly not have just quit his job. That white picket fence life seemed a far-off dream now.
A light chuckle had him snapping his head toward Mika in the passenger seat.
