Page 8 of Resist
When I’d returned from my dawn run, I’d assumed six-thirty a.m. was early enough to eat breakfast in peace.
Apparently, it wasn’t.
Apparently, every arsehole and his dog, canary, and rabbit were in the hotel restaurant. But thank heavens for morning-loving, perky waitresses who appreciated a good pair of heels as much as I did, because had the sweet girl who’d greeted me upon entering the restaurant not openly displayed a minor crush on the Valentinos covering my feet, I wouldn’t have been seated in the best and most secluded spot in the room: a single table in a small alcove beyond the muesli counter. It was private, cosy, and less Grand Central Restaurant Station, bamboo and lavish ferns providing the perfect screen and encasing the morning sun filtering through the floor to ceiling windows. Yes, my breakfast spot was lovely but, sadly, not soundproof.
Placing my mug down on the table, I picked up my newspaper and scanned the front page, discovering that a young boy’s killer had been sentenced to a life in prison without parole.Justice at last,read the headline, and it churned my stomach. A lifetime in prison for a man who’d stolen the life of an innocent child certainly wasn’t justice at all. Such evil would forever be linked to something so pure, and that was evident just by looking at the killer’s and child’s pictures in the article, side-by-side, as if they were now one entity, because where there was the victim, there, too, would always be his killer. It wasn’t justice. Not even close.
Shuddering at the thought of what that little angel had endured at the hands of such a monster, my heart ached for his family. I, too, had a son, and although he was barely an adult, he was my everything. All I’d worked for and endured in life was for him — my brown-eyed boy. My strong, determined, hero.
Melancholy swept over me, and I scooped up my phone ready to dial Jason’s number when the sound of familiar voices infiltrated the bamboo screen behind me.
“That’s not enough protein on your plate, Surfer. Go get some eggs or something.”
“Ease up, Chief, it’s our day off.”
“Ya hear that, Cori? More protein. It’s good for you. In fact, I’ll help you with that later on.”
“Really, Josh? A protein sperm joke?” Corinne scoffed, and I had to subdue a laugh. I liked her. She seemed to match Josh’s bravado quite well. And from what I’d picked up on thus far, she was good for him and his playboy ways.
“Sorry, guys,” Matt continued, “but there’s no day off today. Helena’s orders. She wants to see us all in the Moreton room at ten a.m.”
I ducked my head behind my newspaper in the hope they wouldn’t see me but then felt ridiculous, hunched over like a teenager hiding from her parents. I wasn’t a teenager, and I certainly wasn’t timid enough to hide from my own employees.
Straightening my back again, I snapped my paper taut and continued to drink my coffee.
“Whatever Helena has planned is a waste of time. Changing the show mid-tour is stupid.”
“It might not be, Brad. We should give her the benefit of the doubt.” The bamboo screen rattled a little when one of them sat on the bench seat adjacent to it.
“Wait!” Josh said, shushing them all. “Did I just hear that right? Did Slick speak normal? Fuuuuck, what did the boss bitch say to you last night when we all left?”
“JOSH!” Corinne hissed. “Don’t call her that.”
“Yeah, man, that’s not cool!”
“What’s it to you what I call her, Dimps?”
Despite his goading, Josh’s tone sounded playful.
“She’s our boss. It’s not hard to show her some respect.”
“Oh, I see,” Josh mumbled. “Dimps has a hard-on for our new boss.”
“No. I’m just not a jerk like you.”
The screen rattled again, this time with the force of an earthquake.
“Sit down and eat your apple, Josh,” Corinne scalded.
“Little fucker called me a jerk.”
“Yeah, because you’re acting like one.”
“No, I’m not. I just don’t like the fact she’s come here and is changing shit and fucking shit up. What we’ve got going is fine. It works. The shows are packed. Sold out, even. Isn’t that right, Chief?”
“Most of them, yes.”
“So what’s her problem? Why mess with perfection?”
