Page 101 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Everyone spoke at once. Nathan, Todd, even Erin, trying to slip words in between the cacophony. It was too much, too fast. Fazil fell to his knees.
“Enough!” Sandra cut through the noise, and there was blessed silence. Fazil closed his eyes. “Mr. Kurt?”
Somehow, his voice came back—the calm, rational tones he still didn’t feel. “Go look in the conference room.”
Thetapof her soles, and the thunderousclickof the door being opened. There was nothing for a time—only the sound of other people’s breathing. Fazil blinked and focused on the gray spots in the white tile in front of him.
The door closed. “Who did this?” Sandra’s voice was deep and twisted with anger.
No one spoke. She cleared her throat. “Well?”
“It was a joke,” Nathan said. “I... did it. Just ajoke. Then he tried to kill me.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill him.” He’d been angry—he was still angry—but it was rage born from shock and lack of comprehension. He looked up. “I’d have squeezed a hell of a lot tighter if I had been.”
“Z.” A whisper from Todd.
“Don’t you even try to defend him, Douglas. Not when you’ve been fucking him.”
How?How did Nathan know? Fazil scrubbed his face. He felt rather than heard Todd step back.
Sandra’s scowled. “Noneof this is a joke.” She straightened. “I want all of you in the executive conference room. There will be no talking.” She met Fazil’s gaze. “Mr. Kurt... If you please?” She gestured down the hall.
Fazil climbed to his feet, his throat tight. No, not a joke at all. Ice settled into his spine. What thefuckhad just happened to their contract with Singularity?
Only one way to find out. He followed Sandra down the hall.
***
Fazil paced the long length of a different conference room, one without windows, leather chairs, and the charred remains of his faith. His cell phone burned in his hand. Soon, Sam would call. Sandra and Stephen had already spoken to Fazil, gotten his side of the debacle, and expressed their dismay at how he had reacted. Unlike his encounter with Nathan, he’d expressed his anger calmly and coldly, putting on his own honorific and experience.
Might have been fine to terrorize Mr. Kurt, but Dr. Kurt was having none of that shit anymore. He wasn’t a cog in their corporate wheel. Fazil turned his phone over in his hand. He was Sam’s employee, not theirs.
He should have never gone off on Nathan, and certainly, he shouldn’t have choked the little shit, no matter how angry he’d been.
Fazil stopped pacing. He couldn’t get the stench of burned paper out of his nose.
Singularity should have laid down the law after the whole incident with Ryan and Eli. Bunch of cowards.
Fazil pinched the bridge of his nose. Eli had been graceful in the face of anti-Semitism, not an idiot like Fazil had been. Sam wouldn’t be happy. He’d be pulled off the job and on the next flight home to Pittsburgh. He wanted to go, too. Get away from thesepeople.
Except for Todd, working at this company had become anightmare. He rubbed his face and started pacing again. There’d be blowback for Todd. Especially after Nathan’s quip about them fucking.
Eli had warned him on that. Encouraged, but also warned.
His phone went off and he nearly dropped the damn thing. A quick glance told him the number was Sam’s. He steeled himself and answered. “Hi.”
“Fazil.” Sam’s voice was quiet and clear.
“I’m not sorry. Not for any of it.” People like Nathan needed to be reminded there were limits. If that meant choking the asshole a bit, well, good.
“I didn’t think you would be, if I’ve read correctly between the lines of what Sandra said.” His voice was calm. “But you should tell me your side.”
He did, starting with the way Nathan had nagged him for his ethnicity, then the prodding about his sexuality, and finishing with what he’d found in the conference room.
There was silence on the other end, then an intake of breath. “Why didn’t you tell me about the other things?” Sam sounded incredulous and Fazil could almost see him on his feet, leaning over his desk. “Especially after the incident with Eli? Good God, Fazil!”
“That stuff is normal.” He gritted his teeth. “It’s the same shit I’ve put up with my entire life. Not everywhere, but enough places...”
