Five Minutes Late: A Billionaire Romance by Sonora Seldon Page B

this time she wasn’t the only one.
    “So this is the bitch? This is the fat-ass whore that nut job is kicking me to the curb for? You have got to be kidding me!”
    A guy in a rumpled medium-fancy suit – not in Hugo Boss territory, but not off the rack either – stood squarely in my path. His hands were fisted on his hips, his pale eyes blazed, and he leaned over me like a cop who couldn’t wait to beat the snot out of a suspect.
    Dana edged up to his left elbow, threw me a despairing glance that was ten times as nervous as anything I’d seen from her yesterday, and put a hand on his arm.
    “Danny, please, none of this is her fault –”
    He shook her off. “Goddamn it, Dana! I’m out the door thanks to this slut, and you’re apologizing for her? You’re probably next, do you realize that? He’ll throw your job at some other random bitch he humps, and you’ll be history!”
    The guy pulled away from Dana and took a step closer to me. I wanted to confront him, but he was so boiling-over mad, I thought he might take a swing at me if I said anything at all. I settled for sidling closer to Dana. She drifted back toward the hallway leading to Mr. Killane’s private elevator, while throwing me a look that said, ‘come with me if you want to live.’
    Danny the Volcano turned to face me and ranted on. What was this guy’s problem?
    “Tell me, lady, just what kind of magic vagina do you have, anyway? It sure as fuck can’t be your face or that blubberball of a body that has Killane acting like you’re the second coming of sex, so that must be some fantastic goddamn cunt you’ve got between your legs!”
    It was news to me that anybody would think I was the second coming of sex, but whatever – this nut job hadn’t just crossed the line, he’d taken a flying leap over it with all guns blazing.
    “Look, buddy, I don’t know what you’re going on about, but back up right now, okay? Whatever you think I’ve done, you’ve got no call to talk to me or any woman like that – I’ll see your happy ass up on charges for assault, sexual harassment, being a grade-A asshole, and anything else I can think of, so you’d better just settle down and –”
    Dana latched onto my arm and hissed into my ear, “Please, you’ll just make it worse, you don’t know what he’s like.”
    “I can make a pretty fair guess, but –”
    She ignored my protest and dragged me after her down the hall. Over her shoulder, she called back to Crazy Guy, “Danny, please! Just go, and I’ll call you on my lunch break, okay? Please, honey, it’ll be all right – just get out of here before they call security, and we’ll talk later, I promise.”
    Wait, was this dude her boyfriend? Her crazy, abusive boyfriend?
    Whoever he was and whatever was going on in his head, Danny Asshole at least enough sense to let whatever this was go for the moment. Sure, he snarled something I didn’t catch under his breath, he spun around and slammed his fist into the wall with enough force to crack the paneling, and he stormed back into the elevator cursing like a sailor, but he did leave.
    Dana didn’t say another word, not until we were aboard Mr. Killane’s private elevator.
    She glanced at me and then returned to staring at her feet. “I’m sorry, Ms. Daniels – Danny just takes it so hard when things don’t go his way. I had the feeling he’d lose it over something Mr. Killane said or did eventually, but he shouldn’t have yelled at you like that – none of this is your fault, not really.”
    Not really? So it was my fault, sort of, in some obscure way she didn’t feel like sharing? 
    “Please, Dana, I know this makes only about five minutes total that I’ve ever talked to you in my life, but if you know what’s going on, I wish you’d tell me.”
    No response.
    “And since everybody I ran into on the way up here seemed to think it was common knowledge … Dana, I just talked to Mr. Killane when he called me up here last night.