Chapter 31

CHAPTER31

“He…He kicked me out of my own office,” Bailey mumbled weakly, still trying to figure out what happened.

One minute, she was prepared to finally make the bastard pay for all the crap he’d put her through over the years, and the next, she was standing there, watching helplessly as her office door was closed in her face. She should have bitch-slapped Jonathan when she had the chance, Bailey thought with a firm nod as she watched Quinn turn around and-

“Oh, that’s definitely going to leave a mark,” Jess murmured, sounding thoughtful as she hopped up onto Pam’s new desk with a satisfied sigh and helped herself to the bag of chocolate chip cookies on the desk while Bailey stood there, wincing as Quinn pulled his hand back and-

Bailey didn’t wait to see what happened when his fist connected this time. She grabbed the doorknob and frantically tried opening the door to stop him from living out one of the many fantasies that she’d had over the years. If anyone was going to kick Jonathan’s ass, it was going to be her, Bailey decided, trying not to wince when she heard the pained grunt and the shouted demand to stop.

“Umm, should we call security?” Pam asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she shifted nervously.

“He is security,” Jess pointed out, gesturing towards Bailey’s office with a cookie.

“What’s going on?” Kelly asked as she hopped up onto the desk next to Jess and helped herself to a cookie.

“Quinn is explaining to the asshole in minute detail what happens when you screw with our little Bailey,” Jess said with a satisfied sigh as Bailey gave up trying to break into her office and quickly rushed over to Pam’s desk, shoving Jess’s legs out of the way and began frantically searching for a key to open the damn door before it was too late.

“He seems to be really good at his job,” Kelly murmured in agreement as Bailey did her best not to panic, but it was a quickly losing battle when she heard her office door rattle on its hinges.

“This probably isn’t going to end well,” Jess said, not really sounding all that concerned. Not that Bailey could blame her since she wasn’t the only one that Jonathan screwed over. Still, she couldn’t let Quinn go to jail for something that she really wanted to do herself.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked, frowning as he followed their gazes and-

“Shit!” Nathan snapped as he rushed over to the door, and after realizing that it was locked, he frantically searched through his pockets for his keys and when he found them, Bailey was there, shoving him out of the way and quickly opening her office door.

As soon as the door was open, she was racing inside and doing what she had to do to stop Quinn from doing something that he would regret. She ignored Jonathan’s pained grunt as she stepped onto his back and launched herself at Quinn, giving him no choice but to catch her.

Sighing in relief, Bailey tightened her hold around Quinn and-

“Oh, come on!” she said, sighing heavily as she found herself carefully dropped on the couch so that Quinn could reach down and grab hold of Jonathan, who’d been reduced to stuttering as panic took over, leaving her with no choice but to get back up and launch herself at Quinn and-

“That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” Bailey mumbled sadly against the carpet, absently noting that the cleaning lady had been cutting corners before she found herself picked up and placed back on the couch, where she immediately flopped over onto her side with a pained grunt.

“I told you that I had nothing to do with it!” Jonathan snapped, wiping blood off his lip with the back of his hand.

“What’s he talking about?” Bailey asked, struggling against the urge to rub her poor boobs.

Stupid floor.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Jonathan said with a helpless shrug. “You’ve gotta believe me, Bailey, I had no idea what happened until this morning and as soon as I found out, I came here to make sure that you were okay.”

“Someone got hurt because of you, Jonathan,” Bailey pointed out as she moved to get up, only to decide that she was good where she was when she realized just how exhausted she was.

She was getting too old for this, Bailey decided, biting back a yawn as she shifted to get more comfortable while she thought of everything that she still needed to do today before she could call it a night and grumbled pathetically when she realized that she wasn’t going to be able to do that. Not tonight. And definitely not if she wanted to get this program done in time.

It looked like she wasn’t going to bed tonight, Bailey thought as she forced herself to sit up and-

“Son of a bitch!”

-made her way to her desk after stomping down on Jonathan’s instep. Once she was there, she dropped down at her desk, bit back another yawn, and said, “Get the hell out.”

“Bailey, I-”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you, Jonathan,” Bailey said, only to rethink that and ask, “How did you get past security?” as she looked up to find herself looking at Quinn’s back.

“I let him up,” Nathan said as he dropped down on the couch with a heavy sigh, but since Quinn’s large back was currently blocking her view, she had to assume that’s what he did.

“And is there a reason that you felt compelled to let the asshole inside?” Bailey asked, forcing herself to get up and walk around her desk, knowing that the stubborn man who was really confusing her wasn’t going to move, not while Jonathan was in the room. She was-

“It wasn’t him.”