The Position Book Four

by Izzy Mason

  I glance at Nate and Devon. I can practically see the dollar signs in their eyes.

  “The world doesn’t want stay in a fusty hotel with old world charm anymore. Times have changed. The well heeled want to feel like they’re on the pulse, at the cutting edge. They want to stay someplace hip and colorful. Full of life! Unique!”

  He turns my way again with a smile.

  “I have seen your club design. And it’s exactly the kind of creative vibe we’re looking for.”

  “She’s a genius,” Devon exclaims, beaming at me. “We were lucky to find her!”

  “Oh, she’s your girl alright,” Nate adds enthusiastically.

  I feel the depression that’s been clinging to me lighten. I’m going to be okay. No matter what happens with Lazarus, I’m going to somehow make my mark on this world and make do on my own. It’s the first time in a while that I feel like I just might survive. I’m a smart, capable, professional woman and I’m in control of my own life. No one is going to take that away from me.

  But before I can get out a single word, all fucking hell breaks loose.

  Chapter Fourteen

  At first it’s a loud clattering, like things falling over. Then there is the shrieking. It’s high pitched and hysterical, like something you’d hear inside a mental hospital. And it’s shrieking my name.

  “Mickey! Mickey! I know you’re in here, Mickey!”

  My whole body goes stone cold and my stomach drops. I feel like I’m falling. This can’t be happening. Please don’t let this be happening. Anything but this. Please, please, please…

  The door to Nate’s office flies open and the secretary appears, wide-eyed with fear.

  “It’s that crazy woman! She’s going ballistic! I don’t know what to do!”

  Nate leaps to his feet, pale as a sheet. “What crazy woman?”

  I look at Cain. He’s surprisingly calm. “Well, call the goddamned police,” he grumbles.

  The secretary dashes out the door! I can see her heading for my desk to use the phone. Devon stands up and heads to the door. I sit frozen, feeling the whole world falling down around me. The shrieking gets louder.

  “Who the hell…?” Devon shouts, fear in her voice.

  I force myself to my feet and follow Devon. This is my responsibility. My fault. And this woman is never going away. Not until I give in. I push my way past Devon and there she is. My mother, her hair disheveled, looking bug-eyed crazy. I can smell the booze from across the room. She’s pushing papers and computers from the desks, kicking over chairs, like a wild animal.

  “Stop it!” I scream. I can feel the eyes on me. But there’s nothing else I can do. “I’m here, okay? So stop it!”

  My mother freezes when she sees me, her eyes blurry and insane. She’s not only manic... she’s manic and drunk. Everyone is standing back, afraid to approach her. Nate looks at me in amazement.

  “Michaela,” he says very primly, but with darkness in his tone. “Do you know this person?”

  I sigh. It’s over. The dream is over. Who will take me seriously now?

  “Yes,” I say quietly, fighting back tears. “She’s my mother.”

  “Ungrateful bitch!” she practically spits at me. “Leaving me out on the streets with nowhere to go! Your own mother! You bitch!”

  I bite my lip, silently wishing on her every violent death I can imagine. There hasn’t been one single good thing she’s brought to my life. Ever.

  Devon gasps and looks at me. “You’ve got to be kidding,” she breathes. “Her?”

  But I don’t have the chance to answer before she goes postal again, trashing everything she can get her hands on.

  “Hey!” Nate yells at her. “Stop that! Hey! Hey!”

  He takes several steps toward her, ready to grab her arms and stop her when she picks up a small, abstract statue made of black marble and hurls it at him. It strikes Nate in the shoulder and he cries out in pain and loses his footing, falling to the floor. Cain steps aggressively forward.

  “I’ve had about enough of this nonsense! You leave this place immediately! The police are on the way! If you had half a brain in your head you’d…”

  Mom picks up a computer keyboard, yanks out its cord, and slams it into Cain’s head. With a surprised grunt he staggers backward, trips over Nate, and crashes to the floor. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t afford to be scared of this woman anymore. I walk aggressively toward her, fire in my eyes.

  “You have no right! You have no right to do this! You have no…!”

  In a flash she has filled her fists with my hair and yanks me to the ground. “Fuck you, Mickey! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!”

  She releases the hair in her right fist and pounds it repeatedly into my face. I struggle against her but I’m off balance and disoriented. The pain sends bright white lights to my eyes. But even more than the pain, I’m overwhelmed with shame and disbelief that this is really happening.

  Suddenly, my mother lets go of my hair with a cry of surprise. I push loose strands from my face and wipe at the blood on my nose. Then I gasp. It’s Lazarus. He has pinned my mother’s arms behind her back and has pulled her head back by her hair. He’s forcefully dragging her to the front of the office. I’m in such shock I don’t even register the reaction of the others in the room.

  My mother howls and thrashes, but Lazarus is far too strong for her. Finally, Lazarus looks at me. There’s a strange mix of fury and incredible sadness in his eyes. In a daze, I follow him to through the front door and onto the sidewalk. He drags Mom half a block down the street. People stare, but he doesn’t seem to care.

  When he finally stops, I get closer, but not in time to hear the threats he’s muttering in her ear. I see her go limp and nod her head, as if in resignation. Lazarus pulls her toward the curb and flags down a passing taxi.

  “Get in,” he says to me, urgency in his voice.

  He drags my mother into the backseat, his hands around her wrists, still pinned firmly behind her. I climb into the front seat. When I turn around to look at them, my mother glares at me with hatred.

  “What’s going on?” the driver asks skeptically.

  Lazarus fishes his wallet from his breast pocket with his free hand and digs out five hundred dollar bills. He holds them out to the driver. “Take us to the airport, please.” His voice is stern with a none of your fucking business tone. The driver considers the bills. Then he takes them and stuffs them into his pocket.

  “Whatever, pal.”

  We pull out and head down the street. Without a word, Lazarus hands me a handkerchief for my nose. It’s eerily quiet in the car. So much weirdness. No one can bear to address it. Finally, my mother lets out a deep sigh.

  “I never had nothing nice in my life,” she mutters. “Why the fuck should you, little girl? Why the fuck should you? It ain’t fair.”

  Classic Mom. A miserable, hateful person who wants everyone’s lives to suck as much as hers. Especially me. I can’t even turn around to look at her. I hate her. Then I hear Lazarus clear his throat. I can sense his restraint.

  “You listen to me, lady,” he says so quietly I can barely make it out. “You don’t even have a clue what an incredible kid you have. God knows you don’t deserve her. But she got away from you and your fucked up life. And you’re going to leave her alone forever. You got that?”

  “I don’t gotta do nothing,” she snaps at him. “Don’t know who you are and don’t care. You can’t tell me what I’m going to do…”

  Lazarus takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. I get the sense he wants to wring her neck. “I’m going to give you some money. And you’re going to get on a plane and go home.”

  “I ain’t got a home…”

  “Yes, you do. You’re going to return there. You’ll give me your bank account details and every month I will deposit money into it on the condition you have no contact with Michaela. None. If you do, not only will I cut off the money…” His voice drops so low I can’t make it out. />
  Mom goes dead silent. All I can hear are her wheezing breaths.

  It takes a while to get to Denver International Airport and no one speaks again. The cab finally rolls up to the departures zone and Lazarus throws open the door. This time my mother complies. Her rage has completely subsided, the way it always does. Sometimes someone cuts it short, other times it just burns itself out. It doesn’t matter. Once she’s her calm self again, the woman never apologizes for anything. Ever.

  Still, Lazarus keeps a firm hand on her arm. I follow them out and the cab drives away. It’s like a weird fever dream seeing Lazarus standing with my mother; the two opposite ends of my universe. Beauty and the beast. The source of my deepest shame and the object of my greatest love. Together. The planet is on its head.

  “Stay here,” Lazarus tells me as he escorts my mother into the airport.

  I nod. It’s insane. He’s really going to give her money. Probably a lot of money. And he’s doing it for me. But now I understand why it’s so important to him. He knows what it’s like to have a fucked up parent, to struggle and fight to make it on your own. He’s not going to let her drag me back. He gets it.

  Nothing has changed for Lazarus and me, and yet I feel hopeful. His grand gesture of love has taken my breath away. I still can’t even process what it means, but my heart feels strangely light. It almost doesn’t matter that my professional life probably just tipped back into the shitter. No one has ever done anything like this for me in my life. I almost feel happy.

  The sky is gray and there’s a chill in the air. I hug myself against the breeze, but I like the way it’s awakening my senses. I turn and look around for a place to sit down and wait for Lazarus to come back.

  And then it happens in a flash. The squeal of brakes. The flurry of movement. The hulking stranger grabbing me and sweeping me off my feet. The dark interior of a car. Tires screeching away.

  And the overwhelming sensation of fear. And doom.

  The Position Series

  The Position unfolds over the course of multiple short novels following the exploits of Michaela Clark and Jude Lazarus. There will be five books in all.

  For more information and to sign up for email announcements about the launch of The Position 5 (the final book of the series!), go to www.sexynewadultromancestories.com.