Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,110

everything anyway. Before I go down, I decided that I wanted a last little bit of fun and it turns out you’re the one that does it for me.” His voice lowered to a menacing level and he pulled her closer to him. “So, I’ll ask you again; how much do you charge for your services?”

Suddenly the foyer area erupted into a mass of activity as Elise caught sight of someone sprinting towards them. Vaughn – and he was beyond furious. His eyes were fixed on the man holding her, his expression one of pure anger as he headed in their direction. The man had his back to the activity and his senses must have been dulled by the alcohol, as he didn’t appear to be aware of what was about to happen. As soon as Vaughn got to within a few steps of them he lunged at the man, tackling him to the ground and Elise was ripped out his hold, stumbling to the side where Sam had now materialised, catching her before she fell.

She looked down to the scene on the floor to see Vaughn laying into the delegate like a man possessed. She owed no loyalty to the man but she didn’t want to see Vaughn get into trouble and the way he was going he wasn’t going to stop until the man was dead. She looked to Sam, imploring him to help and to get Vaughn to stop but he looked as shell-shocked and helpless as her.

A small gathering had by now assembled in the foyer and Elise became aware of voices, people shouting, other men getting involved, trying to stop the fight. She heard the Receptionist on the phone to the police and realised that if she didn’t do something quickly, this was going to go very bad, very quickly.

Still being supported by Sam and unable to employ the strength to get in-between the two men writhing around on the floor, she realised that her options were seriously limited. Without thinking, she did the only thing that she really could do and screamed at the absolute top of her voice.

“STOP IT NOW!” and for the first time since arriving on the scene, Vaughn stopped what he was doing and looked up at her.

“Why the hell are you defending this bastard?” he asked enraged and immediately began to lay into the man again who had begun to sit up and fight back.

“I’M NOT!” she screamed, “I AM PROTECTING YOU. STOP IT VAUGHN. RIGHT NOW! JESUS – THINK ABOUT WHERE WE ARE. HE IS NOT WORTH IT. JUST STOP IT! PLEASE....” her voice had raised almost another octave by the time she had finished and Sam had by now released his hold on her, backing off to allow her to get nearer to Vaughn.

Slowly she approached the two men fighting on the floor, kneeling down a short distance away so that she was on the same level as Vaughn.

“Vaughn, listen.” She kept her voice low and even, “You have to stop this. Please. Stop this, baby. Please – for me.”

She moved to within touching distance of him and reached out to connect with his shoulder. He flinched, as if to shake her off but she gently massaged and slowly he began to calm, eventually releasing his hold on the other man and sitting up. He looked up into Elise’s eyes, his still full of anger and gradually released a breath. Their eyes remained locked for endless minutes and then gently Elise took Vaughn’s arm and helped him to stand, freeing the man from underneath him.

Sam had started to move the crowd away to give them some space and she became aware of colleagues helping the other man to get up. She caught his eye, her stomach rolling as she thought about what could possibly have happened. Surprisingly his eyes were now clear, the adrenalin no doubt taking care of the alcohol and he returned her gaze, briefly mouthing “Sorry” before he was helped away. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be carrying too many injuries but she had no idea if he would be pressing charges against Vaughn. He had every right to she supposed, although she could also press charges against him for sexual harassment so maybe one could cancel out the other. She really didn’t know if it worked that way but right now she couldn’t think about that.

She turned back and looked at Vaughn who hadn’t moved. His eyes were filled with fear and he