Callan rolled his eyes. Telling someone as pissed as Roxy to calm down was like brandishing the flag in front of the bull.
“Calm down?” Roxy steamed as she continued her advance. “You cost me at least seventeen thousand dollars in commission, Darcy. And you can’t tell me that a portion of that didn’t end up in your bank account for sending my leads to Bentley.”
Seeing that her efforts to reason with Roxy weren’t working, Darcy changed tactics. She planted her hands on her hips and stood her ground, facing Roxy head-on.
“If you’d been better at servicing those leads,” Darcy snapped, “you wouldn’t have lost them to me.”
Oh, shit, Callan thought, just as Roxy reached back and swung.
She delivered a solid right hook to Darcy’s jaw, sending the other woman staggering back. Darcy fell against the front door. Her elbow struck the glass at just the right angle to crack it. Her weight and momentum shoved the door open and sent her sprawling, depositing her outside the office’s entrance with her skirt bunched up around her waist.
A couple of people exiting the hot yoga studio watched it all with gaping mouths. One of them pulled out a phone. Callan figured it was only a matter of minutes before the police arrived or the entire scene ended up on YouTube.
Roxy walked over to Darcy and stood over her with a satisfied smile. “Bad day to wear the granny panties, bitch,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Do you intend to press charges?” the police officer asked Darcy.
Roxy stood on the other side of the real estate office giving her own statement to a second uniformed officer. Someone at the hot yoga studio had called the police after seeing Darcy fall and they’d been dealing with the aftermath for the past thirty minutes. Darcy was sitting in one of the visitor’s chairs at Jeanie’s desk with an ice pack pressed to her swelling face. Because the office was otherwise silent, Roxy heard the officer’s question.
When Darcy saw Roxy’s glare that dared her to press charges, she shook her head.
The officer standing with Roxy shifted to block her view. “Ma’am, I’m gonna need you to keep your focus on me.”
Roxy sighed. “Sorry. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you everything, though.”
The office door swung open just then and Arnie rushed inside. The police had called the broker after learning that he was the person whose name was on the lease.
“What on earth happened?” Arnie asked, looking from Darcy to Roxy and back again. “Who broke the door? Darcy, what happened to your face?” His accusing gaze settled on Roxy. “Did you do this?”
Callan got slowly to his feet from the chair where he’d been told to sit after he gave his statement. Seeing the movement and Callan’s dangerous expression, the police officer with Roxy turned to Arnie.
“Sir, I’m gonna need you to calm down,” he said.
“Calm down? I just left my grandson’s birthday party to come and deal with this, for Christ’s sake.”
Guilt struck Roxy over that. She really hadn’t been thinking when she took that swing. Her temper had been running so hot Darcy was lucky she’d only thrown one punch. But she certainly hadn’t intended for there to be any property damage on top of it.
“Someone better tell me what the hell is going on,” Arnie insisted. Once again turning to Roxy, he said, “You hit Darcy?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, erring on the side of formality. “I just found out that Darcy has been the one funneling my leads to Bentley Kamps.”
The douchebag I told you about weeks ago, she silently added.
Arnie swiveled back to Darcy, whose red-rimmed eyes once again filled with tears. “Arnie, I’m so sorry. You know I work my ass off for you. I—”
“You work your ass off for yourself,” Arnie argued, raking his hands through his silver hair and making it stand on end. “This is unbelievable. I should fire you both right here and now.” He jabbed a finger at Roxy. “And you…I fully expect you to pay for the damage to my door.”
Roxy drew in a sharp breath, prepared to launch into another fit of temper. Before she opened her mouth, Callan stepped forward and pulled out his wallet. It took everything in her not to start shouting at him instead.
“Don’t even think about it,” she ground out, storming over to stand between him and Arnie. “You’re already on thin ice after the groceries.”
His expression darkened, but he put his wallet back into his pocket.
Turning back to Arnie, she said, “How dare you expect me to pay you for anything? You’ve done nothing to help me despite my many requests for it. In fact, you kept directing me to Darcy. Thanks to your half-assed oversight and her backstabbing,” she said with a finger jab in Darcy’s direction, “I’m now flat-ass broke. Darcy can pay for the goddamn door out of her portion of the commissions she stole from me or she can go to Bentley and have him cover it. I don’t really care. But there’s no way you’re getting a dime out of me after what I’ve endured here.”
Arnie’s frown eased into an expression of discomfort as he processed her accusations. He turned to Darcy, who said, “I’ll take care of it.”
“Damn right you will,” Roxy muttered.
And if she had anything to say about it, Darcy would never sell another piece of real estate ever again.
“We’ve given our statements,” Callan said levelly to the two police officers. “Ms. Moore isn’t pressing charges since she’s smart enough to reason I can afford a legal team that will wipe the floor with her after what she did to Roxy. Is it okay for us to leave?”
Roxy almost snapped at him again for implying he would pay for her attorneys, then decided she wanted to get out of there too much to take issue with it right then.
The officers exchanged nods. “We’re done here,” said the officer who had taken Darcy’s statement. “You’re free to go.”
Roxy looked at Arnie. “Do I need to clean out my desk or what?”
He sighed heavily. “No. You’ve made me realize that this was avoidable if I had done a better job on my end, and I’m sorry for that. We need to have a conversation about all this, but I hope you’ll stay on my team.” His gaze hardened and moved to Darcy. “We’re going to need your help picking up the slack after Darcy’s departure.”
Roxy wanted to feel victorious, but Darcy’s miserable weeping put a damper on that. Up until an hour ago, Roxy had considered her a friend. Not once had she suspected she was being betrayed by her mentor, something that had her doubting her usually solid instincts. It was going to take a while to process her many feelings about all this.
“Will you oversee her clearing out her things?” she asked Arnie as she collected her purse. She didn’t want Darcy taking anything she shouldn’t.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said.
“Thanks.”
Callan escorted Roxy out of the office, placing himself between her and Darcy as they walked by. She couldn’t resist one last look at her former mentor on her way out. Her hand throbbed dully as she stared at the darkening bruise on Darcy’s cheek. Her brothers had taught her how to throw a punch and she hadn’t held back.