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Bring Him Home Chapter 5

In my defence it had been the most horrendous day by far. One of our biggest clients was involved in a product recall, an ex-employee had caused some problems in one of the overseas factories so we were having to manage the negative publicity. Just as I was getting ready to organise another press release another big client, Cullen Inc called to say their male COO had been caught with a male prostitute whom they suspected was underage.  The media outlets were circling and they needed help.

 I called a quick staff meeting and after organising for Kate to arrange the first press release I grabbed my purse and iPad ready to shoot over to the offices of Cullen Inc. Just as I stepped in to the elevator the power went off and I was plunged in to darkness, I knew the emergency lighting would kick in quickly but really there is nothing worse than just waiting for the lights. Finally, a voice asked me if I was ok, when I told them I was, the voice said they would have me out as soon as possible.  As soon as possible turned out to be 30 minutes, so when I eventually got to the ground floor I was livid, it would take me another half an hour if the traffic was good to get to their offices.

 As I stepped out of the foyer the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down. I didn't have my coat with me, but I did have an umbrella so I decided not to waste time by going back upstairs for my coat, I just put my umbrella up, put my head down and made my way towards the curb so I could flag down a cab. I'd taken about ten steps when I hit what felt like a solid wall. My brolly went one way while I seemed to hover on my heels, it must have looked quite comical, my arms flapping as I tried to regain my balance and at the same time keep hold of my purse, phone and iPad case.

Whatever or whomever I‘d walked into just stood there and watched as I fell backward, hitting the ground ass first. I sat on the concourse in the rain just looking around me, everything had scattered so I scrambled to pick everything up before trying to elegantly get myself upright. It was then I realised just how difficult it was to stand up in a 1950's style high cut slim line pencil skirt and 5 inch stilettoes. After turning onto my hands and knees I was able to stand but I was absolutely soaked, literally right through to my underwear and even my hair was drenched through to the roots. I couldn't go anywhere like this so I turned to go back to the office.

 As I turned I realised that whoever I'd bumped into was still standing there looking at me.  He'd just stood and watched as I struggled to stay upright and then as I'd fallen and tried to get up again. I looked at him and tried to decide if he was dangerous or not, he was obviously homeless and had been so for a while by the look of him. His clothes were stained and dirty, his hair unkempt and looked a really funny colour and his matching beard was as straggly, he continued to stare as I gathered myself together.

"Well thank you so much for your help, it's nice to see that your manners are as ingrained as the dirt on your face" my sarcastic temper was not something that I let surface very often but I was beyond fuming, how could some just stand and watch as I struggled.

"What the fuck is your problem? Could you not have helped? Steadied me even, all you had to do was just grab my arm and I could have stayed on my feet. Was it too much to ask seeing as you walked straight into me?" My voice was now at a level where any animals within a mile vicinity would have heard me and I continued to scream and shout at the poor man. He took the full brunt of my frustration and embarrassment and he just stood there and absorbed it all. Had I have been in my right mind I would have realised he never uttered a word all through the exchange but I was on a roll.

"Are you fucking mute or something? All you have to do is say ' I'm sorry' and I'll be on my way"

I was still standing in the rain, the water was literally dripping off the end of my nose but I couldn't move.  He was just staring at me and the more he didn't say did the more my temper ramped up.  My language got more and more colourful as I called him every name I could think of, with each name my shoes filled with a little more rainwater and my silk shirt stained and shrank. I knew I had to move or I was really going to explode, I would probably end up using some of Emmett's moves on him, so I turned and stomped back towards the office.

"What the hell boss?" Rosalie shouted as I walked back in to the office, "Someone get a towel and a hot coffee for Bella "

I made my way in to my own office and grabbed the spare set of clothes I kept in the closet. After I dried off and changed I tried to fix my hair and makeup. I looked like the bride of Frankenstein; my eye make had run right down my face, so much for expensive waterproof mascara. I stared in the mirror and decided it was just easier to remove it so I quickly took it all off and scraped my hair up into a high pony tail. As I finally sat back at my desk holding the mug of hot coffee I began to feel bad about the stranger outside.

"Oh shit! I was so rude to the poor guy who bumped into me. I just really lost it with him, my famous even temper just exploded and he took the full force of it" I looked at Rosalie as she placed my purse and phone in front of me.

"Everything is there and your phone and Ipad are ok.  Now ring Carlisle Cullen and tell him you've been held up and you'll be there as soon as you can" Rosalie was all work and I knew she was right.

"Rosalie you should have seen him, he was wet through and dirty, he was definitely homeless, I should have helped him, not screamed at him".

"You can't save them all Bella, you do enough, helping at the soup kitchen, organising fund raising and donating to the women's shelter, you can only do so much."

"I know, but he just looked so lost".

"Boss focus, Cullen Inc, come on speak to them, now!"

The rest of my day disappeared as I made my way across time to speak to Carlisle Cullen.   Mike Newton their  COO had been arrested the previous evening in a well-known gay bar in a really rough area of the city, the police had raided it after an anonymous tip off that they were supplying underage boys.

Whilst him being in a gay bar wasn't a problem, the fact he was a married man with a wife and two children, made him fair game for the local media. It wouldn't go national but the Cullens were a big name in the city, old money that had an excellent reputation, fair employers and very family orientated. Not people who supported the potential trafficking of children for sex either directly or indirectly through the people they employed.

I managed to get hold of all my contacts in the city. I pulled in favours all over the place to make sure that the story wasn't pushed, it would be out there but I could make sure that it wasn't headline news. In the end it was hardly anywhere, a small paragraph in the local newspaper and a mention on the website. Hopefully it would pass most people by.

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Thanks as ever to AJG and Edlovesme x