Briggs didn’t just grip her arm. He shoved her with all his weight.
“You’re nothing here!” he roared, his face twisted in ugly rage. “Get back in line!”
Evelyn stumbled backward, collapsing hard onto the cold tile floor.
The lobby shrieked in horror. Briggs puffed out his chest, thinking he had won.
He didn’t even see the blur of black wool.
The stranger in the dark coat didn’t shout. He didn’t warn. He crossed the space in two massive strides and moved with terrifying, kinetic violence. He seized the back of Briggs’ collar and his belt, lifting the heavy guard completely off his feet.
*CRACK.*
Briggs was slammed face-first onto the metal security table. The brutal impact rattled the x-ray scanners.
Instantly, Briggs’ rage evaporated into sheer panic. He choked, gasping for air, his cheek smashed against the freezing steel. Sweat poured down his face, his eyes bulging with raw, primal terror as he realized he was entirely helpless against the man pinning him.
Slowly, Evelyn pushed herself up from the floor.
She didn’t scream. She briefly placed a hand over her heart to steady her breathing, then calmly smoothed down her beige blouse. When she looked at the paralyzed guard, there was no anger. Only cold, absolute finality.
“You confused a badge with authority,” she said, her voice dropping the temperature in the room by ten degrees. “You’re fired.”
Briggs wheezed against the metal. “You… you can’t fire me! I work for the CEO!”
Evelyn adjusted her gold hoop earring.
“I know,” she replied perfectly evenly. “I’m Evelyn Vanguard. I just bought out this company twenty minutes ago, and I was seeing exactly what I paid for.”
She stepped smoothly through the metal detector.
“Hold him for the police, Marcus,” she said, never looking back. “We have the trash to take out.”