Once Upon Stilettos (Enchanted Inc #2)

by Shanna Swendson

  I tried to keep my face from falling completely. Maybe I wasn’t better. I needed more information to be sure. “Thanks. That’s really helpful,” I said, fighting for a casual, chipper tone.

  “No problem. Any reason in particular you were curious?”

  “It turns out my mom is immune, too. I had an interesting time during the holiday explaining the things she saw that my dad didn’t see. And that made me wonder how it all worked.”

  “Wow, your mom is immune and you never knew?”

  “I didn’t know I was until a little while ago. There’s not much magic where I come from.”

  Before I could head to my office, Merlin emerged from his office. “Good, you’re here,” he said, even though I was pretty sure he already knew I was there. He always seemed to know. “When you get settled, I need to speak with you.”

  “Give me a sec,” I said brightly. Inside, I felt like a kid who’d been called to the principal’s office at school. As I went into my office and put away my purse and tote bag and skimmed over my e-mail in-box, I wondered what it was about. Was it the business-world equivalent of getting an award, or was I in trouble? A shiver of fear shot through me as I realized that with his uncanny ways, Merlin probably already knew I’d lost my immunity. I should tell him, I supposed, but I wasn’t exactly sure what to say yet. Based on what Trix told me, seeing Sam didn’t prove anything.

  I gathered a notepad and pen and went to Merlin’s office, silently praying that he just wanted me to take a memo. “Please, have a seat,” he said as I entered. He seemed friendly enough. I’d seen him angry, and this wasn’t it.

  He brought over two cups of tea, handed one to me, then joined me on his sofa. “How was your visit with your parents?” he asked, his tone entirely conversational.

  “Great. I was just telling Trix that it turns out I get my immunity from my mom, which made things interesting.”

  “But they feel better now about you living here?” He sounded concerned.

  “Yes, sir, they really seem to. I think they may have liked it here. They didn’t even try to make me go home with them.”

  “Good. Good. Now I would like an update on the status of your investigation.”

  With a deep sigh, I said, “There isn’t much status to speak of, unfortunately. I don’t think I’ve ruled anyone out entirely as a suspect. I have a few new things to check out.” Such as what Hertwick the sales gnome was doing in Central Park on a weekday afternoon, but I wasn’t going to rat him out until I’d talked to him. “And Idris has started stalking me, which may or may not mean anything. To be honest, I’m kind of hoping our spy makes another move this week. Otherwise, I don’t have a lot to go on. I’m more convinced that the intent is to keep us all from trusting each other. Gathering information may not be the primary goal. I even get the impression that Idris is trying to shake me up more than he’s trying to harm me or get me out of the way.”

  He nodded. “That may be a wise assumption. It was through rumor and innuendo that Mordred divided Camelot. I wasn’t there to stop it, and I cannot allow that to happen here.”

  “I’m sorry I don’t have more to report.” I might not lose my job because of losing my magical immunity, I realized. My complete lack of results was more than enough grounds for firing or demotion. Desperately I struggled for an idea, any idea that might make things better. Finally something struck me. “We’ll still want to catch our mole, of course, but if their goal is to divide us, maybe we can fight back by finding ways to pull the company together.”

  His face lit up, and for a moment he looked centuries younger. “Excellent idea! I’ve been reading about morale boosting and productivity. There was one particular book about a fun workplace.” He got up and went over to his desk, then began rummaging around in the books and papers. “Now, where was it?” He returned with an armful of the latest management fad books. Someone needed to cut off his access to the Barnes & Noble online catalog.

  “Let’s see, this one was about how to improve productivity by creating a fun working environment.” He handed a book to me. “This one was about team building.” He handed me another. Soon I had an armload of books. “Do you have time to put together some activities and events?” he asked.

  Quite frankly, I was swamped, but planning team-building and employee morale events was important and probably our best way of undermining the mole, so I agreed. “No problem,” I said. “It’ll be fun. With the holidays here, there are all kinds of things we can do.” Then I had a brainstorm. I needed to be absolutely sure what was going on with my immunity, and since I’d seen Rod’s illusion the other day and knew it was supposed to work on everyone, a visit to him now would confirm whether or not my immunity really was gone. On top of that, he had access to everyone’s employee records, so he might be able to help in the investigation. “I probably ought to work with Rod on this, as it should fall under Personnel,” I added.

  He nodded. “Good thought. Thank you for your time, Katie.”

  I took the dismissal hint. As I returned to my office with an armload of business books, I tried to think of things that might work to help us all overcome our distrust of each other. We simply had to encourage people to be willing to work together. Once that got going, the mole might become obvious as the person who wasn’t cooperating. Or maybe we could set a trap within the fun activities.

  I called down to Isabel and got on Rod’s calendar for the afternoon. Having an important role to play in the current crisis would be good for him. He’d finally feel like he was being noticed in the upper echelons of power, and I could pick his brain.

  Flipping through the business books for ideas, I came to the conclusion that little of the advice would work in a magical corporation. It was nice that Merlin was trying to acclimate himself to the twenty-first-century business world, but I wasn’t sure if the Pike Place Market in Seattle would resonate with him as a metaphor for adding fun to the workplace.

  I glanced at my phone and noticed that the voice-mail light was blinking. Someone must have left me a message while I met with Merlin. I picked up the phone, dialed into the voice-mail system, and found one new message. It was from Ethan.

  “Hey,” he said. “Just checking in to see how the rest of the weekend with the folks went. Thanks again for inviting me for Thanksgiving, and be sure to pass my thanks on to your mom. I was also hoping that you’d be free for lunch tomorrow. Give me a call when you get a chance.”

  All at once, the memory of buying the red shoes and the thoughts about Ethan that had gone through my mind at the time rushed over me. A shiver went up and down my spine—this time a pleasant shiver. I’d be glad to see him, the sooner the better, even though lunch wouldn’t be prime time for what I had in mind.

  With a smile on my lips, I called his office. “Hey, yourself,” I said when he answered.

  “Katie! So you got your parents off on their way home?”

  “Yep. They left this morning.”

  “And everything went well the rest of the weekend?”

  “Just a few minor glitches, but nothing I wasn’t able to smooth over. My parents even started speaking to each other again.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. So, lunch tomorrow?”

  “I don’t have anything on my calendar.”

  “Okay, how about I pick you up at noon? I’ll come up to your office. I have some things I need to drop off for the boss while I’m at it.”

  That wasn’t the most romantic lunch invitation I’d ever heard, but I wasn’t going to quibble about it. “Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”

  As I hung up the phone, I wondered if the red shoes would be overkill for wearing to the office. Probably, I decided. Besides, I wanted to save them for a special night out. It would be a shame to waste them on a lunch when he wouldn’t have time to ravish me properly. However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t wear something cute and alluring. I’d have to get Gemma to help me pull an outfit together that would whet his appetite for the weekend.

/>   Forcing my mind back to my work, I gathered the notes I’d made from Merlin’s books and headed down to Rod’s office to discuss Operation Morale. Isabel gave me her usual enthusiastic greeting.

  “Hi, sweetie! Good Thanksgiving?” she boomed.

  “Wonderful Thanksgiving. How about you?”

  “Nothing special. I helped with one of the balloons in the parade. I make a pretty good anchor, if I say so myself.”

  “That must have been fun.”

  “It was. Let me tell him you’re here.” She waved a hand over the crystal ball thingy that served as a magical intercom, then said, “Go on in.”

  I opened Rod’s office door and knew right away that whatever it was, it hadn’t been a glitch. Instead of the Rod I knew, the same gorgeous and slightly dangerous-looking man I’d seen on Saturday sat behind his desk.

  I was in huge trouble.

  Not only was I finally certain that I really had lost my magical immunity, I was also susceptible to Rod’s attraction spell. While part of me wanted to throw myself at him, the other part had to forcefully remind me about Ethan, the guy I’d just made lunch plans with, the guy I hoped would have his wicked way with me that weekend. Then again, I was sure the red shoes would work on anyone. Even if I wasn’t with Ethan, I could wear those shoes and make Rod want me as much as I wanted him.

  I went back to my mental list of Rod’s recent dates to snap myself out of the spell. Did he never turn that off, even at the office? What kind of raging insecurity would lead a man to artificially enhance his appeal that way? And what depths might he stoop to in order to get attention? I mentally reevaluated his status on my list of suspects.

  “Hi, Katie,” he said, giving me an innocuous look, though I felt like his eyes were searching my face closely. “What did you want to see me about?”

  “My latest wacky save-the-world plan,” I said, taking a seat in the chair in front of his desk. I automatically crossed my legs and let my skirt rise above my knees, then realized what I was doing and yanked it back down again.

  “And I’m a part of this plan?” His eyes shifted away, and then he seemed to force himself to look at me again.

  “This one falls squarely in your domain.” I licked my lips and wondered if I had lipstick on my teeth. I should have put on some lip gloss before heading off for the meeting. Had I put on perfume? No, I reminded myself. Work. “You see, I have this theory that the real intent of our mole isn’t so much to spy as it is to disrupt the company. If we’re all suspecting each other, we’re not working together, and that will make us less prepared to face whatever Idris is up to.”

  “So your plan is to work on morale to undercut those efforts? Good idea. What did you have in mind?”

  “Some of these are going to sound really silly,” I warned. “For starters, I think we need a secret Santa program.”

  “What’s that?”

  Was there really a corporation in America that didn’t put its employees through that torturous ritual, whatever politically correct name they gave it? I’d been stuck playing Santa to my evil former boss, Mimi, the year before, and it had taken every ounce of self-control I had to do nice things for her instead of lacing homemade fudge with rat poison.

  “It’s like a secret pal program. Everyone draws names, and then they do little surprises for the person whose name they drew. In some places, they just do one gift exchange. In others, they spend the entire month of December leaving fun little clues and presents, leading up to a more major gift exchange where the secret Santas are revealed. I was thinking that could work in two ways for us. If people have to focus on being nice to a particular person, that means they’ll have to pay attention to that person to figure out what to do and what their routine is so they can surprise them.”

  “And that means you’re actually putting together a one-on-one surveillance program,” he concluded. “I like it.”

  “But it’s also going to make people feel good once they start getting surprises, and since they won’t know who’s giving them treats, they might be motivated to be a little nicer to everyone.”

  He made a note on the pad by his computer. “Isabel and I will take care of matching up names and getting the instructions out there. I take it you want to do this throughout the month?”

  “Yeah. And then is there a big company holiday party?”

  “Yes. It’s quite the to-do. We haven’t exchanged gifts before, but we could do a gift exchange where the identities of the secret Santas are revealed. That would even work as an icebreaker.” He made another note, then gave me a wicked grin that nearly made me swoon. I forced myself to imagine his bedpost, riddled with notches from women who’d fallen under his spell—literally—and to remember his status on my suspect list. “We don’t have to assign people truly randomly, do we? We can act like it’s random, but we can match up people who need to get over some personal issues.”

  “I wouldn’t go so far as to match up sworn enemies,” I cautioned. “Then it can get ugly. It works best with people who don’t know each other all that well. It forces them to get to know each other.”

  “Good thinking. Any other ideas?”

  “That’s my most immediate one, and the one I think that’ll be easiest to implement. We should probably also do some team-building activities, something that brings a group of people together from various departments to solve problems.”

  He smiled, and my heart rate increased. “This is taking me back to my days in business school when I was studying human resources. I never thought I’d implement any of that at a company like this. Give me a chance to see what I can come up with, okay?” There was a fresh gleam in his eye. It might have been part of the illusion, but I suspected it had more to do with him finally feeling useful and relevant in the grand scheme of things.

  He should feel grateful for that, I thought. So grateful, maybe, that he’d feel the need to thank me in very interesting ways. I had a few suggestions, in case he couldn’t think of anything. I cleared my throat to drop a hint, then caught myself. I didn’t want to get involved with anyone who could date twenty different women in a month. “So, I guess that’s everything we needed to talk about,” I said, the words spilling out of me in a rush as I pushed myself out of my chair. “E-mail me when you get some ideas.” I fled his office before he could say anything else.

  My mental to-do list was growing longer by the minute. I needed to figure out why I wasn’t immune anymore and how to reverse it, if such a thing was possible. I needed to find our spy. I needed to find out why Hertwick had been in Central Park the other day during business hours and if it had anything to do with the things I was investigating.

  I passed a man banging furiously on a shut door. “I’m supposed to be in that meeting, damn it!” he shouted as he rattled the doorknob. “Open the door or I’ll blow a hole in the wall. I’m not a spy!”

  Oh yeah, and I had to help ratchet down the paranoia level in the company. That would have been a lot easier if I didn’t have very good reason to be paranoid myself. It was hard not to feel hunted when Idris and his henchmen kept showing up and my immunity was on the fritz.

  Suddenly a horrible idea came to me. The way Rod had looked at me—had he known my secret? I hadn’t ruled him out as the spy, but what if he was also the one who’d found a way to remove my immunity? After all, he’d been there when I realized for the first time that my immunity was gone. Come to think of it, what was he doing heading to the office on a Saturday afternoon during a holiday weekend? If he’d tampered with my immunity somehow, he’d be able to influence me and distract me from my mission. I made a mental note to look into this and see what the chances were that he’d had anything to do with the break-in. But first, I had another errand to take care of while I was out and about.

  I made a detour to the sales department and found Hertwick in his office. As soon as I appeared in the doorway, he became uncharacteristically bashful. “You want to know why I was in the park, right?” he said gruffly, lookin
g like a schoolboy being called on the carpet for dropping cherry bombs in the toilets. “I bet that looked pretty suspicious to you, huh?”

  “Yeah, it did. But these days, everything looks suspicious.”

  “I was taking a break.”

  “A break?”

  “If you had a meeting out of the office, and nothing pressing waiting for you, you’d maybe stop off at Starbucks for a latte on the way back, wouldn’t you? You know, give yourself a break, something to boost you through the next couple of hours, right?”

  I probably wouldn’t, because I was too frugal to buy designer coffee, but I knew what he meant. “Yeah.”

  “So, for my people, digging in the dirt is like a double latte with that chocolate stuff sprinkled on top. We weren’t made for working in offices.”

  “Why do you?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  He reddened, and for a brief moment he looked more cute than gruff. “Because I’m probably the one gnome in all creation with a brown thumb. I love digging in the dirt, but everything I touch dies.”

  I bit my tongue to keep myself from laughing. He probably didn’t think it was all that funny. “Okay, sounds reasonable,” I said.

  “So you don’t suspect me of spying?”

  “Not unless you give me any other reason to think you’re a spy.” I couldn’t help but believe him. I doubted he’d admit to something so embarrassing if it weren’t true. If he’d been lying, he would have come up with a better story.

  That was one item checked off my list. Only three major things to go. Then I remembered one more item to add: knock Ethan’s socks off at lunch the next day so I could look forward to a truly hot weekend.

  I got up early the next morning to get ready for work in the sexy but still-business-appropriate outfit Gemma and Marcia helped me plan. As I finished dressing, I gave my new shoe box a quick pat for luck. I might not be wearing the red shoes to work, but I hoped I could carry their aura with me into the day.