She chuckled softly and leaned forward into his gaze. ‘We’re not on the clock now, are we, Mr Jamison? Besides, I’ll be turning Marston over to Dee Henning, so it really doesn’t matter to me. I mean, I’d like to see Marston get what he needs, of course I would. He’s a bit of a tyrant, but ultimately he’s a good man, and lots of jobs depend on the choices he makes for his paper mills, people’s livelihoods, you know?’ Oh, she had learned to talk the talk quite well after Beverly died; fat lot of good it had done her. ‘The man’s got to do what he’s got to do, doesn’t he?’
‘Precisely, Tally, precisely. I’m glad we’re on the same page here. I had heard you’re noted for your practicality. No small gift in the business world, as you know, and it must be even more important, if unappreciated, when you work in the realm of such dreamers as Thorne and Crittenden.’ He motioned the bartender to bring her another champagne, then leaned still closer, so close he could have almost kissed her, and she was just drunk enough to have let him. But what happened next was even better than a kiss. ‘Tally, we’d both like to see Marston get what he needs, to offer him a way to protect all of those jobs, and I think we both know what Ellis has to offer isn’t going to cut it, don’t we?’ He touched her hand very gently. ‘You don’t have to answer that.’ His breath against her cheek smelled of expensive whiskey, which blended nicely with the scent of wealth he exuded, and her pulse somersaulted in her throat. Whatever it was he was playing at, she couldn’t say she didn’t like it.
‘What would you say to working together, the two of us?’ His lips were almost brushing her ear, his voice barely more than a whisper.
Her stomach did a dangerous flip-flop, a flip-flop that quickly migrated to her already racing pulse. She sat up straight on her stool, the fizz making her slightly dizzy, that alcohol-steeped feeling of suddenly being in a box of cotton wool leaving her in need of a reality check. ‘You want me to work for you?’
He held her in a gaze that made her feel exposed – not naked. There was nothing sexual about it, but it was like he could somehow see inside her head, through the alcohol buzz threatening to escalate beyond the limits of even feigned sobriety. Just when she was feeling like the better part of wisdom might be a quick escape, he offered her a boyish smile that made him look considerably younger than he was, and considerably less threatening. ‘Actually, what I had in mind was something along the lines of one of Thorne’s famous win-win deals, Tally; something that would give us both exactly what we want. If you’ll give me the chance, if you’ll trust me and work with me, we can not only get Marston what he needs, but we can make sure when the dust settles, you are happily ensconced in that huge corner office that used to belong to Beverly Neumann.’ His smile broadened and morphed until it was only slightly less than dangerous. ‘Or quite possibly something even better, if you like.’
Chapter Eight
Dee’s first day on the job, Ellis cleared his calendar and spent the time briefing her on her new responsibilities – especially the more urgent client files she was expected to be up to speed on immediately. Thanks to the connections Dee had made while working with Jasper and McDowell she was familiar with most of the customers. Without such an advantage she was sure she would have been completely overwhelmed.
‘Are you finding everything you need all right in Beverly’s office –’ Ellis caught himself and forced a pained smile. ‘Your office. As for Beverly’s jungle –’ He cleared his throat and blinked. For a second, he drifted away. His eyes were dark and unreadable, half hidden behind glasses that reflected the bright sunlight bathing the room. Then his attention returned. With a controlled intake of breath, the lines of his face dissolved back into neutrality. ‘We can have these plants removed whenever you like.’
She felt a tightness in her own throat, empathy mixed with her own pain of loss as she remembered the last time she had sat in the office with Beverly. She swallowed hard and squared her shoulders. ‘If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather keep them. They remind me of Beverly, and I like that. Sandra can show me how to take care of the more exotic plants. Besides, Beverly told me once that photosynthesis increases the oxygen content.’ She nodded to the teetering mountain of files that now graced her side of the conference table. ‘These days my brain can use all the oxygen it can get.’
Just then Sandra brought in sandwiches so the two could continue their efforts through lunch.
‘You’ll like working with Sandra,’ Ellis said as they watched her leave. ‘She was Beverly’s secretary even before there was a Pneuma Inc. She knows the company better that I do. She must have been a psychologist in a previous life, or possibly a psychic. If you’re ever in doubt about anything, ask Sandra. And –’ he shuffled through the stacks of files in front of him ‘– she can also help you negotiate some of the more difficult personnel problems you may face.’
‘Personnel problems?’
‘Oh, it’s nothing, really. A few people here were unhappy I hired an outsider.’ He watched her as though he was sizing up an athlete for strength and endurance, and she held his gaze in spite of the clench in her stomach at one more problem she could do without. ‘Nothing you can’t handle after being Jasper and McDowell’s only female rep. That place has a reputation for being a good ole boys’ club.’
It was true, the early days at Jasper and McDowell had been challenging. But she had overcome that personnel issue by being the best in her field. Problem solved. She doubted it would be that easy at Pneuma Inc.
Aside from attending several meetings together, Dee hardly saw Ellis those first three weeks. But the growing mountain of files on her computer was proof he was always just an email away. Even when he was in, what he couldn’t pass on through the miracle of IT, he sent through the secretaries. She had long since resigned herself to the fact that he had totally forgotten what had happened between the two of them in his office after Beverly went missing. He was definitely not giving her preferential treatment. He wasn’t giving her any treatment at all, actually. The secretaries got way more of his attention than she did, though she seldom had time to dwell on what now seemed like the distant past.
She arrived at the office early and stayed late. The working day was only over when she fell asleep with whichever client file she had taken to bed that night. And even then the job invaded her dreams, often with Alan Marston berating her in front of all of Pneuma Inc., while Ellis stood by, shaking his head in disappointment and commenting repeatedly on how she had let Beverly down. Then she would wake up in a cold sweat, unable to go back to sleep. It was just as well. There was always plenty of work to do. She woke up groggy every morning before the alarm went off, too stressed to go back to sleep, and then the whole process started over again. It seemed like every night she got home later and slept less. She was sure she was running on adrenalin by now, but with the help of lots of caffeine and an acute fear of failure, she was managing. When panic threatened to take control, she buried herself deeper in the mountain of files and had some more caffeine, reminding herself Ellis and Beverly had faith in her, and she wasn’t about to fail them.
Everything was gearing up for a big teleconference with Marston and Scribal Paper, in which Dee was to give the financial projections and a short spiel on some of the research Wade Crittenden had been doing. Wade never made public appearances, nearly hyperventilated at the very thought, so it was up to her to promote Pneuma Inc.’s latest brainchild. At best, it was a temporary fix, and an effort to convince Marston not to consider Jamison Holding’s tantalizing deal of a cheap clear-cut in a part of the world no one cared about. The proposal would be a hard sell, definitely – and one complicated by the fact that, since Beverly’s death, Marston was still refusing to work with anyone but Ellis. Hopefully the presentation would help ease her into Marston’s good graces, of which there seemed to be precious few these days.
The problem was she hadn’t received the financial information she needed from accounting. Her requests had gone unanswered and, at last, she
gave up and decided to go after the file in person.
When she got off the elevator on the sixth floor, she could hear the yelling halfway down the hall. She was surprised to find the uproar was coming from Tally Barnes’s office, and the door was standing wide open. It wasn’t hard to hear what was going on; in fact, she figured most of accounting could hear.
‘What is it, Pneuma Inc.’s new policy to hire morons? And fat ones at that. If you can’t follow simple directions, maybe we can find you a job with the janitorial staff. It shouldn’t take too much brain power to push a mop, and from the looks of you, the exercise would do you good.’
‘But you told me to –’
‘Don’t tell me what I told you. I know what I told you.’ Tally shoved a file at the flustered woman. ‘Get out of here, and don’t come back until you get it right.’
Through the open door, Dee could see a dressed-for-success blonde with shoulder-length hair and artfully done make-up seated behind the desk. She would have been attractive if not for the venom spewing past her carefully painted lips. She was in mid-rant to one of the secretarial staff Dee had met earlier. The woman, who looked to be barely out of her teens, stood red-faced, shifting from foot to foot.
Dee was about to tiptoe away quietly and come back when things were calmer, but it was too late. Tally had seen her.
‘Dee Henning! What a pleasant surprise. I wondered when you were going to do us the honour.’
The secretary apologised quietly as she pushed past Dee with her head down, but Dee thought she saw tears. She tried to offer the poor thing a reassuring smile, but she was interrupted.
‘Never mind her. She’s just incompetent, like so many people these days. I’m Tally Barnes.’ She stood to offer Dee an overly firm handshake, looking down at her from several extra inches of height. Her long acrylic nails made her grip a bit worrisome. ‘Everyone at Pneuma Inc. has been talking about Dee Henning, the wonder girl. At last we meet.’ She offered Dee a smile pressed tightly against impossibly white teeth.
Dee remembered Tally Barnes. Hers had been one of the resumes she’d reviewed for the executive assistant’s position, one she’d found reasonably impressive. She knew the woman was more qualified for the job than she was. Perhaps she would have felt a little more guilty about the whole situation had she not just seen Tally’s mistreatment of the young secretary. Was Tally one of those personnel problems Ellis had mentioned that Sandra could help her negotiate? She hoped not.
‘I suppose you came for this?’ Tally sat back down and nodded to the file labelled “Scribal” lying on the edge of her desk. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get it up to you. It’s been a madhouse down here with no end in sight. I’m sure Ellis told you that I’ve had to take up the slack since Beverly died. Of course, I’m more than happy to do my part, even if it means we’re short-handed in other areas.’
Dee took the offered file. ‘I’m hoping I’ll be able to relieve some of that burden. I’ll be taking over the account for Scribal soon. That should help.’
‘I have to say I’m a little surprised that Ellis would want to rock the boat with Alan Marston right now.’ She leaned forward over the desk as though imparting a big secret. ‘I mean, Alan isn’t exactly easy to work with, Dee. I’m just now getting the man to trust me a little bit. I’m more than happy to liaise with him and do my part to make your transition easier. Heaven knows you’ve got enough to think about without his nasty tantrums.’
‘Thanks,’ Dee said. ‘That’s very kind.’
‘So tell me, are you spending another night in the Dungeon?’ Tally asked. ‘Oh, don’t look so surprised. Gossip travels fast at Pneuma Inc., and there’s been a lot of speculation as to what Ellis’s new executive assistant is doing every night down in R and D.’
Dee smiled. ‘Just some projections Wade’s helping me with.’
Tally raised an eyebrow. ‘Sounds intriguing.’ Just then her phone rang. ‘Damn it, Louisa, how did I end up working with someone who has the IQ of a peanut?’ she yelled into the receiver.
Dee chose that moment to make her exit, waving casually at Tally, who had moved on from IQ to insulting the secretary’s fashion sense. As Dee stepped into the elevator and the doors shut out the ravings in accounting, she felt pretty sure she wouldn’t be soliciting any more of Tally Barnes’s help than absolutely necessary, nor would she be divulging any project details.
Chapter Nine
Tally glared at Dee’s back as she left. Being nice to the little bitch felt like broken glass in the pit of her stomach. She slammed down the phone and looked at her watch. Only 15 minutes till quitting time. She began to pack up her things. Dee Henning certainly hung out in R and D a lot these days. She wondered if it had something to do with the mysterious ESC that kept turning up in the emails she’d downloaded from Beverly’s computer.
She’d asked Wade about it, but he didn’t seem to know, or wasn’t paying enough attention to the question to know if he knew or not. Wade was the stereotypical absent-minded professor. She picked up the phone, and dialled his extension.
‘What?’ came the answer after the seventh ring. She was lucky he answered at all.
‘Oh, hi Wade, it’s Tally, Tally Barnes. Accounting?’
‘What?’ he said again. It was a good thing for Pneuma Inc. that what the man lacked in social skills he made up for in genius.
‘Are you going bowling tonight?’ He loved bowling, and claimed to have gotten some of his best ideas at the bowling alley.
‘Nope.’ She could hear him rattling around working on something, clearly not paying her much attention, which was exactly what she wanted. ‘Meeting with Dee Henning about Trouvères. Running projections, numbers.’
She put on her best dumb blond voice. ‘I would have thought Dee would be spending her time on Scribal rather than on some little French company.’
‘Of course she’s spending time on Scribal. What the hell do you think she’s spending time on? I gotta go. I’m busy.’ He hung up. She didn’t take offence. That was just Wade Crittenden.
All Tally knew of Trouvères came from a glance at one of Beverly’s files. She had no idea what they did, or why they mattered to Scribal. Did Trouvères have anything to do with the ESC?
On her laptop, she pulled up the most intriguing email exchange between Beverly and Ellis and perused it for the thousandth time.
B: I’ve been thinking a lot about the ESC lately, Ellis, and I think it’s time. When we hire my replacement, I think we need to implement the ESC.
E: lol. I can hardly put that in the requirements for Dee Henning to pass on to the lucky lottery winner, can I?
B: Of course not! It’s a secret weapon. And it won’t be a lottery. That’s why we’ll have to choose my replacement very carefully. But when we do, when we have just the right person and we implement the ESC, well, Ellis, I think you’ll be taking Pneuma, Inc. to greater heights than either of us ever dreamed of.
E: Still lol! You get Dee Henning to find me just the right person for the job, and we’ll do it.
B: Oh, don’t you worry, Ellis. If you’ve got the balls for it, I’ll find you just what you’re looking for, and we can watch productivity soar. Won’t that just sweeten my retirement package?
Beverly always was blunt. Tally had been on the receiving end of the woman’s straight talk more than a few times. ‘Bitch,’ she whispered under her breath.
Just before she closed up shop to head home, her BlackBerry buzzed with a message from her Visa card company, thanking her for her payment. The card had been maxed and then some. What the hell was going on? A quick check online showed that the balance had been paid in full. Before she could call the card company, the soft tinkle of a bell alerted her to the arrival of a text on the new phone Terrance Jamison had given her for all their communications. She pulled it out of her bag. The text read.
A gift for a gift. I reward the deserving.
‘Fuck,’ she whispered, her breath steaming the screen of her phone. She had se
nt Jamison copies of the proposal that was to be given to Marston tomorrow. It wasn’t the complete proposal, but it was as much as she could get hold of: it was enough for what Jamison needed. Had the man really just paid off her maxed-out Visa gold card?
She texted back with trembling fingers.
How did you do that?
The answer was almost immediate.
I’m rich, remember? Now go celebrate, Tally. You can afford it.
Dee spent most of the night before the teleconference with Marston cooped up in the Dungeon, as his lab in R and D was universally known. Wade had one of the best teams of scientists and engineers in the country working for him, but the Dungeon was his domain, separate from the state-of-the-art facilities where everyone else in R and D worked. It was all she could do to contain her excitement. She couldn’t wait until they were ready to share their findings with Ellis. During the course of the evening there had been a couple of conference calls to Paris, a pizza delivery in the wee hours, lots of coffee, and lots of scheming. Dee had the connections from her time at Jasper and McDowell, and Wade had the technical expertise that just might be able to pull the plan together.
Back home, she read through her presentation for the teleconference one more time before she headed off to bed. It was a mid-morning meeting, so she set her alarm and settled in for what would be little more than a catnap. At least, that was her plan.
An Executive Decision Page 6
