Blue-Eyed Devil (34 page)

“I’m setting aside the rules for a few minutes. This is important. There’s been a mistake with the billing sheets. It needs to be fixed.”

Vanessa was not accustomed to anyone else setting the agenda. “I don’t have time for this, Haven. I didn’t call you to the office to talk about the billing sheets.”

“Don’t you want to know what it is?” I waited. When it was obvious she wasn’t going to answer, I shook my head slowly. “No, because you already know. It wasn’t a mistake, was it?”

A curious, chilling smile spread across her lips. “Okay, Haven. I’ll play. What is it?”

“Samantha’s been charged for the flowers the office sent to her father’s funeral.” I waited for any kind of reaction, a slight widening of the eyes, a flicker of shame, a frown. Anything. But Vanessa showed all the emotion of a department store mannequin. “We’re going to fix it, right?”

An excruciating silence passed. Silence was one of Vanessa’s more effective weapons . . . she would stare at me until I felt myself collapsing like a tower of blocks, and I’d say something, anything, to fill the unnerving wordless void. But I held her stare. The silence drew out until it was actually sort of funny. But I managed to outwait her.

“You’re out of line,” she informed me. “How I choose to manage the employees is none of your business, Haven.”

“So taking that money out of Samantha’s paycheck is some kind of management technique?”

“I think you’d better leave my office right now. In fact, take the day off. I’ve had more than enough of you and your bratty attitude.”

“If you don’t agree to put that money into Samantha’s account,” I said, “I’m going to Jack.”

That got a reaction. Her face darkened, and her eyes flashed. “You spoiled bitch,” she said, her voice taking on a crisp edge.

“Nick’s told me all about you . . . how you use people, how selfish you are. How you lie and manipulate to get your way. Lazy, cheating, whiny little parasite — ”

“Yeah, that’s my PR from Nick.” I wondered if she had actually gone out with my ex-husband. Good Lord, what was it like when two narcissists went on a date? “But that’s not what we were talking about, is it? Are you going to give the money back, or should I go to Jack?”

“You dare say one word to him, and I’ll unload. By the time I finish telling him what you really are, he’ll be as disgusted by you as I am. He’ll tell you where to — ”

“Vanessa,” I said quietly, “he’s my brother. Are you really so arrogant that you think you could turn him against me? You think he’ll take your side over mine? Jack is loyal. You can trash me all you want, and it won’t do you any good with him.”

Her face was starting to look splotchy, rage bringing up red patches that seemed to float on top of her skin like oil slicks on water. But somehow she managed to keep her tone controlled. “Get out of my office, Haven. And don’t come back. You’ve just been let go.”

I was calm on the surface even though my heart had been galvanized into a rocketing pace. “That’s what I thought you’d say. Bye, Vanessa.”

I went to my desk to get my purse. As I reached my cubicle, I was bemused to see Samantha, Rob, and Kimmie all standing there, wearing identical blank expressions. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I might have thought it was funny, the way they all looked. “What’s going on?” I asked, going into my cubicle. I stopped short as I saw Jack beside my desk. He was staring down at the intercom pad, his color high and his month hard.

“Hey, Jack,” I said in bewilderment. “What are you doing here?”

He answered slowly. “I came to take you out to lunch.”

Kimmie moved closer to me and touched my arm. “The intercom was on,” she murmured.

Vanessa must have forgotten to turn it off when I had barged into her office. And Jack and the others had heard every word.

Jack picked up my purse and handed it to me. “Come on,” he said gruffly.

I went with him, blanching as I realized we were heading to Vanessa’s office.

Opening the closed door without a knock, Jack stood in the doorway and gave her a hard stare.

My boss’s face went blank. “Jack,” she said in surprise. And then she gave him a warm smile, and she looked so poised and pleasant that I was astonished by the change in her. “How nice to see you. Come in, please.”

My brother shook his head, his dark eyes cold. And he said three words in a tone that left no room for negotiation. “Pack your things.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Jack, explaining how Vanessa had tried to bully and gaslight me, and that she was now likely doing the same thing with Samantha. By the time I had finished, Jack had stopped shaking his head and swearing, and simply looked sick.

“Sweet Jesus, Haven . . . why didn’t you say anything to me before now?”

“I didn’t want to be a prima donna. I wanted what was best for the company, and I knew she’d done good work for you in the past.”

“Fuck the company,” he said. “People matter more than business. I don’t care how good the manager is if she behaves like a damn terrorist behind the scenes.”

“At first I hoped Vanessa would get better over time, or that we’d work out some kind of system we could both live with. But I’ve come to realize that kind never gets better. There’s no working things out. She’s like Nick. A malignant narcissist. She doesn’t feel any more remorse over hurting a fellow human being than you or I might feel about stepping on an ant.”

Jack’s mouth was set in a grim slash. “You meet a lot of that type in the business world. And although I hate to say it, some of that behavior . . . being ambitious and ruthless and selfish . . . can get you pretty far in some companies. But not mine.”

“Are you really going to get rid of her?”

He nodded at once. “She’s gone. I’ll have to replace her now.” A meaningful pause. “Any ideas?”

“I can do it,” I said readily. “I’m not saying I’ll be perfect. I’ll make mistakes. But I know I can handle the responsibility.”

A smile spread across my brother’s face. “You’re singing a different tune than when you started.”

My answering smile was wry. “I’ve been on a fast learning curve lately.”

We discussed the office situation a while longer, and then the conversation turned to personal matters. I couldn’t help telling Jack about my falling-out with Dad. About T.J. and Hardy, and the lease deal.

Jack was satisfyingly irate about the whole thing, saying they were all assholes. He also agreed with me that I needed to get to the bottom of Hardy’s behavior, because it didn’t make sense. “T.J.’s got some prime property,” he said, “but he’s not the only game in town. And your boy Hardy can go shopping anywhere he wants. He may want those leases, but he doesn’t need ‘em. So I’d say this is Cates’s way of breaking up with you. He’s done something he knows will force you to call it off.”

“The passive-aggressive jerk,” I said. “If he wants to break up with me, he’ll have to do it face-to-face.”

Jack grinned. “I almost pity the bastard. Okay — you handle Cates, and I’ll set Dad straight on a few things.”

“No,” I said automatically, “don’t do anything about Dad. You can’t fix my relationship with him.”

“I can block or run interference.”

“Thanks, Jack, but I don’t need blocking, and I really don’t need any more interference.”

He looked annoyed. “Well, why did you waste all that time complaining to me if you didn’t want me to do something about it?”

“I don’t want you to fix my problems. I just wanted you to listen.”

“Hang it all, Haven, talk to a girlfriend if all you want is a pair of ears. Guys hate it when you give us a problem and then don’t let us do something about it. It makes us feel bad. And then the only way to make ourselves feel better is to rip a phone book in two or blow something up. So let’s get this straight — I’m not a good listener. I’m a guy.”

“Yes you are.” I stood and smiled. “Want to buy me a drink at an after work bar?”

“Now you’re talking,” my brother said, and we left the office.

It was early evening when I returned to my apartment. I felt better after a drink and a couple of hours in Jack’s easygoing presence. The thing that surprised me was his lack of condemnation for Hardy, especially given his earlier stance on the subject.

“I’m not for or against him,” Jack had informed me, tilting back a long-necked beer. “Here’s how I’m looking at this deal with T.J.: Hardy’s either done the wrong thing for the wrong reason . . . ” Another big swallow. “Or the wrong thing for the right reason.”

“How could there possibly be a right reason for what he did?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Give him a chance to explain himself, is all I’m saying.”

“Todd thinks Hardy is conniving and twisted,” I’d said morosely.

For some reason that had made Jack laugh. “Well, you oughta be used to that, coming from the Travis family. There’s not a one of us — with the exception of Gage — who isn’t as twisted as a duck’s dick. And the same goes for Todd.”

“You’re scaring me,” I said, but I hadn’t been able to restrain a rueful smile.      

I continued to smile as I went into my apartment, but I was nervous, thinking about seeing Hardy. As I saw the continuous blinking of the answering machine, my heart gave a little jolt. I went to the machine and pressed a button to hear the message.

Hardy’s voice. “I need to see you. Please call me when you get in tonight.”

“Okay,” I whispered, closing my eyes briefly. But I opened them right away, because something had caught my attention. A glitter and gleam next to the phone base. Perplexed, I reached out for the object, and was astonished to discover it was a charm bracelet. Aunt Gretchen’s. But how had it gotten there? It had been in Nick’s possession. Nick —

Before I could make a sound, someone came up behind me, and a hand clamped on my neck. The barrel of a handgun pressed cold and hard against the side of my head. I knew who it was even before I heard his gloating voice.

“Got you now, Marie.”

When you suddenly find yourself in a dangerous situation, your brain splits into two parts, the part that’s actually going through the situation, and the part that stands back and tries to understand what’s happening. And those parts are not necessarily sharing information with each other. So it took a few moments for me to focus on what Nick was saying.

” . . . can’t ignore me, you bitch. You can’t keep me away if I want to see you.”

He wanted me to know he was all-powerful. He wanted to prove I couldn’t beat him.

My mouth had gone so dry I could barely talk, while sweat broke out on my face. “Yeah,” I said in a suffocated voice. “You definitely found a way to see me. How’d you do it? You couldn’t have figured out the combination.”

“I used an override key.”

Each apartment in the building had two override keys, in case of emergency, or in case someone forgot his or her touch-pad number. One set of all the residential keys was kept in a room behind the concierge desk. The other set was locked away in the management office.

“Vanessa gave it to you,” I said in disbelief. That was illegal. It could get her prosecuted. Did she hate me so much that she would risk going to jail just to stick it to me after she’d been fired?

Apparently so.

“I told her I needed to drop some things off.”

“Well, you did,” I said faintly. “Thanks for the bracelet. But you didn’t need to bring the gun, Nick.”

“You’ve been ignoring me — ” I m sorry.

” — treating me like I mean nothing to you.” The gun jabbed my temple hard enough to leave a bruise. I stayed still, my eyes watering. “I sure as hell mean something now, don’t I?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. Maybe he had come here with the sole intention of scaring me. But he was working himself up as he always had, letting his temper build. Once he started getting angry, it was an avalanche. You couldn’t hold it back.

“You fucking ripped me off in the divorce, and left me in Dallas, with everyone asking about what happened, where you were . . . What do you think that did to me, Marie? Did you give a shit about what I was going through?”

I tried to remember what Susan had told me, that a narcissist needed to walk away feeling like the winner. “Of course I did,” I said breathlessly. “But everyone knew you could do better. Everyone knew I wasn’t good enough for you.”

“That’s right. You’ll never have it as good as you did with me.” Nick shoved me hard, and I slammed against the wall, my breath knocked out. The gun pressed against my skull. I heard the click of the safety being turned off. “You never tried,” he muttered, urging his hips against my backside. A wave of nausea went through me as I felt the bulge of his erection. “You never did enough. It takes two to make a marriage, and you were never fucking in it, Marie. You should have done more.”

“I’m sorry,” I said around fitful gulps of air.

“You left me. Just walked away from that apartment in your bare feet, like goddamn white trash, to try to look as pitiful as possible. To make me look bad. And then you got your asshole of a brother to push a divorce through. Just throw a handful of cash at me, and expect me to disappear. Legal papers and all that shit don’t mean a thing to me, Marie. I can still do what I want with you.”

“Nick,” I managed, “we’ll sit down and talk as long as you want if you’ll just put the gun aw — ” I broke off with a grunt of pain as I felt a blunt white explosion behind my ear, and heard a tinny high-pitched sound. A thin, hot trickle of liquid ran behind my ear and down my neck. He had hit me with the butt of the gun.

“How many men have you fucked?” he demanded.

No good answer to that one. Anything I said would lead to the subject of Hardy, and Nick’s sense of humiliated fury would go into full swing. I had to pacify him. Soothe his injured ego.

“You’re the one who matters,” I whispered.

“Damn right about that.” His free hand gripped my hair. “Dressing like a whore, cut your hair like a whore. You used to look like a lady. Like a wife. But you couldn’t handle that. Now look at you.”

“Nick — ”

“Shut up! Everything you say is a lie. Every time you took one of those pills, it was a lie. I was trying to give you a baby. I wanted us to have a family, but all you wanted was to leave. Lying slut!”