Nothing But Trouble (13 page)

R.J. decided it was time to confront her
about her detrimental mistake. He pushed away from the car and
walked toward the office.

"Sam," he called out to the mechanic. "Grab
the phone if you hear it ring."

"You got it," the kid answered.

There was also a phone in the shop, so one of
them could answer it in case Danielle wasn't in the office. This
was one of those conversations that needed to happen without any
interruptions. He didn't want to give Danielle a chance to escape
him if the telephone rang.

When he opened the office door, Danielle
jerked around in her chair, as though she'd been caught with her
hand in the cookie jar. Her eyes widened for a moment, then she
smiled. Her relief would be short-lived when she heard what he had
to say.

"Hi," she greeted. "I'm really sorry about
the tardiness. I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible
headache and I couldn't go back to sleep. My pain relievers finally
kicked in, but they make me really drowsy and I overslept."

When she said "pain relievers" the Adderall
instantly came to R.J's mind. Would Danielle take it in the middle
of the night? Would it make her go to sleep like that? He didn't
know much about the drug, but he knew it was meant to treat ADD,
and he guessed something like that wouldn't make a person sleepy.
Unless she was mixing it with other medications…

R.J. filed that information away for later
and decided the business was the most pressing matter.

"We have something we need to discuss," he
started.

The muscles in her throat worked as she
swallowed. Nerves?

"Okay," she replied.

He crossed his arms over his chest and braced
his feet apart. "I found the incomplete list of parts for Charlie's
cars on the desk in here―"

"Oh don't worry, I got that done," she
interrupted.

R.J. paused, more out of astonishment than
anything else. Had she really just outright lied to him? His
conversation with his supplier directly contradicted her. And his
supplier had no reason to lie. And there was no work order or any
record that the purchase had been made.

"Actually, Danielle it hasn't been taken care
of," he said with more patience than he felt at the moment.
"Because I looked in Charlie's file and there's no record of any
parts order―"

"I have that here, I just never filed it,"
she interrupted again.

R.J. stared at her for a moment and noticed
how her pupils were dilated. She also didn't have any jewelry on,
and Danielle never came into work without her heart locket and
mother of pearl ring.

"Really?" he asked. "Because when I called
our supplier, he had no orders for Charlie dating back a year." He
left the statement at that and waited for Danielle to say
something. They both knew she had no argument, at least none that
he would accept. Dropping the ball on something this big was
inexcusable. No matter how loyal she'd been, no matter how much he
relied on her to run the business side of things, he could not
ignore a blunder of this magnitude.

Danielle stared at him, speechless. Her brow
wrinkled in display of her obvious confusion. How could she be
confused after the evidence he'd just given her?

"No, that's―" she paused and shook her head.
"That's not possible. Look, I have Charlie's file right here. I can
show you." She spun around in her chair and yanked the filing
cabinet open. Her slender fingers trembled as she rifled through
the files, and came away unsuccessful. "I know I have it here
somewhere," she muttered as she turned to the desk and searched
through a stack of files next to the computer.

"Danielle," he interjected, but she either
didn't hear him or she ignored him. Her soft mutters were
incomprehensible to him, but he gave her a minute to pull herself
together.

"Here's his file." Her voice held a twinge of
relief, but R.J. knew that would be short-lived. She wouldn't find
what he was looking for because he'd already gone through Charlie's
file. Was it possible she was getting his best client confused with
someone else? But how could she since Charlie's order was so
large?

And R.J. had already placed the order and had
the information folded up in his back pocket.

"It's in here somewhere, because I know I did
it." She got to the end of the file and started at the beginning
again, clearly convinced she'd missed the work order.

R.J. was out of time and out of patience. He
had cars to work on and couldn't do this song and dance with her.
"You're not going to find it, Danielle, because it's not in
there."

"It is," she snapped at him. She stared back
at him with a wide, panicked gaze that was so uncharacteristic of
the woman he'd known for two years. Danielle never panicked over
anything, nor was she stupid. She knew R.J. fired people for a lot
less than what she'd done. How could she justify keeping her on
staff?

"I'm telling you, I made that order. In fact,
they should have come in by now," she said.

R.J. unfolded his arms and took a step toward
her. "You didn't, Danielle. I don't know what's been going on with
you, but you dropped the ball on this one." He pulled the invoice
out of his pocket to show her he'd had to make the order instead of
her. Clearly something was wrong with her memory and needed a good
jogging.

She grabbed the paper from him, her blue eyes
scanning the information, unblinking. Slowly, her face crumbled and
R.J. knew that she knew she'd been caught red-handed. Or maybe she
didn't think it was red-handed. It was very possible that Danielle
really thought she'd taken care of the matter. She could have
gotten this account confused with another, and ultimately, it got
neglected. Whatever the case, R.J. needed to take action.

She handed the paper back to him with a shake
of her head. "This can't be right. I know I made that order."

"You didn't. And now I may not have the parts
in time to get the cars finished. I don't know what happened,
Danielle, but I can't have you making these kinds of screw ups.
This…" He picked up the invoice. "Is inexcusable, and quite frankly
you've been making a lot of mistakes like this lately."

She stood from her chair and was almost
eye-level with him. The pleading look on her face didn't achieve
any sympathy from him. "I understand you're mad, and you have every
reason to be―"

"You're damn right I'm mad. This place is
everything to me, and I cannot allow you to put that in jeopardy
because you have a problem."

"I already told you I don't have a
problem―"

"You have a problem. I don't know what you've
gotten yourself into, but it's affecting your performance here. And
that's where I have to draw the line."

She jabbed her fists onto her hips as an
angry blush colored her cheekbones. "What problem do you think I
have? I mean, yes I've been having sleep issues and headaches, but
other than that, I don't have a problem."

He leaned in close and whispered, "We both
know you're popping those pills more than you should be. It's
dangerous and you need help. I'm sorry, Danielle but I have to let
you go."

She opened her mouth as though she had a
response all ready but wasn't expecting him to say that. What else
would she expect from him? A slap on the wrist? A time out? She
knew him better than that.

"Okay look, I'll just take a few days and
come back when you've cooled off." She turned to walk away from
him, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"This is permanent, Danielle. Once you walk
out that door, you won't be coming back."

He allowed time for his words to sink in,
because he knew she thought he wouldn't really let her go. She
thought herself too indispensable to the shop, which she was. But
he had to draw the line somewhere.

"You can't let me go, R.J.," she said with a
hysterical laugh.

"I can and I just did."

Her lips flattened to a thin line, a sign
that her blood was right at the boiling point. Of course, he
understood her anger and fully expected it, but he didn't care. His
shop had to come first.

"And who's going to run this place?" she
demanded. "Who's going to answer the phones, and deal with clients,
and do the bookkeeping or the payroll or order supplies, and
basically everything that I do around here?"

While she did have a point, R.J. wasn't going
to relent. "You're not the only woman in this town who can run an
office."

"That may be so, but I know this place inside
and out. Do you have any idea how much time it will take you to
train someone else? Not to mention getting them to learn the filing
systems and all the coding for our clients?"

R.J. shook his head. "That's not your
concern, Danielle. I'll find someone else."

She snatched her purse off the floor and
yanked it onto her shoulder. "Fine. But be warned," she said with a
finger pointed at him. "You're not going to find anyone as good as
I was."

He stood back while she marched toward the
door. "Do yourself a favor and dump those pills down the
drain."

"Go to hell," she snapped just before
slamming the door behind her.

****

That stupid asshole!

How dare he fire her after everything she'd
done for his business? She'd dedicated two years of her life, doing
the bullshit grunt work no one else in that shop wanted to do, and
he fired her? Just like that?

Danielle marched toward her car as tears
built up in her eyes. There was still a light rain coming down,
which soaked into her hair and left wet droplets on her clothes.
Like she gave a damn. Let it pour on her for all she cared. Sopping
wet clothes wouldn't faze her right now.

She let herself into her car and tossed her
purse onto the other seat. It landed with such force, that it fell
onto the floorboard, spilling the contents inside. She dug for her
keys with trembling hands from the spilled mess and jabbed the key
at the ignition three times before she get the thing inserted. Damn
key.

What she needed was her pills. They kept her
thoughts organized and gave her the motivation to keep busy. R.J.
told her to get help, but she didn't have a problem. She didn't
need anyone's help, thank you very much. She'd been raising Lindsey
on her own for seven years, successfully ran this shop, until today
that is. Sometimes she felt a little overwhelmed and needed the
stimulant to keep her going. What was the harm in that? Lots of
people took Adderall in order to channel their energy. Danielle
didn't have excess energy she needed to tame. The Adderall kept her
going when she would otherwise want to quit.

What bothered her was how R.J. found out.
She'd been on the drug for about a year and had always been able to
mask the effects, which had never been out of control. A few
sleepless nights here and there. And yes, her appetite had been
curbed, so she'd dropped about fifteen pounds. She hadn't thought
the weight loss had been noticeable.

Danielle backed out of the parking space, her
tires peeling on the concrete beneath the car, and left the
shop.

It had to have been the red-head, the doctor
bitch that R.J. always undressed with his eyes. The second that
woman had come into the exam room, Danielle had known she'd be in
trouble. She should have listened to her instinct and rescheduled
her appointment for when Dr. Gross had been there. But what
Danielle hadn't expected was for Rebecca to be so damn observant.
She must have said something to R.J. But wasn't she bound by
confidentiality, or some shit? How much was she legally allowed to
say? If Rebecca had kept her nose in her own affairs, Danielle
would still have a job and no one would have been the wiser.

Now she was jobless and had R.J. sniffing
around where he shouldn't have been.

Rain pelted her windshield as Danielle headed
down Main Street toward home. What had the hairs on the back of her
neck standing up, was too many people finding out. If word got out
what Dr. Gross was doing, the shit would really hit the fan. Dr.
Gross wasn't a bad man, just helping out a few friends who needed
something extra. Other doctors hadn't been able to give Danielle
what she needed. She hadn't displayed the symptoms of ADD, so
they'd turned her down when she'd asked them to put her on
Adderall.

Then, one day the answer came to her like a
Heavenly choir of angels from above. Danielle had been talking to
one of her neighbors, whose son saw Dr. Gross. The woman had
mentioned she'd recently been taking her son's Adderall in order to
get her through her day easier. She'd made the whole thing sound
completely harmless, as though people across the country took their
kids' medication every day. Danielle's interest had immediately
been piqued. But Danielle had been concerned because Lindsey didn't
have ADD.

Her neighbor's response had been, "Don't
worry, Dr. Gross will take care of you. He's very
accommodating."

Danielle had no clue what that had meant,
until meeting the man himself and realizing he had no qualms about
writing a bogus prescription for her daughter. At first it had kind
of made Danielle sick to her stomach, like she was using her baby
girl for her own personal benefit. But, after a short time,
Danielle realized the whole thing didn't really have an effect on
Lindsey. All she had to do was see Dr. Gross once every three
months, have her blood pressure taken and tell the doc she was
fine. Dr. Gross then handed Danielle the slip of paper, and all was
good with the world. What was wrong with that?

Plus, Danielle loved the way the Adderall
made her feel. She could go for hours and not even think about
being fatigued. She got shit done. She'd been better at work and
actually had energy to spend time with her daughter in the
evenings. It was a win-win situation for everyone.