Fair Game (27 page)

Kyle stopped at the door. “Ladies.” He waved Bertrice through first.

Was he watching Bertrice’s ass in that tight suit of hers? Josie felt the color rise in her face. She was losing it. Completely. She’d let Ronson belittle her in front of the entire group, resorted to name calling, and now this, jealous of the new girl.

Her day couldn’t get any worse.

Kyle tapped her arm. “We need to talk after I’m done with my meeting. I’ll give you a call.”

Oh yeah. It could get a lot worse.

 

 

 

KYLE wasn’t sure why, but Andrew Ronson had it in for Josie. His meeting with the head of Customer Training might enlighten him somewhat.

Harvey Toffer was a genial guy in his early forties with red hair that reminded Kyle of Bozo the Clown. He was competent, at least as far as Kyle could ascertain on such short acquaintance.

They met in Harvey’s office, which was overrun by binders and folders that seemed to multiply like rabbits as the discussion progressed. He’d ask a question, Harvey would pull down a binder. Instead of putting it back, he’d set it on the floor or a chair, even the top of the trash can when he ran out of room elsewhere.

But he found every answer he was looking for.

“Tell me about Lurient,” Kyle said. “I understand there’s a conflict on the dates with Alta Vista.”

Harvey leaned back and steepled his fingers over his belly. “All right, I got my wires crossed on that. Lurient wanted to pull in the training two weeks early so I scheduled them. I didn’t realize we already had Alta Vista that week.”

“I’m not sure how that happens. Isn’t there a master schedule somewhere that you and the project managers work from?”

Harvey seesawed his head. “Yes, yes. I missed updating it. After Andrew brought it up, I checked my e-mails, and I saw I’d missed that one from Josie.” He frowned. “It was the day Ernie left. We were all a bit muddled.” Then he raised his hands. “But it’s not a big deal. Andrew sent me an e-mail last week, so I checked with Lurient. They say the second week of October will work just as well.” He made a face. “I told Andrew that this morning.”

True, Josie could have checked the training schedule or followed up with another e-mail. However, he also knew the project had been turned over to Andrew fairly soon after she’d been made manager, so the responsibility became his. To use Josie’s vernacular, whatever. Andrew had deliberately made it sound as if the date conflict was unresolved.

He was trying to sabotage his boss in an open forum.

After the update meeting with Harvey ended, Kyle returned to his office. As VP, he’d gotten a second-floor corner with windows on two sides overlooking the side parking lot and a row of hedges separating the facility from a warehousing outfit next door. His chair was leather, the desk expansive, and the six-man conference table made of oak.

He didn’t have a dedicated secretary, but he could use any one of the AAs. They had four in the group, including Lydia Gomez. One of them had kindly left him a company directory. He looked up Andrew Ronson’s extension.

Five minutes later, the man entered his office.

“Shut the door.”

Andrew had a paunch on an otherwise slight build. After closing the door, he sat in one of the two chairs in front of Kyle’s desk, pulling his pant leg up slightly and crossing an ankle over the opposite knee.

Kyle didn’t give him a chance to say a word. “First, you don’t use
fuck
in a meeting.”

“Josie’s heard the word
fuck
before.”

“I don’t give a shit. It’s unprofessional. You use it in meetings, it’ll slip in with customers. So don’t fucking use it.”

“Yes, sir.”

He didn’t like the man, and he didn’t give a damn that he was coming across as an autocratic asshole. Andrew Ronson needed a wake-up call.

He gave him one. “Second, keep a civil tongue when you’re addressing your boss.”

“Just like she keeps a civil tongue?” Andrew’s lip curled in a snarl.

Kyle leaned forward, narrowed his eyes. “You do not shit on your boss in the presence of others. You save it for an appropriate time and place. Got that?”

“Yes, sir.” The
sir
was not a compliment.

He wasn’t about to have a mutiny on his first day, but in a war zone, he’d take Josie’s side. With him, she had a proven track record. Andrew was an unknown. “This is your only warning, because I’m not getting a good impression.”

Andrew clenched his teeth. His jaw worked. “I’ve got it.”

“Thank you for your time.” Though Kyle knew he’d created an enemy on his first goddamn day, he smiled genially as the man left. There’d been no help for it. Whatever the underlying reasons—which he still needed to learn from Josie—he didn’t tolerate bad behavior. If you didn’t act immediately, the problem escalated out of control.

He’d left Josie alone all weekend. Though God help him, he’d picked up his cell phone several times wanting to make contact, to hear her voice. This morning, she was as cool as ice introducing him around. The first emotion she’d shown was with Andrew. He wanted to know what was going on, with the department in general and Andrew Ronson in particular. And after she blew him in the short-term parking at the airport, he badly wanted to know where things stood between the two of them.

As he reached for the phone, though, Connor Kingston entered for a chat.

Damn. What he wanted from Josie would have to wait.

 

 

 

KYLE had said he wanted to speak with her after his meeting with Toffer, yet Josie’d received neither a call nor a message. She’d seen Toffer in the hall half an hour ago.

She headed down to the cafeteria. There was a full-service grill featuring burgers and hot meals, made-to-order sandwiches, a coffee bar with a do-it-yourself espresso machine. Crock-Pots of beef stew, today’s special, bubbled on the counter, perfuming the air with a spicy, mouthwatering scent. There were several tables inside and picnic tables out on the patio, but not many were taken. The rush hadn’t started yet.

Josie kept her lunch in the refrigerator. She brown-bagged it every day unless she was at a customer site. When she’d first started at Castle after she’d graduated college, the habit absolutely appalled her parents, her mom in particular. They weren’t trailer trash, after all. But Josie wasn’t going to live by their rules. Buying lunch was expensive, even with subsidized cafeteria prices, especially as she’d been saving for a condo. Plus, you generally ended up with less healthy meals, or eating too much. She wasn’t going to let being a manager change the way she did things. Besides, she could eat at her desk and get some work done, too.

She had a lot to do since she’d be out of the office tomorrow for a trip to Coyote Ridge. The load-out upgrades were being installed. Then Thursday and Friday she had supervisor training up in the city. It wasn’t a good time to be gone, with Kyle starting and Bertrice to babysit her first few days. Not to mention Ronson being such a dick. He was the reason she needed the damn supervisor training in the first place. Still, it was bad timing.

She grabbed her bag from the fridge, peeking inside because she’d forgotten what she’d made. Salami, cheese, and an apple.

“So now you have the new boss in your pocket, too.” Ronson, voice low, her ears only.

Dammit, what had Kyle said to him? She crumpled the edges of her bag together, a particularly apt epithet rising to her lips. Being a manager, though, she had to learn to think before she spoke. Calling him an asshole in the meeting was bad.

He leaned in. “Guess we know whose cock you’ve been sucking.”

Jesus. A lump jumped to her throat, and her heart turned over, beating furiously. He couldn’t know. It wasn’t possible.

He smiled, a malicious turquoise sparkle in his gaze. “I admire how fast you work. He’s only been here a day, and already you’ve got him eating out of your hand, taking your side.”

She could breathe again. He was merely trying to rile her. He didn’t know anything. “Why don’t we go to HR and you can reiterate your comment?”

“You’ve got them all in your pocket because you’re family. I’d end up getting the shaft.”

She marveled that they could speak so softly, appear so mild to the few people scattered about the cafeteria. It wasn’t full-on lunch hour yet. “What’s up with you? I don’t get it. If you hate it here so much, why don’t you quit?”

He leaned close enough for her to smell his sweat. “Because I want to make your life a living hell.”

Why, dammit? Not that
why
really mattered. With the heels on her boots, he was only slightly taller. She raised her chin. “Then we’re both going to be in hell because I’m going to make you fucking miserable until you leave with your tail between your legs.”

He laughed softly. “Using the word
fuck
is unprofessional. I might have to report you to your boss.”

So that was one of the things Kyle had said to him. “Are you declaring war, Ronson?”

“You bet your fucking ass, I am. Make sure you keep it covered, sweetcheeks.”

Then he walked away, disappearing around a corner. Obviously he’d only entered because he saw her and couldn’t resist the chance to shovel a little more shit in her face.

Dammit. Why did Kyle have to involve himself? He’d made everything ten times worse.

She didn’t find him in his office until after lunch. Closing the door, she shut herself in with him. “Why did you talk to Ronson? I could have handled the problem on my own.”

He sat behind his desk, elbows on the arms of his chair. “Have a seat.”

“I don’t want to sit. I’m pissed.” She realized she wouldn’t have said that to any other boss, but dammit, Kyle was different.
They
were different.

“Andrew isn’t just
your
problem. He became my problem in that meeting.”

She hated his calm, level tone when she couldn’t even get a semblance of order on her emotions. She paced to let off some of the steam. “He pointed the finger at me for all the issues, not you.”

Kyle cocked his head. “I would appear weak in front of the whole group if I let him get away with that shit in a meeting. Even for you, I’m not letting them think I’m a pushover.”

For her? “You ended up making me look weak instead.”

“You did that to yourself.”

His words sliced like blades. She didn’t even have a comeback because he was right.

“Whatever the issues are”—he went on slicing and dicing her—“you don’t let yourself get pulled into name calling in front of your subordinates. When you stoop to his level, it diminishes you in their eyes.”

She wasn’t a crier, the furthest thing from it, but her throat clogged and her eyes ached. His first day, his
very
first, she came off looking like a total fuckup. She didn’t want him getting this view of her. She could blame Ronson, but she didn’t have to rise to that dickhead’s baiting. It was too damn demoralizing for words.

She didn’t even have a lover to whom she could run after work and spill all her troubles. Kyle was it.

“You’ve got a huge rift in your department.” He didn’t have to add that she’d only been managing the group a month. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” She hated admitting it. “Other than the fact that Ronson wanted the job.” Should she mention he’d threatened her with a lawsuit? She decided to lay it on the table so it didn’t come back to bite her ass later. “He might be trying to push me into firing him so he can call reverse discrimination. Or something.”

Kyle shook his head. “A suit will never fly in the long run, but it’ll be a pain in the ass having to deal with it. We need to effect some sort of reconciliation.”

How was she supposed to do that when they’d declared war on each other down in the cafeteria? All right,
that
she wasn’t going to tell Kyle about. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Sit down, and we’ll strategize together.”

She rubbed her temple where it had begun to ache. She hated how bad she must look in his eyes. It didn’t matter whether they were fuck buddies or not, she’d have hated it with any boss.

“I don’t have the time right now.” She didn’t want to reveal any more of her deficiencies.

“Josie, we need to talk.”

“I said no,” she snapped, the sound harsh in her throat. She certainly wouldn’t have said
that
to any other boss. “I have a meeting with Walker,” she added, as if that would somehow mitigate it. Of course, Walker didn’t know about the meeting.

“You put it off too long, it’ll blow up in your face.” He didn’t say that it meant things would blow up in his face, too, because he was her boss, but that was the fact. It would reflect just as badly on him.

So she gave him what she could. “I’ll be at Coyote Ridge tomorrow, then supervisor training, so I’ll be out of the office the rest of the week. It’ll give us time to cool down, plus I can talk it out with the experts at the training.”

“It’s a start.” He rose. “Where’s the training?”

“In the city. Thursday, Friday, and a half-day Saturday.”

“On Monday, I want a solution.”

“Fine. You’ll have it.” Dammit, she wasn’t an idiot, and she didn’t need his hand-holding. She would figure this out.

“And we need a resolution on the Huntington boom,” he added.

Thank God she’d looked it up. “They changed the requirement, so the order is good. Ronson didn’t see the notations I made about it in the customer file.” Or he’d simply ignored them for a chance to make her look bad.

“I appreciate your checking.”

Yeah right, like she
wasn’t
going to research it?

She left his office pissed, at him for his high-handed meddling, at Ronson for being a total dick, but mostly at herself for acting like the idiot she so badly didn’t want to be.