Past Midnight (14 page)

It was the combination that made it explosive, that she’d have liked Dominic to tell Shane to come back to the house. And it was the way Shane had said, “
When she’s ready, come back.”
The promise in it, the possibilities. And all her choice, no one else’s. Then she’d sucked Dominic in the backseat of her car beneath the parking lot lights. It was risky, and sexy because of the risk. Yet even as she pleasured him, Dominic was watching. If anyone had come close, he would have stopped her.

She’d been totally in charge of what she was doing, yet totally out of control, a delicious dichotomy she couldn’t have explained to anyone. It was doing what she wanted even when she knew everyone else except Dominic would tell her it was wrong. And God, she loved it.

What would his next plan be?

Oh, but wait. Why not come up with a plan of her own?

 

 

ERIN COULD BARELY CONTROL HER SHAKING HANDS. “WHY DIDN’T you tell me yesterday?”

Dominic closed the lab door when he heard her voice rising, and that pissed her off, too. “Because we had a date last night,” he said, “and I knew if I told you, you’d freak out and call it off.”

How could twelve hours bring such a radical change in emotion? Erin’s whole body trembled with anger. He’d wanted to get fucked so he lied. She was so pissed she didn’t even give him points for being honest about it. “Of course, I would have cancelled. This is huge, Dominic.” She shook the WEU letter at him. “And they want royalties in arrears? Can they even do that?” It didn’t matter. It was in writing; now they’d have to fight it. “That’s a year’s worth of sales, and the through-coat gauge has been our biggest seller this year.” That gauge, that goddamn gauge, the bane of their existence. She wished they’d chucked the prototype in the bay and let it sink.

“I’m aware of that,” he said.

“How can you be so calm?” Irritatingly calm. As if she were the one who always had hysterics.

“Because it’s bogus.”

She threw the letter on the lab counter. “They have the patent.”

“I told you the patent should never have been issued. We’re fine.” He blithely dismissed everything.

She wanted to scream at him. God, she’d felt so good last night. But today came the inevitable flameout, as if she just couldn’t maintain a good feeling. “You should have told me all about this up front when we first started working on that gauge. We should have hired the patent attorney then.”

His lips thinned. She’d gone too far, criticized his business capabilities. But damn it, they were talking about a hell of a lot of money and all the lawyers’ fees it would cost even if they won in the end.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said flatly.

Just like a man.
I’ll take care of it.
Fuck that shit. Last night she’d trusted him to take care of her. What had it gotten her? Just this. A lie.

Jesus. She couldn’t think straight. Her heart was racing, head aching, it was hard to breathe, and honestly, she was seeing stars, too. Like a panic attack. She leaned her fists on the countertop and struggled to calm down.

“Erin.” Dominic touched her shoulder.

She shrugged him off because if she wasn’t careful she’d say something they’d both regret. Yet she wanted to strike out with words, vent all her frustration. Like that day with Jay, before she knew he was sick, when she hadn’t know his behavior was a symptom of what was eating him alive. Instead, she’d been so angry and frustrated. And she’d let it out. Then Jay was gone and she could never, ever make it up to him.

Oh God, the things she’d said. How could she have gotten
so
angry with a little boy? A bad day? She couldn’t remember. There were so many bad days after that she couldn’t separate them all.

But dammit, if Dominic had done his part, if he’d taken Jay on the outing the way he was supposed to, she never would have had to say those things to Jay. She wouldn’t have needed to. But Dominic had made that decision without consulting her, too.

She had to stop, needed to stop. Because if she let herself go, everything inside would come tumbling out. And she’d never survive it.

She pulled back, tried to keep her voice neutral. “Just fix it, okay.” The way he hadn’t fixed
any
thing else. She barely kept herself from adding the last bit, but it was there, so close to the surface.

“Sure, whatever you want,” she heard him say, his voice dripping sarcasm, as she headed out of the lab. It was all she could do not to slam the door behind her. Obviously he’d seen through her neutral tone.

She stormed across the roundhouse to her office.

“Omph.” Rachel bounced back after colliding with her.

“What are you doing there?” Erin snapped.

“Wa-alking,” Rachel stammered. “I’m sorry.”

Erin merely growled and marched into her office. She
hated
this place. She was buffeted around by what other people did, what other people wanted.

She crossed to her desk, slumped down into her chair. She’d felt good when she got to work this morning. Then it had all gone to hell. And she still had to do mediate with Atul and Cam about their language barriers. If she didn’t get some semblance of control, she’d blast one of them. Or both. Plus she had to confront Matt about his failure rate and his girlfriend troubles or whatever the hell was going on with him this time. Why did
she
have to do it? Why couldn’t they act like adults? God. She’d just treated Rachel like crap again. The thought made her inexplicably close to tears.

If only Dominic hadn’t lied to her.

She was losing control, going totally ape. She closed her eyes, wanted to cry, just let it all out. Was a day’s delay in telling her about the WEU letter really that much of a crime? Of course not. She’d gone overboard. And she didn’t even know why. A delayed reaction to Orlando? Or last night? Because they’d
both
gone overboard last night?

She put a trembling hand over her mouth and breathed deeply.
Okay, get a grip.
She wasn’t going to take her crap out on her people. That was for sure. Leaning over her phone, she hit the intercom button. “Rachel, can you come in a minute?”

She opened the door before Rachel even had a chance to knock and motioned her in. “That was my fault out there, and I’m sorry I was rude to you.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I know you’re busy and all.”

“No, it’s not okay.” Rachel let her get away with too much. “I was wrong.”

Rachel tapped her fingers on the doorjamb. “You know, Erin, you have this habit of taking the blame for everything. You’re always apologizing. It’s okay to have a bad day sometimes.”

It was
not
okay. But she took another deep breath instead of shouting again. “That’s the kettle calling the pot black. You always apologize, too.”

Rachel shook her head ruefully. “We both need to stop.”

Erin gave a soft snort. “Agreed.”

Having turned on her heel, Rachel stopped just outside the door. “I promise not to apologize anymore if you run into me, or if your husband makes arrangements behind your back.” She smiled, not too bright or phony, just genuine, and fluttered her fingers genially as she left.

Erin picked up a pencil, then threw it back down on the desk. Shit. She probably owed Dominic an apology, too. Why was it so much easier to apologize to her employees than to her husband? True, he should have told her about the letter yesterday, but he’d done his due diligence on the patent issue, and they
had
discussed it. She’d agreed with moving ahead. WEU coming after them wasn’t his fault. But with an apology, he’d want to know why she’d flipped out, and if she couldn’t exactly explain it to herself, how was she supposed to tell him?

 

 

FUCK. HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN LAST NIGHT WAS TOO GOOD to last.

Dominic ground his fist into the letter on the countertop, then crumpled it and threw it viciously at the wall. Goddammit. He had checked it out with their patent attorney before they started the design on the through-coat gauge. There was prior art, and in theory, nothing should have gone wrong. But if anything ever got fucked up, he was the one to blame.

WEU was playing hardball with them.
Just fix it.
Erin was so good at issuing orders. Sometimes he was just another one of her minions, like Rachel, or Yvonne, or Steve. He could not fix everything for her. He could not go back and change what he had done. There were so many goddamn things he couldn’t undo. If he could, then when he got home tonight, Jay would be in his room doing his homework.

He scrubbed a hand down his face. He should have called Hansen yesterday. He’d chosen a local patent attorney, not one of the big guys but someone who charged reasonable rates, yet nevertheless knew his stuff. He made the call now.

Hansen wanted the letter faxed. He’d have to smooth it out.

“I’ll send the bastards a response and tell them to take a flying leap,” Dominic said. He’d tell Garland Brooks to shove it up his—

“Leave it to me, Dominic. I’ll handle everything as your attorney. We’ll have to do some searches, find the support for your case, and hopefully make this all go away.”

He hated leaving it to Hansen. But the man was right, this thing needed to be handled methodically and documented all the way. That was the part he’d skipped. “Fine. Thanks. I’ll send the fax. Give me a call when you’ve got something.”

It was as Erin said, time and money, how much, and whether they could afford it. But his blood pressure had eased in the time it took to talk to Hansen. He saw things from a new perspective. Erin’s moods had been bouncing all over the place since he’d first arranged the trip to Orlando. It was the holidays, the memories, everything, but after having been almost completely emotionless for a year, maybe her new emotionalism was actually an improvement, a good sign. Maybe it would force her to deal with him on more than a superficial level, to deal with Jay, and after that, maybe they could find a way to deal with each other without sex or anger as an excuse.

ERIN SIGNED THE RETAINER CHECK TO HANSEN. DOMINIC NEVER seemed to consider how hard she worked to make sure they had operating cash. It flowed out more easily than it flowed in, and December was the worst month for coming up with extra. Companies put off purchasing until the new year and the new operating budget. Nevertheless, Bree had added it to the Wednesday morning check run, silently laying the backup folder on Erin’s desk. Bree was always quiet, but she’d been more so lately.

Erin didn’t have time to think about it. “Why now?” she asked Dominic. “WEU only
just
realized we were selling a through-coat gauge?” Yesterday morning, when Dominic showed her the letter, she hadn’t been in the correct state of mind to consider it. And last night, well, they didn’t talk at home.

“Because we’re small potatoes to them.” He stood in her doorway, arms folded across his chest. “Until they noticed their loss in market share. It’s just bottom line.”

“We should send them a letter and tell them
our
bottom line; that they don’t have a leg to stand on.”

Dominic shook his head, his mouth grim. “The letter isn’t a legal threat. It’s a shot in the dark. We’re not engaging them in a pissing contest. We’ll let Hansen do the legwork. That’s what we’re paying him for.” He held his hand out for the check.

“I don’t like it.” She should have insisted on talking to Hansen with Dominic.

“This is the best way to handle it,” he reiterated.

“All right, fine. Just don’t leave me out of the loop this time.”

He bared his teeth. “Yes, Erin.”

Yeah, she’d sounded petulant. But he was dictatorial. And she had work to do. She’d gotten through the mediation with Atul and Cam yesterday afternoon. They’d smiled, nodded their heads and agreed they’d work better together. She hadn’t believed them for a minute, but she’d give them a chance to prove her wrong before she took it another step. She hadn’t dealt with Matt, though. He’d gone home sick before she had a chance.

So she went in search of him. DKG’s factory was one big room with polished concrete floors, work benches set apart by cloth partitions, shelving equipped with bins for parts storage, and a roll-up door at the far end for shipping and receiving. Heaters hung from the ceiling.

Matt hunched over his bench. She didn’t think for a minute that he was so engrossed he didn’t hear her. He was a skinny, lanky kid with big ears, and he didn’t smile much, but he’d been a good worker until the last three months when his girlfriend moved in with him. He’d said it was to share expenses, but Erin had a feeling it was more about his girlfriend wanting to take the next step and Matt not knowing how to say he wasn’t ready.

“Let’s grab a smoke,” she said. She didn’t smoke, but if someone else wanted to, it was up to them as long as they did it outside and didn’t toss their butts on the ground. The picnic table sat in the middle of a grassy area between their building and the one next door. Thankfully it hadn’t rained and the bench was dry. Facing out, she crossed her legs. Matt sat next to her. The sun warmed her. Monday and Tuesday had been rainy, but today was in the low seventies. The Bay Area was like that; every day a surprise.

“Spill,” she said, “and don’t tell me nothing is going on because I checked Steve’s report and he’s turning back three out of every four units you work on.”

Matt lit up and blew smoke in the opposite direction. “I’m not happy.”

She wanted to laugh. Who the hell
was
happy? “You’ll be a lot unhappier if you don’t have a job.”

He grimaced. “She just never lets me have anything my way.”
She
used to have a name, which had been said with a dreamy, boyish sigh. No more.

“Are you making any compromises on your end?”

“On
everything
. She even makes me smoke outside.”

“
I
make you smoke outside.”