“Whoever’s behind this…right,” he said snidely. “You want me to go to Lloyd and get my ass fired, so when Bierman takes Lloyd down, even though you got two less years than me in your chair, it’ll be you with a direct shot to Lloyd’s seat.”
I was seeing Heath was a dick too, he was just better at hiding it.
This wasn’t surprising, he was a salesman. Not nice to say about one of my people, but they were my people so I could say it.
He kept going.
“Ambitious. Driven. A slave driver to your reps so they’ll bust their asses to make you look good while you hang with your boyfriend in Chicago.” When I just stared at him, stupefied, and remembering how much I hated office politics, he said, “Yeah. Trey told me about it while asking me if I could swing a transfer for him into my territory.”
Trey was my rep in Chicago, and I wasn’t surprised about that because I already knew Trey was a dick. What I hoped was that he was only spreading that bullshit to Heath and not further.
Unfortunately, Heath wasn’t done.
“You probably don’t have a private dick, just makin’ your play to get me to swing my ass out there. Well, f**k that, Frankie. I’ll call your bluff.”
“I am not aiming at Lloyd’s seat, Heath. I like Lloyd,” I informed him.
“I do too. That doesn’t mean I don’t want his salary and his title.”
Yep. Total dick.
I ignored that and continued, “Furthermore, you tell him, that doesn’t mean he’ll fire you.”
He leaned further across his desk to me, the look in his eyes ugly, the twist of his mouth nasty. “Maybe not, but he could tell me to end it and I like getting head from Sandy. She’s a f**king virtuoso at head.”
Way too much information.
I tried not to curl my lip while suggesting, “Uh…can we get back to the matter at hand?”
“That being some unknown entity has hired a PI. Seriously? Are you for real with this crap?”
Okay then. I did my best. He wanted to be a shark, when the bigger fish gobbled him whole, that was his call.
“Then don’t tell Lloyd,” I said. “But watch your back and brace, Heath.”
“I don’t go to him, you won’t?” he bit out.
“Of course not,” I returned sharply.
“Berger?”
“Your business isn’t mine. I know it sounds weird because it is weird, but I’m only making it mine because I’m trying to do you a favor.”
His eyes narrowed. “How do you even know this shit? Sandy and I have been cool.”
Okay, maybe he wasn’t that smart.
“I can’t say since I don’t know yet who hired the PI, just what he got,” I told him, deciding not to tell him that he and Sandy have not been cool.
“You can’t say, and you know it, but you aren’t behind it?” he asked acidly, not to mention dubiously.
“If I was behind it, wouldn’t I ask for something or threaten something rather than just giving you a heads up?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had someone do something as totally jacked as hiring a PI to follow me, so how would I know what they’d do?”
I leaned forward and said softly, “Clue in, Heath. Now. Seriously. Clue in. And if you don’t care about Sandy, I hope you care enough to know she’s sticking her nose into something that’s happening around you that’s obviously escaping your attention. At best, it could get her fired. At worst, no joke, it might get her dead.”
His brows shot up and he clipped, “What?”
Definitely not as smart as I thought.
I didn’t reiterate.
I told him, “I’ve got someone on this, and when I know the name of the PI and who hired him, I’ll tell you.” I thought about Sal, who was on that and who loved me, and shared, “Odds are, I’ll know soon. You want, you can wait that time before whoever’s behind this hits Berger with it or hits you with it to get you to do what he wants you to do. Or you can man up and sort your shit. And, just sayin’, bangin’ your assistant…” I shook my head and finished, “Love is never wrong. If it’s not that, and it’s in the workplace where she might not know that it isn’t about that, it is.”
“Don’t need you lecturing me on ethics, Frankie, or making bizarre threats to my secretary.”
I wanted to shake some sense into him, but obviously I couldn’t.
“You’ll see I’m doin’ you a solid, Heath. If that isn’t right now, I’m okay with that. I’ll accept your gratitude later.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” he muttered, staring at me just as the door to his office opened.
I turned, expecting to find Sandy there.
My skin started crawling when I saw Randy Bierman there.
“Francesca, I need Heath,” he stated, his meaning clear: no matter what we were talking about, I needed to get the f**k out and now.
I looked to Heath, gave him big eyes, got up, and moved out of his office.
As I passed Tandy on the way to my own office, I said, “Give it five minutes and come in. We’ll go down to the coffee cart to get a latte.”
Her eyes were on me. They moved to Heath’s office, came back to me, and she nodded.
I walked into my office, checked my cell on my desk to see if I had any missed calls, and when I saw I didn’t, I faked working for five minutes until Tandy came to my door and asked somewhat loudly, “Hey, wanna hit the coffee cart?”
I grinned at her, grabbed my wallet out of my purse, and got out of my chair. I rifled through my inbox and grabbed a random file, hoping I looked like I wasn’t grabbing a random file.
I looked to Tandy. “Get your notebook and your phone, would you?”
Her head gave a slight jerk before she went to her desk and did as I requested.
We were standing alone in the elevator bay when she asked through the side of her mouth, “What was that with Heath?”
“Don’t worry about Heath, honey. We’ll talk in the lobby.”
She looked fully at me, but she was still whispering when she asked, “Am I in trouble?”
This clearly stated she’d done something to be in trouble for, and since her work was stellar, I knew why she was worried about being in trouble.
“We’ll talk in the lobby,” I repeated, but I did it gently, hoping to assuage her fears.
We got to the lobby and got our lattes. When we were sitting in a comfortable waiting section that was far from the cart and not close to the reception desk, I knew I hadn’t assuaged her fears because, by the time we sat down, she looked about ready to cry.