48

Vince stood like a bull ready to spring out of a gate. “This is the worst execution of an RIF I’ve ever seen.”

“What did you expect? People to kiss your feet for firing them?”

“I expected you to handle this professionally. You’ve got people crying and shouting all over this office. Haven’t you ever done this before?”

“As a matter of fact, I haven’t.”

Brenda leaned in behind Vince. She began to draw the door closed.

Vince heard the door squeak and turned. “Wait a minute.”

She froze.

He faced Jason. “Why is Angie packing up?”

“Because her name was on my list.”

Outside, Foley returned to the scene of the crime. Apparently he’d gotten Dan down to his car with his box of mementos, and he was back for the next casualty. He relieved Margaret. She wasted no time coming to Vince’s side, looking every bit as bovine as he did. Put them in a cow pasture, and their business suits wouldn’t keep them from fitting right in with the herd.

Vince’s jaw knotted at its edges. “She was not on the list.”

“You said I made the final call. That’s what I did.”

“So it’s true.”

Brenda still stood in the doorway. Vince turned to her. “Get in here.”

Hands folded before her, she obeyed him, striding in like a penitent approaching an altar. She didn’t look in anyone’s eyes. Not even Jason’s. She stood next to him.

Outside, Angie dropped an F-bomb on Foley. Jason looked up in time to see her slap Foley’s arm away from the box. She held a plaque. Jason recognized it, even from a distance. He’d presented Angie the award in March. MVE—Most Valuable Employee. In the back of Jason’s mind, he wondered if circling an MVE for a reduction in force would weaken the bank’s case if she decided to sue them instead of taking the severance package.

She caught him looking at her, flashed the plaque in his direction and stuffed it into the box with a smirk.

Jason shook his head and waited for Vince to set him up. Somewhere underneath the needles of sparse hair on Vince’s scalp, a brilliant jibe was forming but wasn’t quite fermented enough yet.

Margaret’s suit made her look as square as a jack-in-the-box. Crank her arm and see what springs out of the top of her head. Jason told her, “You’d better get Angie’s severance agreement drafted. If you don’t get her signature before she leaves—”

“I’m not changing any agreements.” She folded her arms. The chained-up reading glasses looked down on her forearms. “We need to talk about what she said.”

Here was Vince’s launchpad. “What did she say?”

“Rumors,” Jason said. “It’s all some people have in their pathetic lives.”

Margaret wouldn’t have it. “What she said was that these two have an inappropriate personal relationship.” She closed the door and produced a pen out of her jacket by the time she sat behind Jason’s desk. “Sit down, you two.”

Jason opened the door. “Brenda, go back to your desk.”

Vince lifted a fat hand into the air. It hovered in front of her, five digits on a pink blimp. “Stay where you are.”

Brenda let her eyes rest on Jason, and the faintest smile drifted to the corners of her lips. “Excuse me,” she said to Vince and stepped to Jason. Her eyes held onto him. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”

She drew the door toward her, and when the door blocked her from the view of all but Jason, she let her smile come. With a wink.

He wanted to crash through the door and take her in his arms. Instead, he faced the HR manager and the chief banking officer. Margaret held her pen like a hypodermic needle, ready to skewer any lies that might flow in her direction.

She thumbed the button on the end of the pen. “Okay, Jason, let’s have it.”

“You have all you’re going to get. A rumor from a separated employee. What do you expect when you do a RIF?”

Vince lowered himself onto the sofa, his palms cushioning the blow from his weight collapsing onto it. “Come on, Jason. They even let me in on it. And the boss is always the last to know.”

From behind his own desk, Margaret began a recitation. “‘A manager found to be engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a direct report faces disciplinary action, including possible termination.’”

“Does everybody in HR have the employee handbook memorized, or are you the only one?”

“This isn’t the time to get nasty,” Vince said. “I would think you’d want us on your side. The bank could be sued. And I don’t think your wife’s legal contacts will help you this time.”

“Leave my wife out of this.”

Vince snorted out a laugh. “You certainly are.”

Jason drew a breath. His vision shook with fury. He shoved his hands into his pockets. He hadn’t fought anyone in years, but Vince was making himself a great target for a kick in the teeth. In front of the head of HR. Wouldn’t that make a nice addition to his personnel file?

He turned to Margaret. “I’ve got work to do. If you plan to put something in my file about this false rumor, you’ll get a formal complaint from my attorney.”

She clicked the pen, and the tiny brass tip disappeared from the business end.

“And you, Vince. I don’t think your budget can stand the kind of legal fees you’d incur from a wrongful-termination suit. Not from me.”

Vince leveraged himself off the sofa. It took some doing. “By the time I terminate you, there won’t be anything wrongful about it.”

“Vince . . .” Margaret looked like a woman bracing to be hit by a wave.

Vince stepped to Jason. Brushing past, his shoulder clipped Jason’s chest. It knocked him back a step.

“Hey, Kalinsky.”

Vince turned.

“You just bumped into me. Was that intentional?”

His plump, stubbled cheeks ballooned when he smiled. “Sorry.”

Jason pulled so close, the smell of Vince’s aftershave nauseated him. Quietly, he said, “Right now, fat man? Out back?”

The smile disappeared, and Vince’s upper lip thinned. “Maybe some other time.”

Jason wasn’t sure if it was fear he saw on Vince’s face or anticipation. Vince threw the door back and began his wobble across the common area. Margaret chased after him as fast as her prudent shoes would carry her.

Angie’s prying eyes were gone, her desk drawers open and emptied of everything but bank property. Jason stood next to Brenda’s desk, feeling her watch him. The place was as silent as he’d ever heard it. Those who knew Angie best were missing, probably in the parking lot consoling her, or commiserating.

Margaret closed Vince’s office door from inside.

Jason turned to Brenda. “He’s trying to get rid of me.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

He ran his tongue along his molars. “Come inside for a minute.”

“Are you sure?”

He went in. She followed. Three faces in the lobby sustained a pretense of not watching him as he closed the door.

Brenda collapsed into his arms. “That was scary.”

“He’s a big blowhard. We just have to be more careful.” He reached down and locked the door and kissed her. Her lips melted into his, fever swirling through him like every other time he’d been with her this way. The touch of her hands clutching at his head, pulling him toward her, spiked his heartbeat.

She finished the kiss, and withdrew an inch from him. “Jason?”

“Hm?”

“Let’s crush them.”