She glanced around the bank lobby. Two personal bankers were with customers. The third was nowhere to be seen. When the personal bankers were busy, bank policy said she was to move up the ladder. She’d done just that. Even if it was by mistake.
Doing my job. As much as she wanted to grab her purse and walk out, a new sense of self held her back. She was working. Whatever craziness Eric might come up with after hours, he wouldn’t dare do anything here, in his place of business.
She adjusted her headphones and punched up the next customer.
A few minutes later she was back in full efficiency mode, hanging up from one call to field the next without a hitch. “Halifax Bank IT Customer Service. How may I help you?”
“I seen you talking to the police.” The gruff voice ignited every synapse in her brain. “Told you, keep your mouth shut!”
“About what? Who are you—”
“You’re gonna pay!”
Shay stabbed the end call button and jerked the earphones from her head. Yet she didn’t feel as panicky as she had the first time. The jittery sensation tingling her nerve endings was more like the revulsion she’d felt that time a boy at school had dropped a slug down the back of her tee. It disgusted her but she wasn’t actually hurt.
Sliding her chair back from her desk, she ignored for the moment the two new calls rolling onto the waiting list. She smoothed her hands up and down her sweater-clad arms, feeling a chill at odds with the bank’s overzealous heating.
The caller had made a new threat. Don’t talk about what? Eric? Too late.
Only Eric wouldn’t know that.
She was certain Eric had hired some lowlife to track her moves. It was the only explanation. This way, he wouldn’t be directly connected to the harassment. So like Eric to do things from on high.
He wanted her to submit.
Or she could run away.
Running away. She’d been doing that half her life. Hiding, staying small, not wanting to draw too much scrutiny for fear people would learn her secrets and pull away.
Only James hadn’t. He’d listened and not judged so much as let her be. He was urging her to fight back. And maybe she would, when he came back.
Shay sat up straight in her chair and reached for her earphones. Eric Coates could go straight to Hell without passing Go.
*
“There she is.”
Shay paused just inside the bank’s entrance. She’d been out having her lunch.
Eric stood on the main floor with two female bank employees.
“Come here, Ms. Appleton!” Her name echoed in the bank’s cavernous space, drawing every eye in the lobby.
Shay clenched her jaw, refusing to even try to smile as she approached. “Yes, Mr. Coates?”
Eric held his head at an angle that allowed him to glare down at her. “Did you answer an IT customer call this morning from Mrs. Elsa Leggett?”
“Yes. I—”
“Your actions reflected poor judgment and an indifferent attitude concerning this bank’s policies.”
“What are you—”
“Not here.” He actually used his hand in a slashing motion to cut her off. His face was cold, the muscles locked in an emotion she recognized as anger, if not the reason for it. “Come with me.”
The curt words were spoken with such viciousness Shay couldn’t quite believe it. Usually he hid his contempt behind an amiable fa?ade. Unless he’d been drinking. The two employees he’d been chatting with darted speculative glances at her as they moved rapidly away.
The ride up one floor was more than long enough for Shay to feel her fried egg sandwich begin to go rancid in the nervous gush of acid flooding her stomach. She didn’t look at Eric but stared at the dully gleaming panels of brushed metal before her. She used the tense silence to try to calm her nerves and prepare for a fight.
Something had gone wrong. But she had followed bank policy. He might be angry but whatever happened as a result of that call was not her fault.
The elevator didn’t stop on two but continued. She didn’t glance Eric’s way but kept her eyes on the numbers until they reached the top floor, where the top bank brass had offices. How had she not noticed that he had put a key in the elevator pad that would allow them to take it to the top floor?
Once off the elevator, with Eric in the lead, they bypassed several empty offices. Senior management must still be at lunch, she thought absently, and followed him straight toward the president’s boardroom. Had he convened a meeting to deal with her supposed bank policy infraction, whatever it might be? She squared her shoulders, readying to defend herself.
Eric used a key to unlock the door. He pushed it open and indicated that she should enter. She was in the room before she realized they were alone. She turned around, but he was there, blocking the door.
“Have a seat, Shay. No one will bother us here.”
Shay watched him lock the door, her heart starting to pound. She hadn’t seen this coming. She was so certain Eric would not make a move on her at work.