Not So Saint Nick

To The Chopper- II

Barrett helped her into the black machine with the giant golden emblem on the doors and she slid into her regular seat, pulled her headphones on, and got buckled in. He shot her a glance which told her he understood this was going to be a bumpy ride and it had nothing to do with the chopper. Nick was on the warpath and heads would roll. Barrett rounded to the other side where he usually sat.

Her eyes turned back to Nick, and she frowned in confusion. In five years, the man rarely paid her a compliment. Since the morning began, he’d been reminding her at every turn of how valuable she was and her worth as an employee and as a human being. It was strange and as she shot a glance in his direction where he was in his seat now, his voice in her ear as he talked to Barrett who took the copilot seat.

He was a highly attractive man. Even with the full beard he always started growing in the fall and shaved off in the spring, and despite her never being a huge fan of facial hair, he was easily in the top five of most attractive men she’d ever met. With big blue eyes, double dimples and plush lips with a top lip which was a perfect bow, he was a sexy man.

He was physically fit, tall, and lean and despite the constant candy he kept in his mouth, there wasn’t an ounce of unnecessary fat on his body, she was sure of it. She’d seen him without his shirt on more than once as he got changed between afternoon meetings and evening dinners. She also knew he was a briefs not a boxer guy because she’d ordered his favorite brand from Saks more than once for him. She knew his trouser and suit jacket size too. He didn’t need a personal assistant because she doubled as the poor soul who would be forced to do his personal tasks. It gave her a very intimate insight into his entire life.

Yet for all of it, she’d never looked at him as anything other than her boss for one simple reason. He was a colossal asshole. Every single day of her five-year career of working as his assistant, she’d considered quitting and holing up in her condo to lick wounds, until today. Today was the first time he’d ever been even remotely human, let alone kind. She was still reeling from the entire situation she’d found herself in.

When he’d reverted back to his domineering dickhead mentality when the situation with the plant in Syracuse arose, she found herself contemplating if maybe she’d walked through someone’s cloud of weed on her way to work and was high and dreaming what happened.

Yet, he’d paid her another compliment a moment ago and she was more confused than ever. Following the crap on Friday night with Arlo and Hazel, he seemed to be torn between being a decent human being and acting like his normal douchebag self.

His voice called her name in her headphones, “Grier, when we get to the plant, I want you to set up in the boardroom. I have confirmation from Barrett’s investigation it was sabotage of the packaging equipment linked to a guy who was terminated last week with cause. I know how he got back into the building, but I want to know how the f**k these assholes missed it or why they didn’t feel compelled to share the information. I don’t pay the GM six figures to let s**t like this slide.”

“Why was he terminated? Your saboteur?”

“He got caught sleeping under a piece of equipment on three separate occasions. He was on the overnight shift. He received a verbal, then written warning and then termination for the third infraction. It’s over a six-month period. Management terminated him and he deserved it. I have no issues with them making the call to terminate. Its why the plant has its own HR department.”

“How did he get back into the building?”

“He’s the brother of the shift supervisor. He stole his brother’s pass, came in, shoved a few wrenches into the machine. The entire plant could have f*****g exploded. We’re laying charges because I got him on CCTV at three different spots. He avoided most of the cameras, but he didn’t know we did the upgrade last month. It wasn’t announced to the entire location and only a few people knew of it.”

“Are you firing the brother?”

“Depends on how this meeting goes. He was hired after the saboteur and through hard work and diligence he’s risen through the ranks fairly quickly due to his ethic. It tells me the brothers are apples and oranges. It’s possible our saboteur is pissed off his brother is still employed with us. What I want from you in this meeting is to watch them. There are six of them, three of us,” he waved to Barrett, “you watch the GM and the plant manager. I’ll be watching the plant supervisor, and the line supervisor and Barrett will be watching the shift supervisor and the HR rep. One of them is lying through their f*****g teeth. They know something but they aren’t spilling it. While we’re with the management team, local PD will be picking up our saboteur as you called him and dragging him to the precinct. Someone got hurt today in his s**t and I want attempted murder charges added to the list of corporate crimes.”

“Do you want me to record the entire meeting and make it visible or hide what I’m doing?”

“Record it, make it visible. Let’s make the fuckers sweat. If they think I’m suspecting them all, one of them will slip the hell up.”

“Ten days before Christmas. What was this guy hoping to gain? Why now?”

“Like I said, he got fired last week. Thirty-two years old, not some teenager who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. One of the wrenches he flung into the machine came flying out of the works and struck an employee in the head.”

She knew this. She’d seen the report.

“He needed fourteen stitches and has a concussion. We’ll be settling out of court, but I want this guy charged for it. If he can’t come up with the costs we’re paying to the worker, he’s going to jail for attempted manslaughter. There is no way I believe for a moment he didn’t know someone would get hurt with his actions. I have an employee in ICU. I want this guy’s head on a pike.”

She was quiet as she looked out over the cities they were passing.

“What are you thinking, Grier?”

“I’m thinking I’m counting down the minutes to my vacation in small town Coldreach because this s**t sucks.”

His silence left her wondering if he was annoyed or pissed off at her comment but at this point, she didn’t care.

The last three days were more than she wanted to deal with.

Looking at her watch, she set a timer to countdown to her flight take off to home. All she wanted now was away from the big city and to be in her mom’s kitchen, sipping cocoa and forgetting about this murder and mayhem.