Temping is Hell (8 page)

“You’re in negotiations with him?” Thomas interrupted.

“Well, yeah.” Harlow’s eyes lit up. “Didn’t know you were part of the, uh, team.” He winked.

Thomas wiped his mouth with his napkin. Then he stood. “We’re done here,” he said.

Harlow’s eyes popped. “What? Wait. What are you talking about?”

“I don’t do business with people,” Thomas said tightly, pulling out more than enough money to pay the bill and leaving it on the table, “who do business with that man.”

God damn it
, he thought, as he stalked back outside and Yagi appeared like a shadow. Tonight just wasn’t his night.

Chapter Six

The next day, Kate made it to the basement. She’d smuggled the scanner and computer from the little empty office Maggie had stuck her in during the great “personnel database” debacle, since it was obvious that no one was using it. Besides, she reasoned, if she managed to actually make Tad the Assaulting Kisser’s program work, she could justify the temporary relocation of the computer stuff.

Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, right?
And it wasn’t like they were really bastions of ethics down here, anyway.

“Kate, what is all of this?” Slim asked, glancing perplexedly as she set up in a secluded corner that had an electrical outlet. There wasn’t wi-fi or Internet, but thankfully, she didn’t need them.

“Shhh.” The thought of just how much she’d had to do to get the damned thing still made her want to gag. She’d brushed her teeth about twenty times after the great Tad Kissing Fiasco.
After all that
, she thought,
it had better work
. “It’s a way to help you guys.”

“You’ve done enough.” Slim sounded grateful. “The energy bars were surprisingly filling.”

“I couldn’t just get you whacked out on sugar all the time,” she muttered as she quickly plugged everything in.

She’d picked a corner of the basement that was shielded by the stacks of papers the guys had already gone through—she’d at least gotten them
that
organized. At Slim’s suggestion, she’d hidden every time the Overseer had come out, and after her first Ho Ho delivery, all the guys were covering for her.

Now it was just a matter of seeing if Tad’s software worked.

Slim watched with interest. “That’s a computer, isn’t it?”

“Seriously?” She stared at him blankly for a second. “Where are you from, Slim?”

He looked…
Embarrassed
wasn’t quite the word. He looked uncomfortable. “Very, very far away.”

She rolled her eyes at his cryptic response, then handed him a blank piece of parchment. “Do me a favor? Write a page of some script, just gobbledygook. Then do another one with a bunch of crap
and
the word we’re looking for. Okay?”

He seemed amused, though he quickly scrawled the words. His handwriting was straight as a razor, almost like a computer had printed it. She nodded, then ran the first through. The software said no match.

“I still don’t see—”

“Bingo,” she said, when the second time produced a blinking word:
Match
. “This should work. I’ll go grab some more documents.”

She spent the next eight hours running the scans, going through papers. Slim every now and then checked on her, looking indulgent.

“Go eat a Ho Ho,” she muttered, and he let out a creaky laugh, then looked surprised that the sound had come out of him.

She almost missed it when the
Match
flashed at her again. She glanced at the document—it had somebody’s signature, a Victor Klauss, and one of those brown thumbprints, sort of smudged. It also had that symbol, just like the one Slim had drawn.

“Slim! Come here!”

He ambled over. “It’s getting late. You should go back to your home,” he said, sounding concerned. “The Overseer will probably…”

He stopped short when he saw the blinking word. She handed him the document.

“Tell me,” she said. “Is it right? Did I find one?”

She watched as his eyes scanned over the paper. Then he looked at her, stunned.

“It is.”

“Whoo-hoo!”
she said, a little louder than she’d intended. Several of the other workers, including the guy she called Dexter, quickly came over.

“What?”

“What is it?”

“More Ho Hos?” a third asked hopefully.

“She’s found one,” Slim said.

The others looked confused. Dexter, she noticed, seemed pissed.

“Already?” a worker asked.

“This is good,” Slim said. “We won’t get punished, and there are still twelve yet to find…”

Dexter stepped up, growling. “This is too soon. You
know
this is too soon.”

His eyes seemed to… No. They couldn’t actually
glow
, Kate thought. And certainly not glow
red
.

“The Overseer will be mollified,” Slim said sharply. “It buys us time.”

“We’ll get sent back.”

Slim grimaced at Dexter. “He’s just started starving us, and he’s stopped letting us sleep. After that will come the torture. I’ve worked with him before; I know just how good he can be with the whip.”

Kate gasped. “He’s
starving
you?
Beating
you?”

They ignored her. “I don’t know about you,” Dexter retorted, “but whatever that little bastard can do to us is nothing compared to where we were. I say we drag out this little
assignment
for as long as possible.” Dexter finally turned to Kate, and she swore his eyes
shone
, like a cat’s. “Why are you meddling in this?”

“I… S-Slim told me he was worried about y-your boss,” she stammered. “Didn’t want any of you to get in trouble. If I’d had any idea… If I’d known just how badly you were being mistreated, I would’ve called the cops!”

Dexter’s face contorted. “Stupid human,” he spat out. “Your pity is why we’ll destroy you.”

Slim snarled out something in that strange language. Kate simply stared at them, in sheer shock at both the revelations and Dexter’s response.

“Human?” she echoed. “What the hell are
you
, then?”

Dexter stepped up to Kate, grabbing for her before Slim could stop him. “I’m the one who’s going to kill you, no matter what treats you bribe me with. I’m going to devour your
flesh
.”

Kate let out a shrill little squeak, falling to the floor when Slim grabbed at Dexter. Dexter’s grip was like a vise, and her shirt tore a little. She reached for her purse; thank God she’d left it open. The pepper spray was in her hand when Dexter shrugged out of Slim’s grip.

The pepper spray caught him face on, and he stopped for a moment. Then he sneezed.

Once.

She stared as he snatched the can out of her hand… then sprayed it in his mouth, laughing at her. He grinned maniacally, and she saw that several of his teeth were sharpened to points.

“Oh, crap,” she whispered, unable to look away.

“All right, what’s going on here?” a voice yelled, and the crowd instantly dispersed. Dexter let out one more inhuman snarl of frustration before backing away from her.

“The Overseer.” Slim sent her a sorrowful look, then blended into the crowd.

Kate braced herself.

A little old man, about five feet tall, limped over to her, aided by a cane. “What are
you
doing here?” he said, his voice like a peevish old grandpa.

She stared. This?
This
was the Overseer?

You meddling kid! Get off my lawn!

She bit her lip before the adrenaline could set off her giggles. “Um… I was working.”

“No, you weren’t,” he snapped. “I run the show down here, and I didn’t hire you.”

“Maggie sent me,” she said. “She told me to work in Contracts.”

“Maggie.” The Overseer looked at the ceiling, as if praying for patience. “The woman is a certified idiot. You need to leave. You certainly do
not
belong here.”

“All right,” she agreed quickly. She’d agree to almost anything to get the hell out of there.

Dexter was still pissed… still looked like he wanted to take a bite out of her. She swallowed hard.

“Perhaps I should accompany you,” the old man said.

“Um… all right.” She gave him a quick once-over. He was capable of starving people and torturing them.

She suddenly wondered if he was going to escort her from the building… maybe to some out of the way spot to, say, shoot her and eliminate the loose end that knew too much. If he was capable of mistreating the workers this way, who knew where he’d draw the line?

Her heart started racing, and her palms went damp.

She quickly scooped up her messenger bag and headed for the elevators. The Overseer limped with her, his scowl keeping the workers at bay. She mouthed “good-bye” to Slim, who nodded at her.

“Thank you, Kate O’Hara,” he whispered.

When the elevator doors closed, the old man gave her a shrewd look but didn’t speak. She swallowed hard against the wave of nausea thickening her throat.

“Lobby’s fine,” she said, thinking of where she could get the most witnesses around her the quickest. Did he have a gun on him? Maybe a sword in that cane of his?

She was being paranoid. Wasn’t she? Jesus.

He hit the button for the fortieth floor. “I think we should both speak to Maggie,” he said, moving surprisingly quickly.

When they got there, Maggie was talking on the phone. She quickly cut it off, looking shocked when she saw Kate and the old man. “What are you doing here?”

Kate wasn’t sure which “you” Maggie was referring to.

“The better question,” the old man said, before Kate could answer, “is what was this little girl doing down in my basement? Do you even know who she is?”

A-ha. He was checking out her story—he didn’t believe Maggie sent her. Kate swallowed hard, adrenaline starting to redline in her bloodstream. She’d just bolt out of the office if she had to.

Thankfully, Maggie spluttered in response. “Kate! You were down… in the basement?”

“You
told
me to go to Contracts,” Kate said.

“I did
not
say to go to the basement!” Maggie replied. “And I meant the legal department! It’s on a totally different floor, you little idiot!”

Trust Maggie to totally misremember the incident. “You told me it was Contracts. When I asked where it was, you said ‘downstairs’ and then told me to ask security. They sent me to the basement.”

The old man scowled at the skinny blonde. “Maggie, did you really have no idea where you were supposed to send this kid? Are you really that painfully stupid?”

Maggie glared at him.

“She was down with the boys, Maggie.
My
boys,” the old man clarified. Then his eyes narrowed and he grinned, an evil sort of smirk. “Now that I think about it—maybe you’re
not
that painfully stupid. I always wondered how those other two pretty temps made it downstairs. Nothing like a little plausible deniability, eh?”

Kate stared at both of them, bewildered.
Exactly what the fuck is going on here?

“Shut up, Al,” Maggie snapped, getting to her feet.

“Watch your mouth with me, girlie,” the Overseer said softly. “I’m a lot meaner than Thomas is.” He looked over at Kate. “Don’t go down to the basement again. And if you tell anyone about what you saw, things will go very, very badly for you.”

He left, his cane thumping on the floor.

Maggie looked at Kate, apoplectic. “You’re fired.
Fired
!”

“But it wasn’t my fault!” Kate protested.

“You can’t take simple direction, and you’re
constantly
causing trouble. I want you out of this building. I’m going to make sure your temp agency, and every agency in the Bay Area, does not hire you again. You won’t be able to sell a burger!”

“Are you insane?” Kate asked. “Seriously. Are you mental?”

“Get
out
!”

“Fine,” Kate said through gritted teeth, her hands clamped on the strap of her bag so she wouldn’t do anything rash, like smack the stick bug until her blond hair whipped around like a Pantene commercial. “Just sign my time card. I’ll be glad to get out of here.”

“Out!”

Kate gritted her teeth.
“Sign the damned time card.”

Maggie grabbed the paper, slashing her signature across the bottom. Kate grabbed it, then dumped the laptop and scanner on Maggie’s desk. Ignoring Maggie’s irate squawk, Kate strode down the hallway, her hands gripped into fists. When the first elevator opened, she stomped in, the ebbing of fear replaced with a tide of fury.

She hit Thomas dead in the chest, knocking him even as she tumbled.

“Ow,” he said, then smiled as he recognized her. “Kate. We’ve got to stop meeting this way.”

She didn’t have a comeback. Her heart was still racing. It was all catching up with her.

Slim is being starved and tortured by some horrendous old guy who I thought was going to kill me, who just threatened me—and then I got fired by a stupid, vindictive stick bug with fake boobs.

“Whoa. You okay?” he asked, his voice soft and warm, caressing her like mink.

“What do you care?” Kate got to her feet, shrugging off his attempts at assisting her. Her messenger bag fell open, and the contents—a few paperbacks, hairbrush, journal—dropped to the floor with a clatter. She scooped it all up, stuffing it haphazardly back in the bag. “I’m just a temp.”

“Hey.” When the doors opened, he tugged her aside in the lobby. His deep blue eyes looked concerned, maybe even a little hurt. “What kind of a man do you think I am?”

“You tell me,” she hissed. “Let’s start with what you know about the guys in the basement.”

…

Thomas went still as a statue, stunned by the sledgehammer impact of Kate’s question. “What do you mean?” he asked slowly.

She stared, her green-eyed gaze slicing at him like an emerald scalpel. “You know about them,” she breathed. “You
know
.”

He grabbed her arm before she could storm away. “You need to tell me what you’re talking about,” he said, his voice low and stern.

She didn’t step away. Instead she moved closer, eyes blazing. “No,
you
need to let go of me,” she countered. “Right.
Now
.”

He let go. “You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said, genuinely shaken. She’d shocked him, no question, but was he so far gone that he was going to physically threaten a woman now? “Come to my office. Let’s talk about this.”

“I’m not going anywhere private with you.” She glanced around, as if for help. Bodies were jostling past them, people going through security to get in, or filing out for the end of the day. Even though it provided good cover noise, they were starting to get attention as people stared at them.