Truth and Humility (7 page)

Lunchtime came eventually.  As usual, she sat by herself at the end of a table.  Kept her cap low, her nose to her plate.  Austin usually carried on with his crew during this time, relaxed and unobtrusive, usually surrounded by Torsten’s machine-gun raucous laughter.  It was pure curiosity that had her watching her captor – her brother’s worst enemy – on a constant basis.  Nothing more.  Certainly not because of an attraction of any kind.  That thought was laughable.

The food was quite good since it was catered fresh from a nearby deli.  It consisted mostly of hot and cold sandwiches and simple sides, but the selection was large enough to fit anyone’s taste.  Breakfast was more like a continental offering of fruit, muffins, bagels or packaged oatmeal you prepared yourself.  Danny craved protein that time of day, but there were many things she would be denied during her imprisonment at the Cahill compound.  Not a single complaint crossed her lips.  The food was free, so she’d load her pockets and save some for dinner.

“Hey, sweetheart, I have to pee,” said a mocking voice behind her.  “Wanna hold it for me?”

When she turned to look, the new employee she remembered from the day before pointed to his open fly.  A vee of white briefs covered the details, but the implication was by far the boldest attempt to rile her.

Really?  Her eyes searched the tables for Tom and she found the man with his nose suspiciously down.  Left on her own again, even when exposed undies would cross a line in any workplace.

Fine.

Going for an air of compliance, Danny cocked her eyebrow.  “You got a real king snake in there, huh, stud?”  The kid grinned wide and made suggestive noises.  Unfazed and oh-so cool, she reached into the pouch of her tool belt, which was never far.  “I may have just the thing to cure that.”

Zwing!

The kid’s trill of pained surprise held a feminine lilt.

Danny drew her brows together as he doubled over and she turned back to her plate.  “Sure.  The guy screams like a girl and
I’m
the creampuff.”

Laughter erupted around the commons room.  When she looked up, she was surprised to see the men were laughing with her, not at her.  The poor fellow with the stinging crotch turned his reddening face toward the bathrooms and limped in that direction.  Moments later, another feminine voice rose above the din in the room.

“Okay, who took all my rubber bands?”

About a dozen fingers pointed in Danny’s direction and she met Sue’s accusing glare unwaveringly.  “Sorry.”

The girl didn’t look sorry, Sue thought, mildly annoyed by her unapologetic tone.  “What in blazes did you do that for, Bennett?”

Before Danny could answer, a big man she recognized as one of Cahill’s biggest liabilities offered up the information.  “To keep these jerks in line, Sue.  Just buy another box.”

Torsten stood up.  “Come on, Mac, she put a permanent mark on my neck and that poor kid’s gonna have sexual problems for a week!”

“You deserved it, Torsten.  Both of ya.”

The big burly man named Mac had actually come to her defense, which came as a huge surprise to Danny.  Another surprise was when Sue’s look of annoyance instantly settled in mollification.  “In that case, you come to me any time you need more ammo, girl.  All you gotta do is ask.”

The equipment building was huge and organized.  Rows of gas cylinders, coils of heavy extension cord, enough tool chests to stock a home-improvement store, a couple of bays for working on broken down equipment and vehicles.  Ladders, cabinets and shelves loaded with stock.  For a moment, Danny forgot why she was there.  It certainly wasn’t to shop, no matter how much she wanted to.

Oh yeah, burnt out fluorescents.  There were...looking up at the rows of lights, she counted...four?  No, five.

“The box of tubes is over there,” Tom said, entering the building behind her.  “I’ll get you a ladder.”

Her lip curled in distaste.  A ladder.  She hated the damned things.  They were too unstable, especially with no one on the ground that she trusted.  “I can get up there without a ladder if you want to just hand me the tubes.”

Not again.  Did the girl ever learn?  “Might not be a good idea given how your last climb turned out.”

The reminder stung.  Dryly, she replied, “Why, does he have this building rigged, too?”

Tom wasn’t about to deny it, but he wasn’t going to confirm it, either.  He’d always thought young Austin had crossed a line in order to pursue this destructive path toward revenge.  “Help yourself, then,” he conceded, stepping back to give her the lead.  “But wouldn’t it Cwous des be easier with a ladder?”

The two rows of lights hung high from a sturdy truss system.  Danny was more comfortable up there, relying on what was proven solid.  “It’s faster without one,” was the excuse she settled on.

Finding secure footing on a set of steel shelves, she was able to advance to the top of the wall and reach one of the trusses that vaulted upward toward the ridge.  The zigzag supports offered solid grips and she reached the first fixture in no time.

Someone walked in just as Tom climbed a few steps of the ladder, reached high for a long tube that dangled eerily from the ceiling.  Flummoxed, the man squinted toward the rafters, saw her hooked up there working upside down.  “Holy cow, Tom, Boss ain’t gonna like that.”

Tom handed up a new bulb and she took it.  “I know it, Frank, but this one’s determined to dig a hole.”

Danny didn’t know what the big deal was.  This was how she and her brothers changed the lofty bulbs in their own equipment building.  She slipped the prongs into the ballast and was instantly bathed in white light.  “If he’s so worried about his safety protocol, he’d be here to enforce it.”

Tom chuckled, but nearly lost his lunch when she jumped from one truss to the other.  In a hurry to keep up, he climbed down, moved the ladder and ascended a few steps just in time to collect the next burnt tube.  “If you fall,” he grumped, “it’s my ass, too.  Not just yours.”

Fall.
  Amused by that one, she took another bulb, unmindful of the small group gathering by the door.

“Like a goddamned monkey,” someone mumbled.

“I used to have a monkey,” another man replied.  “Didn’t have tits or ’tude like this one.”

She heard that.  “Y’all are a bunch of assholes,” she drawled, and instead of the ruthless comebacks, she received goodhearted laughter and a whole lot of agreement.

Well...it was something.

After the job was done and she and Tom were alone, Danny took the opportunity to corner the old foreman.  “You know, these guys wouldn’t make it past the first interview at Bennett Salvage.”

It was only a matter of time before he found himself in this type of uncomfortable position.  Tom could tell just by the way Danny Bennett handled herself she’d survive.  Despite her gender – or perhaps because of it – she exuded a confidence and skill that commanded respect.  A leader, the same as he’d once been.

“Play your cards right and
you
could run this place,” he observed loudly, despite the shaft of guilt that made him inwardly cringe.  “Maybe you could actually get some productivity going in this yard.”

The mere tho C>Thually gught was laughable.  “Yeah, right.  We both know the odds of that happening.”  But at least she knew Tom was somewhat on her side now.  “I just don’t understand why Cahill hires them in the first place.  This has got to be the biggest joke of a salvage yard I’ve ever seen.  Oh, it’s organized enough, but everything’s broke down, nobody works, there’s no structure of any kind, you don’t enforce discipline or – heaven forbid – work ethic, and...”

“First thing you gotta do is change your outlook.”  Now that the ladder was put away, Tom rubbed a bowlegged knee and limped toward the exit as she dogged him from behind.  “The salvage yard is like the unwanted stepchild of the Cahill Corporation.  Nobody really cares because it’s not much of a money-maker, not like the on-site demolition and explosives departments are.  But,” he stopped, turned to fix her with a thoughtful look.  “Austin is a good boss.  The men respect him, think of him as a friend.  Which he is.  They wouldn’t have jobs if it weren’t for him and they’ll put out a good effort when he’s around.”

“Then why isn’t he around every day?”

Did she care?  What an interesting concept if she did.  “He works some of the demolition jobs, the important ones.  Can’t be in two places at once.”

The man started walking again and Danny kept up, drove right to the point.  “I understand your loyalty to him, but you’re a decent man, Tom.  Why do you constantly look the other way when
I know
you’re bothered by what’s going on here?”  His hesitant look prompted her to clarify.  “The trap...”  Yep, he knew exactly what she referred to.  “The dirty tricks I’ve had to deal with, the sexual harassment...”

“You understood the risks when you agreed to work here.”

“But you barely fall short of egging them on.  That’s a little over the top, don’t you think?”

They reached the forklift and Tom climbed in.  The girl wasn’t stupid.  And it went against his grain to allow her to be railroaded by Austin and his crew, but dammit he was tired.  Ineffectual.  Burnt out.  He reached over, turned the battery key.  “No one has ever been able to stop a Cahill on a mission.  Remember that.  Best you can do is ride it out.”

Ride it out. That’s it?  That’s all he had to offer?  “Wonderful,” she sneered.  “Thanks for the advice.”

“Okay, I’m taking bets here!  Right here, Jay, in this hand, that’s where you put your money!”

Danny stopped what she was doing and turned to watch the culmination of yet another wager.  One of the crew named Frank was standing on a trailer of electrical cabinets that he should have had stripped already.  The demolition crews would be arriving within the hour signaling the end of the day and the man was now in a panic to catch up.  He would do that by duping the others into a race with the promise of a monetary prize t Ceta And o the winner.  How clever, Danny thought, shaking her head in disgust.

Tom whizzed by on the Bobcat and Danny glowered at the back of his white-haired head.

Then, a thought popped into her own.  With her last ten bucks tucked in her pocket, her chance to fatten it was staring her right in the face.

“Ten bucks says I can strip those cabinets faster than any of you,” she shouted from her workstation.  Heads turned, but then her measly offer was dismissed as the larger bets continued to float about.  Digging in her pocket, she searched the small crowd until she spied Mac resting on a pile of old lockers.  The hardhat dangled loosely in his hand as he scrubbed the thin tuft of earthen hair on his wide head.  Wide face, big mustache...Mac resembled a strongman sporting as much fat as muscle.  She approached him with more confidence than she felt.  Yes, very big, very strong, but with no coordination whatsoever.  If she were to guess his age, she would say he was in his late thirties and working a dead-end job.  There was room for improvement, enough room to make her plan a successful one.

“Hey…Mac, is it?”  The man spared her a glance.  “I have a proposition for you.”

“Not interested, Bennett.”

That gave her pause.  Mac, along with everyone else, seemed to know who she was and why she was here.  And they were all Cahill loyalists.  But she bolstered her courage, taking on the supervisory tone she’d used with countless Bennett employees.  “Only a fool turns his nose up at a chance to make easy money.”  She had his attention now.  “I noticed you never participate in the ‘games’ as y’all call it.  My guess is because you don’t think you can win.”

“Bingo.  I’m too poor to throw my money away.”

“And if I can help you quadruple it?”

The look he sent her beneath the hardhat was mixed with a combination of hope and doubt.  “I’m listening.”

Moments later, Mac sauntered up to the trailer and held out two ten-dollar bills.  “I’m in, but I’d like to make a suggestion.”

Frank snatched the money and counted what he’d already collected.  “What’s that, my man?”

“Since this will only make you look like you’ve accomplished something today, I suggest we work in teams of two.  Whoever’s in gets to chose a partner.”

“Sounds fair to me.  Anyone have a problem with that?”  No objections were made, so Frank, a tall lanky man with dark brown hair, light-blue eyes and handlebar mustache, lowered himself to the ground.  “Okay, I have Torsten -vs- Mac!  Torsten, chose your partner and take the cabinets to the right.  Mac, you and your partner take the set on the left.”