Heels of Steel

by Barbara Kavovit

  The bartender came over and Jay ordered a gin and cranberry. Liam rolled his eyes. “Still with the girly drinks?”

  Jay laughed. “So how’d your presentation go?”

  Liam took a drink. “We shit the bed. How about you?”

  Jay shrugged. “It went all right. Decent, I guess.”

  Liam wondered whether that meant they had done well. Jay’s blank face was not giving him much to go on. “Who’s up next?” he said. “Did you cross paths with anyone going in?”

  Jay nodded. “Bridget Steele,” he said. “They were heading in just as I was heading out.”

  Liam raised his eyebrows. “Did she happen to have Alexander Redetzke with her?”

  Jay laughed. “Yeah, as a matter of fact she did. How the hell did that happen?”

  Liam shook his head. “Better ask your girl, man. She stabbed me right in the back while I was down-and-out.”

  “She’s not my girl,” said Jay. The waiter brought him his drink and he murmured a polite thanks.

  “Oh, that’s right,” said Liam. “Why would you be with Bridget when you could be with Hana.”

  Jay took a sip of his drink and then gave him a dangerous smile. “Liam, you are really, really not in the position to complain about that particular subject,” he said.

  Liam knew he was right. He hadn’t meant to bring it up, at least, not yet, and he certainly hadn’t wanted to sound so bitter when he did. But it was out there now, so he figured he’d better just charge on.

  “Have you seen her?” he said.

  Jay laughed. “Who? Bridget? I told you, she was heading in as I was heading out.”

  “I could give a damn about Bridget. I’m talking about Hana.”

  “I know. I’m just messing with you.”

  Liam fought the urge to grab him by the collar. “Well, have you?”

  Jay cocked his head. “Yeah. Last night as a matter of fact.”

  “Where? Why?”

  “My place. Not that it’s any of your business. She wanted to talk.”

  “About what?”

  “All right, man. Slow your roll. I thought we were just gonna have a nice drink and try to pretend that we don’t actually want to kill each other.”

  Liam felt a muscle in his jaw twitch. “I just want to know how she’s doing,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Jay snorted. “No, you don’t. You just want to know if I screwed her.”

  It took everything Liam had not to punch his friend right in the freaking face. Instead, he slowly picked up his glass and finished his drink in one, long gulp. His voice came out in a rasp. “Well, did you?”

  Jay laughed in disbelief. “Jesus. Have you forgotten that Hana was my wife? That you slept with her while she was still married to me? Are we just skipping that part of the story now?”

  Liam looked down at the bar. “You didn’t deserve her,” he said. “You never did.”

  “I—” He paused as both of their phones went off at once in loud, insistent peals of electronic music.

  They looked at each other and then pulled out their cells.

  “Jesus,” said Jay after a moment. “Are you seeing the same thing I’m seeing?”

  A blocked number had sent them both a link to a live video stream—of Bridget Steele doing her presentation for HealthTec. She was talking about how Steele Construction had reached out to cutting-edge experts all over the world in order to learn about the forefront in developing techniques that solved issues in safety, security, pollution and health. “We spoke to leading experts in India, the UK, Russia and China,” she said as she paced excitedly. “We spoke to engineers and builders in Kuwait and Korea. We have the ability to build this project in an entirely new way.”

  Liam looked at Jay. “Someone’s streaming her live. And look at the list of people this link got sent to. It’s everyone in the freaking business. Do you think she knows?”

  Jay shook his head. “No way. She’s been keeping this as quiet as she could. She’s a single mom. She’s afraid of losing her job with the Ludleys if this doesn’t work out.”

  “We’ll use drones to provide progress reports and speed up construction by monitoring deliveries, and offer real-time updates on any changes that might need to be made,” Bridget said. “Can you expand upon this a little, Alexander?”

  The camera jerked over to Redetzke, who looked pink and sweaty, but eager to explain.

  “Redetzke,” growled Liam. “I should have known. This should have been my presentation.”

  “God,” said Jay. “I thought we had this job all wrapped up, but she’s actually killing it. This is kind of undeniable.”

  The camera pulled back and showed her entire crew. “Who’s the old guy?” said Liam.

  Jay squinted. “That must be Danny Schwartz. Someone she knows from her neighborhood in the Bronx.”

  “Wait,” said Liam. “I heard about him. He’s the one who pissed off the union, right? And she’s still working with him?”

  Jay nodded. “She’s totally loyal to that guy. Brought him in on every job she’s ever done.” He smiled fondly at the image of Bridget on camera.

  “Since your corporation is based upon health and wellness, we can offer things like designing a building with a smog-eating facade. There is a paint made from titanium dioxide that absorbs the fumes generated by traffic and converts them into harmless nitric acid and calcium nitrate before releasing them back into the air. Imagine the publicity that could generate. HealthTec not only heals their patients, they are also healing the earth.”

  “Damn,” said Jay. “That’s brilliant.”

  “I knew about that paint!” protested Liam. “Freaking Redetzke babbled about it for like two hours at lunch once. He wouldn’t shut up.”

  Jay shook his head. “Yeah, but you weren’t smart enough to listen to him.”

  “We can use 3-D printing to design shapes that have never been attempted before,” continued Bridget. “Ava Martinez is our resident architectural expert and will explain the possibilities.”

  Liam watched Jay watching Bridget on his phone. He had a big, goofy grin on his face like a teenager with a crush.

  He stuck his finger in Jay’s face. “You’ve still got a thing for her, don’t you?”

  Jay looked up from the phone. “What? Who?”

  “Bridget. You’re screwing Hana, but you still want Bridget.”

  Jay sighed. “Jesus Christ, Liam. I’m not screwing my ex-wife, okay? Nothing is happening between us. There, are you happy?”

  Liam blinked. “So wait, I’ve still got a chance?”

  Jay shook his head. “You need to talk to her about that, man. Our friendship, whatever it is, definitely does not stretch this far.”

  Liam got up from the bar. “I gotta go. Thanks for the drink.” He started to head for the door.

  “Wait,” Jay called after him, “so I’m paying?”

  Chapter 74

  “You killed it,” whispered Ethan as they headed out the door. “Woman, you were magnificent.”

  Lee reached over from her other side and squeezed her arm. “The Ludleys have been wasting your talents. I had no idea you could deliver like that. We are actually going to get this crazy-ass job.”

  Bridget tried to tamp down what she knew must be a giddy grin on her face. They were right. She had killed it. The entire room had been in the palm of her hand from beginning to end.

  “That was most well-done, my dear,” said Mrs. Hashemi, patting her hand. “You really did your homework.”

  “Ms. Steele! Hang on!”

  She turned around and saw Henry Kim heading her way. “Go on down, I’ll catch up in a minute, guys,” she told her crew.

  “Don’t be long!” said Ava. “We’re going out and there will be champagne!”

  “Lots of champagne!” prom
ised Ethan.

  Before he got onto the elevator, Danny Schwartz grabbed her shoulders in his hands and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. “My girl!” he said. “Your father would have been so proud of you!”

  Bridget swallowed the ache that suddenly bloomed in her throat. “Thank you, Danny,” she whispered. “I’m so glad you were here.”

  “Ms. Steele!” Henry Kim was beaming at her. “I just had to come out and tell you that your presentation and team’s expertise was top-notch. I’d heard you were good, but I had no idea. I mean, not only was it well thought out and exquisitely researched, but it was actually inspiring to watch! How often does that happen?”

  Bridget smiled up at him. “It felt great,” she admitted. “It felt really good to be pitching again.”

  He patted her shoulder. “It was a gamble bringing in a new architect, but—” he lowered his voice “—perhaps you heard that the one we hired has been struggling a bit? Anyway, HealthTec absolutely loved you. You know, we’ve got a couple more presentations to see, but...”

  She smiled at him and then quickly craned past his shoulder, wondering why Harrington hadn’t come out to congratulate her. Come to think of it, he’d been oddly quiet in the room as they said goodbye, as well...

  “Whatever happens,” she said, turning her attention back to Kim, “thank you for the opportunity. It was amazing to be out there again.”

  He grabbed her hand and pumped it up and down. “No, Ms. Steele,” he said warmly, “thank you.”

  She rode the elevator down alone, looking at her reflection in the polished brass of the doors. She looked...happy, she thought. She was still smiling, still riding the high of the moment. Still feeling the glow of pulling it all off just like she had planned.

  She wished she could call her dad and tell him all about it. Danny had been right—he would have been proud. She laughed to herself, thinking about how he would have listened to her, thrilled, and then asked her a million questions, insisting he hear every little detail of the story, and then, after that, he would have made her repeat it all again from the very beginning.

  She also had to admit that she wished she could call Jason. She wished she could call and compare notes; she wished he could have seen her in action; she wished that he wasn’t such a stupid asshole who decided to go back to his stupid ex-wife. Seeing him in the hallway before she went in had given her just the shot of adrenaline she needed. She wanted him—oh, no doubt, as soon as she saw the man, she ached to touch him—but she wanted to beat him, as well. She’d heard the tail end of his conversation with Harrington. She knew he’d done a good job and that just made her determined to make sure she did better. He’d made her up her game.

  The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to unveil her team, all still waiting for her, but the happy looks of triumph she had last seen them wearing were gone. They all looked sober and spooked.

  Ava held up her cell phone. “Bridget, there’s something you need to see.”

  Chapter 75

  Liam was in a jewelry store. He had left the bar, thinking that he would go straight to the loft, needing to talk to Hana right away. But halfway there, he passed a shop window with a display of diamond rings set in the traditional black velvet-lined boxes, and then suddenly, he was in the shop.

  As many times as he had asked Hana to marry him, he had never dared pick out an engagement ring. Right after she and Jay had become engaged, about a year after they all left college, she had gotten drunk at a party and confessed to Liam that she absolutely loathed the ring that Jay had given her.

  It was a Russo family heirloom, a ten-carat, round, bezel-set diamond that Jay’s grandmother had once worn as her own. It was platinum, flashy and ostentatious, and, Hana told Liam, she’d hated it on sight.

  “It looks like some awful mob boss’s pinky ring!” she giggled. “I feel like Lucky Luciano wearing it! But you can never, never, never tell Jason,” she slurred as she lay her head against his shoulder. “Because Jay is a very nice guy and it’s not his fault his grandmother had terrible taste in jewelry and I do not want to hurt his feelings.”

  Liam, who had been in a dark and desperate funk since the day Jay had confided that he was going to ask Hana to marry him, decided to take it as a sign and felt suddenly cheerful and light on his feet again. Anyone who knew Hana knew that the ring was all wrong. Obviously, it meant that she and Jay would never actually make it to the altar.

  But, of course, they had. And Hana had loyally worn that ring for years. But after she and Liam started sleeping together, she kept her wedding band on, but lied and told Jay that the engagement ring was too tight and she needed to get it re-sized and then stuck it in a sock at the very back of her lingerie drawer. In all those years, she had never learned to loathe it any less. It had, she told Liam, just become more hideous to her every year.

  Liam had bought a lot of jewelry for her since then. Earrings and necklaces and bracelets, and she had claimed to love them all. Once he’d even brought home a particularly trashy gold ankle bracelet that turned him into a raging lump of lust whenever she indulged him by wearing it, but he’d never dared buy a ring.

  That ended today, he decided, looking at a tray of diamonds. They were all wrong, of course. In fact, he was fairly certain that no diamond would do. There must be something better. He pushed the tray away and looked at the glass case beneath it—spying a glittering, dark red stone set in rose gold. “What’s that?” he asked the woman behind the counter, who had been fluttering around him since he walked in the door.

  “Oh, good eye,” she said happily, plucking the ring up and handing it to him.

  He held it up close to his face and wrinkled his nose. Suddenly, it wasn’t red, it was sparkling, brilliant green.

  “Alexandrite,” the saleslady trilled. “It’s one of the world’s most precious gems. It appears red in candle or artificial light, and green in daylight.”

  He looked at it carefully. It was simple and strange and beautiful and he was almost certain that Hana would think so, too.

  Chapter 76

  Jay was still in the bar, rewatching the stream of Bridget kicking ass at her presentation, when the video went dark and “M. Harrington” lit up his screen. He hesitated for a moment, certain that he was going to be told that Russo Construction had lost the job.

  He didn’t care that much, honestly. He felt bad for his team, and especially Leela, who had worked so hard, but he knew what getting this job would mean to Bridget, and she obviously fully deserved it.

  His hand hovered over the phone for another second, and then he swiped to answer, deciding it was best to be as gracious as possible about the loss.

  “Jay?” said Harrington. He sounded rushed. “I suppose you’ve seen the video by now?”

  “Bridget?” said Jay. “Yeah. I’ve seen it.”

  “She really came out of left field. I never thought she’d even make it this far.”

  “She was great,” said Jay. “Do you know who was filming her?”

  “Probably one of her people,” muttered Harrington. “Having it out there makes it virtually impossible to walk away from her.”

  Jay blinked. “Why would you want to walk away? I haven’t ever seen a presentation that good.”

  “Listen,” said Harrington, ignoring his question. “Just hang in there. I’m going to see what I can do. She’s got Kim in her pocket, and the HealthTec guys are slobbering all over her, but this isn’t over yet. I want to do things the way we used to. The way your dad and I used to run the business.”

  “You really don’t have to do that, Mark,” said Jay. “Russo Construction can take the loss just fine.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll find a fix, okay? And in the meantime, I’m going to have my girl send you over a list of vendors and subcontractors we like to work with. You can take this time to line them up.”

  “Mark,
seriously—”

  “I gotta go, Jay. I’ll talk to you real soon. Hang in there, okay? I’ve got this covered.”

  Jay put his phone down and shook his head. Then he picked it back up and called Leela.

  “Hey,” she said glumly. “I saw the video. We didn’t get the job, did we?”

  “Well,” he said, “that’s why I’m calling. Nothing is actually decided yet. It’s a little complicated. But I need you to do something for me. We keep all predigital copies of the records for the company in a storage locker in Midtown. I want you to go find the papers for the Starbucks deal that my father did with Mark Harrington. 1994 or ’95, I think. I need your eyes on those pages.”

  “Okay,” she answered. “Anything special I’m looking for?”

  He hesitated. “You’ll know it if you see it,” he said at last. “And honestly, I really hope you don’t see anything at all.”

  Chapter 77

  “We are very disappointed in you, Bridget,” said Linus Lumley.

  “You, too, Christopher,” said Larry. “But mainly Bridget.”

  The brothers were sitting at their desks, not even bothering to stand as they delivered their lecture.

  “It’s especially hurtful to us that you so obviously leveraged the influence you gained through working for Ludley Construction to try to steal our employees and a job that should have rightfully been ours,” intoned Linus in a pious voice. “We basically picked you up from the gutter. No one else would hire you and we took you on out of the pure kindness of our hearts. And this is how you repay us?”

  “And people wonder why there aren’t more women working in this industry,” clucked Larry.

  “You exploited our sense of compassion for your own gains,” said Linus. “By all rights and measures, we should fire you.”

  She wanted to laugh, but out of habit, Bridget held her tongue.

  “However,” said Linus, “we suppose we might be convinced to look beyond this incident if you bring Ludley Construction into this job. I suppose you could still be an assistant project manager, but Larry and I would take over as the project executives and Ludley Brothers would take on the construction management role, of course.”