by K. F. Breene
She knew that, because it had happened before. They’d gotten in a stupid argument, he’d moved his arm up to run his fingers through his hair in frustration, and she took that movement as the beginning of a strike, of a punch to her face. A vivid reminder of Jim’s mistreatment. Of being knocked out. Of not seeing through her left eye for a week.
She’d taken off running like a bird in flight.
Sean had watched her go, surprised and confused at first, and then deteriorating as he realized what was happening. Of why she was so adamant about pushing herself when running. Of why she never slacked off on the physical stuff. It was the first time he’d realized it, and it killed him. It rubbed at his soul. So he sat down where he stood and waited for her. He stayed there for three hours. She watched him from the trees for two before approaching him and falling into his lap in tears. She was sorry. So was he.
And now she knew he wouldn’t raise a hand to her, even in the worst of moods, which let her keep her anger at this miserable job and the dumb employees that plagued her life. It wasn’t all that nice of a settlement for being trustworthy, but she was human. What could she say?
“I realize our team isn’t melding all that well,” he went on, his eyes pinning her with controlled green fury. “I also realize I expect a lot from you. I know your limits and I know how to push you to get the best results. But I am still figuring out how to work with everyone else.”
Sean stopped and looked at her, letting the silence lengthen. Letting what he said sink in. Also proving he had control of the conversation, and making sure she knew it.
“Despite how it looks right now,” Sean went on, ignoring the heat in her eyes, “This is my team, and I have a good handle on it. I realize there is a lot of dissention, and most of it is aimed at you. I haven’t babied you or given you any extra credit for that because I didn’t think you would’ve appreciated it, but maybe I should have. Regardless, that is your problem with me. I don’t care how well we work together, or how long we’ve known each other, I will not tolerate you creating dissent on this team. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
Sean’s eyes burned into her.
She thought: Meh. She said, “Crystal, sir.”
He looked at her a second longer to make sure she wasn’t going to start arguing again, and then turned away.
“Okay everyone, let’s get back to it,” he said, pushing his way to the ref.
They fell in line behind Sean in silence. Not even Bob had anything to say. He probably would have sneered at Krista, though, if she hadn’t revealed his crazy-big secret. He would have been better off if he did. He was acting all kinds of guilty, which meant that what Marcus said was true. Even Krista didn’t fully believe it. Until now.
The ref explained what they were supposed to do, which was basically act like a monkey and play around in the biggest group of trees in the woods. He showed them how to work the harnesses in case they fell out of the tree, and set them adrift to find a harness that fit and get ready to go a-climbin’.
Everyone broke up and herded to fit themselves in a crotch-grabbing device.
When the others had moved away to look, Georgie said, “Sir? Since when do you call people sir?”
Krista’s face got hot.
“I can show respect,” she said indignantly.
She stepped into her harness, which was basically nothing more than a bunch of straps that connected together in a belt looking thing. It was supposed to hook under each leg and around the waist and meet back up in the crotch area. The only things keeping her from death, should she fall out of the tree one-hundred feet up in the air, were a few straps connected to a rope with a metal loop and plenty of alone time dangling. It wasn’t confidence inspiring.
When Georgie shimmied into his straps made of a delightful shade of dirty, pale green, and tried to fasten it, he said, “Christ, this one is cutting my nuts off.”
“Does it gross you out a little how many crotches these things have hugged?” Krista asked as she fastened her harness.
Georgie stopped mid-adjust with a look of disgust on his face. “It hadn’t, no.”
Krista shrugged with a smile. “I hope the guy that had yours last didn’t pee himself.”
“I liked you better when you had your head buried in a spreadsheet,” Georgie said in disgust. He was now trying to touch the harness as little as possible with his bare hands.
Krista laughed harder.
“You were correct, though,” Donald said, having ignored the harness conversation.
“Which time, Donald?” Krista asked, making sure she was secure.
“Is she ever wrong?” Georgie laughed at her.
“Bob is bringing us all down,” Donald continued. “He hasn’t been effective for a great many years. Sean should have called him down before now.”
“Sean goes about things a little differently,” Krista explained. “He learns everything about a person and then tries to find the best way to manipulate them to get what he wants. Probably learned it from his years of womanizing.”
Georgie grunted. Then he said, “But still, he should have done something to get Bob moving.”
“I think he tried. Sean is really great at recognizing talent, and then working with it. It seems like he isn’t as good at brow beating people into doing what he wants. The only way to deal with Bob is to grab him by the balls, though. Which I just did.”
“Okay then, why didn’t he finesse you into a position where you would do it for him before now?”
“Sean and me…we have issues. I only stepped in this weekend because I want to win. I think he was waiting for me to take control, though. You heard what he just said—since I noticed you all hanging on his every word—he knows how far I’ll go until I push back. He’s seen it a few times. But I was good for a long time. I think I’m growing up.”
“Then why did he reprimand you?” Donald asked with a hint of anger.
“Because only a dumb-ass throwing a tantrum would do it in front of the boss and all his subordinates. I should have done it when he was elsewhere. Then it would have had the same result but been hearsay.”
“Basically, you wouldn’t have gotten in trouble in front of everyone,” Georgie said with a smile.
“Well, yeah, there’s that.”
“Let’s go!” Sean called.
“I don’t understand,” Donald said with that brow furrow. “He was plenty capable of pushing his weight around with you, so why not use that same tactic with Bob?”
“Good question, Donald,” Krista said, “I have no idea. He can be a bit of a jackass at times.”
“I don’t think he can push people’s buttons the same way Krista can,” Georgie said thoughtfully. “I think Sean, in a work capacity, can’t very well go calling someone impotent.”
“You heard that?” Krista asked. She’d thought she had lowered her voice for that bit.
“You said it loud enough!” Georgie laughed.
Oops.
“That’s true. Not much can get through to Bob. Sean would have to fire him, I think,” Donald said as they neared the others.
“Bob’s not going to come around,” Krista whispered. “That guy is stuck in mud.”
“No, but I bet he quits,” Georgie replied.
“Why?” Donald asked, also whispering. They were in hearing range now.
“Hell, Donald, wouldn’t you quit if the boss didn’t like you, his girlfriend was out to get you, and everyone knew you were impotent?” Georgie said.
The others turned to glance at them coming. Krista punched Georgie. He was too loud by half. Sean was standing a step apart from Dean and Bob, looking up at the tree. Dean and Bob weren’t talking, and if Krista wasn’t mistaken, Dean was choosing a side, and she had a feeling it wouldn’t be Bob’s. No one would blame him.
“Okay,” Sean said, still looking up. “It looks like a climb up, then a tight rope walk across to another tree. From there it looks like a plank or something to a third tree. Then a zi
p cord. There might be something else, but I don’t think so. It looks pretty basic.”
“Basic?” Dean muttered, following Sean’s gaze.
Krista’s legs were trembling, and not in a good way. She had never been up that high before. At the top of a ladder she got nervous.
“Krista, you look like you are going to puke,” Georgie mumbled.
“Is this a good time to mention I am not great with heights?” She asked in hushed tones.
“Yes, this is a good time,” Sean said. “Anyone else not good with heights? Or climbing?”
“I ain’t doin’ this,” Bob announced.
Everyone looked at him. He was sweating and supporting a contest winning frown. Her old boss Mr. Montgomery would blush with envy.
“We can walk you through it, Bob. Those of uswho don’t mind heights can help the others,” Sean reasoned.
“No way. I ain’t doin’ it. Climbing up a tree and falling down it? Not for me. Never done it in any one of these things, and I ain’t startin’ now.” Bob crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Sean looked at Bob with a completely blank face. Bob wouldn’t meet Sean’s eye, but his mind was set; Krista could see it. She was suddenly glad she had the blowout before this small standoff. Normal people would have doubled up their courage to prove they were worth their salt after they got yelled at. Not Bob. He was useless to the last.
Sean looked away disappointedly, realizing the lost cause. “Okay. Bob, why don’t you head back to the hotel then.”
Bob didn’t argue, he didn’t wait, and he didn’t say goodbye. He started to trudge off immediately.
“Anyone else want to pass? Krista?” Sean asked, looking back at her.
He was wary and basically pleading. He knew she didn’t have any more of a vested interest than Bob. Probably less, actually, since she had a job offer to go back to. But he needed her. She could tell that, in that moment, he needed her support and reassurance. He needed her to step up here and lead by example.
Krista saw it. She saw the uncertainty, as well. He had never cast her down in front of others like that before. He knew her well, better than anyone, but he didn’t know her well enough to trust she would understand why he did it. He’d never understood her loyalty, and they had so many problems, Sean probably thought she was ready to walk out of his life, not to mention the hell-climb in front of her. Added bonus, if she left or refused, his team would fall apart. There wasn’t much holding them together as it was, and if she left, the strongest part of their unit left with her.
Krista had all the power in this one, and it felt good. She probably shouldn’t have milked it, but he did just yell at her in front of everyone, so with a straight face, she looked at the god-awful monstrosity of trees in front of them in feigned contemplation. She had a good pause going, hamming it up, until Georgie elbowed her. The dog.
She laughed—apparently she was transparent. “No Captain, with you to the last. Even though I might throw up, pass out, or start crying.”
Relief flooded Sean’s eyes. “We’ll figure it out. Anyone else?”
No one said anything. Dean inched toward the group a bit more. They were winning him over, which meant Bob was losing him. Hah!
Krista would do a happy dance later. Right now she was silently praying she wouldn’t pass out and fall out of the tree in the next ten minutes.
Sean sighed. “Okay, who’s first?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I’ll go first.” Georgie stepped forward. “I was a climber, once upon a time.”
Sean clapped him on the back. “Good man yourself. Krista, I want you to go last. I have a feeling you’ll take the longest and I don’t want everyone to have to wait for you.”
“I don’t mind,” Donald said. “It’ll give us something to laugh at.”
“I would believe that, Donald, if you had a sense of humor,” Krista spat back, assessing the leaves one-hundred, long feet up and surrounding the challenges.
Dean snorted. He said, “I’ve done these before. I can go behind Krista and help if you want?”
“Yes please,” she said in a small voice. He was quick with the olive branch. She felt it her duty to accept it. Also, she was scared and would take all the help she could get.
“I’ll go directly in front of Krista,” Sean said. “You want to go second or last Donald?”
“Last. I want to see how everyone gets through before I go.”
“Okay, let’s get going.” Sean clapped once in excitement. “Krista needs about five hours to get ready for dinner.”
“What is this?” She asked with mock disdain. “Pick on Krista day?”
“Pick on Krista weekend, more like,” Georgie said as he passed by. He ruffled her hair, and then got hooked up to the ref’s rope. He headed to the tree with a bounce in his step. He scaled the thing without hesitation or problem. He was up in a flash.
He disappeared behind the tree trunk he’d just climbed by a wooden bridge thing, was out on the tight rope portion, and above open space in no time. He shimmied across that like a rat on a ship’s rope and was on to the next horrible torture device.
“Next,” the ref said. Apparently Georgie exchanged the safety rope up in the air.
Sean got hooked up. The harness was tight on his legs, making his sizable manhood pronounced. He caught Krista looking at it, gave her a wink, and headed to the tree. Just like Georgie, he scaled it easily. Unlike Georgie, his arm and leg muscles bulged, lending his body a grace of movement as he shifted weight between one peg and another. He was fluid grace up that tree. He might as well have been a squirrel. Land or water, it apparently didn’t matter—he was at home in any terrain.
It was really irritating.
“Next,” the ref said too soon.
“Don’t want to,” Krista said quietly.
The ref attached the rope to Krista’s harness with a metal clip. After, he looked up at her expectantly, waiting. She slowly turned around and headed to the giant tree.
It was even bigger from beneath it. The trunk was massive—three people could have stood side-to-side with room to spare in front of the trunk. The platform was about half-way up the beast, and the pegs were spread out much too far for comfort.
“Okay Krista,” Dean said as he walked with her. “Just focus on the pegs. Don’t look down, and don’t look too far up. Just look for the next peg. Focus on getting one hand to the peg, one foot, one hand, and on, and on. Eventually you’ll be at the top.”
“You can do it, Krista. Easier than surfing,” Sean called out from the heavens.
She did as Dean said; she put her foot on the first peg, and reached up to grab another one. It was like climbing a ladder, except that it was up a tree and all you had to support you were awkwardly spaced little pegs. So basically it was a scary, terrible, and capable-of-falling-over-at-any-minute ladder.
Half way up, Krista’s foot slipped off a smaller than normal peg.
“OH GOD!” She screamed, clutching onto the pegs in her hands and the tree bark with her face. Then, stupidly, she looked down.
The ground was a world away, the people standing on it were small, shifting dots with smiles. Her stomach started to churn and her legs tried to let go. She shut her eyes really tight and clutched the pegs with all her strength.
“What happened?” Sean yelled.
“She slipped, I think,” Dean called up. “She’s still hanging on. C’mon Krista, keep going. One peg at a time.”
“Don’t want to,” Krista said to the air.
“You can just let go and fall back down to earth…” Georgie was-not-helping!
“One at a time, Krista,” Dean said helpfully. “Get your foot back on the peg and pull yourself up. You are strong enough, you can do it. One at a time.”
“What is this, an AA meeting?” Krista whined with her eyes shut. She took a couple of deep breaths and opened her eyes. She saw bark next to her eye. “Don’t want to.”
Her eyes were bleary and her
hands were sweaty. She reached for the next peg, found it and heaved herself up. She clutched on for a moment, then found the next peg, then the next. She didn’t look down again, nor did she look all that far up, like Dean said. She figured out which peg would be next, went for it, then looked to the next.
After she had ten more gray hairs and a few more wrinkles, she made it to a platform. It was a slight scramble to get up onto it, but once there, she hugged the tree with all her might, thankful to have something solid under her feet.
“Gotta keep going, Geegee,” Sean said from her right. He was at least on the same level.
“Don’t want to.”
“Then how are you going to get down?”
“Don’t want to.”
“C’mon, Krista,” Georgie called from the ground. “It isn’t so bad. You aren’t going to die.”
“No, but what if I crap my pants?”
There was laughter as Krista clutched the rope leading around the tree. She stayed as close to the tree as she could, her face skating across the rough surface, until she got to the tight rope area.
There were two ropes between the trees. One was low, and level to the platform Krista was standing on, the other was at about the level of her head. She was supposed to walk across the low rope holding the high rope for balance. The rest of the area was air.
Her legs were shaking and her stomach was swimming just looking at the obstacle.
“No Sean, I can’t,” she squeaked, trying to back up more against the tree.
“Krista, can you see me? Look straight,” Sean said.
Regretfully, Krista raised her eyes from the void between the two trees. Sean was at the next tree, a rope from a cable around the trunk attached to his harness. He couldn’t fall far. Krista could.
“I can’t do this, Sean. I can’t…”
“Listen to me, Krista. Focus on my voice. You can do it. Don’t look down. Feel the rope with your feet as if it were your surf board. Or a balance beam. You can do this.”