by Sofia Grey
Blind, not stupid. Lucas bit the inside of his cheek as he swallowed down his sarcasm. They seemed to be waiting for him to speak. “Which account?”
“Bryce Electronics.”
Chapter Twenty
Natalie went through the rest of her e-mail, searching through the non-urgent messages for any mention of Bryce. Sales updates. Newsletters. Team briefings. Deema, to whom Natalie had delegated most of her work, was away for a few days and hadn’t left a detailed handover. After spending half an hour sifting through e-mail, and with no reply from Lucas, Natalie decided to take the bull by its horns.
She placed a call with the Procurement Manager at Bryce, a charming woman she spoke to on a weekly basis.
“I’m sorry,” said the receptionist. “Ms. Stafford no longer works for Bryce Electronics. May I connect you to somebody else?”
That was unexpected, but Natalie didn’t let her concern leak into her voice as she asked for whoever was covering that role now.
“I’m sorry, but he’s not available for calls today. Would you like to leave a message?”
Natalie left a polite greeting, and hung up. Still no reply from Lucas, and she had no missed calls on her cell phone. Anxiety prickled down her spine. If this was a jigsaw puzzle, she was missing a few pieces but she knew how to find them. She set off for her manager’s office. Jeremy would know.
“Hi, Natalie. I was just coming to find you.” Jeremy closed the door behind her and gestured toward a chair. “Grab a seat.” He sat behind his desk and gazed at her, his expression serious. “Good to have you back. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, thanks. My ankle is healing well.”
“That’s good.” His smile was polished and slightly fake. “How was the conference?”
“Fine too. I’ll be doing a debrief with the others this afternoon.”
He nodded. “Great. Thing is, Natalie, we’ve got a problem with Bryce. We’ve lost them.”
Shit. Trev hadn’t been messing after all. “I tried to catch up with the Procurement Manager, but she’s left the company. I’ve not spoken to her replacement yet.”
Jeremy’s mouth twisted. “He probably won’t return your calls. He’s not a big fan of ours.”
“Is that why we’ve lost them? The new manager has a preferred supplier?”
“That’s part of the reason, but they’re citing mistakes and errors as the main driver. Late shipments. Incomplete orders.”
“Wow.” Natalie was at a loss for words. “I’ve only been away a few weeks.”
“I’m afraid that plays a big part.” Jeremy reached across his desk, to fidget with his fountain pen. He paused and looked directly at her. “I must stress this is not a criticism of your work, Natalie. It’s the opposite.”
A cold hand crept into her chest and began to squeeze. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve grown too reliant on you going the extra mile. As an organization, we should be able to cover for anyone who’s absent, not fall apart without them. As the manager, I take the culpability for us losing the account.”
She considered his words. They didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand.”
“The new Procurement Manager at Bryce was annoyed when we couldn’t function without you. He suggested that it showed inherent flaws in our management and delegation systems. That without you on the account, we handled them badly and paid no attention to their orders.”
Natalie rewound his words in her head. “You said there were problems with some orders. What happened?”
“The warehouse team was sloppy. They downgraded the priority of a major order, shifted stock to one of Bryce’s competitors—Masons—and then dispatched an order with only half the kit allocated. Frankly, it’s a clusterfuck we’re just untangling now.”
The warehouse team. He couldn’t mean Lucas. The breath jammed in her lungs. He knew how important the Bryce orders were. Lucas wouldn’t let that happen to her shipments. He’d have warned her if he was aware of any issues on her accounts.
It had to have been his colleagues that messed up, but the end result was the same. “Is there any chance of keeping them? Bryce? Have they withdrawn all their pending orders from the system?”
“We get to fulfil their backorders, but there won’t be anything new coming in.” Jeremy sighed. “It’s frustrating, but such is the world of IT sales. The hard reality is that your relationship was with the previous Procurement Manager, and short of sendng you to see the new guy and trying to win him over in person, our hands are tied.” His smile was sympathetic. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”
No, he wouldn’t. Jeremy knew how much she hated visiting customers and why she conducted all her accounts over the phone. Her skin crawled at the thought of introducing herself to the new Procurement Manager at Bryce. No. She wasn’t going there.
Natalie forced herself to nod and smile. “Now that I’m back, I’ll start calling up my contacts. See if I can drum up any new business.”
*
They’d lost Bryce? Lucas immediately thought of Natalie. They were her biggest customer and would contribute the most to her bonus. She, more than anyone, would feel the loss directly in her wages. He pulled his focus back. “I’ve handled a lot of the Bryce orders. How can I help?”
Mark cleared his throat. It was an ominous sound. “We have a record of the Bryce orders and what decisions were made at each step. There have been several key reallocations that delayed their shipments, and they were all either logged by you or approved by you.”
Wait. “What?” Even as he spoke, he knew. Dave’s fuckups. His stomach lurched. “Let’s just back up a moment. Did you say Dave is here too?”
“Um, yeah. I’m over here.”
Dave was rattled; Lucas could tell from his voice. Anger flashed through Lucas, hot and energizing. Dave would be more than rattled by the time Lucas had finished. “Would you mind walking me through the audit trail, so we can both explain our actions?”
“I’ve just e-mailed you the log, so you can see it for yourself,” said Mark. “It’s pretty self-explanatory, and Dave was able to fill in any gaps.”
“I’m sure he was.” Lucas couldn’t hold back his sharp retort. “Do I get a chance to comment too?”
“Of course. When you’ve had a decent opportunity to review the log.”
Lucas glared at where Dave’s voice had come from. This was a set-up, and he had no intention of taking the blame for his colleague’s mistakes. “I’ll give you my feedback today.” He stood and reached for Molly. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”
“Should I take it from here?” That was Verity again. “I can see you’re upset, Lucas, but we haven’t quite finished yet. Perhaps you’d like to sit again?”
He wasn’t a fucking performing seal. “I’m happy to stand.”
“Very well. Mistakes of this magnitude hurt everybody, and when we lose a major customer, it’s usual for us to review our practices, engage in retraining, and so on.”
“And that means?”
“We’re taking the opportunity to move you sideways, into another role, to broaden your experience.”
Lucas held onto his temper, but it took effort. He clenched his fists, and then released them again. “I’m sure I don’t need to point out that I’ve been working here for six years. I’m pretty experienced in the entire warehouse operation.”
“Yes, but with your current”—Verity hesitated—“restrictions, there are a limited number of positions open to you.”
Restrictions? “You mean my sight?”
“Yes.”
Lucas knew there was nothing wrong with his work. This whole situation stunk worse than a barrel of rotting fish. His only chance to clear his name was to review the audit log, and that meant getting out of here. “What are you proposing for me?” He bit the words out.
“Order processing.” Mark’s voice was cheerful, as though he sensed the finish line was in view. “It may be a more junior role, but we’ll
maintain your remuneration package as it stands.” He coughed briefly. “That means—”
“No loss of income,” snapped Lucas. “I do know what you mean by remuneration package, Mark.” He dragged in a short, furious breath. “You may recall I ran the order processing team a few years ago, before I transferred to customer support.” When I still had my sight. “And now you want to transfer me to the team I used to manage?”
“We’d hate to lose you, Lucas.” Verity was clearly trying to make sympathetic noises, but was failing badly. “Your experience is extremely valuable to us, and this might not be a permanent transfer. Think of it as a secondment.”
If he had to stand here and listen to any more of this garbage, he was going to spontaneously combust. “I haven’t done anything wrong, and I have no desire to leave my current role. Do I have any choice in this?”
The silence was deafening.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lucas couldn’t remember the last time he was so incensed. “I’m going back to my desk, to review the audit.” He squeezed Molly’s harness, and she nudged his leg. It felt good to have someone on his side, even if it was only his dog. “Dave, walk there with me?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Someone opened the door for them to leave, and Lucas strode out, head held high. Common sense made him wait until they were a safe distance from Mark’s office, before he paused and turned to Dave, who walked beside him. They were in the middle of a sprawling open-plan office, with coworkers all around. What he needed to say, was private. “Find us a meeting room, Dave. Somewhere we can talk.”
“I’ve got an account meeting in ten minutes.”
“Better find a room quickly then.”
Dave sighed. “There’s one just up here. Ten paces forward, room’s on the right.”
The moment the door clicked shut behind them, Lucas exploded. “You fucker. You screwed up my allocations, messed up the orders I’d prepared, and then dumped the blame on me.” Molly trembled, unhappy with his anger, and he paused. He managed to moderate his tone when he continued. “I’m taking the fall for your screwups. The only reason I didn’t say anything back there was because it would sound like sour grapes. I got the very real sense they weren’t listening to me. They’ll listen to you, though.”
“What do you mean?” Dave sounded worried, as he should.
“You’re going to tell them you fucked up.”
“Oh, no. I’m not.” Dave blew out a breath. “I can’t. I’ll lose my job.”
“You don’t have any issues with that happening to me?”
“They can’t get rid of you, though. You’re disabled. It would cause a stink.”
Lucas’s head spun. This was the guy he’d been working with for over a year. His desk-buddy and team-mate. And it was only now he understood him. Lucas’s hands itched to grab Dave’s shirt and punch him repeatedly. “I won’t be your fall guy.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “If I have to pay for a forensic fucking analysis on the audit, I’ll prove it was you. Wouldn’t it just be easier to tell them now that you made a mistake?”
“Please, Lucas. I can’t lose my job. Cindy’s pregnant. Again. We’re already behind on the mortgage, and if we default, we’ll lose the house. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you?”
“So you want me to be demoted, and say nothing? Pretend I’m incapable of doing my job?”
“I’ll owe you.”
Lucas stepped forward, closing the gap between them. Dave’s startled intake of breath confirmed how close they stood. “Go screw yourself. I’m sorry about your mortgage, but that’s not my fault. And losing Bryce isn’t either. You’re going to tell Mark the truth, if I have to drag you there myself.”
Molly nudged his leg a second before the door opened. “Am I interrupting something?” Mark’s voice was overly loud, as usual when he spoke to Lucas, but his timing was perfect.
Lucas turned to face him. “Not at all. Dave has something to tell you.”
Behind him, Dave made a strangled noise and then cleared his throat. “No, I don’t.” What the fuck? “We were just talking about handover, when Lucas moves to his new role.”
He could stay quiet no longer. “No, we weren’t. I was asking Dave to own up to his error. To tell you the truth.”
“Lucas, I’ve heard enough.” Mark’s voice was angry. “You made stock decisions without the right authority, and we can’t trust you to stay in that role. I’m sorry. Trying to persuade Dave to lie for you is not the best way forward. Perhaps you should take the rest of the day off. Go home. Calm down and think about this, and we’ll discuss it more tomorrow.”
*
Natalie gazed at the report in front of her, the figures blurring on the page when she blinked. Jeremy waited for her to speak, and she took a breath and tried to compose herself. “This says that Lucas held the Bryce orders back, while he reallocated the stock elsewhere.”
“That’s right. He really messed up.”
“Thing is, that doesn’t sound like Lucas. I know him. He’s efficient.” She had to pause and drag her emotions under control. “He kept an eye on all my accounts while I was away. I trusted him.” She corrected herself. “I still trust him.”
Jeremy’s mouth twisted. “You might not be aware, but Lucas Wade is disabled. They make allowances for him, but he’s clearly not up to such a responsible position.”
The unjust accusation stung. “The same way you make allowances for me, Jeremy?”
His eyes widened. “Not the same at all. You do a damn-good job.”
“And so does Lucas.” Her hands shook, and she placed the report on Jeremy’s desk. “Has anyone asked for his side of the story?”
“I’ve no idea, and it’s really not our concern. I just wanted to reassure you it wasn’t your fault.”
“Thank you.” She stood and smoothed her damp palms on her skirt. “I do appreciate it.”
Natalie walked back to her desk, her mind whirling. She needed to talk to Lucas.
His Messenger status showed him as offline, and her message still hadn’t been delivered. When she called his desk phone, it went straight to voicemail, and so did his cell phone. Was he in a meeting? She left messages on both phones, and then tried to think about work. Her schedule. Meetings. Client reports. Sales targets. The great gaping hole in her next bonus payment. That was going to make a dent in her bank account.
She pulled up the client profile for Bryce Electronics, and noted it’d already been updated with the details of the new Procurement Manager. Was it worth talking to him? He wasn’t taking calls, but maybe he’d see her in person.
No. She shrank from the idea. Even the thought of shaking hands with a new customer made her want to curl up in a ball and hide. It was summer. Everyone wore lightweight, short-sleeved tops, and showed bare skin. Everyone except her. With her sleeves and floor-sweeping skirts, she’d look like a freak. Or at the very least, a hipster. The other female account managers wore snazzy skirt suits and high heels, but they didn’t have arms and legs covered in ugly scar tissue.
Nausea churned in her belly, and she turned back to her schedule. There had to be another way to save the account, but how?
Her ringing cell phone was the perfect distraction, and she answered without checking the caller ID.
“Natalie, it’s me.” It was Lucas, his voice low and angry. “Have you heard about Bryce?”
“Yes, I was hoping you’d call back. Where are you?”
“The boss sent me home. I think he was afraid I’d hit Dave, my desk-buddy.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “Why would you do that?”
“He set me up. Blamed me for the mistakes on the account. Have you seen the report yet?”
“Yes.” She took an unsteady breath. “Lucas, you’d have told me if you knew of any problems, wouldn’t you?”
“Jesus, Natalie. Not you as well.”
“Lucas.” She tried to interrupt, but he raised his voice and carried on.
“B
lame the cripple, huh? He clearly can’t function properly. But you know what? Maybe it’s for the best. My sight will be completely gone in a couple of years. Maybe even sooner. I won’t be able to work at all then, so I may as well get used to it.”
“Lucas.”
“Save it, Natalie. I don’t know why I called you, but I’m not asking for sympathy.”
“Stop.” She finally broke into his angry spiel. “Stop that. Take a deep breath, and tell me from the beginning.”
“What’s the point?” Underneath the anger and the frustration, Natalie heard the fear in his voice.
She knew what that felt like. A leap of faith was needed more than ever before, and she closed her eyes for a moment, while she composed her voice. “The point is I love you. And you’re not going to push me away. We’re going to fix this, Lucas. Together.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Natalie’s words rang in Lucas’s ears. I love you. Had he heard her properly? She couldn’t mean it. Could she? He felt as though someone had smacked him in the head with a mallet and knocked his brains out. He didn’t know what to say.
I love you. It was too big and scary a statement to respond to right now. It opened too many boxes and possibilities, most of which terrified him.
Natalie was asking him something work related, but the buzzing in his head continued.
“What did you just say?” He interrupted her, and then wished he could haul the words back. He wasn’t normally so rude.
“Which part?”
Maybe it was a sympathetic kind of ‘I love you.’ The sort people wrote in get-well cards. He hoped not. “The… first bit.”
“About being in love with you?”
“Yes.” His lungs were so tight, he squeaked the word. He gripped the cell phone and pressed it hard to his ear, hoping to catch every nuance of her beautiful voice.
Natalie sighed, and his heart sank. It was almost certainly a friendly kind of I Love You. She probably intended to bolster his confidence, nothing more.