Revenge Is Best Served Hot: 3 Novella Bundle (Revenge Is Best Served Hot (Powerful Women Series))

by C. C. Morian

  “I did not get to where I am due to any quota,” said Lynn.

  “Neither did I,” said Kathie.

  “Whatever,” said Michaels. “And now that we know where we stand, I’m going to take advantage of whatever tools I have. I want to get the Meltrex guy off balance, so he can’t concentrate on the negotiation. Lynn, I want you to wear something a little more revealing to the meeting. Lose that jacket. And wear a shorter skirt and higher heels. And you,” he pointed his thin shaft letter opener at Kathie, frowning. “You don’t have much to work with. Just don’t wear anything revealing, and stay in the back of the room. I need someone to take notes quietly, in case he let’s anything slip. I’ll get him to agree to use the notes as the basis for the terms.”

  Kathie was stunned, her mouth frozen open. Lynn simply stared at Michaels and said, “You can’t be serious.”

  “What’s the matter? Wasn’t I clear enough for you? I’m sure you are at least smart enough to understand my plan.”

  Lynn held Michaels’ eye until he looked away. “That will be all,” he said.

  Lynn got up to leave and Kathie followed. Safely outside the door, Kathie said, “I don’t believe what I just heard.”

  “I was afraid of something like this,” said Lynn. “I wondered why Michaels was so cool to me in the job interview.”

  “You don’t believe him, do you? That we were hired just because we are women?”

  “No. I know the woman who hired me, we went to business school together. Sue Miles, the Group VP. We worked together at another company. She’s tough as nails, and a great leader. She likes profit more than diversity, although I’m sure she doesn’t mind diversity.”

  “Do you think she knows about Mr. Michaels’—attitude?”

  Lynn shrugged. “Acceptance of women in business is getting better, but there will always be guys like Michaels. Until they get taught a lesson, or drummed out.”

  “He might not respect your friend Sue very much either. Maybe he thinks she slept her way to the top.”

  Lynn laughed. “It would be hard for her to do that in this company. She’s a lesbian, and she’s made no secret of it.”

  “Should we say anything?” asked Kathie. She was thinking about the men in the break room.

  “That might be what Michaels wants. We have no proof, our word against his. He might actually hope that the company just pays us some money to go away, and get out of his hair. Besides, he’ll get his, someday.”

  Kathie knew she’d like to see that.

  The meeting with Meltex was a disaster. Lynn had suggested that Kathie wear a skirt and blouse, and though Kathie was a little unsure, did as Lynn asked. Lynn had been the first to arrive at the meeting, and told Kathie to sit at the main table, not in the back of the room. Lynn herself had worn another relatively conservative blue suit, with a loose jacket; her breasts were still obviously there, but weren’t being paraded around.

  When Michaels came into the room, he glared at both the women for defying his orders, but couldn’t say anything because the Meltrex executive had arrived, along with an associate. Both Meltrex men shook hands with the two women, addressed them politely and listened to them courteously, and couldn’t have been more equitable and professional. Both seemed to assume that Lynn and Kathie were part of the negotiating team, even though Kathie said little.

  During the meeting, though, Michaels was the one who was distracted, casting disparaging glances at Lynn and Kathie, obviously angry that they hadn’t followed his directions. At times he barely seemed to be listening to the discussion. Lynn took more of an active role, and even Kathie added in a few questions, and soon the Meltrex representatives were talking more to them than to Michaels, which seemed to infuriate him even more.

  When the meeting ended and the Meltrex execs were ushered out, Michaels slammed his hand down on the conference table. “What the hell was that all about? You were supposed to just sit there and look good.”

  “You didn’t seem to be getting to the critical issues, so I had to step in,” said Lynn. “For the sake of the company.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You want to buy that company, and they look good on paper, but once you get into the details, they have a lot of problems. They’re filling their order book with discounted advance sales, their sales cycle is too long for the way they run their production process, and they’re burning cash.”

  “What?” stammered Michaels. “How do you know all that?”

  “They pretty much had to admit it when I asked about the order book and how the manufacturing process was tied to the sales cycle. If you had been listening instead of looking at us, you would have picked up on it.”

  “Don’t make this about me, you, you—.” Michaels pointed a skinny finger at both of them. Suddenly his face changed. “I know what this is about. You are trying to find some way to undermine me, by torpedoing this deal. This is a good acquisition and I’m going to make it happen.”

  Emboldened by Lynn, Kathie said, “I think their branding is a real issue. I’m not looking to torpedo anything, I’m just pointing out that we’d have to pump a lot of money in there to straighten it out.”

  “Bullshit,” said Michaels. “You don’t know what you are talking about. If the both of you had just done what I had said, we would have them by the balls. I thought I had made myself clear. You should have swapped outfits.” He got up in a huff and strode out of the room.

  “What a jerk,” said Kathie.

  “He is at that,” said Lynn. “The question is, what are we going to do about it? It’s one thing for him to be a pig, it’s another thing for him to do something like make this deal that will be bad for the company. If we buy Meltrex, and it goes south, we’ll be the ones he’ll blame.”

  “What can we do?”

  Lynn considered. “I have an idea. What was it he said? About taking advantage of whatever tools we have? Maybe we can use his obnoxious sexist personality against him.”

  Lynn went back to her office and closed the door. She thought carefully about what she was about to do. Maybe Michaels was just a horny, insecure guy, who probably doesn’t get as much sex as he thinks he deserves. That, and his drive for respect, made him act the way he did. Still, there was no excuse for his demeaning sexism. Even though she was a relatively new employee, she was an executive herself, she couldn’t let guys like Michaels get away with what he was doing. And he was also about to make a bad business decision with the Meltrex deal. Either one of these would be reason enough to report him.

  But the HR manager was a man, and he seemed pretty close to Michaels. He might not be much help, and he couldn’t do anything about the bad business decisions. But there was someone who could.

  Lynn dialed her old friend Sue, the Group President who was Michaels’ boss and who had been the one who had lured Lynn to the company.

  “Sue? It’s Lynn. Got a minute?”

  “Sure. How are things going?”

  “That’s what I called to talk to you about. I’m fine, the job you hired me for is good.”

  “I knew you’d be a big help to us.”

  “Are you familiar with the Meltrex deal?”

  “The broad strokes, of course. I haven’t seen details, it’s not far enough along yet.”

  “It might be further along than you think. Michaels had the Meltrex president in here today, they were negotiating terms.”

  “What?!”

  “Michaels is pushing to get a signed agreement soon.”

  “He doesn’t have the authority to do that,” said Sue, clearly angry.

  “The Meltrex people might not know that.”

  “Hmm. Okay, I’ll deal with this, thanks for bringing it to my attention.” When Lynn didn’t say anything, Sue continued, “I’m sensing something else from you.”

  “Well, a few things,” said Lynn. “First, I think there are some issues with the deal.” She outlined what she thought the problems were.

  “H
ow do you know all this?”

  “Michaels had me and Kathie Green from Marketing sit in.”

  “Because of the International piece?”

  “Well, that, ostensibly. Mostly he wanted me to distract the Meltrex guys during the meeting. And he wanted Kathie to take notes.”

  “What do you mean distract? Like wave your arms or something?”

  “Like wave my breasts.”

  There was a long silence on the line. “Tell me you just didn’t say that.”

  Lynn wondered if she had overstepped herself. “I’m sorry, maybe I should have gone to HR. I’m not out for Michaels’ job or anything.”

  “That’s not what I meant. I just find it hard to believe.”

  “He told me to dress provocatively.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand him?”

  “Michaels was very straightforward about it. He told me exactly what to wear. I don’t think it’s just about me. He treats Kathie Green badly, and is derogatory in his remarks about other women.”

  “Has he touched you, done anything physical?”

  “No, nothing like that. I’m not sure he would. I think he’s mostly insecure.”

  “Give me a minute to think about this,” said Sue. After a while she said, “The usual process of handling this might not work. The HR department here at corporate is a bunch of good old boys, I’m working to get that fixed. Until that’s done, I’d have to take action personally, but it might backfire if one of my first personnel decisions as the new head of the Group is to fire Michaels immediately. Everyone knows I’m a lesbian, and they might draw the wrong conclusions, thinking I’m the one who is sexist.”

  “You’d fire him over this?”

  “In a heartbeat, if it’s true and can be documented. Not that I’m doubting you. But I do things by the book. If you were the one acting like this I’d do the same to you. No offense.”

  “None taken.”

  “Good. My job is to run a business and create a professional working environment. Not just one or the other.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  Sue paused. “How far are you willing to go with this?”

  Lynn didn’t hesitate. “I share the same goals. I want the business to do well, and I want a good place to work, for men and women. So I’ll file a complaint, if that’s what you need. I don’t want to speak for Kathie, that will be her decision.”

  “What do you think of her?”

  “My initial impressions are very good. She’s got great potential, but Michaels could beat her down.”

  “I won’t let that happen. But we all know how a formal complaint can look. People will talk about you, too. Saying you are just doing it to get ahead.”

  “I know. I’ll take the chance. What other choice do we have?”

  Sue hesitated. “There might be another way, something that would avoid the complaint process. But it would require you to. . .take matters into your own hands. With my support, of course.”

  “I’ll do anything, you know I trust you. That’s why I came here.”

  “Well, I might not have made the best decision about placing you in that division, given I didn’t know this about Michaels. Anyway, do you remember that guy in college, the new Resident Assistant, the one who was always giving women a hard time?”

  “Of course I do. That was hard to forget.”

  “Do you remember how the seniors took care of the situation when we told them about his behavior?”

  “That’s the part that’s hard to forget.” Lynn couldn’t believe it at the time. The senior women, after finding out that the RA was a sexist bully, had gotten him drunk, pretending they wanted to do a gangbang with him. After getting him undressed, they had videotaped him lying naked, with the sounds of unseen women laughing about how he couldn’t get it up, and how small his cock was. The tape found its way around the campus, and the RA immediately straightened out, then quit.

  “So I ask you again,” said Sue. “How far would you go to fix this?”

  Lynn considered. “Are you asking me to do what I think you are?”

  “I’m not asking you to do anything. I want to know how far you would go.”

  “Will you help?”

  “Of course. Personally. But I have to know you are in all the way.”

  Lynn thought hard. She already knew she was going to have a problem with Michaels, he would do everything he could to sabotage her career. She’d rather quit than go through that. “I’m in.”

  “Good. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. What about this Kathie Green?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll ask.”

  “Be discreet. We don’t want to put her in a bad position.”

  “I think she already is.”

  “Okay, here’s how we start. I’m going to call Michaels and tell him I’m coming there in a few days for an update on Meltrex. I’ll tell him I only want the key players in the room, him, you, Kathie, maybe a few others. I’ll call you before then. Have some ideas ready.”

  When Lynn arrived at the conference room for the meeting two days later, Kathie was already there, as were two other male executives. They chatted for a while until Sue Miles came into the room with Pierce Michaels. Michaels was wearing a tight, three piece suit and a power tie. Lynn suspected he thought the undersized suit made him look muscular.

  Michaels started to sit at his usual spot at the head of the table, but Sue cleared her throat and stared at him, and Michaels, after a moment’s hesitation and a rude glare, said, “Sue, why don’t you sit at the head of the table.” Like it was his idea.

  Sue gave him a cold smile. “No thank you, Pierce. It’s not about where you sit that determines who is in charge.” Making it clear to him exactly who in the room was really in charge.

  Michaels muttered something and sat down, but not at the head of the table. Sue sat across from him, another slight, not putting herself on the same side. Lynn, as she and Sue had decided during a call late the night before, sat next to Michaels, as if she were taking his side against Sue. Michaels noticed it, a little surprised, and he smiled slyly.

  Kathie also sat on the same side. Lynn had spoken to her earlier, to feel her out, but had not clued her in on everything, she didn’t want to put Kathie in a bad spot. But Lynn had hinted at what was planned, at least for today.

  “Gene and Frank, why don’t you guys sit over here,” said Michaels, “so we can all better handle Sue’s questions.” Michaels indicated two chairs on his side of the table, stacking the seating so that Sue was alone on one side, trying to psychologically isolate her.

  Sue pretended she didn’t notice. Lynn noticed how confident she was, and hoped Kathie did as well; Sue was a great role model. She was totally at ease, with her business skills, her style, even her lesbianism.

  “I want to hear about how we are versus budget,” said Sue.

  “Sure,” said Michaels. “Gene can handle that.”

  Gene turned on his computer. A PowerPoint presentation came up on the screen, and he started to get up, but Sue held up her hand. “No slides, Gene. I don’t like standup presentations. Just tell me where things stand.”

  “Uh, but I have some good slides,” said Gene.

  “Did you put them together?”

  “Well, my team did all the hard work, I just directed them.”

  “Are you familiar with the material?”

  “Of course. I’m responsible for it.”

  “I like that. And that you credited your team. That’s a good philosophy.” Sue cast a quick glance at Michaels, who was looking at his fingernails, not paying attention. “I’d like to hear it in your own words.”

  “Sure,” said Gene. He launched into a concise summary of the financial situation, calmly answering Sue’s questions.

  When he finished, Sue said, “Very good. You didn’t need any paper, you were very well prepared. I may have some more questions later. Frank? You handle IT, right? Can you bring me up to speed?”
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  Frank was a little less comfortable working without slides, but Sue guided him along, and after a few minutes he was doing fine, obviously impressed with Sue’s detailed understanding of complicated IT issues.

  Michaels looked very bored and visibly yawned a few times. Lynn nudged him gently, prodding him to pay attention, smiling, like she was also bored but was merely prompting him to look good in front of Sue. Michaels gave her an odd look, so Lynn began doodling on her pad, and discreetly slid it across to him. She had written, ‘BORING!’

  Michaels smiled, nodding his head slightly. Lynn wrote, ‘She’s a geek.’

  Michaels glanced at Sue, who was totally focused on Frank, then covered a laugh. Lynn smiled, as if in agreement, but what she was really smiling about was that Michaels probably thought his seating tactic had worked, he thought he had aligned his people against Sue.

  Lynn waited until Sue was looking at Frank, then dramatically faked a yawn, and, as they had planned, Kathie smiled and put her finger in her open mouth, pretending she was gagging over the conversation, making sure that Michaels could see her.

  Lynn silently drummed her fingers on the desk, and behind the edge of the table made a ‘Let’s get on with it’ gesture, as if she wanted the IT conversation to end. Michaels rolled his eyes and nodded. He tilted his head, as if were ready to fall asleep.

  Lynn gave him a silent head shake, and wrote, ‘Don’ t close your eyes. She’ll notice, she seems really sharp.’

  Michaels cast a disdainful glance at Sue, as if to say he didn’t believe it, she was nothing compared to him. The deep IT conversation between Sue and Frank continued, the others seemingly forgotten.

  Michaels pulled Lynn’s pad over to him and wrote, ‘I can’t stay awake.’ He turned it so that Lynn could see the message. Then, perhaps having second thoughts, he tore off the page and slipped it in his pocket, not wanting to leave any evidence.

  “You have to!” said Lynn, not out loud, but so that Michaels could read her lips.

  Michaels closed his eyes briefly, like he couldn’t help himself, he was so bored.