Hale struggled to follow his train of thought. “I don’t get—”
Finn moved quickly around the counter. “Of course you don’t. Jesus, Hale, you couldn’t give me a heads up about what you were finding?”
She stood there mute, trying to figure out what she should say.
“I thought that we had moved on to a better place. I have talked to you almost every night and you were holding onto information that can ruin my administration. Christ, do you get some kind of weird satisfaction out of dropping bombs on me?” He slammed his hand on the countertop.
She flinched, took a deep breath, fearing that whatever she said he would twist it. “I didn’t want to say anything until I was positive that money was missing. It was difficult to track in the beginning, even though it turned out to be a sophisticated system.” Christ, she was rambling. Focus. “I needed to check and re-check the numbers. I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Finn ground out the words.
“I told Wes.” She felt panic start in her belly.
“Fuck Wes, you should have told me. Christ, do you have any idea how bad this looks?”
Stall. Stall until you can figure out what he wants you to say. “I followed the chain of command.” She heard her voice crack. “At that first meeting, Matt kept saying that I reported to Wes. So, I did.” Her voice sounded small to her ears.
“It still doesn’t explain why you kept this from me.” Finn was furious.
She started walking around the counter, needing to move. “In that meeting, Matt made it very clear that I was Wes’s employee. He kept hammering, emphasizing everything should go through Wes. I wasn’t supposed to bother you. I thought I was taking the correct action.”
“Jesus, I thought there was something between us, but you don’t trust me. Did you do this to hurt me?”
She moved closer to Finn, reaching out to him. “No! Where is that coming from? I know that this is bad, but you didn’t embezzle and you won’t allow it to go on.” She touched his arm.
“Damn it, Hale, I’m not talking about the numbers.” He jerked his arm away from her. “I’m talking about the fact you found a hundred thousand dollar problem and you didn’t tell me.” He stopped and his voice went scary soft. “You could have trusted me with the truth. I don’t give a shit about chain of command or what Matt told you. You and me, I thought we were building something here, but again you kept a secret from me.”
“I thought that I was acting professionally,” she yelled, losing control of her temper. He had every right to be upset but this was unreasonable. “I did the job I was hired to do and turned over my findings as soon as they were confirmed, to my boss. Like I was supposed to do.” She felt the threat of tears coming on from her frustration and anger. “You tied my hands, I couldn’t go to you for fear Matt would be all over my ass.”
He moved in closer to her. God, she could feel the anger radiating from his body. “Are you ever going to stop hurting me? I’m sorry about the abuse when you were little but…”
Hale’s hand connected with his cheek in a loud slap. “Don’t you ever bring that up again.” Her chest heaved and her hand burned. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, I’ve totally lost it. I can’t believe he went there.
Finn rubbed his cheek, watching her, saying nothing.
She was shaking her hand. This had gone way past professional and was now touching on their secrets. “My decision was nothing personal, I did the audit and found a problem. You can think that I’m a terrible person, but don’t ever denigrate the quality of my work.” She couldn’t even verbalize the part about talking about what she went through as a child. She never wanted to discuss that again with anyone.
“I want you off this job.” Finn said through gritted teeth. She could see the outline of her hand forming on his cheek.
“Fine, but you can’t change the outcome. Numbers don’t lie. You have a problem in the Public Works Department and you need to do something about it.”
“Thank you, I know how to do my job.” He glared at her.
God, it had only been two weeks and now they were fighting, again. This isn’t what she wanted. She swallowed her anger and tried to control her breathing. “Finn, I didn’t want to find that. I knew it would cause problems for you and your administration. I kept hoping that I was wrong.” Her voice caught.
“I wish I could believe you, but with our history, I can’t help but think that you are enjoying this just a little.”
God, that jab hurt. “Jesus, Finn, get over yourself.” Hale started pacing with her arms tightly crossed, holding her stomach. “I get that you’re upset. I would be too. But don’t shoot the messenger because you got bad news.” Now she was on a roll. “Did you stop off at Wes and Ina’s, interrupt their dinner to yell at him?”
She stared at him, daring him to utter one word. He kept quiet.
“Didn’t think so. Just because we have a history doesn’t give you the right to come here and unload on me. God, I thought we were past this.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him as she raised her chin. “You want to fire me, then call my boss and tell him. Better yet, call the City Attorney and tell him to call Wes. I bet Moe will be happy to hear that poor Finn is once again the victim of mean ol’ Hale Cameron.”
She could see that he was ready to speak, but she cut him off.
“Get out. I don’t want to hear your shit anymore.” She pointed toward the door.
“I want all of the records returned. You are done.” He stood tall, with his hands on his hips.
“I’ll personally deliver every box of records to your office, with pleasure. Have the paperwork ready and I’ll be more than happy to sign it, anything to be rid of you.” She had run out of steam. Every one of his words had felt like a punch in the gut, it hurt to take in a breath. She made her way to the door and held it open.
Finn didn’t say another word; he simply strode through the open door.
Hale blindly made her way to the table and sat in her chair. She let the tears fall. His reaction totally blindsided her. He was so unreasonable. It hurt that he would think that she would do something to hurt him. God, couldn’t they ever move forward?
The next afternoon, she was driving down the highway heading into town, when Jasmine called. She pressed the Bluetooth button on her console. “Hey Jazz.”
“Still on for tonight?”
“Absolutely, I have to take care of something first, so I should be there around five.” She swallowed the hurt. She had barely slept last night as she worked through all of her emotions.
“Moe told me.”
“Oh. I don’t think he was supposed to. I mean this is really hush, hush.” Hale tripped over the words.
“It’s a part of being the wife of the Managing Partner of Benton and Lee. Moe and Izzy seem to forget that I am in the room during their discussions.”
“Finn fired me last night.” Hale’s voice broke.
“I hope you kicked him in the balls, he’s being a stupid ass.” Jasmine’s anger seeped into her tone.
“I didn’t sleep last night, trying to figure it all out and I can’t.” She could be vulnerable with Jasmine in the safety of her SUV, over the phone. She bit her lip, trying not to cry.
“He’s upset, and I think a little bit scared. This could hurt his career and he is very proud of that.”
“I can see that.” That made good sense, Finn was irrational last night, and maybe it was fear driving his emotions.
“He lashed out because that’s what men do when they can’t control things and they spin out of control.”
“But why me? I didn’t do this to him.” Hale could hear the desperation in her tone. “I thought we were… I thought it was getting better.”
“I don’t know, maybe because he cares about you. Sometimes we hurt the one’s we care about the most. Those lawyer types, they can rip you to shreds with their words.”
Even though she was hurting, Hale heard something
in Jasmine’s words. Had Izzy hurt Jasmine before? All marriages had problems, but had Jazz ever mentioned something like this before? Hale tried to think back through all the years.
“Just so you know, Moe, Matt, Finn, Cecily, and Wes are in a meeting as we speak. Moe is furious with Finn. I imagine that he has had a few words with him today. He certainly deserves it.”
“I spoke with Moe last night and again this morning.” Hale replied. Moe had indeed been furious with Finn and his rash reaction.
“Moe has your back, always. We all do.”
“Thanks.” She hated that once again her friends were pulled into a mess between she and Finn. “I told Finn that I’d only turn the records over to him personally. I want to make him look me in the eye today, while I sign the paperwork.” Hale sounded more confident than she felt. Last night, she’d thought that this was a really ballsy request, but today she worried that it would only give them another opportunity to argue.
“Give him hell.” Jasmine clicked off.
Well, at least she was dressed for it. Ashley described her ensemble as “Diva Bitch.” Hale was wearing a pencil style, black leather skirt that followed the outline of her body perfectly. A red sweater that had a deep-v with sleeves that were extra-long and covered the back of her hands, and her black, stiletto-heeled, knee-high boots completed the “don’t fuck with me” look. She wore her now shoulder length hair with a deep side part. She was dressed to kick some mayoral ass.
When she was stopped at a red light three blocks from the courthouse, she called the mayor’s office. His secretary answered. Hale told her she would be arriving at the back door in three minutes and expected help with the boxes of records. She tried to ignore that her palms were sweating.
She pulled up to the back entrance, which was also used for the handicapped and equipped with ramps, and unlocked the doors to her SUV. “Matt.” She nodded in greeting.
“Hale, this is Jenny, she can help with the boxes.” Matt was already reaching into the back of the SUV.
“Hi Jenny, I’m Hale Cameron.” She smiled at the young woman and held out her hand to shake. She planned on sashaying into the building with her head held high. She’d done a damn fine job and had nothing to be ashamed of.
“Nice to meet you.” Jenny smiled as she shook her hand.
Matt had the trolleys set up and was stacking three boxes onto the first. Hale opened the back passenger seat door to grab her briefcase that held the software and the lists of inventory that she and Ashley had spent the morning preparing.
When she returned to the back of her vehicle, Matt had everything unloaded and packed.
“With your permission, Jenny could park your vehicle, while I escort you to the conference room.” Matt reached for one of the trolleys.
“Certainly, the keys are in the ignition.” She glanced at Jenny, then reached to take one of the trolleys from Matt.
“I can get that,” Matt stated.
“No, I’ve had years of experience moving records.” She started up the ramp.
Matt followed in silence. In the elevator, he pushed the button for the third floor. When the doors opened, Hale followed Matt down the hall. At a wide door, he paused to use his keycard to unlock, then pushed the door open and Hale walked in. It was a small conference room. The table was large enough for six chairs and that was the only furniture in the room.
“The mayor is finishing a meeting, he should be in shortly.”
Hale didn’t reply, she walked to the table and pulled out the closest chair and laid her briefcase on it.
“This is a secure room so if you leave, you will need to ask the mayor’s admin to let you in again.”
“Understood.” It was easy to fall back into the games that executives liked to play. Who would intimidate whom? She had always followed the plan of using as few words as necessary in these instances.
“Do you need anything else?” Matt looked around.
“No, thank you.” She allowed a slight smile to lift the corners of her lips. Jazz called it her bitch-smile.
Matt turned and she watched the door close. She assumed that this conference room was attached to Finn’s office suite. She began to stack the boxes on to the tabletop, with the accompanying inventory sheet in front of each box. Moe had prepared several affidavits, stating that she had turned over all copies of the records and had sent his assistant to the farm to notarize each document.
The minutes ticked by slowly. She had assumed that Finn would make her wait, it was a classic move. However, her phone showed that she had been there for thirty-five minutes. She tried to rein in her irritation. “Stupid power games,” she grumbled
She put her phone away as she heard the door unlock. Finn strode in. He wore a navy double-breasted suit, with a white shirt and red tie. Very conservative. He paused, scanning the table covered with the records.
Earlier she had pulled a chair away from the table and pushed it against the wall so she could lean her butt on the table and watch him. Her body language screamed confidence. This was his office, she would let him speak first.
“I apologize for making you wait. My meeting ran longer than expected, everybody wanted to have their say.” He made a circle with his head, as if he had a kink in his neck.
Hale paused before responding. Finn’s movements communicated that he was feeling stressed. “Well, I had little choice, since I was locked in.” She tried to raise one eyebrow, but she had never mastered that skill, so she tilted her head toward the door.
He chuckled. “You’d be surprised how many people get locked out.”
“Plus, I can’t let the records out of my control.” She glanced over her shoulder to the boxes.
Finn moved closer, he was now leaning his forearms against the back of the chair to her left. “Yeah about that.” He ran his hand through his hair. “This whole thing really caught me off guard.”
Hale made sure that she showed no emotion. She stayed very still and waited for him to continue.
He gave her silence a small smile. “The meeting was with the Executive Council. I’m to tell you that my request for your termination has been withdrawn and we apologize for the inconvenience that you have experienced. Your work is exemplary. We hope that you will continue to work with Wes.”
Emotions flew around her brain, anger, sarcasm, and hurt. She waited for her mind to settle and chose her words very carefully. “What a lovely speech, Mr. Mayor, sir. Were you delayed because Matt had to go over the language with you?”
His eyes widened in surprise, quickly his mask returned. “I admit that I have handled this badly.”
“You think?” Her outrage came through loudly.
“Not only do I think so, but just about everyone who has had the opportunity to tell me, agrees.”
“So, you give a little speech and I’m supposed to simply pack up and go home pretending that nothing happened? In-fucking-credible.” She shook her head.
“I said I handled things badly.” Finn raised his voice a little.
“Yeah, and I might point out that you didn’t apologize for your actions, or your words from last night.”
“I’m sorry for that, too.” He said the words quickly but they didn’t sound sincere.
Was he out of his fucking mind? “Not good enough.” She was tired of being angry. She took a deep breath and hoped that her tone would sound calmer. “Just go through the inventory so that we are done here.”
He didn’t move.
“Finn, if you don’t want to do that right now, then just sign off that you received the boxes so I can get out of here.” She made a move to hand him one of the sheets of paper.
“No,” he wasn’t cooperating.
Fine. If this was the way he wanted to be, stupid, stubborn man. She held out her hand. “Get me my keys, I’m out of here.” She wanted to be done with this.
“Come on, Hale, give me a minute.” He held up his hand in a stop motion.
“Why? You fired me last night after at
tacking my work and me, personally.” She started ticking off the points on her fingers. “After getting no sleep, I spent the day packing and organizing these records. I arrived at the appointed time to return said records and I’ve had to wait. And for what? A half-assed apology that was filled with double-speak, I heard nothing from you, Finn.” She poked his chest with her finger. “You were the one who showed up at my door, spewing ugliness.”
She watched him run his hand through his hair again, a sure sign that he was upset.
“This is so much more than about the books and your precious career. You made this personal and you really crossed the line.” Please don’t let me hit him again. I hate losing my shit, but Christ, he pushes my buttons.
“Just give me a moment. Please?” He turned away and paced to the wall.
Hale hopped up to sit on the tabletop. She crossed her legs and wrapped her arms around her knee, curious to see what he was going to say. “Sure, take all the time you need. I want this to be a really good performance.” She gripped her knee more tightly so that he wouldn’t see her hands shaking.
“I’ve always wanted a career in politics, it’s why I went to law school. My plan had always been to move up to either the governor’s mansion or Washington. I’ve spent years lining up the pieces, then I found that I didn’t want that anymore. I changed my mind. So, I’ve made a new plan and its success depends on my record as a public servant.”
“Finn, it’s a hit, but if you move quickly with an investigation, I don’t think you are going to lose that much ground. I’ve followed your career, you’ve done great work.” Hale meant every word that she said. She was prepared for the sarcastic, wielding words as weapons, Finn. This version threw her off, she wanted to shield him.
“We have a pretty good idea who is responsible for the theft. Hopefully, we can get it resolved quickly.” He continued to pace.
“So, what was the huge disruption to your master plan? What made you rethink your lofty political aspirations?”
He stopped in front of her. “I don’t like how there are no barriers anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in transparency for people in politics, but now the media thinks everything in a politician’s life is fair game.” He sighed. “When Moe brought this mess to my attention, my first thought wasn’t about the town, it was about my career and how the headlines would read. I hate that selfish side of me, thinking about myself first.”
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