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It only took two minutes to get her jacket from the back of her seat and the bag she’d tucked under the table. She logged off her computer.
She turned. The office was so quiet she would have heard her now ex-colleagues blinking—if they weren’t all staring totally bug eyed at her. Wow, the ones down the far end had actually risen out of their chairs to get a better look. What on earth was going on?
She tossed her head, determined to hide the freak-out thudding of her heart. So what if her cheeks were purple with embarrassment—she could still walk, right? OK, it was a run/walk to the door and after that she basically threw herself down the stairs, letting the adrenalin fly to her feet.
The recruitment agency was only a ten-minute walk away. Dani did it in seven. Red cheeked, breathless, trying to suck up the desperation pouring out of her.
Then she had to wait ten extra-long, make-you-sweat minutes.
‘What’s the problem with my file?’ Dani asked as soon as she was shown in.
‘There are a couple of issues.’ The agent wouldn’t look her in the eye. ‘One is misconduct.’
Misconduct? Dani frowned, that she hadn’t expected. ‘What kind of misconduct?’
The woman smiled then—it wasn’t a kind smile. ‘Have you seen this?’ She angled her computer screen so Dani could see it.
Dani gripped her bag, pushing it hard on her lap as she waited for the clip to start playing. Why was she being shown a vid on YouTube? What was this all about?
She squinted at the black-and-white grainy images. Oh, no. It couldn’t be.
Not her.
Not him.
OMG—it was! Alex Carlisle and her, Dani Russo, locking lips in that damn lift. Oh, more than locking lips. There was neck kissing, and touching and moving.
Heat prickled all over her body. From every pore popped a painful drop of blood. How had this happened? This just had to be a joke. Was she in a reality TV show and she didn’t know it?
‘Where did you get that?’ she whispered, knowing she was damned.
‘It was emailed to us. I believe it’s been circulated around the company already.’
So that explained the staring, then. The embarrassment engulfed her, swamping the spark of anger she’d felt before.
The agent didn’t stop the clip playing, just sat blandly waiting. Three and a half minutes of absolute agony. Dani couldn’t look away from the screen. Had they been so passionate? Had she really jumped on him like that? Had she been so hungry? And what was that awful music?
Not going to cry. Not going to cry.
She hadn’t in years. And she wouldn’t, not ‘til she was alone.
Finally it ended. Dani couldn’t look at the woman.
‘But this isn’t why we’re unable to place you in another position.’
Dani didn’t understand. ‘Pardon?’ Still shocked.
‘This was obviously a mistake and an embarrassing one, but we can deal with it with a simple warning.’ The agent couldn’t be crisper. ‘Not on work time, not on work premises. Understand?’
Dani just nodded. Still unable to process what she’d just seen—they’d been filmed? How was that possible?
‘The reason we’ve had to pull you from the job is because we haven’t been able to get your school records verified.’
Dani jerked. Her school records? How were they relevant? She had banking qualifications that totally surpassed her achievements at school. Plus she had her security clearance from the Australian bank she’d worked at for the last three years—surely that was far more important than verifying her school-leaver’s certificate?
‘I can call the school,’ she said. ‘I can get them to fax whatever you need.’
‘No, that’s fine. We’ll keep trying.’ The woman smiled sharply. ‘But until we do get it, we can’t put you into another placement.’
It was then that Dani knew and understood. They weren’t trying to contact the school; even if they did there would be some other obstacle that would arise. This was about that video—her fooling with the boss and getting caught. The school-records thing was an excuse. The walls were up. Her anger surged then, pushing back the embarrassment. ‘I can go to other agencies?’
‘Of course.’ The woman smiled. ‘But you might encounter the same problem.’
Dani looked at the computer screen again. Yeah, that was the real problem. She could see how many hits the clip had had. Too many just to be the bank staff and this agency—even if they had watched it over and over as she was quite sure some of those sleazy bankers had. No, this one had been doing the rounds; it would be a source of great amusement for anyone in the industries—both finance and recruitment. Alex Carlisle proving his legendary swordsman status with a temp at work.
There was nothing for it but to make a dignified exit. No way could she win this battle here and now. She needed to withdraw and come up with some kind of strategy.
She stood, stuck a small smile on her numb face. ‘Thank you for letting me know. Please get in touch when you get my record confirmed. I’d like to get working as soon as I can.’
‘Of course.’ The agent stood and saw her to the door.
It was a complete fiction. They both knew they were never going to talk to each other again.
‘You can collect your wages for the last couple of days from Reception.’
Dani made for the nearest café and ordered the biggest blackest coffee they made. She closed her eyes. The money she had would last less than a week. Her whole aim had been to work while she hunted because she hadn’t wanted to wait any longer before trying to find him. But she had to be able to eat—to pay for her accommodation, and to pay for the search. How on earth was she going to find Eli now? How was she going to keep the promise she’d made to her mum?
It had been her final request—she’d given up that precious secret only in her last few days and it was the one last thing Dani could do for her. Dani wanted to honour that promise more than she wanted to do anything. And if she found him, it would be like having a part of her mother back.
She called a different agency. Then another. But once she’d told them the kind of work she wanted, then told them her name, the ‘our books are full’ line got handed to her. Was she going to have to move cities to get another job? She didn’t even have the bus fare, and the best finance jobs for her were here. Or they had been. Now she was screwed.
Her anger fired even higher. What about Alex Carlisle? What about his misconduct? Had he been given a ‘warning’—she bet there was no way he’d have got the sack. Oh, no—he’d just ensured he had a peaceful work environment again. She wasn’t around to embarrass him anymore.
There was one person responsible for this. One person who owed her. One person who was going to pay.
Alex Carlisle was getting the bill.
‘Kelly, I need you.’ Alex called his PA into his office. ‘The temp who was working on the Huntsman project last week—’ He broke off. His super-efficient PA had a touch more colour to her cheeks than usual. But her brows lifted as if she were vaguely mystified.
As if.
‘Temp?’
‘Yes. Short, brunette bob.’ Alex winced, hating to have to reveal that he didn’t know her name. He watched Kelly’s lips purse and sighed, frustrated. ‘You’ve seen the clip, haven’t you?’ Now he felt his cheeks heating.
Kelly dropped the ‘no idea’ look and nodded. ‘Yes. She no longer works here.’
‘How come she’s no longer working here? That project is months off completion.’ Alex found he couldn’t meet Kelly’s eyes. Hell, what a mess. He’d never compromised himself at work like this. Socially for sure—he liked to play. But not at work. Kelly had worked for this company for more years than he’d been alive. She’d worked with Samuel, and his father before him. A Carlisle loyalist. There was nothing in the business that she didn’t know. Alex remembered her giving him paper as a kid to entertain him while he waited for Samuel and him making darts to shoot at people walking past. T
he severe look she was giving him now wasn’t so different from the one she’d given him then.
‘I know,’ Kelly said quietly. ‘But there’s a new temp now.’
Alex looked at her then, hearing the soberness in her voice. He didn’t like the censure in her eyes, either. ‘I think you’d better send Jo to see me.’
Kelly disappeared and Jo, the head of HR, was knocking at his door in less than a minute. Alex walked over to meet her. ‘The temp that we had working on the Huntsman project last week—where is she?’
Jo looked distinctly uncomfortable. ‘The temp?’
‘Yes,’ he growled. ‘You know the one I mean.’
‘Yes.’ Of course she did. ‘Her services were no longer required.’
‘But there’s a new temp out there now.’ He’d walked through the floor as soon as he’d got in, run the gauntlet of knowing looks and smiles only to be completely disappointed when it had been some blonde at the desk and not the little brunette who’d been haunting him for days. ‘So why did you get rid of the other one? On whose authority? For what reason?’ He rapped out the questions, the nasty feeling in his gut growing.
Jo looked even more uncomfortable. ‘It was the recruitment agency. They phoned and said they’d made a mistake with her file. They hadn’t been able to verify her school qualifications so they pulled her.’
Alex stared at her, anger churning. ‘So she’s no longer working for the agency?’
‘No. I don’t believe she is.’
It was his turn to take a deep breath—he had to force his jaw apart to do it. ‘They couldn’t verify her school qualifications?’ Alex shook his head. ‘But we had security clearance for her? And proof of her banking exams?’
‘Yes.’
So the records meant diddly, then. If she had her banking qualifications, then they didn’t need to verify any other records—she couldn’t have got the bank ones if she hadn’t had the school ones. It was a trumped up excuse to get rid of her.
‘So it wouldn’t have had anything to do with this?’ He strode to his desk and spun his computer screen round so the image he’d paused it on was viewable from her side of the room.
His head of HR went beet red.
