"I seen you talking to the police." The gruff voice ignited every synapse in her brain. "Told you, keep your mouth shut!"
"About what? Who are you-"
"You're gonna pay!"
Shay stabbed the end call button and jerked the earphones from her head. Yet she didn't feel as panicky as she had the first time. The jittery sensation tingling her nerve endings was more like the revulsion she'd felt that time a boy at school had dropped a slug down the back of her tee. It disgusted her but she wasn't actually hurt.
Sliding her chair back from her desk, she ignored for the moment the two new calls rolling onto the waiting list. She smoothed her hands up and down her sweater-clad arms, feeling a chill at odds with the bank's overzealous heating.
The caller had made a new threat. Don't talk about what? Eric? Too late.
Only Eric wouldn't know that.
She was certain Eric had hired some lowlife to track her moves. It was the only explanation. This way, he wouldn't be directly connected to the harassment. So like Eric to do things from on high.
He wanted her to submit.
Or she could run away.
Running away. She'd been doing that half her life. Hiding, staying small, not wanting to draw too much scrutiny for fear people would learn her secrets and pull away.
Only James hadn't. He'd listened and not judged so much as let her be. He was urging her to fight back. And maybe she would, when he came back.
Shay sat up straight in her chair and reached for her earphones. Eric Coates could go straight to Hell without passing Go.
* * *
"There she is."
Shay paused just inside the bank's entrance. She'd been out having her lunch.
Eric stood on the main floor with two female bank employees.
"Come here, Ms. Appleton!" Her name echoed in the bank's cavernous space, drawing every eye in the lobby.
Shay clenched her jaw, refusing to even try to smile as she approached. "Yes, Mr. Coates?"
Eric held his head at an angle that allowed him to glare down at her. "Did you answer an IT customer call this morning from Mrs. Elsa Leggett?"
"Yes. I-"
"Your actions reflected poor judgment and an indifferent attitude concerning this bank's policies."
"What are you-"
"Not here." He actually used his hand in a slashing motion to cut her off. His face was cold, the muscles locked in an emotion she recognized as anger, if not the reason for it. "Come with me."
The curt words were spoken with such viciousness Shay couldn't quite believe it. Usually he hid his contempt behind an amiable façade. Unless he'd been drinking. The two employees he'd been chatting with darted speculative glances at her as they moved rapidly away.
The ride up one floor was more than long enough for Shay to feel her fried egg sandwich begin to go rancid in the nervous gush of acid flooding her stomach. She didn't look at Eric but stared at the dully gleaming panels of brushed metal before her. She used the tense silence to try to calm her nerves and prepare for a fight.
Something had gone wrong. But she had followed bank policy. He might be angry but whatever happened as a result of that call was not her fault.
The elevator didn't stop on two but continued. She didn't glance Eric's way but kept her eyes on the numbers until they reached the top floor, where the top bank brass had offices. How had she not noticed that he had put a key in the elevator pad that would allow them to take it to the top floor?
Once off the elevator, with Eric in the lead, they bypassed several empty offices. Senior management must still be at lunch, she thought absently, and followed him straight toward the president's boardroom. Had he convened a meeting to deal with her supposed bank policy infraction, whatever it might be? She squared her shoulders, readying to defend herself.
Eric used a key to unlock the door. He pushed it open and indicated that she should enter. She was in the room before she realized they were alone. She turned around, but he was there, blocking the door.
"Have a seat, Shay. No one will bother us here."
Shay watched him lock the door, her heart starting to pound. She hadn't seen this coming. She was so certain Eric would not make a move on her at work.
"Lunch hour's almost over." She was glad to hear her voice was steady. "People will be returning to the floor soon."
His mouth sketched a smile. "You think you know everything. There's a banking convention in town. The keynote speech should be under way. No one wanted to miss it. I'm supposed to be there, with other senior staff. However, I volunteered to hold down the fort today. So for at least another hour, it's just you and me."
That shark grin. She felt the ground shifting beneath her feet. But he mustn't know how rattled she was.
"What do you want?" She stared right back at him until he looked away.
"Have a seat, Shay. You're always in a hurry. Except when it counts." He was staring at her with a strange look of triumph that tugged at his mouth.
"I'll stand." She moved to put more of the length of the expensive mahogany inlaid board table between them. Behind the table, the skyline of Raleigh stretched out like an IMAX theater screen. The long wall of glass was a little dizzying for anyone afraid of heights. She wasn't. She scooted to the far side of the table.
Eric moved more slowly, slipping out of his suit coat and hanging it on a chair back. His fingers slipped over either shoulder, smoothing out phantom wrinkles.
"You said this was about that call and following bank policy. That's what I did."
He waved off her words with a hand. "What am I to do about you, Shay Appleton? You no longer answer my calls or show any respect for my feelings." He slanted a dark look her way. "You prefer your new blue-collar boyfriend. What should I do about that?"
"Forget about me. You have someone else." For once, Shay swallowed the defiant words that flowed through her thoughts. Maybe if she pandered to his ego, he'd be satisfied. "You're going to marry a senator's daughter. You're handsome, wealthy. Any woman-" She ground to a halt, choking on the insincere words.
"Any woman but you? That wasn't always true. There was a time when all I had to do was call and you came trotting after me like the little bitch you are."
Shay lifted her chin. "Open the door, Eric. You've made your point. I'll leave Halifax Bank today and you'll never see me again."
"Yes. That's exactly what you're going to do. But not until we settle up."
He was moving toward her and she was backing up. Nowhere to go, of course. The only way out was through locked doors. The more she backpedaled the more frightened she became. Mouse in a maze.
"I've tried to reason with you. Tried to be nice and charming. Tried to please you. But there's no pleasing some bitches."
Shay moved to a corner of the window and glanced out, not knowing what she expected to see. There was no escape that way.
"There's only one thing I want from you. One last fuck. You can relax and enjoy it, or you can just take it. It's up to you."
Shay stopped. His words didn't shock her. They focused her. "Is that what this is about? You want to get in my pants one more time. Not. Going. To happen."
She didn't move away as he came toward her. She let all her anger burn through the fear. When he touched her face, she knocked his hand away. With an expletive, he grabbed her breast and twisted it painfully.
Gasping in pain, she turned into him and brought her knee up quick and hard.
She heard him grunt in agony but she was jerking free of his grasp and racing to where he'd left his jacket hanging. She'd seen him drop the key into a pocket. She snagged it, searching madly for it as she headed for the door.
She was shocked that he staggered up as she stuck the key in the lock. He grasped her by the hair and pulled so hard she saw stars. But the key had turned. She was almost free.
She shoved an elbow into his ribs but he caught her and spun her around, twisting his hand in her hair.
She gasped from the pain but made herself look up and hold his gaze. "I will fight you, Eric. I never did that before but I will now. I swear I'll scratch and bloody you, make you bruise and bloody me. And then I'll go downstairs and stand in the middle of the lobby and scream the place down around your ears. Rape. Rape!" She shouted the word the second time, loud and harsh.
His expression turned so ugly she thought for a second he was going to hurt her anyway. Then he suddenly swung away, freeing her.
He leaned back against the wall, his tie askew and his face mottled with rage. "You won't win, you little bitch. I still have many ways of ruining you. So run along. Back to your temporary life. I'm going to make it perfectly clear to your boss that, due to your ill-handling of certain matters today, Halifax Banking Corporation and all of its subsidiaries will no longer hire Logital Solutions employees in any capacity in the future."