So Tough to Tame (Jackson Hole 3)

“And nobody will ever hire you again if you leave here under bad circumstances.”

She knew that, too. She had to stick this out. Just for a little while. Just until the memory of what had happened in Tahoe began to fade from sight. If she could work here for a year or two, she could send out some quiet feelers. Maybe somewhere farther east.

“You need to make this work, Charlotte. And I’m happy to help you, but I expect a little more cooperation on your part. You’re being nasty today. I’m not sure what’s gotten into you....” She swept a hand down to indicate the sexy black pencil skirt Charlie had dared to wear. “But you need to watch your attitude.”

Charlie took a deep breath. She did need to watch it. Dawn was her boss whether Charlie liked it or not.

“And stop fraternizing with male management.”

“That drink with your husband was just a drink. He was reviewing the restaurant menu, and—”

“Of course it was just a drink,” Dawn snapped.

Charlie wanted to scream with frustration. She was at a complete loss here. What could she do but scream? She breathed deeply, trying to let the feeling go. Finally she opened the laptop on her desk. “I need to get to work.”

“You do. Is everything going to be ready?”

Charlie nodded. The resort’s grand opening was in three weeks. Charlie had been so determined to make a good impression that she was ahead of schedule, but she wouldn’t slack off now. For one thing, staying busy kept her mind off her desire to drop everything and race out the front doors.

“All right, I’ll be back to check on you later.”

“I know,” Charlie said under her breath. Dawn checked on her several times a day. And probably had several times a night, too, before Charlie had moved out of the resort apartment.

“I’ll leave your door open,” Dawn said breezily as she walked out on her five-hundred-dollar heels. Charlie couldn’t help being jealous of the gorgeous shoes. She was going to don heels as soon as she got home.

Her hangover was starting to fade, at least. Probably the rush of adrenaline from wanting to strangle Dawn. She grabbed herself a cup of coffee, poured in tons of cream and sugar and sat down with her simplest task: background checks of every employee that would be hired before opening day. She’d tweaked nearly every camera in the resort, though a few were still waiting to be installed, and there wasn’t much monitoring to be done at this point. But the background checks were piling higher every day.

The last thing any hotel manager needed was a maintenance man or bellboy with a history of theft or sexual assault. A high-end place like this was hypervigilant about reputation. Charlie was more concerned with actual safety, but luckily, those two concerns coincided.

She’d insisted on installing m

ore cameras in the employee areas than had originally been planned. That had been commonplace at gambling resorts where management considered employee theft an important target, but Charlie had found that just as often those tapes could be used to weed out gross managers who harassed their female employees. There were few things more satisfying than showing incriminating video to some asshole who thought he could act with impunity because his employees were women who barely spoke English. The back rooms of hotels were called the heart of the place, and she liked to do her part to stick to the spirit of that term.

But for now, with the employee halls mostly empty, it was time for the mind-numbing task of background checks.

An hour later, her mind was sufficiently numbed. Her headache had vanished and the three cups of coffee had cleared the haze. Charlie set aside the two applicants whose checks had set off alarm bells. She’d press a little harder on those after lunch, but first she had a more personal investigation to pursue.

The surveillance room was a vivid cave of darkened lights and bright video feeds that would have devastated her sore head an hour before, but she was ready for it now. Eli, one of the security guards, was stationed in the room but he was working a crossword puzzle. If the resort were up and running, Charlie would’ve read him the riot act, but right now he was a bit superfluous.

“Hey, Eli. Why don’t you get out of here? Make the rounds of all the current construction areas just so they know you’re around.”

“Got it,” he said, giving her a quick nod of deference. Sometimes security guys could get shitty and macho about working for a young woman, but she’d managed to assemble a good team so far. She didn’t know how long that would last, though. Dawn’s disrespect would start filtering down. Charlie had to figure out what was going on with that woman and stop it before it spread.

Once Eli was gone, Charlie called up the video feed for the corridor that led to her studio on the first floor. Her place was near the elevators for easy access, so the camera was only a few yards from her door.

She fast-forwarded, flying through hours of video. When the tape showed 11:05 p.m., Dawn appeared in the hallway, and Charlie slowed the tape. She wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Dawn knock on her door, then knock again. She was surprised to see her try the doorknob, as if Charlie would leave her place unlocked, or, more importantly, that she’d be okay with her boss opening her door uninvited.

When the door didn’t budge, Dawn stared down at the knob for a long while. She glared at it, then turned to look directly up at the camera.

The skin on Charlie’s arms drew tight as goose bumps sprang to life.

On the video, Dawn frowned and then walked away. Charlie backed up the tape and paused it.

This wasn’t the kind of video they used at the local convenience store. This was crisp and digital. She could clearly see the tightness around Dawn’s eyes. The furtive line of her mouth.

Charlie stared her down.

People were always surprised that Charlie was in security, but these days it wasn’t about big, burly guys with concealed handguns. Well, it wasn’t only about them, though they certainly had their place in the ecosystem. These days it was more about prevention than enforcement. Charlie could read people. She could anticipate. She could pick up on interference that disturbed the flow of normal traffic. On small tells that revealed intentions.