Dark Ties (Made Men 9)

Zach pressed the elevator button impatiently. Haley didn’t state the obvious, that she had already pressed the button. She wondered if Zach was in a hurry for any particular reason, or if he was anxious for his own workday to be over.

“Rough day?” he asked.

Haley was tempted to reach for her inhaler at the way he was staring at her, all the tender feelings of inferiority from her childhood threatening to swamp her inwardly. Outwardly, Haley locked her jaw, determined to hide the hurt from the disdainful way Zach was looking at her.

Piqued at his disregard for her feelings, Haley wondered what he would do if her inhaler was used differently than its intended purpose. Visualizing which part of his body she could shove the inhaler up made her feel marginally better. She could be cruel in the punishments she imagined in her head. Unfortunately, she had never acted any of them out. On the other hand, she disliked Zach enough to make an exception.

Zach tilted his head to the side, as if checking to see if anyone was behind them.

“About the same as usual,” she said noncommittedly. “You?” Haley returned politely, not really interested.

“It’s always a rough day when Desmond is waiting for your report.”

Astounded at Zach’s admission, she widened her eyes widened. Even though they had the same employer, they had never discussed the particulars of the job each held. She had never cared enough to ask.

Zach continued on, “He gives us the same amount of time to find out our results as you take for your report.”

Was he complaining that she was making his job more difficult? She only answered to Mr. Beck or Lucas, not Zach.

She patted the pocket in her dress pants, confirming her inhaler was still there.

“Mr. Beck doesn’t give me a timetable.”

“We’re all aware of that—that he won’t rush you.” Zach’s expression became even more disdainful. “We’re the ones who have our jobs put on the line if we fail.”

If anything, his berating was giving her the incentive to go faster.

Biting her lip, she remembered he said team. It would make her year if Zach was fired, but she didn’t want the guilt of anyone else losing their livelihood.

The opening of the elevator door brought their conversation to an end. Haley let Zach press the main floor number as she clenched her teeth, giving him his moment of dominance. She bet he had a three-inch penis.

Turning to face him, she made sure she understood what he was saying. “So, when I submit my finding to Mr. Beck, he expects the others on your team to be finished with their own findings for him?”

“Correct,” he snapped rudely. “You are capable of understanding something other than numbers.”

Haley patted her inhaler again.

Zach was sinking further and further in her opinion.

Putting her dislike of him aside, she concentrated on the people on his team. In the years she had been working for Mr. Beck, Lucas, nor any of the other employees, had given any hint that their workload depended on her schedule.

“Then …” It clicked into place why the man sharing the elevator with her was being so nasty to her tonight, and why the other workers whom she came into contact with remained aloof. She wasn’t as unlikeable as she perceived herself to be. Her unpopularity was all Mr. Beck’s fault. “You’re working late because I am.”

“Jeez, you think so?” he drawled out sarcastically. “Nothing gets past you, does it? I just told you that.”

His insulting behavior might make some other coworkers, or his wife, upset—Haley hadn’t missed the wedding ring on his finger when he had pressed the elevator buttons—but she just let it slide off her back. Mercifully, Zach’s behavior scored a one on her internal troll meter. She had cut her teeth on being the recipient of bullying from her family members, and boarding school had finished her indoctrination to just how mean and cruel others could be with their insults.

When the elevator came to a stop, Zach reached to the control panel, pressing the button to keep the elevator door closed. “When do you expect to complete the project? I need at least until Monday to get the leg work done on Owens’ background check.”

Haley pursed her lips, thinking. When Desmond Beck had hired her, he had demanded her loyalty. She didn’t owe loyalty to Zach. She didn’t even like the dude, especially after the disrespectful way he was treating her. He had never so much as gone out of his way to offer her a donut that she had seen him carrying into the breakroom on a few of the past occasions when she had worked in Queens City. She was pretty sure if she were as attractive as Nadia, she would have been offered donuts and coffee despite Beck’s pressuring him to remain on schedule with her. She was more bitter about the donuts than the insults he handed out so freely. Damn, she adored donuts. Her size-fourteen hips were proof enough that she would have appreciated the sweet treasures.