Page 36 of Protecting Silver
“Douglas,” Silver was breathless when she said his name. “You done with your stuff?”
“I am, what’s up? Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“To Finn’s, can you come with me?”
“I can.” Patch shut and locked her door, then followed her down the hallway. He had never seen her walk so fast before. “What’s up? You seem like you’re in a hurry.”
“I am.”
“Let me drive. No offense, but you seem distracted and pissed. It’ll be safer for me to drive.”
“Thanks,” Silver said, and waited for him to unlock his truck. After they settled in their seats and Patch pulled out on the road, she looked over at him, and sighed. “Sorry, but that work thing I told you about is about to turn into a nightmare.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“I’d rather wait until we confront Finn. Lorna and Andy will meet us there.” Silver held up her finger and then nodded to no one in particular as she looked at her phone. She seemed to relax after that. Thirty minutes later, Patch slowed down to turn into the road that led to Finn’s home. After he parked, he exited the truck and went around to help Silver down, and they waited as two more vehicles pulled in and parked. Patch recognized Lorna and Andy, but had no clue who the other woman was.
They looked up when Veronica came out of the barn, and thirty seconds later, Finn joined her.
“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Finn asked as he shook both Patch and Andy’s hands, and nodded to the women.
“Can we talk to you?” Silver asked. “I hate to bother you about work on the weekend, but I just had some disturbing news, and we want to nip it in the bud before it goes any further.” Silver looked between everyone, and continued, “That’s why I asked Deb to be here.”
“Ah, sure.” Finn shrugged, then looked at his wife. At her shrug, he pointed for them to go to the house. It took ten minutes for everyone to enter, get settled at the table, and drinks passed around.
“I’m going to get right to the point,” Silver began after taking a sip of her coffee. She put it down and looked around the table. “Early this morning, I got a call from Chad, our printer.” She looked at the people who didn’t work at Larson’s, and explained, “He’s the man we use to print all our invitations to the fundraisers.” At their nods of understanding, she continued, “For the last three years, until only a couple of months ago, I was Lorna’s assistant. Now I’m also an event coordinator, and we have our own fundraisers to deal with. Because of my promotion, Lorna and I hired a woman by the name of Anna Franklin to take over my previous job of assistant. We thought we wouldn’t be busy enough to hire two people at once.”
“That’s right,” Finn spoke. “Are you here telling me that you need a second assistant?”
“No, I’m here to tell you that we need to fire Anna, and hire someone to replace her.” Silver looked at Deb. “She’s still within her ninety days, correct?”
“Correct, and even though it’s a ninety-day probationary period, there still has to be grounds to fire her.”
Silver looked at Lorna, and at her nod, she pushed the folder she’d brought with her over to Deb. “This is what Chad at our printers sent both Lorna and I less than an hour ago.”
“I’ve seen them,” Lorna said. “But, my printer shit the bed, and I haven’t had time to replace it.”
Deb frowned and opened the folder. Everyone watched as she began to read, and her eyes grew bigger, and bigger, until she reached the last one. She looked up and ground out, “Like fucking hell.” Then, without another word, she passed the folder to Finn. They all watched him begin to read, then Ronnie leaned over his shoulder to read. Their reaction to the last e-mail was totally different from Silver’s, Lorna’s, and Deb’s. They grinned and laughed.
“Nope,” Ronnie said. “Not possible. I know my husband is terrific in bed, but he couldn’t have been in two beds at once, because we stayed in last night and spent it together.” She tossed the offending e-mail in the middle of the table where Patch picked it up and read it. He too had a grin on his face.
“What?” Silver frowned at him.
“Finn would never cheat on Ronnie. I’ve known Finn since I was twelve, for over twenty years, this isn’t him.” He waved the paper in the air. Everyone ducked when a squawk rent the air, and flapping wings swooped in, took the paper from Patch’s hand and flew off with it.
“What the hell was that?” Deb asked, after she picked herself up off the floor.
“That was Captain,” Finn grinned. “Veronica’s McCaw.”
“Oh.”
“You’re not offended by this e-mail?” Silver asked.
“Of course, I am. It makes me wonder if Anna is telling our printer that we are sleeping together, what other lies she has been telling other people. I can deal with that on my own, and though I don’t need the backup, I think Veronica and I can handle that e-mail. My main concern right now is the fact that Anna is messing with the Larson Foundation. I know for a fact that invitation she mocked up is a combination of what you and Lorna are working on separately. That is a firing offense. She’s dealing with the reputation of the Foundation, which I won’t tolerate.” Finn turned to Deb with a raised brow. “Right?”
“Correct. It’s proof that it came from her, and how she messed up. I can understand if it was a simple mistake, but when she goes on to explain, or try to explain, that one of her bosses isn’t right in the head, that’s taking it too far. Along with bragging to outside vendors that she’s sleeping with the boss, and is soon to become his wife, I won’t tolerate that type of person working for Larson’s. What time does she get to work on Mondays?”
“It’s supposed to be seven, but so far she rolls in around eight,” Lorna admitted, feeling better. She looked at her best friend with a grin. “I thought I might have to peel you off Finn when you found out what Anna said.”
