Page 5 of Bearing North
“I’d like to visit the pipeline,” he blurted. “I want to see the whole thing.”
Sandra and Alexandra both stared. “Theentirepipeline?” Sandra asked hesitantly.
Orson remembered at that moment that the project was protectingeight hundred milesof pipeline, and he’dalreadylooked like an idiot for suggesting that they send people out to respond to situations three hours from a station as needed. Traveling eight hundred miles of Alaska was not going to be a breezy day trip, and it only emphasized that he didn’t have the slightest idea what he was doing.
No, wait, this is perfect!
It would give him a chance to familiarize himself with Alaska, it would get him out of the office so he didn’t do anything dumb on his first week. And best of all… Orson pointed to Alexandra. “You’ll come with me!” He didn’t make it a question, turning back to Sandra so he wouldn’t second guess his impulsive imperiousness. “I want to stop and see all our projects along the way. Make any necessary travel arrangements,” Orson told her boldly, not daring to suggest what they would be. Would a dog sled be best? He hadn’t seen any snow, but it was probably colder the further north they got.
Alexandra gave one of those weird, theatrical giggles that didn’t actually sound amused. “Tee hee hee. You’re the boss,” she said lightly. “When do you want to leave?”
“Tomorrow morning,” Orson said firmly. “As early as possible.”
Sandra was typing on her keyboard. “I’ll book you a flight to Valdez first thing. A company truck will be available for you there. You can detour to our mine construction security project outside of Tok, and from there drive through Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. I’ll book you a flight back down from Deadhorse. It will be four nights, five days in total.”
Four nights? And worse… Val-deez? Oh, damn, Orson realized that he had been saying it Val-dehz this whole day and no one had corrected him. Was it a sign that they were afraid of him? That was what he wanted, wasn’t it? Dang, what would Peter do?
“Good work, Sandra,” Orson said as gruffly as he could manage. “Miss Vex, will you need a ride to the airport?”
“I will not,” she said through gritted teeth.
Was she mad that he had ordered her to come with him? Just as Orson doubted the soundness of this plan, she followed it with a fake sounding, “Tee hee hee,” and fluttered her eyelashes. “See you bright and early!”
Orson fled to his office and shut the door, sinking into the chair to put his head in his hands.
What had he gotten himself into?
4
ALEXANDRA
Alex was still holding her empty snarling bear coffee cup, and she nearly smashed it when she put it down on Sandra’s desk. “I’d rather punch him in the nose than get stuck in a truck with him for eight hundred miles.”
“You’re doing fine,” Sandra assured her. “You just have to charm him. It’s going to be perfect! This is exactly what we want!”
Alex tugged at her skirt. “I feel like a floozy and giggle like an underpaid clown. How is this in any way exactly what we want?”
“This is your chance to get close to him! A long road trip, lonely hotels together…”
Alex stared at Sandra. “Do you want me to seduce him?!”
“If you want to, sure—I mean, the guy is hotter than butter sizzling on a griddle! But I meant you should find his weaknesses and maybe figure out how to blackmail him into keeping you on. If that means sleeping with him, I’m sure that wouldn’t be so bad.” She fanned herself suggestively.
Alex usually trusted Sandra’s advice. They had come up in the company together, taking dispatcher jobs within a few weeks of each other, and she’d always been a loyal and steadfast friend.
But this was too much!
It wasn’t that it wouldn’t be fun to seduce him—whatever flaws Orson Davison had, he was sex on a stick and it would not be a hardship to peel his clothing off and see him naked—but Alex had standards! Standards that didn’t involve sleeping with her new boss for leverage. “This is already way, way out of my wheelhouse, Sandra. I feel like I should just be…competent and do my best.”
“Oh, honey,” Sandra said pityingly.
Was her bestthatterrible?
“When you do your best, you make everyone around you look bad,” Sandra reminded her. “And Orson Davison is not the kind of guy who wants to look bad. So if you don’t want him to fire you and undo all the work you’ve done for this place, keep smiling like you have been today, and let him call the shots.”
“What if he calls dumb shots?” Alex wasn’t sure Orson was an idiot, but he’d said maybe a dozen words all day that weren’t snorts or grumbles. It could have been arrogance or annoyance, but there was just as much of a chance that it was stupidity.
“Then you quietly fix them and let him save face,” Sandra suggested practically.
