Page 137 of The Morning After (Savannah 2)

She was steamed as she cleaned out her desk. The gall of Tom Fink. In league with Norm Metzger, that slimeball. Why she had expected more, she didn’t know, but she had.

“This is a mistake,” Trina said, rolling back her chair. “You’re tired. You’ve suffered a tremendous loss and yeah, Norm and Tom are jerks, but you don’t want to quit.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Nikki threw a jumble of pens and a notepad into the smallest of the three dilapidated boxes she’s procured from the mail room. “I’ve wanted to get out of here for a long time. Now I have an excuse.”

“But you need this job.”

“No one needs this job,” she said as she tossed in two coffee mugs, a nameplate and her Rolodex.

“What’s going on?” a male voice asked from behind her and she nearly jumped out of her chair.

Kevin, earphones in place, was only a foot behind her. “God, don’t you ever knock?” she said and when he didn’t get the joke, didn’t bother to explain.

“Nikki quit,” Trina said.

“Quit? You?” His dark eyes flashed.

“That’s right. Time for a change,” she said and noticed Norm Metzger lurking on the other side of the stub wall.

He peered over the top, only his eyes and forehead showing.

“I’ve thought a lot of things about you over the years, Gillette, but I never figured you for a quitter.”

She was bristly. Tired. On the edge, but she bit back a retort about what he could do with himself. “Guess you were wrong,” she said as she swept some papers and files from the last drawer and dumped them into the largest of the boxes surrounding her desk chair. She dusted her hands. “That about does it.”

“Don’t you have to give two weeks’ notice?” Kevin asked and she offered him a pained, I-don’t-believe-I-just-heard-that expression.

“If Tom wants, I’ll come in every day and warm this chair, but, really, I imagine he’ll be glad I’m not here in his face.”

“I just can’t believe you’re going.” Trina’s usual smile was missing and her eyes were stone-cold sober. “Things won’t be the same.”

“Maybe they’ll be better.” Nikki winked at her.

“Yeah, right.”

“Need a hand with the boxes?” Kevin asked and Nikki nearly took him up on his offer, then thought better of it. “Thanks. I think I can manage.”

“That’s what I like about you,” Norm said. “Belligerent to the end.”

“Stuff it, Metzger.” She slung the strap of her purse over one shoulder and picked up the largest of the boxes, then met Trina’s gaze. “I’ll call you later,” she promised and vowed that she would do just that as she marched down the hallway and to the outside door where the afternoon was already dark, evening quick approaching.

She finished loading and started out of the parking lot just as her cell phone rang. Wondering if Reed were calling, she checked Caller ID and saw her parents’ number on the display that also indicated her battery life was nearly depleted.

“Hello?” she said as she eased out of the parking lot for the last time.

“Nikki?” her mother asked, her voice faint, the connection faltering.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Nikki…it…it’s your father.”

Charlene sounded so tenuous. So unsure.

“What about Dad?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Is he sick?” Her heart rate kicked into high gear. “What about him?”

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