Page 7 of The Law of Attraction
So Brad was holding them to the deadline? No wonder Gavin looked like he was going to piss himself. A week was insane. That was faster than their team had ever taken on any plant before.
“I see,” Olivia said, trying to keep her expression neutral. “How can I help?”
Gavin cast a guilty look in Brad’s direction before answering. “Normally, I’d go out there with Cortinas and handle the commercial systems side of the integration myself.” Gavin’s eyes darted briefly to Adam, whose face was utterly blank. He might not even have been listening. For all Olivia could tell, he was composing a grocery list in his head or silently reciting the Animaniacs nations of the world song.
“The thing is,” Gavin went on, “my wife’s due date is in two weeks, and the doc thinks they might need to induce early. Which means I can’t leave town right now.” His gaze settled on Olivia. “So I’m sending you to Texas with Cortinas instead.”
She felt her eyes widen. Everyone was staring at her—including Adam now. She swallowed and forced herself to take a slow breath through her nose before venturing to speak. “When?”
“Tomorrow,” Gavin said.
“And we’re supposed to have the plant online when?”
It was Brad who answered this time. “Friday midnight.”
Four days. Not even four days. With travel time, it was more like three and a half.
She considered her words carefully before speaking. “I’ll need to do some research before I can say with any confidence whether—”
“Look, I’m briefing the board in an hour,” Brad said, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. “I just need to know if this can be done or not.”
Olivia tried again. “Sorry, that’s what I was about to say. I’ll need to know more before I can make that commitment. Can we wait a half day before talking to the board?”
“It’s feasible,” Adam said, speaking up for the first time. “I’ve done it this fast before.”
Olivia shot a glare at him. “Yes, but we don’t even know the characteristics of this plant, or what shape its gear is in. We need more information before we can—”
“Sure, and you can do that research on the plane,” Gavin interrupted. “Cortinas is the one with the most experience here, and I trust his opinion. If he says we can do it, we can do it.”
Of course. The rock star had just declared they could do it, which meant no one was going to listen to Olivia or her concerns. Why should they? She’d never done this before. Adam was the expert, and he was confident.
Brad looked pleased. “Exactly what I wanted to hear! Thank you all. Keep me posted on how things are progressing, Gavin.” He stood, sweeping his phone and tablet off the table, and exited the conference room before anyone could say anything else.
“Great,” Gavin said, looking relieved. “Glad that’s settled. You two will fly out first thing tomorrow. That’s not a problem, is it?”
“Nope,” Adam said, and lifted a quizzical eyebrow at Olivia.
“Not a problem at all.” She forced a smile, trying to project more confidence than she felt.
Gavin pushed his chair back and headed for the door. “Good luck, you two. You’re gonna need it.”
Olivia’s guts churned as she watched him walk away. A commitment to the board of directors that she wasn’t even sure she could meet, and daily reports to the boss that would be relayed to the CIO, if not higher—she’d wanted more responsibility and exposure, but this felt more like an ambush than an opportunity. Like she was being set up to fail.
“You okay there, Woerner? You’re looking a little shell-shocked.” Adam’s expression was so smirky it made her insides burn. If her arms had been long enough, she’d have reached across the table and slapped it right off his face.
And then immediately be fired.
She breathed out through her nostrils for a count of three while she tried to come up with a retort that wouldn’t be reportable to human resources. When that failed, she elected to take the high road, getting to her feet and walking out without a word.
If this was a preview of what the rest of the week would be like, she would need every ounce of patience she could muster just to keep herself from murdering him and hiding his body in a cow pasture.
Chapter Three
LAX on a weekday morning was a special kind of hell. LAX at any time was a hellscape, but apparently every business traveler in the greater Los Angeles metro area was flying on this particular Tuesday morning.
Olivia was glad she’d gotten there early. She always liked to get to the airport early to head off any unanticipated problems, like extra-long security lines or broken check-in computers—both of which had been in play this morning.
But she had successfully navigated the airport gauntlet with time to spare, and was through security and waiting at her gate forty-five minutes before boarding. She’d even had time to stock up on snacks and water in one of the airport shops.
