Page 32 of Bare
The only good thing about the ten of swords was that, once you were down, there was really only one way to go. Another good thing about tarot was that it was just information from the universe. Fate brought what it would, but the cards didn’t dictate a person’s response. Each person owned that. In her view, when facing a bull, it was always better to grab it by its horns. Yes, itwas dangerous, but she’d rather face trouble head-on than run and get stabbed in the back.
But that didn’t make grabbing the bull easy.
Her heartbeat filled her ears. The room seemed to fall away, and it was just her, perspiration pooling on her neck, legs sweaty and sticking to her pants, wig scratchy on her head, blood rushing in her ears. The table was cool and smooth under her elbows as excuses flitted through her mind. She could tell Armando she hadn’t understood his instructions about not viewing the Moresco files, but he’d been pretty goddamn clear. If she hadn’t understood, she deserved to be fired for sheer stupidity. She could say she’d picked up the files by accident. She had multiple projects, and she was allowed access to the files for other clients. Just not Moresco.
Her mom’s voice shimmered in her mind.
A lie is a weed. If you don’t nip it in the bud, it’ll take over the whole garden.
She’d seen how lies had almost ruined her sister’s relationship with Ryker. The lies had torn them apart and put their lives at risk. The lies hadn’t just taken over Sage’s garden—they’d nearly destroyed it.
Armando had taken her under his wing, welcomed her with open arms, and treated her with kindness. If there was a chance she could keep her job, she wanted a good relationship with him, and any relationship without honesty would be shallow at best. If she didn’t tell Armando the truth, she would lose all his trust, and more importantly, her own self-respect.
She forced her head back up so she could look at Armando directly. “You’re wondering why I was looking at the Penrose paper files when I was supposed to be working on the Girard project, particularly after you specifically told me not to go through any Moresco paper files without your permission.”
She hated the quiver in her voice. Armando had a soft heart. He couldn’t bear tears. They needed to have a professional, direct conversation. She wanted Armando to speak his true mind, not thoughts skewed by a reaction to her distress.
“I was.”
“I guess Lily told you I had the files?”
If Rosemary was lucky enough to keep her job, she was going to have to work with Lily going forward. She needed to know if her suspicions were correct.
Armando plucked a red paisley handkerchief from the outer breast pocket of his suit coat. “Here. Use this for your forehead.”
She’d always assumed colorful handkerchiefs were for decorative purposes only, and the silk felt way too fine to use to mop up the sweat dripping down the sides of her face, but it seemed rude to refuse Armando’s kind offer. Plus, what had started in her scalp as an occasional twitch had turned into a full-blown itch. She dabbed at her forehead and face with the cool material, using the opportunity to scratch along the edges of the wig. When she was done, she tucked the damp cloth into her pants pocket.
“Thank you. I’ll get this cleaned and return it to you.”
Armando waved a tanned hand in a dismissive gesture. “The handkerchief is the least of our worries. Don’t you agree?”
She’d rather discuss the handkerchief, but there was no point in delaying the inevitable. She nodded.
“You can’t blame Lily,” Armando said. “The girl is what she is.”
The “girl” was in her early thirties, but Rosemary didn’t think this was the time to point out the societal and psychological impacts on gender equality of using childlike terms to refer to grown women.
“She didn’t betray your trust,” Armando continued. “She simply scanned the files.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Armando’s heavy ring flashed in the light as he gestured toward the credenza. “All the files have barcodes. As you also know, Lily is supposed to be the only one removing files from or putting files into the file room. She uses a scanner to scan each file and key in the location. So, if Lily were to give you a file, she would scan it and note that it’s in your office. That way, we always know where the files are.”
Realization dawned. “When Lily returned the files I’d taken, she scanned them back in.”
“Like I said. You can’t blame the girl. She is what she is. A creature of habit who can be counted on to follow procedure and scan files back into the file room, which, based on the system, had never left. Our computer systems are set up to detect anomalies. When I confronted Lily, she told me you’d asked her to do you a favor and return the files to the file room. She said she was just doing her job.”
Well, that settled a few of her jangled nerves. Lily hadn’t betrayed her trust after all. Yet, on the shit side, Dante must have been the one who’d reported the anomaly.
Armando was a keen accountant, but technology was not his friend. He was competent with Word, Excel, and the accounting program they used for financials, but creating a program for tracking and reporting file movement was light-years beyond him. Dante was the only one in their small office who had the skill set to do it. And he knew she was the one working on the current Moresco matter.
The betrayal stung, but she understood it. Dante’s primary loyalty was to his family.
Armando sighed. “Lily is a known factor. She follows the rules, does what she’s told, and doesn’t think outside the box. She’s loyal and predictable. That’s why she works here and will continue to work here. Mr. Moresco is an exacting individual. He—and his father before him—have used this firm for more than forty years. I’ve assured him complete privacy and discretion. My word is my pride. I simply cannot and will not have an employee I don’t trust. An employee who could ruin what I’ve spent my life building because she won’t do her job within the perfectly reasonable parameters I’ve set.”
“Do you want an explanation, or do you just want me to pack up my office and go?”
She hadn’t meant to sound so curt, but her patience was waning. Yes, she appreciated this job. Yes, Armando had been wonderful to her. But his rules werenotperfectly reasonable. Her other job had no restrictions on accessing paper copies. Review of original records and a certain amount of confirmatory checking of reported numbers against invoices and other original source documents was actually required when preparing audited financial statements or conducting a forensic accounting analysis. Prohibiting that practice wasnotreasonable.
