Eviscerating the Snake - The Complete Trilogy Read online

  If she called her boyfriend, Jeff, she knew that his machismo Italian temper would get the best of him, and he would head straight up to Olin’s office. That confrontation would most likely end with Jeff beating Olin’s ass to a pulp. Gabrielle smiled a bit through her teary eyes at that thought, envisioning Jeff’s large fist making full contact with Olin’s smug face. However, she knew that the end result would be Jeff getting hauled away to jail and the loss of her job, so that wasn’t a viable option either. She started to dial her mother to ask her advice, but before she finished typing in the last number, quickly slammed her phone shut. She couldn’t bear the thought of dragging her mother into this fracas since it had only been one month since her last chemo treatment.

  Gabrielle finally decided to call Lily, the human resource manager of the firm. She had to keep this job, for no other companies in the city paid near what she was making now and her student loans were astronomical. She didn’t want to have to bail her boyfriend out of jail or cause her mother any more strife. If she told Lily what had happened, surely she would help her and get her assigned to someone else, and quickly.

  As she sat in the parking lot and wept into her phone, she spilled the details to Lily of the hell her life had been for the last three months while being pursued mercilessly by Olin. She felt a sense of relief as she finally told the one person she thought could help her out of this mess while allowing her to keep her job and her dignity. Unfortunately for Gabrielle, she had no idea that Lily was one of Olin’s concubines, and that as each word was excavating the pain from Gabrielle’s heart, they were also digging her own grave at work.

  Last night’s events bounced quickly through Gabrielle’s mind during Olin’s screaming tirade, and she knew right then that Lily had not helped her as she had promised in her calm, little girl voice last night. Lily had turned on her and Olin’s outburst this morning was the confirmation of her betrayal. Gabrielle realized that she was on her own with no one to rely upon but herself, and she had absolutely no clue what her next move should be, other than to put as much distance between herself and Olin as she could, and fast.

  “Mr. Kemper,” Gabrielle said, interrupting Olin’s verbal assault, “since you have no problem berating me in public, I would enjoy nothing more than reciprocating and doing the same thing to you.” Gabrielle spouted, her voice low and deep as she slowly rose from her chair, her humiliation steadying her nerves as she faced him. “However, I will keep the dignity with which I was raised and leave you with this—torture someone else. I quit.” And in one swift move, Gabrielle grabbed her purse from her desk, slung it over her shoulder, and breezed past Olin and all the staring eyes out to the elevator as she decided quickly that money wasn’t worth all this grief any more. Her heels clacking loudly on the floor was the only sound to be heard as the room was as silent as a mortuary, and twenty-five pairs of eyes followed her as she stormed out, the same twenty-five mouths agape in shocked silence, including Olin’s. She felt the heat overflowing from her cheeks but kept her eyes straight ahead as she pressed the button for the elevator and waited for what seemed like hours for the doors to finally open and let her slip away. Once they closed, Gabrielle let out a huge sigh and did her best to fight back the tears that she felt hanging just behind her eyes. She couldn’t lose control of herself now because she had a quick stop to make downstairs at the parking lot attendant’s office as a plan began to form in her raging mind, and she smiled slyly as the elevator quickly took her to the first floor.

  OLIN was livid, as he was not accustomed to anyone walking away from him when he was in full riot mode. He was still roiling over her rejection of him last night, his head and balls still aching from her surprisingly quick response and strength of her getaway, and now she had openly walked away from him in front of everyone, making him look like a pathetic fool.

  That piece of meat is going to pay, and dearly, for this, Olin thought as he did his best to control the volcanic anger rising inside of him.

  It took all his strength to fight the urge to run after her and show her who he really was, just as he had last night. In his mind, he visualized grabbing her by that long hair and flinging her across the room, watching her crumple in a corner in an unconscious heap. He longed to make her scream, to break her will just as he had learned to do to the young, green horses on his step-dad’s farm as a child; by inflicting so much pain, they had no choice but to succumb to his control. He wanted to feel her flesh give way to his strong hands as her hot, sticky blood spewed out of her veins, covering him with its red stain until she moved no more. Instead, he turned and screamed at the still silent, staring employees, “What the fuck are you looking at? Get to work!” He strode back into his office and slammed the door. Fuming, he paced back and forth over his worn rug, clenching and unclenching his fists as he attempted to calm his fury.

  Killing her wasn’t an option no matter how much he wanted it to be. No, he knew better. Besides, once they were dead, the fun stopped. Subjecting people to degradation and humiliation, tearing them down mentally and ruining the rest of their lives, knowing it would be his image that would keep them up at night as they lamented their pathetic lives, was a plan that always proved to be much more enjoyable and longer lasting than wringing the life out them.

  So Olin paced, and planned the utter ruin of Gabrielle.

  In the midst of his internal turmoil, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He yanked it out of his pocket, glanced down and said, “Finally!” as he recognized the number was Reed’s private number.

  “It’s about fucking time! Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you all morning! I assume you have good news about the Sprigg merger issue for me?”

  “No, Olin, I don’t. There is nothing I can do now since it’s been made public,” Reed said, his voice heavy with regret and despair.

  “What the hell do you mean it’s ‘been made public’?” Olin shouted into the mouthpiece as small spurts of spittle flew from his lips.

  “Someone leaked the information to CNN, and the story’s headlining the business section. I haven’t answered your calls this morning, or anyone else’s for that matter. To say we were inundated by local media leeches in Butte would be the understatement of the year. The parking lot is overflowing with news vans and camera crews; some of our employees couldn’t even get out of their cars this morning, it’s been so bad. I’ve ordered everyone that hasn’t made it in yet to stay at home and to not answer phones or doors. We locked the front door, but the sharks are all gathered in front of the windows filming as we speak,” Reed said, his voice cracking from the stress.

  As Reed relayed the morning’s events, Olin had quickly moved to his desk and logged onto CNN, and sure enough, there was the scathing article. Olin’s eyes scanned the article. The words Sprigg Oil & Gas, fraudulent audits, investigation, license revocation, SEC sanctions all made his skin turn clammy and his heart thump heavily in his chest. He knew that the clock was ticking down on his end until all the other partners discovered his dirty little secret—if they hadn’t already—and he needed to figure out his best approach to this mammoth situation.

  “Stay put. Don’t answer any phone calls, and instruct your idiotic employees that if any of them so much as breathe near a reporter, I will have their heads! I will handle this,” he said, the words barely comprehensible as he spoke them through clenched teeth. Slamming his phone shut, he turned his attention back to the article on the screen. He read it slower this time and studied each word, desperate to find something he could point to as a positive for when the inevitable snarling dogs came barking at his door, salivating over the possibility of lapping up some of his blood.

  His earlier tangle with Gabrielle now on the backburner of his seething brain, Olin stared at the words on his computer that quite possibly could end his career, and the reality set in that things were going to become more heated inside than the blistering heat outside.

  GABRIELLE straightened her shoulders and inhaled deeply throug
h her nose, slowly letting her breath out as the elevator doors quietly opened downstairs to the parking deck level. She was doing her best to control her body from shaking as her fury churned inside her. That sorry bastard! I can’t believe he had the stugats to talk to me like that in front of the entire office! He only wishes I had ever sucked his dick! I knew I should have gone straight to the police last night and not called that backstabbing bitch, Lily! Or better yet, I should have just told Jeff and let him take care of him! Her spiked heels clicked harder and harder on the concrete deck with each angry thought.

  She strode over to the small window of the parking lot attendants’ office and attempted to gingerly tap on the window, but it came out more like a loud thud and startled the poor elderly woman inside. A pair of knowing eyes glared back through the glass at Gabrielle and eyed her sharply.

  “Excuse me, ma’am, may I speak with you for a moment?” Gabrielle said in her calmest voice in her attempt to make up for frightening the poor woman. “It won’t take more than a few minutes, I promise.”

  The wizened eyes of the elderly woman softened up when she recognized Gabrielle, and she then smiled brightly, motioning for Gabrielle to come to the door with her claw-like hand.

  She had worked in the miniscule, cramped space for over twenty years now and had witnessed a vast array of crazy things that happened in the parking deck during the time that she had sat perched atop her teeny chair. Gabrielle returned her warm smile and walked over to the door and stepped inside the miniscule space, marveling at how closed in she felt in just a few seconds. The thought fleetingly crossed her mind that she would go stark raving mad if she ever had to be so confined for more than a few minutes.

  She extended her hand and started to introduce herself, but before she could get out any information other than her name, the woman interrupted her, saying, “Oh yes, dear, I know you. You drive the black Mustang and work at Winscott and Associates. I been ’spectin’ you.”

  Gabrielle was immediately taken aback and involuntarily yanked her hand away. She recovered quickly from her shock and stammered, “Um, I’m sorry to be rude, but how did you know that?”

  In her thick southern drawl that made Gabrielle envision her as a character from a Mark Twain novel, the attendant replied, “I make it my business to know everythin’ that goes on in my deck during my shift, honey. I remember every face and the car that is attached to it. That way, I can spot trouble when I see it; and believe me child, I’ve seen my share of troubles over the years through this here thin glass.”

  Gabrielle couldn’t stop the chuckle that escaped her full lips as she said, “Well now, Mrs… oh, I’m sorry, what was your name?”

  “Anderson…Mrs. Carol Anderson, at your service, Ms. Lincoln. I ’spected you might be comin’ on down to see me, so I made you this.” Mrs. Anderson leaned over and opened the decrepit drawer next to her and pulled out a CD that was hand labeled with yesterday’s date on the front.

  Gabrielle’s mouth dropped open as the wrinkled hands of Mrs. Anderson placed the plastic case in her own young, soft ones. Mrs. Anderson continued, “I saw what you done to that no good S.O.B. last night, and I’ve been laughin’ ’bout it ever since. I took the liberty of makin’ you a copy of the security tape, figurin’ you might be stoppin’ by directly to fetch it.”

  Gabrielle was at a loss for words as she gently slid the CD into her purse, looking at Mrs. Anderson in a whole new light. She couldn’t believe that this woman, whom she had never once spoken a word to, had the foresight to make her a copy, much less even think about doing something like that for a complete stranger. Before she could even say thank you, Mrs. Anderson leaned her aged face forward and motioned for Gabrielle to lean in as well. She lowered her voice and whispered, “I done seen that man do some nasty ol’ things in this here deck over the years, but I ain’t never seen anyone do to him what you done last night. Lawdy, I guarantee you his man-berries are still aching!”

  Gabrielle couldn’t control herself any longer and burst out laughing. Mrs. Anderson began to cackle as well. For a full thirty seconds, the two women laughed loudly as one relived the events of the night before from her firsthand experience, while the other, who had witnessed it second hand through a small video monitor, bonded with her as only women can over the suffering of a man inflicted with well-deserved pain in that area.

  Gabrielle was the first to break the cycle of laughter as she reached into her purse and searched for some tissue to blot her eyes which were now spilling over with tears of laughter. She handed a few to Mrs. Anderson as well and said, “I…well, I’m…oh, I don’t know what to say except thank you! I honestly thought I was on a wild goose chase here, just praying that the security cameras even worked! Thank you, Mrs. Anderson, for having the foresight and kindness to provide this to me. I’m heading straight for the police department right now, and won’t be coming back anymore, since I just quit my assistant’s position.”

  Mrs. Anderson dabbed her eyes with the tissue and said, “Go get him, honey. And you can tell those fine policemen from Phoenix P.D. to come talk to me, if they want. It will be my pleasure to tell them how you done kicked the dog mess outta that dirt bag after he tried to attack you!” She immediately burst into laughter again.

  Gabrielle thanked her again and headed to her car with a smile on her face. As she reached into her bag to retrieve her keys, her cell phone starting ringing, so she grabbed it instead. She didn’t recognize the number and almost didn’t answer it, but thinking that it might be one of the numerous employment agencies in which she had her resume of file, decided she should, for God knew she needed a job now.

  She cleared her throat and answered, “Gabrielle Lincoln.”

  “Hello, Gabrielle. This is Audra Tanner.”

  Gabrielle’s heart immediately began to pound as she tried to process why Audra would be calling her. In the few short months that she had been with the firm, she had spoken maybe two full sentences to the elusive and aloof partner. She fumbled for her keys and scrambled to sit down in her car, for she had a sinking feeling that she needed to.

  “Um…ah…hello, Ms. Tanner,” was all Gabrielle could think of to say to the quiet yet firm voice on the other end of the line.

  “I’m calling to first say that I’m truly sorry for what happened to you this morning. I understand and appreciate that you have been through a repugnant experience, to say the least, but I was hoping that before you make your final decision to leave our firm, that you could spare me a few minutes. I have some things I would like to share with you, as well as request your assistance with, if you’re interested in…shall we say, taking out the trash?”

  For the third time that day, Gabrielle was stunned into silence, but this time the silence came from pure intrigue at the turn of events her life had taken in less than twenty-four hours. She knew the rumor mill at Winscott & Associates cycled at high speeds, but she couldn’t help thinking that it was absolutely crazy that less than ten minutes after walking out, she was already being called about it. Although she didn’t know very much about Audra, she sensed sincerity in her voice and decided to at least listen to what she had to say because Gabrielle didn’t feel she had anything left to lose.

  “Ms. Tanner, you have my rapt attention. Share away.”

  “Wonderful! Okay, first things first; are you still in the general vicinity of the office, and do you have pen and paper?”

  “Yes ma’am, I’m still in the parking deck, and yes I do.”

  “Okay, here’s what I need for you to do....” Audra’s voice rambled on and Gabrielle’s pen flew across the paper as she struggled to keep up, and a huge smile crossed her face as she listened to the dainty voice on the other end and what she had planned for everyone.

  WHEN KEVIN HEARD OLIN’S booming voice through his closed office door, his head jerked up and his right hand involuntarily flew away from his keyboard, knocking over his coffee and spewing the steaming contents all over his desk. As he silently cursed, he res
cued what papers he could from the hot liquid and knew instantaneously it was going to be a long day, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. He also knew that as an equity partner, he should get up and go see what was going on, for undoubtedly he would be asked about it later, but good God, he didn’t want to get involved, not again. Years of having an office next to Olin’s had provided him with more overheard information about his exploits than he cared to know, and Kevin was sure this latest fiasco would be no different.

  Shit, Kevin thought as he rubbed his fingers over his large forehead and debated the pros and cons of remaining hidden in his office. Morbid curiosity finally won out.

  Kevin guessed as he began to drag his lanky frame from his chair that Olin must be yelling at his divine assistant, Gabrielle. At their last equity partner meeting, Olin was more than clear that she was his next target, and he made it known that he wanted her. Of course, the majority of the males wanted her as well but had learned to let Olin chose first, for he had become the alpha male of the firm since he snatched the title from Eric. Eric was older and just didn’t care anymore, especially after he and Nicole had become an item.

  Ah yes, Gabrielle was a gorgeous, delicate creature that moved with fluid grace, the kind of woman that made men literally stop talking and just openly gawk at her as she passed by. All eyes had been upon her since her first interview, yet none of the other partners, including Kevin, dared even look her way when Olin was around. Oddly enough, she didn’t seem to be the least bit interested in any of them, nor in using her sexuality to further her career like so many of the other female employees at the firm did when they realized that they could prostitute themselves for higher pay or titles.

  Kevin also knew that Olin had yet to catch her, for his demeanor around the office had been worse than normal for the past few weeks as he snapped and snarled at anyone who crossed his path to vent his frustration. Olin did not handle rejection well, and his constant pursuit of Gabrielle was beginning to take its toll on his judgment in terms of running Winscott. In the past month, Olin had not once glanced at, let alone signed, any of his client’s tax returns, and since Kevin was the lead partner on the tax floor, he had been bombarded with phone calls from irate clients, demanding to know where their returns were. To Kevin, as well as the others partners, it seemed that Olin had gone far beyond being obsessed with Gabrielle and was now dancing dangerously close to fanaticism.