Page 69 of Possess

“I meant for dinner.” Zeke was always looking out for her.

“I did too. My place at five, then we’ll go out, and then to the club.”

“All right. See you later.” She hung up with a smile on her lips. Tonight was the night she’d see the inside of Wicked Sanctuary.

A commotion in the hallway caught her attention. She went to the doorway of her office. Folks from HR and building security stood outside Wes’ office.

“Please, everyone, stay back,” one of the security officers said.

“What’s going on?” one of the other people on the floor asked.

“I have no idea.” What could be going on in Wes’ office? She hoped he was okay. Just then, security escorted Rudy out of the office.

“I’ll make you all regret this,” Rudy yelled as he was led down the hall to the elevator.

Wes came out of his office and talked with Linda from HR, then they both looked at everyone lingering in the hall or outside their offices.

“Okay, everyone, conference room,” Wes said.

Allyson shut her office door, followed the others into the conference room, and took a seat.

“I’m sure there will be rumors galore, but Rudy was fired for cause,” Linda stated.

A murmur went through the room. Allyson sat in her chair in shock. She’d talked with Wes a few hours ago.

“I know this is abrupt and a disturbance for all of you,” Wes said. “I will be adding two new full-time staff in the coming weeks. That’s it.”

People shuffled out of the room. Wes caught Allyson by the arm before she could leave. “Stay for a minute.”

Allyson’s muscles froze. Oh shit, was she getting fired too? What had she done? Did Rudy accuse her of something? How would she fight this?

Linda and Wes waited until everyone left and shut the door.

“Sit, Allyson,” Linda said. When Allyson didn’t move, she continued. “You’re not in trouble or anything like that.”

Allyson released a pent-up breath and sat down. “Why?” She cleared her throat. “Why did you want me to stay?”

“Because I think you deserve an explanation of what happened,” Wes said.

“And I agreed,” Linda commented. “Rudy was let go because he was falsifying documents.”

Allyson blinked several times, then it hit her. “The changes in the computer.”

“That and more.” Linda placed her hands on the table. “You alerted Wes to the issue; he alerted me and IT. It was all traced back to Rudy.”

“The information you gave me this morning was kind of the cherry on top of the cake type of thing,” Wes said. “I was already going over all of the work Rudy had been doing. I’ve been getting complaints for weeks.”

“Riggs Construction,” Allyson whispered.

“Yes, plus some out of town sub-contractors. Rudy wasn’t subtle about what he was doing,” Wes said.

“One of the main reasons I wanted you to be aware of what happened is because Rudy blamed you,” Linda said.

“Me? What did I do?” Allyson wasn’t shocked. Rudy always blamed others for his shortcomings.

“You did your job,” Linda said. “It’s apparent from everything that you did your job according to the regulations and requirements. Rudy didn’t. He wanted to sabotage you.”

“Because I’m a good worker?” Allyson was trying to wrap her head around it.

---