Page 14 of Bling

“Isabelle, Doll. Please don’t hang up. Just hear me out for a minute. I’m still going to give you your space, but I wonder if you might want to help me out with something.”

There was a protracted silence, and he feared she’d ended the call. Her voice finally came over the line. “I’m listening.” It was a resigned statement, but it was better than being hung up on.

“I’m at the fulfillment center, about to confront the management team about yesterday. I suspect they’re going to try and deny what happened. Would you be willing to come up here and just answer some questions about what actually happened if I need you to? You can wait in the car until I know if I need you. If I don’t, you don’t even have to come inside. I promise I’m not trying to get you to talk to me before you’re ready. I’m just trying to make things right, Doll.”

More silence.

“Isabelle?”

She cleared her throat. “I can do that. I need to come into town anyway.”

He stopped himself from calling her a good girl. It was important to keep his distance as promised, and she wasn’t his sub outside the club. Right now, he didn’t even know if she was his inside the club.

“Very good. I’ll send a car.”

“Master Patrick said he can bring me. Him and Austin want to have lunch in town.”

He blew out a breath. “That sounds perfect. Thank you, Isabelle.”

When he ended the call, he headed for the supervisor’s office. Jason was pacing the outer office, where a receptionist or assistant should be working, talking on his phone.

“Yes, he just showed up and demanded I get the management team together. I can’t get ahold of Darren, though.”

The man stopped when he saw Garrett. “I have to go. Just get here as fast as you can and find Darren.”

“Can I get you anything, Mr. Oliver? Some coffee maybe?”

Garrett shook his head, then held up a hand. “Actually, why don’t you go to the bakery up the road and get donuts and fresh coffee for the team. I have a feeling we’ll be here awhile.”

Jason scurried toward the door. Garrett called after him. “Send Darren a text and leave a voicemail. If he wants to have any chance of keeping his job, he better answer his fucking phone.”

The young man nodded and began typing on his phone as he continued out of the office. Garrett let himself into the disorganized inner office and sat behind the desk.

He pressed a key on the keyboard to wake the computer and tried to make heads or tails of the filing system. It was a wreck. Was his team here really that incompetent?

Garrett ran a hand through his hair. Maybe he was stretched too thin. It was time to reevaluate his portfolio and figure out how to do a better job of prioritizing his resources and energy. And he clearly needed to keep better tabs on his employees.

Pulling out his phone, he dialed his assistant.

“Regina, put me in touch with my personnel recruiter please. I need to find out why some of these people were hired in the first place.”

“Yes, Sir,” his assistant said. “It’s a Saturday. Do you want to talk now or have a meeting on Monday?”

He hummed. “Monday should be fine. That will give me more time to find out what kind of questions I want to ask anyway.”

“I’ll put it on your calendar.”

It took over an hour to get the management team into the conference room and nearly that long for Patrick to message and let him know Austin and Isabelle were in the parking lot after they dropped him off at a local gym for a workout.

He was grateful to his Solitaire friends for rallying behind him and Isabelle both instead of choosing sides in this strange battle they found themselves in.

Now, he stood at the head of the conference table and asked Darren for a recap of what happened yesterday.

The man stood and began telling his side of the story.

“As per the directive received from your office, we evaluated the current staff and identified twenty-six individuals to let go to reduce labor costs. After you signed off on the list, we proceeded with the layoffs on Friday and gave them their last checks. All former employees were escorted from the building and we retooled remaining staff to get the fulfillment floor running again. All orders were filled and shipped on time as usual.”

Garrett leaned over the table, his palms pressed firmly into it as he stared at the somewhat unkempt man. He couldn’t even be bothered to put on a tie for this meeting. “And what kind of severance package did you give the employees?”

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