Chapter 16 #2
Bridget said she had an important email to get out. She’d seemed nervous when she realized I was looking over her shoulder. But it’s been half an hour since then. Maybe what she was doing is related to this?
I rest my hands on the desk, blinking in disbelief. Why would she…? Doesn’t matter. It’s done.
I check the text message again. She sent it to everyone. All upper management. But no clients, thank God. We can contain this.
I pick up my desk phone and dial IT. “Remove it from the server. Now!”
“Already on it,” the support guy says, his voice sounding anxious.
My next call is to security. “This is Hayden Tate in human resources. I need you to escort an employee out. Yes, she’s being fired.”
Or at least she will be. I’m assuming that’s where Adam was headed.
What Bridget did—even if it was a mistake—no, just no.
Beyond inappropriate. And a serious case of sexual misconduct.
This is no slap-on-the-wrist situation. Particularly so soon after the assault charges brought on by an ex-employee on company property.
Bridget’s actions are cause for immediate dismissal.
I head for her office and hear Adam’s voice from down the hall.
“What were you thinking?” His tone is calm. Chilled. Not the hard-edged voice he used on me earlier, which I interpreted as pure Hayden frustration. This voice is scarier in its iciness.
Adam would never hurt Bridget, but I rush down the hallway anyway.
“I’m sorry.” Bridget’s voice quavers as I round the corner to her office. “It was an accident. It was only meant to go to a few people.”
Bridget is standing in front of her desk, her face pale as she desperately clicks through her phone. “I must have typed a name wrong and auto-correct filled in one of the lists. I can’t believe this happened.”
“Why are you sending explicit images to employees to begin with?” Adam says. Bridget’s mouth clamps shut. “Answer me,” he growls.
She lowers herself into her chair and looks away. “It’s a side business.”
Whoa. Suddenly the attention Bridget’s been receiving from Blue’s male contingent—even the shy men—makes sense. I thought it was because she’s a nice person.
Boy is she nice. She’s so nice she’s sending them smutty images of herself.
“This is not a strip club. You understood the conduct I expected of you?”
“I did.” She sounds desperate now, and she’s wringing her hands. “It was a mistake, Adam. It won’t happen again. The others—the managers—they were open to it. Well, as long as I kept it discreet…”
Oh, I’m sure the managers of Blue Casino were open to her side business. Dirty bastards. I feel sorry for her, but damn, this is not something we can sweep under the rug.
“Pack your things. You’re fired.” Adam turns and brushes past me, so angry he doesn’t even look my way.
Bridget peers over pleadingly. “Can you talk to him? I don’t want to lose my job. I really thought it was okay—as long as nothing like this happened.” She looks down, her face pained.
I shake my head. I like Bridget, but there is no way I can get her out of this.
“What you do on your own time is your business, but Adam is right. You’re at work.
Regardless of whether you sent the images to a select few who…
wanted them, this sort of thing isn’t allowed during work hours. You get that, right?”
She closes her eyes, then reaches for her purse. She looks around her desk and grabs a plastic box, removing the business cards from inside. “I’ll just take these.”
Tucking the cards in her bag, she glances past my shoulder. “You called security?”
I turn around to see a guard standing behind me, just past the door. “There are forms I need Bridget to sign,” I tell him. “Afterward, I’d like you to escort her out.”
“I’m not a threat,” Bridget says.
“No, of course not.” My voice is kind, sincere. “This is standard in these situations.” Though, come to think of it, I doubt Blue Casino has encountered a naughty selfie breach before.
Bridget’s head drops, but she follows me to my office and fills out the forms I pull together.
They’re basic termination documents, and even though Adam was responsible for hiring and firing her, I doubt Blackwell would want to risk her position not being properly closed.
She was hired as a regular employee, after all.
The best part of my job is offering a position to an excited and worthy candidate.
The worst part is letting someone go. I want to know Bridget will be okay.
I want to ask her if she can go back to her old job, but that will only open a window for her to negotiate her position back, and that’s not something the company can afford.
Instead, I say nothing, my insides balled in knots as Bridget follows the security guard out of my office.
Maybe this is better for her. Bridget was involved somehow with the Bliss suites, and now she won’t be around when all of that goes down.
I walk Bridget’s termination papers over to payroll, and make my way to Adam’s office. His door is always open, but not today.
I knock twice, so hard my knuckles smart with the impact.
“Come in,” he calls.
His back is to me when I enter, his broad shoulders and lean legs silhouetted against the window. “Come here to gloat, Hayden?”
“You bastard.”
He slowly turns. “Excuse me?”
“I hate letting people go. It’s your fault I had to send that poor girl home.”
His mouth twists in a wry smile. “That poor girl sent out inappropriate images to the entire management team. And you didn’t let her go, I did.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t see her hands shaking as she filled out the termination forms, or watch her walk away with her elbows pressed to her ribs, escorted by security.
I don’t like what she did, Adam. Of course not.
But you brought her into Blue. You were responsible for mentoring and guiding her. How could you let this happen?”
Maybe it’s not fair of me, but I can’t help directing my anger at him.
Adam knows what’s going on at Blue, and he’s allowing it to happen.
It sounds like some of management even supported what Bridget was doing, up until she got caught.
Adam may not wear the Blue Star ring, but he’s involved. He’s responsible for this.
He lets out a sigh and leans against the windowsill, his fingers pressed against his forehead. “It’s been a long day. Can we discuss this later?”
I’d like to know exactly what he’s been up to and why he looks so drained, but I also know Adam is determined to keep everything a secret.
To the point he was willing to wager with me to prevent me from discovering the truth.
I have double the information on the suites that I had yesterday, and I can wait a little longer to discover the rest.
“I expect you to smooth things over with Blackwell,” I finally say.
He drops his hand, his expression weary. “Already done. ‘No harm, no foul,’ were his words.”
“How could he not… Oh, forget it,” I say irritably, and turn to leave.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he says from behind.
I look over my shoulder.
“It’s not true. Blackwell may not care about what happened today, because it didn’t harm the casino, but I do.” He glances out the window. “I take full responsibility for having to fire Bridget, no matter how wrong she was.”
That’s more than I expected from Adam. I thought he’d brush this off the way he does everything involving Blackwell.
His gaze falls on me, dark and fixed. “I’ll be at your house Saturday to fulfill that bet I owe you. Be ready.”