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He already had his suspicions as to who was responsible. It wasn’t Carlyle, the CFO whose purview these sorts of decisions fell under. It was that new manager of his, the one he’d employed to help the company comply with various new regulations. What was her name again? Something with an S.
He’d told Carlyle to get his new hire on a leash once already. Alex was not the sort of man to tell anybody to do anything twice. He was going to deal with the woman herself.
Sophie Pierce.
That's what her employment file told him. Birthday January 22, 1998. Jesus. He was still internally shocked when anybody born as late as 1998 was employable. As far as Alex's sense of time was concerned, the year was perpetually 2001.
He spotted his mark across the company restaurant. She was having lunch with Carlyle. Another strike against the CFO as far as Alex was concerned. Fraternizing with middle-management never ended well. It always led to over-familiarity and inevitably pain.
The woman — girl, really, was sitting pertly at the table with a mechanical smile on her face, one which gave nothing away. Alex didn’t trust that look. He’d seen looks like that one cover for a myriad of sins and double-crosses in the past.
She reminded him of the girl on the sidewalk all those months ago. Wait. She was the girl from the sidewalk. But she looked as though she’d been laminated. There was a polish and poise she hadn't had when she was busy diving into traffic all those weeks ago. She’d settled in.
And she’d made herself a real pain in the ass.
There was something about her, even at a distance, which rubbed him the wrong way. She was such a low-ranked manager he shouldn’t have known her face, let alone her name, but Sophie Pierce had become the proverbial thorn in his side.
Her company profile was complete, but boring. Her resume was unremarkable, but solid. Her experience was close to non-existent, but her grades were good. There was nothing for Alex to sink his teeth into. Her file was as smooth and shiny as her current appearance. He wasn’t buying it.
She’d caused more chaos than any other employee in the company in a shorter amount of time than any other employee. Truth be told, if he’d had his way, he would have been removing his cuff links and rolling his sleeves up to deal with this upstart manager. But thrashing employees had gone out with the rest of the British empire. And Alex wasn’t British. Just kinky.
He zeroed in on the young woman. She was sitting at Carlyle’s table, not eating anything. Her hands were folded in her lap, one side of her blonde bob tucked back behind her ear. She’d probably gotten that cut to look more professional, though it made her cheeks look fuller and rounder and her eyes wider, and the overall effect was to make her appear even younger than she was.
Alex almost stopped mid-stride. She’s a goddamn baby, he thought to himself. Young people were usually restricted to being secretaries for low-level managers. It was an unwritten rule at Apex that there were no managers under thirty-five.
Apparently, Carlyle had broken that rule when he hired all five foot nothing of this little beauty. She was all curves, generously proportioned, and very much aware of how to dress accordingly.
“So, you’re the one in Carlyle’s ear,” he said, sitting down. He didn’t bother to introduce himself. New hires knew who the COO was. Crowds parted like the red sea when he walked through the offices.
“I report to Mr. Carlyle, yes,” Sophie said calmly. She was very self possessed, in a way that got under his skin. The innocent ones always thought they knew best. She didn’t have a clue that the game she was playing didn’t have any rules. “Hello, Mr. Roth.”
She added the greeting at the end in a way which seemed almost reproachful of his lack of greeting. He didn’t appreciate it. Any sass from this girl was going to be met with severe disapproval. She was out of control, and if Carlyle wasn’t going to rein her in, Alex would.
“She’s been very helpful,” Carlyle said. He was distracted with the reports on his laptop, but he was clearly keeping an ear on the conversation too.
“Really,” Alex said, locking eyes with Sophie even as he responded to Carlyle. “From where I’m sitting, she’s been interfering. From where I’m sitting, we’re about to lose our Northern European transport routes because we’ve slighted the Norwegians.”
“I have a call with Norway tonight,” Carlyle said, waving his hand as if a phone call was going to fix the mess his pet manager had created.
Sophie barely moved, and hardly seemed to react. That kind of poise was unusual for a new hire. They usually wet themselves if Alex so much as looked in their direction.
