Employee of the Year

Chapter 21 - Transformation

When I woke up, I was laying on a sofa in the war room at Passion. Teresa, Larry, and Charlie were standing over me like doctors hovering above a patient on an operating table.

            “You OK?” Larry said. “You were out for a while there, brother.”

            “I’m fine,” I said, sitting up on the couch. “Where’s Roland?”

            “We took him to the hospital,” Teresa said. “Don’t worry; he’s fine. Just some cuts and bruises on his face.”

            Gina came in to the room. “My God, Temo. I just heard what happened.” She held me, tears in her eyes. “I feel terrible that we put you in this kind of danger.” I believed her. I heard the regret and terror in her voice. “I spoke to Marcus. He’s in New York right now, but he was just as concerned as I was.” That I didn’t believe. “He thinks you and Roland are heroes.”

            I laughed cynically. I nearly died for his company and the CEO communicates to me through his assistant. He didn’t even take the time to call me himself. I would have quit right there if I had a choice. But I didn’t.

            I noticed Teresa was shaken up too. After all, it was her decision to put me and Roland in this position.

            “I am so sorry, Temo,” she whispered, waiting until the others left so she could save face. “I am so stupid. I never should have got you and Roland involved in this. What on earth was I thinking? My God, you could have been killed. I don’t expect you to forgive me for putting your life at danger. I don’t forgive myself.”

            “Teresa, don’t blame yourself. Roland and I made our own decision to get involved in this. We knew the risks. Nobody forced us to follow those guys. We could have just called in the license plate and descriptions to the cops back in Beverly Hills and left it at that.”

            “I owe you a debt I can never repay,” she said “Still there must be something I can do for you. Something.”

My boss was so gorgeous and seductive it was impossible not to imagine what she might be hinting at. I wondered if she’d make the same offer to do something for Roland, because he might just take her up on it.

            I thought about her offer for a while. “Actually there is something I need,” I said.

            “What is it?”

            “Promise me you won’t tell Suzy what happened today. It will worry her to death, and that’s the last thing she needs right now.”

            “Got it.”

            I spent the rest of the day dealing with the aftermath of what happened at the marina. A steady procession of law enforcement officials tramped in and out of the war room. First came the deputies from the LA County Sheriff’s Department who arrived at the dock with Larry. Then a team from the FBI showed up.

            Harvey Chang and Alex Weisbein insisted on interviewing me in a separate room of the building, away from the sheriffs and everyone else.

            They didn’t seem to trust anyone else involved in the investigation. Teresa let us use her office and once I was alone with them, they grilled me for every detail since I first saw the thieves walking out of Elomeri and Jacobs.

            I described the whole chain of events leading down to the marina. I told them about the schooner where the thieves held Roland.