Revenge
By Karen Singer
Chapter 38 – Part 1
of 2
Blessed freedom! That’s all Steve could think as he finished
getting dressed for work. No more
women’s underwear. No more women’s
clothes at all. And the witches weren’t
going to pester him anymore. Hooray!
Hooray! Hooray! He only hoped that it was true.
No more women’s clothes at all, but
he was still wearing panties. That was
only because Diane had spent the night last night and he never got a chance to
go out and buy any new men’s underwear.
But that was at the top of his list of things to do as soon as he got
off of work today.
He looked at himself in the
mirror. His newfound confidence showed –
he thought. And why shouldn’t it. The witches were gone, and he was up for a
promotion. Feeling great and more like
himself than he had in a very long while, he straightened his tie, buttoned his
jacket, and preened in front of the mirror, admiring himself like he hadn’t
done in some time. Yes, he was still a
great looking guy. Now he just needed to
find someplace new to pick up women since those witches had pretty much
destroyed his reputation at all his usual places. Something inside of him didn’t seem as happy
with that thought. And for some reason,
thoughts of crazy Diane moved into his head.
Crazy Diane. The two of them had wound up falling asleep
last night, in his bed, handcuffed to each other. She hadn’t left until very early that
morning. Early enough that Steve had
gone back to sleep for a little while afterwards. Man could that woman make love – over and
over and over again. She had worn him
out several times last night, and she was still ready to keep going. What a woman!
It was just too bad that she had to look so…dull. As he thought that, something inside of him
felt angry about it, as if he was mentally kicking himself. Why?
With an air of total confidence in
his step, Steve headed out the door for work.
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§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Susan hadn’t gotten an email from
Karen the night before, and now reading the email Karen had sent early that
morning, she knew why. Handcuffed to
Diane all night long? Without a doubt,
Karen had a pretty good excuse for not writing Susan the night before. It was everything else in the email that now
had Susan concerned.
What the heck was happening out
there with Monica and her little group of fake witches? What was going on? No more games? That’s the way Karen had described it. They were suddenly not requiring him to do
anything anymore? Setting him totally
free? It was all so…sudden. As far as Susan could see, there had been no
warning at all.
So if that was the case, was Steve
now all hers to play with? Were Monica
and her friends now totally out of the picture?
She wanted to believe that, but it was just that one thing that Karen
had said that Diane had seemed to stress a few times. Monica and her friends were out – for
now! And Karen had the distinct
impression that they would be back for more fun sometime in the future.
There was one other thing in
Karen’s email that had Susan concerned, Steve was looking for some way to get
revenge against not only Monica, but all her friends too. He was looking for some way to get them all
fired! That was a nasty thought that
Susan was going to keep a close eye on.
So now Susan needed to know what
the heck was going on with Monica, her friends, and of course, their
relationship with Steve. She quickly
wrote an email to Monica asking just that.
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§§§§§§§§§§ ---
It was quiet in Mel’s office. You could hear a pin drop. More often than not, that’s the way it
was. But Mel didn’t pay any attention to
the quiet. She was totally focused on
what she was working on – the same thing that had kept her up and working most
of the night, and had her in her office earlier than usual that morning. The case of Ruth H. McGruder versus Hudgens
Technology…and more truthfully, Gerald Hudgens, the president and founder of
Hudgens Technology.
This would not be a “normal” case
by any stretch of the imagination.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t be any kind of case at all that would actually
reach the court system. But of course, the
courts were always a possibility. She
doubted it would happen though, because in some ways this case would be pure
and blatant blackmail – under the guise of a very legitimate sexual discrimination
case.
She had spent most of last night
redoing all of Ruth’s demands.
Completely! Yet everything that
Ruth had originally asked for was still represented. Including the one really stupid one that Mel
already knew would most likely never happen.
But since Ruth seemed to place such a high emphasis on it, Mel had paid
it very special attention as well. In
fact, extra special attention, just because she was curious…for personal
reasons.
She had been up most of the night
redoing that list, and she had been hard at work this morning making her own
list of things that needed to be done and arranged for. She looked that list over carefully, trying
to find additional problems and things to add.
She couldn’t. It was time now for
the next phase, drawing up the contract.
And contracts were the one thing she enjoyed working on the most. She was an expert. In fact, she was now considered to be a noted
expert on them. And this contract was
going to be like nothing she had ever put together before.
More often than not, she worked on
things for Harry Feinbaum that involved the sale or merger of companies. This wasn’t that kind of thing at all. More than likely, this contract would never
get filed anywhere – except in some very secure safes, in her office, Harry’s
office, and of course, at Hudgens Technology.
With her notoriety as a contract lawyer, she had moved up into the
really bigtime as far as legal work went.
Sexual discrimination cases weren’t anything she would normally handle. But this case was different. This case had far reaching implications.
In the last few years, she had
learned to play hardball with the legal system in ways she never believed she
ever would. But when you reached a
certain pinnacle in the game, it came with the territory. With this case, she would be playing hardball
once again. And she was looking forward
to it.
With her newly created list of
demands as her guide, she began working on something that for her was nothing
but fun and interesting. And the contract
she would create would be about as ironclad as she could make it. It had to be!
---
§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Monica read the Sorceress’s
email. Once again she was somewhat
amazed at how much the Sorceress seemed to know. How did the woman do it? How did she do anything for that matter? Monica had been reading everything she
possibly could about magic for the last week, and she was no closer to knowing
how to do real magic than when she had started.
According to most of what she had read, what the Sorceress was capable
of doing was simply impossible. Yet it
wasn’t impossible. Monica had seen the
proof, time and time again, with her own eyes.
And now this email was another little bit of that proof. The Sorceress had ways of finding out. But evidently, she couldn’t find out
everything. Only those things that
pertained directly to Steve. So therefore,
the Sorceress was asking what was going on.
Well, Monica was wondering what was going on as well – with Ruth!
She quickly typed her own reply to
the Sorceress.
Dear Sorceress,
We don’t know what’s
going on ourselves, but we got word that something is going on and we think
it’s something serious. Just to be
cautious, we have stopped everything we’re doing with Steve until we know more. None of us want to lose our jobs.
---
§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Susan read Monica’s short email
with great interest. It explained
everything – and nothing. As far as she
could see, she once again had Steve all to herself to play with. The only problem was that Monica had said
something was definitely going on. And
if they were concerned about losing their jobs, then that something sounded
big…and serious! Did any of that have to
do with Steve wanting to get all those women fired? Were they somehow related? Karen hadn’t told her of anything Steve had
done yet towards trying to get any of them fired.
She decided to be cautious about
whatever she chose to pester Steve with next.
She wasn’t sure if she would do something to him, or wait and see like
those fake witches were doing. She’d ask
Karen to keep her up to date. That was
probably a better way to go about things…for now.
---
§§§§§§§§§§ ---
On Thursday morning, Steve felt
even more like his old self as he stood preening in front of his mirror. Part of that feeling was because he was no
longer wearing anything at all that was feminine. Looking at himself in the mirror, he realized
that he should have tried wearing a tie and jacket to work a long time ago. As far as he was concerned, he looked really good. Successful!
The women would be dripping off of him.
That is, if he could ever find anywhere to go where nobody knew
him. Damn witches. With a spring in his step, he set off to
work, still trying to come up with some way to get every last one of those
witches fired.
---
§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Mel picked up her desk phone and
dialed. Her call was answered
quickly. “Hi Dottie,” she said to Harry
Feinbaum’s personal secretary. “Is Harry
In?” A moment later her call was put
through. “Hi Harry, it’s Mel. Can you make time for me this morning? We need to talk. Oh, and it might be a good idea if Dick is
there too. We’ve got a lot to go over.”
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§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Steve got up from his desk and made
his way toward the elevator. Since Mr.
Carter had given him the go-ahead to handle everything with his latest little
project, he needed to confer with someone on who the best people were to work
with. Carter had suggested he talk with
HR about it. So now Steve was on his way
to do just that.
As he entered the elevator though,
he had more on his mind than just the right people to help with his
project. He had layoffs on his mind as
well. Particularly, layoffs for all four
of those damn witches. Was there any way
that he could accomplish that while he was up talking with Human
Relations? He would just have to wait
and see.
Once upstairs, just outside of the
HR section, he passed Ruth’s small office.
He noticed her inside hard at work on something. Not that he cared one bit what she was
working on. He entered the HR office and
two minutes later, was going over with one of their the people who might work
out best for his project. Ten minutes after
that, they had a list of three of the five people Steve figured he would
need. As they discussed the next person,
another of the HR people poked his head into the office. “Got a minute?” the man asked the guy Steve
was working with.
“Uh…sure,” Steve’s contact
replied. He turned to Steve. “Just give me a minute.” He got up from his desk and walked out.
Steve turned around in the chair he
was sitting in and saw the two men walking out of the entire department. Knowing he would have a minute or two, he
quickly got up and went around to the other side of the desk. He searched quickly through some of the papers
and folders, but didn’t see anything that might pertain to layoffs, or who
might be up for a promotion either. He
checked the doorway, they still weren’t returning. Since the guy’s computer was still up, he
quickly checked some of the files there, but again he didn’t see what he was
looking for. No luck.
Instead of sitting back down, Steve
wandered out of the office, just to wait for his contact’s return. While he waited, he looked around for any
other possible avenues he could see to find out who might be getting laid
off…or who might be on the promotion list.
But as he expected, he found nothing evident. Two minutes later, the man he was working
with was back, and the two of them sat down to discuss the final two people for
Steve’s team. When they were done, Steve
asked. “You’re sure these will be the
best?”
“In my opinion,” the guy
replied. He smiled. “Besides, we picked them all out
together. You know what each of them are
qualified to do.”
“Yeah. And I think they’re all going to be perfect. I’m just making sure none of them are going
to get…laid off or something before this thing is finished.”
“Laid off! Why the heck would you worry about something
like that? And trust me, I wouldn’t
recommend anyone to you who was in danger of that.”
Steve could only thank the man and
go back to his desk. No luck as far as
finding the list of people to be laid off.
But it had almost sounded to him like such a list might actually
exist. But the real question
remained. How could he get all of those
damn witches on it?
---
§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Mel sat in Harry Feinbaum’s
office. Dick Feinbaum was there as
well. The discussion had been long
already as they discussed everything on the list that Mel was concerned about.
“So that leaves just the one last
thing,” Mel said, “the safe-house for Ruth and her family. And for obvious reasons, I’m not going to put
them up at my house. As much as my
husband loves kids, Sissy is not the kind of person her children need to be
around…when I’ve got him in the state he is now.”
“Definitely not!” Dick Feinbaum
agreed whole heartedly.
“Heaven forbid!” Harry said at
almost the same time. “Besides, since
we’re concerned about the men this company hires to do their dirty work, then I
think we need someplace we can post security guards around them all the time.”
Mel nodded. “Like it or not, they’re going to be
needed. Until we know for sure that they’ll
be safe, Ruth and her family are going to be stuck there. Personally, I don’t think they should even be
allowed to leave.”
“That would be best,” Dick
agreed. “But we can’t actually make her
stay there. We have no legal authority
to do that.”
“I know,” Mel replied. “But it will be for her family’s safety. Her entire family.”
“I’ll have my people find someplace
out of the way,” Harry offered. “Maybe
someplace that will seem like a vacation for all of them. That should help keep them happy.”
“Do you want me to contact the
security company?” Dick asked.
Harry nodded. “Yes.
Let them know what we’re going to need.”
Mel looked around. “Any other suggestions?”
“None that I can think of,” Harry
replied. “When do you think you want to
get started with this?”
“I need to talk to Ruth first and
prepare her. This isn’t going to be easy
for her. And I have no doubt she’s not
going to be happy with some of it.”
“No doubt,” Harry agreed.
“If you think you can have
everything ready,” Mel continued, “then I’d like to get this over with as soon
as possible. Perhaps Monday might be a
good day to drop the ball?”
Harry looked to Dick. “You see any problem with it?”
Dick shook his head. “No. None
that I can see. Unless there’s some
problem with the safe-house.”
Harry shook his head. “I’ll have Dottie look into finding somewhere
right away. I know she’ll come up with
something.”
Mel nodded. “Then I’ll call Ruth as soon as I get back to
my office and see when she can talk. And
Monday morning, we send a courier to Hudgens Technology.”
Harry nodded. “And I guess it’s time then for me to arrange
another golf game with an acquaintance of mine in Washington.”
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§§§§§§§§§§ ---
Ruth’s cell phone rang and she
automatically checked to see who was calling.
Her attorney! “Hello?” she said
somewhat quietly.
“Ruth? It’s Melissa.
How soon do you think you can come in to talk to me? Is it possible that you can you arrange to get
off of work today? We have a lot to go
over.”
Ruth thought about it. It sounded to her like her lawyer was finally
ready to get off her ass and do something.
“I’ll see if I can get off this afternoon. Will that be okay?”
“Perfect!” Mel replied. “Just let me know if you can’t. I’ll be here all afternoon.”
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