Fare Game Read online

  “Are we talking long hours and pressure to perform since your big promotion or something more than that?”

  “Something more than that.”

  “What’s wrong? I thought you loved Logan.”

  “I do, or at least I did. It’s just, now that I’m a VP, I’m privy to a lot more and let’s just say there’s some seriously fucked-up shit going on. I fear it may extend to the C-suite.”

  “Oooh, like what? Sounds juicy.”

  “It’s nothing I can talk about right now. Let’s just say I’ve seen some stuff that makes me uncomfortable.”

  “Come on,” Jessica pushed. “I’ve known you forever. You can tell me.”

  “I really wish I could, Jess, but I can’t. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry. It’s just been on my mind.” Kay shifted gears. “So how about you? How are things working out at Zephyr? Are you liking the new job? You’ve been there what, almost a year now?”

  Jessica’s demeanor changed. She clenched her jaw and her posture stiffened. “Things at Zephyr are going well, thanks for asking. I’ve been able to get up to speed more quickly than I expected, but marketing is marketing, ya know? Doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “They hired me to try and expand the airline’s branded credit card. You cannot believe how much the airlines make off those things.”

  “You mean those credit cards that give you a free checked bag or whatever?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I can’t believe you and I both ended up in the airline industry.”

  “I know, crazy, huh?” Jessica flagged down the waiter and started to order them both another round, but Kay held up her hand. “I’m good. I’ll stick to water.” Jessica looked annoyed and went ahead and ordered a pint for herself. Something about the way she was acting made Kay uneasy. “Are you sure the new job is going okay?” Kay asked. “You seem a little upset.”

  “I’m not upset,” Jessica barked. She took a long sip of her new pint.

  Kay decided it might be best to get away from the topic of work. “Are you seeing anyone?”

  Jessica gave her a wicked smile. “Yeah, as a matter of fact I am.”

  “And?”

  “He’s older, and married.”

  “Oh, Jess. That’s not good. You know it can only end badly.”

  “Why don’t you let me worry about that?” Jessica glanced at her phone. “Hey, listen I gotta go. I’m sorry.” She stood abruptly, threw back the rest of her pint, and tossed some money on the table. She squeezed Kay’s shoulder. “Catch you around.”

  Kay watched her walk out of the restaurant. What the hell just happened? Had she said something to set Jessica off? Had it really bothered her that Kay wouldn’t tell her more about the saga at Logan? It wasn’t like Jessica to get upset over something like that.

  Chapter Eight

  With the thirteen-hour time change between Tokyo and Atlanta, Riley landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International around five p.m. on Saturday, nearly the exact same time she’d left Tokyo. Air travel is a remarkable thing, she mused. Once she was through immigration, she went in search of her suitcase. Her penchant for over packing meant she always had to check her bag. When she reached the baggage carousel, it was still idle. Riley let out a low growl.

  While she waited for her bag, she shot Stephanie a text. Back from Tokyo. Can you do brunch at Murphy’s tomorrow? Need to talk.

  Finally, a yellow warning light flashed, and the carousel groaned to life. A sole bag popped out from behind a flapping rubber curtain and began the slow journey around the belt. Minutes later, more bags spilled out. A response came in from Stephanie while Riley wheeled her bag toward the long-term parking lot. Sure. Brunch works for me. BTW, grabbing drinks with Mandy and Wilma tonight. Care to join?

  As much as she wanted to see her friends, Riley was emotionally drained. She’d thought about Kay for approximately the entire twelve-hour flight home. She was exhausted. Right now, all she wanted to do was put on her pajamas, binge on Netflix and go to bed.

  At nine the next morning, Riley wandered into Murphy’s, a small restaurant/bakery in the Virginia Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, and found Stephanie standing near the hostess stand. There wasn’t yet a wait for a table because they’d arrived before the rush of the after-church crowd.

  “So, how was last night?” Riley asked once they were seated. “Sorry I wasn’t up for meeting you guys.”

  “It was fun,” Stephanie replied. “We went to that wine bar you like in Inman Park, and if you ask me, I swear there’s something going on with Mandy and Wilma.”

  “Huh, I didn’t know Wilma was into women.”

  “Yeah, me either, but hey, stranger things have happened.”

  “Ha, that’s for sure.” Just wait until you hear about my trip to Tokyo.

  Riley fidgeted as they looked over the menu, unsure how Stephanie was going to react to the news about Kay. Heck, even Riley felt emotionally conflicted about it, which was why she was dying to tell Stephanie what had happened.

  “So, what’s up with you?” Stephanie asked as soon as they’d placed their order. “You look like shit.”

  “Ah, thanks a lot,” Riley said with a smile. Even though she’d been exhausted, she’d tossed and turned all night, and her makeup did little to conceal the big dark circles under her eyes.

  “Did something happen in Tokyo?”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, but it was no use. Stephanie knew her too well. She took a sip of water. “Okay, yeah, something happened. I’m kind of freaking out.”

  A look of concern crossed Stephanie’s face and she gestured for Riley to continue.

  Riley shifted in her seat and asked, “Do you know who Kay Corbett is?”

  “Of course.” Stephanie gave Riley a look that said “duh”. “She’s the totally hot VP in pricing. I think everyone at Logan knows who she is. God, half the men in my department drool when she walks by.”

  “Okay, well she was on the Tokyo trip too…”

  “Yeah, it makes sense she’d be there.”

  “Well, while we were in Tokyo, I…kind of slept with her.”

  Stephanie’s jaw dropped and her eyes grew wide. “What do you mean, kind of slept with her? You either slept with her or you didn’t.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Riley said through clenched teeth, her eyes darting around the restaurant. “Okay, fine. We slept slept together, the last night I was in Tokyo.”

  Stephanie let out a soft whistle.

  “I honestly don’t know how it happened. Gosh, let’s see. She and I were the only two left in Tokyo, everyone else had left, and we ended up having dinner together, sort of by chance, and well, one thing just kind of led to another…”

  “Well, how was it?” Stephanie asked.

  “How was what?”

  “The sex, dumbass.”

  Riley played with the buttons on her linen blouse. “Oh,” she said, and a smile crept across her face. “It was a-mazing.”

  “So, was this a one-time thing or do you think, you know, you two will see each other again?”

  Riley shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m definitely into her, but I have no idea how she feels.”

  “Did you spend the night together, I mean, after you—”

  “Yeah, she spent the night in my room. I want to think it was more than just sex, but God, I don’t know. She got up super early to catch a flight to London, and we haven’t talked since then.”

  “Well, it should be interesting when you run into her at the office.”

  “Yeah, right, I know.” Riley ran a hand through her hair. “She won’t be back in the office until Wednesday. We’ve got a meeting together that day, a debrief of the Kamadori trip.”

  Stephanie cackled. “Yeah, I bet she’ll want a full debrief from you.”

  * * *

  When Wednesday morning rolled around, Riley was a complete and utter ball of nerves. On
the way to work, her mind had been so in the clouds, she’d almost missed her exit. She absentmindedly straightened her already perfectly organized desk and logged in to her computer. As usual, her calendar was full of meetings, meetings and more meetings. Her gaze navigated to the meeting at two o’clock—the debrief for the Kamadori project—and her palms began to sweat. It had been radio silence from Kay since their night together. Riley had picked up her phone more than once over the last few days to text her, but she’d never gotten up the nerve to actually send her a message.

  The more she thought about seeing Kay that afternoon, the more nervous she got. She closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths in an effort to ward off a panic attack. When she felt mildly calmer, she opened her eyes and weeded through her email inbox. She sighed. It was no use. All she could think about was Kay. She shot Stephanie a text. Coffee?

  A response came back immediately. Meet you downstairs in 5.

  Moments later, the sound of a phone ringing pierced the silence in Riley’s office. She jolted upright and almost fell out of her chair. It was the phone on her desk, and it almost never rang. She checked the caller ID. It read Katherine Corbett. Riley scrambled for the handset. “Hello,” she said softly.

  “Hi Riley, it’s Kay.”

  “Oh, hi.” Riley said, her voice an octave above normal. “Are you back in the office?” Riley smacked her hand on her forehead. Real smooth, Bauer. You just read her name on the caller ID.

  “Yeah, I got back from London last night, and anyway, I was wondering… Can you swing by my office around noon? I was hoping we could chat before the meeting at two.”

  “Um, yeah, sure. I can do that.”

  “Okay, great. I’ll see you then.”

  She slowly hung up the phone and immediately began to dissect their twenty second conversation. Kay was all business. She was probably just hoping to clear the air and put what happened in Tokyo behind them. “That’s cool by me,” Riley muttered as she walked out of her office and headed downstairs even though nothing could be further from the truth. She spotted Stephanie waiting in line at the Starbucks on the ground floor of Logan headquarters.

  Stephanie gave her a quick one-armed hug. “Shit, girl. You okay? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

  Riley’s shoulders slumped. “I just talked to Kay.”

  “Oh, right.” Stephanie gave her a knowing grin. “She’s back in the office today.”

  “Uh-huh. She wants me to—”

  “Morning ladies, the usual?” the barista asked.

  Stephanie nodded and looked over at Riley. “Coffee’s on me today. Why don’t you go find us a table?”

  Riley found one near the windows and twirled her hair while she waited. “So, what did Kay say?” Stephanie prodded as soon as she sat down.

  “Not much. She wants me to stop by her office before lunch.”

  “Did she say why?”

  “Nope. She probably just wants to say it was all a big mistake. And that’s totally fine with me…”

  “You are so full of shit,” Stephanie replied.

  “No, really, it’s all good.”

  Stephanie took a few small sips of her coffee. “Your eyes don’t jive with what your mouth is saying.”

  Riley’s last meeting before lunch was running long. She glanced at her watch. 12:07. Crap. She stared at the guy leading the meeting and willed him to stop yapping. When he finally shut up, Riley was out of her chair before he’d even adjourned. She bolted from the conference room, bypassed the elevator and scaled the two flights of stairs up to Kay’s office.

  Her office door was open, and Greg Brandywine was sprawled out in one of the chairs opposite her desk. He was gesticulating wildly, and Kay sat there with her arms crossed and just stared at him. It was hard to tell if the look on her face was one of disgust or amusement.

  While she waited her turn, Riley leaned up against a nearby wall. Her perch offered an unobstructed view of Kay and she took full advantage of it. The top two buttons of Kay’s white silk blouse were open, exposing a span of smooth, tanned skin just below her collarbone, skin that Riley had grazed with her lips in Tokyo. Thinking of their night together caused Riley’s groin to pulse and she shifted her stance and stared at the floor. When she looked up again, Kay’s eyes were on her.

  “Come on in, Riley.” Kay turned to Greg. “Can you give us a minute?”

  Greg stood and glared at Riley as he passed to leave. “I was finished anyway.”

  Riley was impressed. Kay had guts. To just boot her boss out of her office like that. Riley took a seat in the chair Greg had just vacated and as soon as she heard the door click shut behind her, her heart started beating wildly. She looked into Kay’s rich brown eyes and felt like she was going to melt.

  Kay gave her a broad smile. “Hi. It’s good to see you.”

  “It’s good to see you too,” Riley croaked.

  “So, I… I wanted to talk about what happened in Tokyo…”

  “Okay,” Riley replied, happy Kay wasn’t one to beat around the bush.

  “I’m not sorry it happened. I’m extremely attracted to you, Riley, and I’d like to get to know you better.” Kay paused briefly before asking, “Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

  Riley’s mouth fell open and she quickly snapped it shut. This was not at all the response she was expecting. She swallowed hard and tried to get her emotions in check. “Um, sure. That’d be nice.”

  “Okay, great.” Kay leaned back and seemed to visibly relax.

  Did she actually think I’d say no? Riley wondered. Crazy woman.

  “You live in Kirkwood, right?” Kay asked.

  “Yep.”

  “How about if I pick you up around seven?”

  “Sounds good. I’ll text you my address.”

  “Okay, perfect,” Kay said before shifting gears. “See you in the debrief at two?”

  Riley nodded again. Right now, the Kamadori debrief was about the furthest thing from her mind.

  “All right, see you then.”

  Riley stood to leave. “Bye, Kay. See you in a bit.”

  When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Greg was still lurking nearby. He looked up from whatever he was reading and said, “She must have had something really important to discuss with you.” The tone of his voice gave Riley goosebumps.

  Riley forced a smile. If you only knew.

  Chapter Nine

  Greg was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of his office, staring out at downtown Atlanta. Kay rapped her knuckles against the office door. “You wanted to see me?”

  He snapped his head in her direction and waved her in. Just the sight of him was enough to make her stomach churn. The trip to Tokyo and London had been a welcome break from the shit show back at Logan’s headquarters, and now that she was back, she had to steel herself to confront it all again.

  She lowered herself into one of the chairs across from his desk and looked over at him. Kay smiled to herself. He’d touched up the grey near his temples while she’d been out of town.

  Greg shoved his hands in his pockets and paced around the office like a caged animal. He looked tired. The bags under his eyes were a blemish on his otherwise handsome face. “Zephyr Airlines is getting cold feet,” he said, referring to one of the airlines in Concordia, the one her friend Jessica worked for. “I need you to call them.”

  “And say what exactly?” Kay bit back, exposing a crack in her faux-calm demeanor.

  “Kindly remind them how much we all benefit from our…arrangement.”

  Kay sprang out of her chair. “I’m not comfortable doing that, Greg.”

  “I don’t really give a shit if you’re comfortable with it or not.” He rested his hands on his hips and scowled at her. “We cannot have one of the members stray from the flock. You’ll do as I say or else—”

  “Or else what?”

  “Don’t push me.”

  “Why don’t you call them your
self?”

  “I’m not an idiot, Kay. I know some of the other Concordia members view me as a bully.”

  She couldn’t contain a laugh. That was the understatement of the year. She knew most of the other airlines in Concordia were petrified of Greg. In fact, she was amazed Zephyr even had the guts to push back. There could only be one explanation. Concordia was getting reckless, increasing fares too much, too often. Zephyr knew it. Maybe they sensed the guillotine was about to come crashing down. That, or maybe… Had Jessica picked up on something when they’d had beers in London? She glowered at Greg. “And you think they’ll listen to me?”

  “Yes. You’re a woman and—”

  “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

  “I just think they might be more willing to listen to you.”

  She was trapped. She couldn’t risk upsetting Greg, not if she was going to have any shot at exposing Concordia. She had to remain privy to their every move, and that would become harder if Greg picked up the scent of fear. She needed him to believe, without a doubt, that she was all in. But calling Zephyr… She wasn’t sure her conscience would allow it. Doing so would only suck her deeper into this whole mess, and not only that, she actually respected Zephyr for having the guts to stand up to Greg.

  Greg walked back toward his desk and looked at his watch. “It’s almost seven p.m. in London. Why don’t we try Nicholas right now?” he asked, referring to their counterpart at Zephyr. “He should be home from the office.”

  Kay sank back into her chair. She tried to reason with Greg, tell him that they shouldn’t make these sorts of calls from the confines of Logan Headquarters, but he was unmoved. He pulled Nicholas’s number up on his cell phone, hit the green call button and shoved it in her direction. Reluctantly, she pressed the phone to her ear, praying Nicholas wouldn’t pick up. The fluorescent overhead lights in Greg’s office suddenly felt much brighter and she pinched her eyes shut to escape their glare. Just when she thought it was about to go to voice mail, Nicholas’s deep voice echoed in her ear.