Poison Read Free Page B

take that drastic of a stance against her. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “It won’t make a difference. He’ll tell you to throw me out anyways.”
    Harry looked first at her, then at John who stood with his arms crossed on the other side of the room. “Look Cassie, you both have my hands tied. I trust John with your situation more than I would anyone else. But we can’t keep working like this. You two need to talk and figure out some way to tolerate each other.”
    “Or what?”
    “Or I’m afraid one of you will have to leave.”
    Cassie’s shoulders dropped.
    Harry glanced at John. “Please hear her out.”
    “Nothing she has to say is going to change my decision about her working here.”
    Cassie winced. Triumph gleamed in John’s eyes. He had Harry’s permission to fire her. She couldn’t believe Harry was doing this to her. Or to Tim. Didn’t Harry care that her son needed the protection this job provided? For God sakes Harry’s own wife babysat Tim while she was at work. How could he even contemplate letting John have control over her?
    Harry left the office, leaving them staring at each other in total silence. Cassie’s stomach tightened, and her breathing hitched. This wasn’t good . John stepped closer to her and suddenly clasped her arm, pulling her close to him. In a deadly voice he whispered, “You killed our child. How could you think I’d forget that?”
    Cassie jerked her arm out of his tight grasp. Rubbing absently at where his fingers pressed into her skin she rolled her eyes. “Don’t you dare. It wasn’t like that, and you damn well know it. I had an abortion, but—“
    “You had an abortion without even telling me you were pregnant. What kind of woman does that?”
    She licked her lips and straightened her shoulders. “Me. I’m the kind of woman who does that. I get it; I know how you feel about me—”
    “You really have no idea.”
    “Actually I do. But please hear me out, and why I need this job. It has nothing what so ever to do with our history. If you could remember that and give me a chance to explain, you might react different to me.”
    He stared long and hard at her. Finally he stepped back, walked around Harry’s desk and sat down with a heavy sigh. “So you’ve said too many times for me to count. Okay, I’ll bite. Why Cassie? Why here with me?”
    “Not here because of you, that part was an awful coincidence.”
    “Just imagine how I feel.”
    She shut her eyes and silently counted to five before she continued. She could not lose her cool with John. Not when her livelihood and therefore Tim’s security was at stake. When she opened her eyes she started again. “You remember my mother?”
    “Yeah, I remember Heather. She’s hard to forget, I just didn’t know at the time you were so much like her. What does she have to do with this?”
    “Harry and Heather were friends when I was young. That’s how I know Harry. He was the only one of my mother’s boyfriends who ever had even the slightest interest in me and Kelly.”
    John shook his head. “No. That’s enough. I don’t want to know about Harry’s personal life. I will not work with you. Get out Cassie, you’ve already wasted too much of my time, and of my life.” John stood and headed toward the door, dismissing her.
    Cassie panicked. John was going to walk out, essentially firing her by Harry’s ultimatum. She rushed forward and grabbed his arm. “John please, I’ll do anything. You can say anything you want to me, just let me work here.”
    He turned to look her in the eye. He smiled. “Really? You’ll do anything? Now why am I not surprised?”
    She dropped her hand. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m in trouble.”
    “How does that have anything to do with this job?”
    “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. If you would just sit down and listen to me for five minutes you might understand.”
    He stared at her, but finally sat down.
    She nodded in silent