Claire froze in her seat when Alex redirected her gaze to her. "It was on purpose?" she whispered. At Alex's sharp nod, Claire looked at Vicki. "Why? I thought you were my friend."
Vicki snorted and pointed at Claire. "That job was mine," she snarled. "I've been teaching myself coding for three years so I could snag a developer position. When one came open, I applied immediately. Mine was the first résumé in the pile. And the job was mine. Right up until your daddy pulled strings and got you hired instead. And the team despised you, too. Especially when you kept messing up. You obviously weren't the strong candidate they expected. But then you cuddled up to the nearest bachelor on the project and ruined all my chances of making it onto the core team. It really is who you know and not how good you are."
Claire sucked in a breath at the viciousness of her accusations. Tears welled up, and she raised a hand to her heart, staring open-mouthed at Vicki. Time slowed down as she replayed the accusations in her head: terrible at her job, only hired because of her dad, the team hated her, she stole the job from Vicki, and she pursued Noah to anchor her position. Nausea churned in her stomach and she swallowed desperately as her mouth went dry.
She glanced uneasily around the room. Everyone stared at Vicki, and their faces showed varying levels of shock. Claire turned back to her and took in the woman's bloodshot eyes and hair slipping from its normally neat bun. Although Claire was out of Vicki's reach, she scooted further away. Vicki looked a little unhinged.
While Vicki had been spewing her vitriol, Jackie had moved behind her. "Incorrect. Your application was reviewed like the others, and you simply weren't qualified for the job. Claire's qualifications and track record surpassed all applicants without contest. Please gather your things and come with me. HR is waiting in your office."
Vicki slammed her laptop closed and threw her notepad and pen on top of it, picking everything up in a huff. She glared at Claire one more time before stomping out of the conference room, with Jackie following her.
Alex addressed the room. "Sorry for the disruption, team. Claire, please reach out to Grace, who will reset your password for you. For the last time." She winked at Claire, then closed the door behind her as she left.
"Holy shit!" Larry exclaimed. The room erupted with everyone talking at once. From the statements being made, no one on the team was a Vicki fan, but they'd never suspected her capable of sabotage. Claire sat still, breathing steadily to calm her racing heart, unable to believe that she'd once again been a target of someone's ill intent. As the conversation flowed around her, she picked up a few remarks about her skills and how laughable it was for Vicki to diss her like that. As the comments sunk in, her heart slowed to normal and she basked in the confidence her team had in her abilities. This was not the same situation as before.
Simon cleared his throat and everyone settled.
Srini spoke first. "Well, at least we don't have to pretend we don't know about the two lovebirds anymore." Laughter erupted, dispelling the tension.
Even Simon was smiling. Claire gaped at everyone. Apparently, she and Noah had worried for nothing. So much for any future careers as undercover agents. She grinned back at them.
"Seriously, Claire. We didn't realize you were having issues with that bit?—I mean the system. You could have told us. We would have helped." For all the swagger Larry threw out, moments like this really showed how much he cared about his teammates.
"Thanks, Larry. I didn't know she was deliberately doing it. I just thought I had bad luck." Claire smiled at her teammates. She truly could have gone to them for help. She wasn't isolated and alone. They had her back.
A loud buzzing interrupted, and everyone's phone lit up. Simon reacted first and announced, "Ha! First pictures of Baby Jackson. Looks like Rick's wife was right about the due date. Baby girl squeaked in at literally the last minute. They welcomed her at 11:59 pm yesterday."
"Look at the proud papa. Did we know Rick had that many teeth?" Jenny asked.
"Who had Sunday night?" Dev asked while Larry fished out a paper from his pocket. The guys crowded around Larry as he frowned down at the page.
"Who the hell let Rick bet?"
Claire looked at Jenny and they burst into laughter.
The rest of the meeting was a bust as they all cooed over Rick's sweet baby girl and sent congratulation messages to the happy parents. Claire listened to the banter and fully relaxed, warming inside, knowing she was where she belonged.
Her breath hitched as she thought of Noah. Hopefully, their public outing wouldn't affect his position. Claire bit her thumb as worry crept back in.
Chapter 38
All or Nothing
Noah swallowed the last sip of water from his bottle and watched the men gathered around him. Mitch Talbot, who'd flown in over the weekend, and several members of the executive leadership team sat around the room, quietly reviewing the printouts he'd shared. When this morning's meeting with Mitch had bled into lunchtime, the new COO had ordered in, snagged a conference room, and invited the other executives to join them.
"Hmph," Caprock's CFO grunted quietly.
"Frank?" Mitch asked.
Frank Lambert scowled down at the report in his hands. "One of my controllers has suggested in the past that our profit margins have spoiled us to where we've become lazy in watching our costs. At the time, I laughed it off as a joke about our holiday party, but looking at these reports over the changes we've made in the last year with our production processes, I see exactly what he was driving at."
Noah craned his neck to see which report Frank was reading. Ah, the one showing the profitability of the process changes they'd made since the project began. He owed Randall for suggesting that breakdown.
While he took Mitch's invitation for the other managers to join them as a good sign, he was nervous as heck and glad he'd followed Claire's suggestion to wear a suit today rather than his usual business casual look. He hadn't spent much time in meetings with C-level executives and wanted to make a good impression. His presentation was done and all he could do now was nervously wait for questions.
"Who helped you put this information together, Noah?" Richard McMahon, the head sales executive, asked.
Noah sat up straight before answering. "Er, several people from different locations. Accountants Randall from Houston and Paul from England, Cheryl from sales, and Teresa from procurement all gave suggestions, and the developers pulled the numbers from the system." He nodded to each department head as he named their people. "I also received feedback from the production lines of all three plants and the major repair facilities." Who was he forgetting? "Oh, and I also had input from a few sales managers. They've been pretty happy with the changes we've made both before and during the MADS update project."
