41
Juliet hurried through the crowded walkways of Market Square, taking special care not to trip in her heels on the terra-cotta Saltillo tiles. Overhead, brightly colored paper flags and strings of lights swayed in a breeze filled with the scent of tamales and grilling onions.
Her stomach growled. Had she even eaten today?
La Margarita was just ahead, with blue and white patio umbrellas lining the outdoor courtyard. When a woman pushing a stroller stopped and bent to check on her child, Juliet ducked around a lamppost and swiftly made her way to a wooden podium stationed at the entrance of the restaurant.
Out of breath, she brushed her hair into place. “I’m Dr. Ryan. I’m meeting Alexa Carmichael and Greer Latham. They should already be seated.”
The man with dark hair and a moustache glanced over his list. “Ah, bueno. Yes, this way, please.” He motioned for her to follow and led her inside the iconic establishment with its massive bar and exposed brick interior.
Alexa and Greer were tucked at a table near a window at the back. They both waved as they spotted her walking to the table, as if she was a friend and this was a social event.
As she took her seat, Alexa gave her a wide smile. “I’m so glad you agreed to join us,” she gushed, sounding as upbeat as the mariachi band playing across the room.
Greer held a more wary approach. “Juliet,” he said, acknowledging her with a simple nod as his manicured hand circled the large glass on the table in front of him. His eyes stared at her over the rim as he took a long sip of his frozen margarita. An identical glass stood empty on the table, except for a straw leaning against a crusty salted rim.
“I swear, these are the best margaritas in San Antonio. They add Grand Marnier to only the finest brands of tequilas. We nearly ordered one for you as well,” Alexa rambled, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “But we thought it might melt before you arrived.” She raised her arm to signal the waiter back to the table.
Juliet shook her head. “No, nothing for me.” Alexa’s use of the word we—as in us, me and him, a couple—didn’t go unnoticed.
A young woman in a brightly colored full skirt and white peasant blouse placed a basket of tortilla chips on their table. From a pitcher she carried in her other hand, she poured salsa into individual molcajetes and scooted the little-legged bowls in front of each of them.
As soon as the waitress moved away from the table, Juliet wasted no time. She glared across the table. “Why did you two want to meet?” Let them put their cards on the table first, she thought.
Greer set his glass on the table. “A few issues have become a bit convoluted lately. We hoped to straighten things out.”
There was a flinty look of determination in his eyes, an intention to defuse any trouble she might cause. Did he think she could be easily manipulated?
She nodded slowly. “Oh, I see. You need to straighten me out.”
Greer’s jaw twitched. “Don’t twist my words. I think you’d be the first to admit, personal lives are separate from professional. This isn’t high school.”
She winced at his bold put-down. “Look, Ken. Barbie has moved past caring about Midge. What’s going on here is much bigger than your personal improprieties.”
Alexa flashed a stern look his direction and placed her hand on Juliet’s arm. “I think what Greer is trying to say is that Larimar Springs has valued and continues to value your expertise. Your position at the company is secure, despite what you might recently believe.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Juliet spotted a family eating at the next table over—a black family with a little guy about MD’s age. He was giggling as his mom wrestled him back into his booster chair.
She took a deep breath. “Let me spell out what I’ve recently come to believe. The two of you have some kind of game going. I don’t know why you hired me exactly, or how you thought I’d never find out about your personal relationship—or whatever term you might want to use—but I’m not one who appreciates being exploited.” She turned to Greer. “And you, sir, are as greasy as that junk you slime on your hair to keep it in place.”
Alexa’s eyelids batted rapidly. “Let’s not let emotion—”
Juliet rolled her eyes. “Oh, cut it, Alexa.”
Her boss’s eyes flew open as if Juliet had slapped her. Alexa leaned back in her chair as if to catch her breath.
Greer lifted his glass. “See, I told you.” He downed a large drink of his margarita, then placed it back on the table so hard the glass made a thud.
Alexa flinched. She took a deep breath and fingered the neckline of her butter-colored tank. “Relationships—all of them—tend to be complicated. Right now, a good company filled with hard-working people teeters on how we move forward. Given that, I’d like to focus on the critical issues before us.”
A waiter brought menus to the table, forcing a pause in the conversation. Across the room, the mariachi band finished, and the three men carried their guitars through the doors leading to the courtyard. Ceiling fans whirred overhead as they each buried their attention in the food choices.
When the waiter lifted a pen to his pad, Greer ordered beef fajitas. “And another margarita,” he quickly added.
“The chicken lime salad, please.” Alexa handed off her menu to the waiter.
“And you, miss?”
Juliet closed the menu and handed it to him. “Just iced tea. I’m afraid I’ve lost my appetite.” She reached inside her bag and took out a copy of the analysis report that had been left in the envelope on her car, glad she’d never revealed anything about it before now. She unfolded the paper and handed it over to Alexa, watching her face carefully for a reaction. “You should see this.”
Alexa scanned the columns of information. She looked up. “What is it?”
Greer snapped it from her hands. He looked it over and frowned. “A water test.”
Juliet nodded. “The test from the tainted pallets. Only, look.” She pointed at the coliform counts. “Everything is within range.”
Greer tossed the report on the table in front of her. “Yeah, so?”
Alexa’s face turned the color of uncooked chicken. She cleared her throat. “What are you implying with this?”
Before she could respond, Greer grabbed Juliet’s wrist.
Shocked, she pulled away.
He rushed to apologize. “Look, I’m sorry. But you’re making a big mistake.”
“Are you threatening me?” she spat back at him.
He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. “No. I’m simply trying to make you stop and think. If what you are implicating is true—and I’m certainly not conceding that it is—and you take this idea public, you do know Larimar Springs will go down?”
Alexa held up her hand. “This is my fault. Like I told you in my office, I’m the one accountable here. I trusted Robin Ford when she told me there were no safety issues to worry about. I believed her.”
A voice inside warned Juliet not to disclose everything she’d learned. But she couldn’t sit here and tolerate any more lies. She glared at Alexa. “And I believed you when you said she resigned. In fact, what really happened is you terminated her.”
“Who told you that?”
“What does that matter? What really matters is the two of you placed your own financial well-being above innocent consumers, who opened and drank from bottles of our water you knew were tainted with deadly pathogens.” She leaned forward and pointed her finger. “Children were killed.”
Greer glanced around. “Lower your voice. Yes, we made a critical error in judgment. The executive team was buried in work, profits were floundering, and we had to do something.” He nodded in Alexa’s direction. “She did everything she could, explored every option. If the deal with Montavan International had gone south, she would have lost it all.”
“I couldn’t take that chance,” Alexa said, joining in Greer’s argument.
The waiter showed up then with a large tray balanced on his shoulder. With his other hand, he positioned a bussing stand and set the tray down. He placed the salad in front of Alexa and the platter of sizzling fajitas near Greer. “Let me know if you need more tortillas, sir.”
Greer lifted his empty glass. “I need another margarita.”
Alexa scowled.
He frowned back at her. “What?”
When they were alone again, Juliet held up both hands. “Look, I’m not going to be a party to any of this.”
Greer smirked and stabbed a piece of beef with his fork. “Don’t kid yourself, Juliet. You are already involved.”
“What do you mean?”
He pointed at her purse with his fork. “I don’t know how long you’ve known, but seems to me you failed to take that little piece of paper directly to the authorities.” He slid the fork in his mouth and chewed, talking with his mouth full. “What’s that going to look like?”
Alexa nodded. “Or the fact that you were regularly spending the night with the company’s sales director.”
Her comment knifed.
“Or that you were having private lunches on the Riverwalk with Cyril Montavan and making plans to visit him in Italy,” Greer said, pushing the blade in deeper.
“In fact, you met with him fairly regularly,” Alexa added. She took a bite of her salad, the color returning to her skin.
Juliet’s gut squeezed at the implication. They’d followed her. Had they also tracked her phone and email messages?
A slow, disheartening breath leaked from between her lips. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but she’d been a fool to believe she could force their hand without them pushing back.
A little tremor raced down Juliet’s spine, and she tried not to visibly shiver. Greer noticed and a calculating smile sprouted on his chiseled face. She knew that smile, knew what it meant. The salesman was about to close the deal.
“We’ve talked to John Lucier. Our attorney assures us that as a member of the executive team and an officer of Larimar Springs, and especially given your assigned duties as quality assurance director, you could easily be implicated in a criminal action. But don’t worry. I’m sure all the lab rats, including your father, would visit you in jail.”
A ripple of disgust moved through her. She looked at the man with all his empty margarita glasses, this stranger she thought she knew, who believed he could raise the threat of government prosecution and slap her down.
“You’re one lucky pair, you know that? Greer hangs out in a golf club one day and runs into a highly trained microbiologist, the answer to everything. You simply threw the bait and waited for her to bite. Then you lured her under your sheets and into an interview with the boss you were already tangled up with, in more ways than one. Who else to keep your nasty secrets than the gal you set up to take the fall if this all went down?”
Her former boyfriend watched her, his eyes proprietary and cool, calculating how she’d tipped the balance of their carefully measured world, placing everything that mattered to them in jeopardy.
Her actions could sink their plans to expand, to eventually go global. Alexa Carmichael wanted to elevate Larimar Springs to rival Nestle or PepsiCo, competitor bottled water conglomerates that held over 90 percent of the industry in their control.
Now, Juliet held the power to topple everything. They knew it, and intended to make sure that if she made the decision to toss their ambitions in the fire, they’d burn her as well. And maybe even Cyril in the process.
A flicker of doubt, like reaching tendrils, wove itself around her righteous anger. She considered abandoning the notion she could resist them before any of this grew out of control, but she couldn’t bring herself to fully swallow the barbed hook.
Even so, she glanced at her hands and was surprised to see them tremble. She thought of her mother, and the faith she often relied on. If ever Juliet needed God, it was now.
Please, you’ve got to help me here, Lord.
She stood. “I get that you’re ambitious and have big plans for your company. What I’ll never understand is how you could stand by and let people, even children, get so severely sick.” She turned to Alexa. “You kept your secrets and Tavina’s son died.”
For the first time, she noticed tiny wrinkles at her boss’s eyes, at her mouth. These were nothing compared to the fault lines in the woman’s character.
“In the nights ahead, I’ll be able to lay my head on my pillow and sleep—even if it’s in a jail cell. But will you?”
She shoved the chair back into the table and walked away.