Texas Fall Read Online Free Page B

folders, at the rolled maps and the piles of mail. “Santone has a lot to
gain from you working with me. You could take the information from here and
sell it big back there.”
    Tom pulled himself up
straighter in his chair and looked affronted, but he managed to school his
features to become calm and composed. “The implication at Santone was that I
had hit the glass ceiling. That because I am not a family member, I wouldn’t move
much beyond office manager. And…”
    “And?” Riley prompted.
    “JJ made a pass at me.”
    Riley sat back in his
chair, he’d had no idea JJ was gay or bi or whatever. Interesting what you found
out in a job interview.
    “And you weren’t
interested?” Riley asked. He immediately realized he’d asked the wrong way,
that his question sounded all kinds of personal and certainly not politically
correct. “My apologies, I meant, there are no subsequent issues following on
from this? Are you taking things further?” Jeez, was he supposed to even ask
that either? The two halves of Riley warred. On the one hand, he wanted to
march Tom to Jim and offer legal support for anything and everything that had
happened to Tom at JJ’s hands; on the other, he certainly did not want to make
enemies at Santone. In the end compassion and his own innate confidence he
could handle anything won out, and he knew the answer wouldn’t matter even
before Tom gave it.
    “No, I’m not,” Tom said.
“It’s not worth my time, nor my money, and I’m not a kid. I floored him with
one hit, and he didn’t come near me again. Although I’m thinking hitting him
just reinforced the whole you’ve hit the glass ceiling problem.”
    Riley let out a snort of
laughter, then composed himself quickly as he realized he needed to remain
professional at all times. Still, Tom smiled.
    “Do you go around hitting
all your bosses?”
    Tongue-in-cheek, Tom
smiled as he answered, “Only the married ones in the closet who push their
luck.”
    Riley nodded his head in
agreement. “So tell me a bit about your experience…”
    They talked for ages, cake
forgotten, coffee cold as they discussed ethics and economies and oil. Riley
found himself relaxing with each passing minute. Tom really knew his stuff, and
he’d be wasted where he was at Santone. Here at CH he could be a partner in the
workload, and Riley would give him the space to follow his instincts. Riley
only really had one more thing to check. He pulled over the closest map, the Alpha
four plotting source map that he’d been putting to one side for weeks as a
to-do item. The site started on this side of the US/Mexico border, passing over
to Nuevo León, and the potential was huge.
    With the help of the
private sector, Nuevo León had new highly trained state police, policía única ,
and they were working hard to replace police officers suspected of corruption, as
well as strengthening the law. They wanted the billions in energy investment
that was out there, and they were courting companies like Hayes Oil to invest.
    Riley didn’t unroll the
map, simply handed it to Tom.
    “Tell me what you think,”
he said.
    Tom hefted the map and
slid off the clip. He glanced at the desk, then at the floor, then out of the
door, then back to the floor. “Can I?” he asked, gesturing at the carpet.
    “Go ahead.” Riley did all
his best work poring over maps while sitting on the floor with his legs
crossed.
    Tom rolled out the map and
used a tape dispenser and his own cell phone to hold down either edge. Settling
himself in a crouch, he examined the map.
    “Wow,” he finally said.
“Seriously? Are you doing anything with this? Because working on the border is
tricky.” He looked up at Riley. “But there are incentives, and Nuevo León has
all the new security initiatives, and the places are open for business. The
fact that the field starts this side of the border, we could—sorry, you could…
wait.” He moved to his knees and peered closer, and Riley hitched his pants