Drilled - Jayne Rylon Page 0,10

to his laptop. “He keeps all his contracts in a folder on the cloud drive.”

Devon swung around, her focus on hunting down the paperwork they both knew would be there. Mike didn’t mess up shit like that. He ran his construction jobs with military precision. If he said the insulators should have been there, she had no doubt they were supposed to have shown.

“Got it!” Devon leaned in, then cursed. “See! Those assholes think they can weasel out of this just because Mike isn’t there to shove his steel-toed boot up their ass. Little do they know that I’m twice as mean as he is.”

“And I’m even worse.” Kate snatched up her phone and said, “Read me their number. I’ll call for you. Unless you want the honors…”

“Honestly, nah.” Devon gave her the digits. “I’m better at knocking sense into things with my tools than talking about it. Do you mind?”

Kate shook her head. After a few minutes of explaining the situation and getting the same bullshit response Devon had earlier, she dug deep and applied her best mom-intimidation. “I have a contract right here that says otherwise. If you’re no longer able to abide by the terms, then we’ll expect a fifty-percent discount in order to offer our client compensation for the delay in delivery your mistake is going to cause. Their house has already sold, so they will need to be put up in a hotel and alter their move-in plans, all of which will make this mistake very costly.”

“Ma’am, where’s Mike?” Oh, she bet they were wishing for her husband now. He relied on charm and his good nature to persuade people where she believed in being much more direct.

“He’s busy. Powertools has given you plenty of business throughout the years. This is not a time to let us down. You know we have contacts in every area of this industry and we won’t hesitate to let our peers know that you’re no longer reliable and that you’re dishonest as well.”

Devon mouthed, Yeah, tell them!

“Uh, that’s…unnecessary,” the contractor practically squeaked.

“Then you’ll be at the site tomorrow to complete the work as indicated in our contract?”

“We’ll have to start at the ass crack of dawn so we can squeeze in two jobs.”

“So long as you are at our property first, our crew will meet you any time you like to oversee the installation.” Kate peeked over at Devon, who was nodding enthusiastically and flashing a thumbs-up.

A sigh loud enough that Devon had to be able to hear it rattled her ear. “I guess we’ll see you at four o’clock then. Or will Mike be back?”

Devon snorted when she heard the wishful note in the guy’s voice.

“He’s out of town working on another project. Devon will be the one in charge. Talk to her about anything you need and make sure the work is completed to her satisfaction.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” Kate said sweetly before hanging up with a flourish and jab of her index finger.

“Holy shit!” Devon crossed the gap between them and squeezed her. Despite being petite, she was strong as shit from working construction and lifted Kate like she hadn’t put on an extra few pounds or ten lately. Then she started to swing her around. “You’re so good at that! Why doesn’t Mike have you do that for us all the time? Usually he just curses a bunch and promises to buy beer when they’re finished.”

“Really?” Kate laughed because she could totally picture it. Until Devon made one more revolution and her stomach lurched. “Uhhh, stop. Please.”

Devon kept cracking up and didn’t take her quite as seriously as she should have. Kate shoved at her friend’s shoulders until they broke apart and she stumbled away, staggering toward the hall bathroom.

She braced her hands on cool counter top, slammed her eyes closed, and focused on taking long, deep breaths until the world stopped glitching around her.

Devon was there, rubbing her back, encouraging her quietly. “Hey, you’re okay. You’re okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean to fuck you up.”

“It’s not you.” Kate moaned as her queasiness passed. She splashed her face with cold water, then carefully turned and sank onto the closed toilet, folding until her head rested on her stacked arms.

“Then what the hell is it?” Devon wondered.

“I don’t know. Stress? I haven’t felt right for weeks.” Kate groaned.

“Weeks? And what kind of not right?” Devon crouched down and scanned Kate’s pale face and the gaunt bags she knew were darkening the skin beneath her eyes lately.

“I feel