Fisher (Prince of Tigers, #3) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,14

world, and people know what I say means business. You’re going to have to deal with people like me all the time. Think of this as a learning experience. I’ll pay you when I’m damned good and ready to.”

“Are you sure about that?” He didn’t like her tone and told her so. “I could care less what you’re liking about me or not. You have fifteen minutes to make the payment in full, or I’m hitting the kill switch.”

Benson just disconnected the call. The nerve of the little bitch, thinking she could order him around like he was a nobody. Benson didn’t get to where he was today by playing by the rules, and the sooner she realized that, the better off she’d be. Big companies like his were what made the world roll around. He might even buy her out someday.

Her program was wonderful—Benson would say that about her. It did just what he wanted it to do, and he’d not had to fuss with it once since she’d put it in three months ago. When he had to have a report of sales or something other than that, he had only to press a couple of keys and there it was. Even him, as un-tech savvy as he was about computers, could make it work for him. When he’d told her what he wanted, to have computers be able to load information to a single line and be updated every time another order was taken, she’d done just what he’d been wanting. And he thought her prices were just a little low too. He would do business with her all the time, even if he never paid her a thin dime for her work.

Benson had been selling and buying since before that girl was born. To have her get lippy to him about paying would make him laugh every time he thought about it. Didn’t the little bitch know he could and would own her ass if she didn’t straighten up? Well, he’d won against her, and she’d better be changing her attitude, or someone was going to have to take her down a few pegs.

Benson was just putting his computer to sleep—he’d been playing solitaire all morning—when his secretary came into his office without knocking. He had disliked her since he’d been coming by to see Franklin or his wife, and she’d give him a devil of a time with one thing or another. Denise had worked for Franklin when the company had just started. So, she knew all the skeletons in his—

“I told you not to fuck with her.” Denise laid the paperwork on his desk. “That is what showed up on my printer about five seconds ago. Just before it posted in big red letters to call James Programming. I’m sure you’re going to hear from every one of the people you have down on the floor soon too.” The paper said, several times in a row, that the system had been shut down for nonpayment of bill. “I’ve checked too. That is on all the computers. So, the entire company knows you’re a cheap fuck, and that is why the company is coming to a stop. I so wish Franklin were still around.”

Almost as if she’d let them come through, his phone started pinging that he had calls coming in from different departments. Sitting back down, he asked Denise what she was talking about. He thought she was taking too much pleasure in the fact that his company was shut down.

“Well? Start it back up again. I’ve seen you restart your computer when it acts up.” Denise told him all the computers were shut down. There wasn’t any way to turn them back on when the program that connected them all was gone. “What do you mean, it’s gone? There is no way she was able to shut down my company so quickly.”

“Obviously, there is a way, and she did it. I’d say she knew just what she was doing when she put in that kill switch for this company. It’s really too bad that more companies you’ve treated the way you tried to treat her didn’t have a kill switch.” He told her to shut up. “Sure, I can do that. But there is something else you should know, Benson. The data we have been storing on her program? Well, it’s all gone. I’ve read over the contract, and you’re fucked as of the moment you decided your way was the only way