Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,93

be in touch. Can you find your way out?”

“Yes. I’ve got it.” After shaking hands with Mark, and with a pep in her stride, she headed to the elevator. The door opened and she stepped inside. It was perfect, she’d be at the construction site in less than—

Shit.

Of all the dumb things. She’d left her backpack with all of her work clothes by the side of the chair she’d sat in for the interview. She hit the button for floor four and waited as the elevator took her all the way to the ground floor before taking her back up.

Thankfully, the room was empty, and she was able to make her way around the conference table to grab her things.

“How did it go?” The voice carried from the hallway into the conference room.

“She’d be perfect if she was a guy.”

Mark? Perfect . . . guy. What?

“Yeah?” She didn’t know who the other man was. “Why’s that?”

“Competent, great experience, even Art Silvestre in Operations put in a word for her. Knows some site manager she works with who rates her high.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“She’s too fucking pretty. Putting a skirt like that on a construction site is a hazard waiting to happen.”

The words hit Cassie like a one-two punch. She was inordinately capable, but she was a woman. And that, in Mark’s eyes, made her a liability. A part of her wanted to march out of the conference room and step right up in Mark’s face and tell him why what he’d said was not only out of order, but plain illegal.

But swiftly followed by her anger was a wave of defeat. Why bother? What would it serve to go out there and ream Mark out? Perhaps, somewhere down the line, Mark might make a different choice about who to hire. But it wouldn’t change her own situation. And she knew she should care about raising the ceiling for all women. But right now, she barely had the energy to pick her backpack up off the floor, let alone blaze a trail.

The voices became muted, the footsteps quieter.

Cassie took another breath.

Then another.

She creaked her neck from side to side, took a deep breath, and pulled her shoulders back. She was a well-educated, deeply experienced project manager. Sure, she was on a shitty run of luck, but she was so over men in the construction industry.

She found a washroom on the first floor and changed before she made her way to the construction site.

“Cass, heads up.” Bruce marched toward her. “Boss man’s here and he’s not happy.”

Cassie looked over Bruce’s shoulder to the office trailer. “Elijah? What’s he upset about?”

“Some update he was expecting and didn’t get. Seems like he’s mad at Brandon, but I gotta tell you, sweetheart, Brandon threw you under the bus. Said it was your fault.”

Her stomach clenched, a flash of heartburn. She couldn’t decide what caused it. Hunger or misogyny. “I’ll go deal with it.”

“Wait, how did the interview go?”

“It went great,” she said, lying through her teeth. Bruce had done her a favor helping her out, there was no need to make him feel shitty about it.

“They’d be stupid to pass on you, Cassie.”

“I’m going to blow my own trumpet and agree with you. They would.”

She walked to the office trailer, took a deep breath, squared her shoulders for the second time that morning, and stepped inside.

“Morning,” she said, far more cheerfully than she really felt.

“Cass. What the fuck is this?” Elijah threw a document onto the table that stood between them. Ironically, Brandon stood behind Elijah, his back leaning on the wall.

Cassie glanced at the cover. It was an update with her name on it. “I have no idea, Elijah. But it will take three seconds to figure out if you look at my laptop, hard drive, and email. I didn’t create, save, or send that document.”

Elijah looked from Brandon to Cassie. “It shows the plan to be slipping. Again.”

“Yes. It is. Because you put someone in charge who isn’t qualified. When updating the north wing plan, Brandon didn’t place the procurement needs for the electricians on the critical path, so procurement missed the ordering deadline.”

“It wasn’t me. I—”

“Oh, shut up, Brandon. Let the grown-ups talk.” She glared in his direction. Mark’s comments had taken the last of her calm.

“Cassie, please,” Elijah said. “Can we remain professional about this?”

Cassie sighed and looked out of the window. The Grosvenor was her baby. She wanted it to be something she could be proud of. An impact on