Chapter 1

They always say that the third times the charm. I guess I'm hoping that's true. It works in manufacturing. I make my living as a Manufacturing Engineer. I specialize in CNC programming and set up, but I also work with Robotic and CMM applications. I generally run a program three times before I hand it over to the operators. The first time is to just get the bugs out of the program. I kind of expect the parts to be out of tolerance.

I measure the parts, then check the dimensions against the print and make changes in my work coordinate offsets. Then I run the program again. I always expect the second time to give me good parts. Sometimes though, unforeseen things can go wrong. The third time through a program has rarely ever failed to give me good parts. I'm hoping the same thing can be said of my life.

I look at the slumbering form in the seat next to me. Her head is turned towards me and her pretty face is covered by a curtain of dark hair. I'm trying to avoid looking into the cavernous cleavage that her deep V-neck sweater reveals. I don't know what the future will hold for us and honestly, I don't care. I'm sure that we'll face a number of hurdles and challenges. We might not even end up together. But one thing for sure is that whatever we end up doing it'll be better than what we left behind.

The steady thrumming of my Mustang's powerful 5.0 liter V8 is like the passing of the blood through my system. The engine's powerful breaths help to ease the tension in my body and let the adrenaline drain out of my bloodstream now that the need for fight or flight is over.

Long before the sun comes up, I pull into one of those comfy looking little motels that are scattered all over the Midwestern Region of the U.S.

I check in and give the tired looking old lady behind the counter my payment for the next two days, in cash. She gives me a key and points towards one of the freshly painted bungalows.

Returning to the car, I pull into a parking spot in front of the unit without waking my companion. She continues to sleep as I unload the trunk. We've both travelled lightly, with only two bags between us.

She barely makes a sound as I lift her from the car. I lift her with one arm supporting her back and the other under her knees, perhaps it's a reflex as her arms go around my neck. I carry her into the room and notice finally that the room came with only one bed. I place her gently on it and cover her up. Perhaps it's a habit, when I kiss her on her forehead before returning to the trunk, but it's not a habit I've developed with her. It's the first time that I've kissed her in any way, though I've always wanted to.

I pull a small cloth bag out of the trunk and remove the car's cover from it. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, but I'm covering the car to keep it from being seen. I'll tell anyone who asks, that it's to protect my custom orange paint from sun damage, but the reality of the situation is that we're on the run. Not from the police or the authorities but from ... Nah you'd never believe me unless I start from the beginning.

My name is Preston Collins, and as I said before I'm a manufacturing engineer. I'm not one of those useless white collar wearing, project management, who never get their hands dirty types of engineers. You know, the ones who get on the right committee, and oversee the development of a community access team, or organize the company's youth outreach program. We all know that those guys and their high salaries for things that don't directly impact the product, are part of the reason that cars cost so much these days.

I'm a throwback to the old days. I program CNC machines and Robotic systems. I program CMM machines for quality control systems. I edit, modify, design and fabricate anything we need to get the job done and keep the company in the black.

Since before I could walk I've been taking things apart and putting them back together. 200 years ago I'd have been a blacksmith. 100 years ago I'd have been a craftsman. 50 years ago I'd have been a machinist. This morning however, I'm a fugitive from a psychopath with murderous intentions. Because of the internet and modern tech, she can find me in an instant if I'm not careful. She just has to put an update on her Facebook page, asking if anyone has seen a custom orange Mustang GTR with wide white side stripes, matching orange brake calipers, cross drilled and slotted rotors, and all of the glass blacked out.

She'd probably get five or six tweets on her twitter page from every town I blow through. She plots the tweets on a map, and has a pretty good idea of where I'm going, and can probably get there or have someone else there waiting for me.

Five years ago, I was fresh from U of M engineering. I had a few credits and projects from Lawrence Tech as well. The problem was that I was so new the ink hadn't dried on my degree yet, so no one wanted to take a chance on me.

I finally got a break, just before my money ran out, when I interviewed for an up and coming manufacturing concern. Runaway Technologies, was owned by Sam Stevenson, and they made a lot of different suspension components for several different auto companies. They also made superior components for a few aftermarket companies.

Old man Stevenson took me under his wing, and taught me how to apply all of my theoretical knowledge that I'd obtained in school to the real world. After a couple of years of soaking up everything he could give me, we started modernizing and increased the business even further.

Some of the old line guys who worked there, hated me on sight. After all, some of them had been there for years and I just swooped in from nowhere, and over the course of 24 months become the obvious heir apparent. Nowhere was this made clearer than by the fact that when Stevenson's wayward daughter returned home after flunking out in college, we were practically forced together in a very short period of time.

Sam came in one morning while, I was going over the prints for a new line of control arms we would soon be making for one of our after market clients. I was meeting with all of the department heads of our various areas. The products looked so good that I'd agreed to try them out on my own Mustang. Anyway Sam walked into my meeting, looked over my desk, and told me that it was time I had an assistant of my own, to watch over my interests and keep me organized. I needed someone new who could grow with me and not resent the changes I was bringing.

That second part about not resenting change, was directed at the group of managers I was addressing. The part about needing an assistant was directed at me. He then told me that he'd already hired her and she'd be there the next day. The facilities group was moving me into a bigger office near his where I'd have a separated office from my assistant, so she could screen visitors for me. Needless to say some of the managers didn't take too kindly to that. The floor guys, were looking at it as if I was becoming an office drone, who'd simply be swamped with paperwork, and wouldn't have a clue of what we actually did. The office drones, were looking at it as if some grease monkey with dirty fingernails, was going to be invading their workspace trying to tell them what to do. It was the worst of both worlds.

The next morning Sam came in, dragging a very disinterested young woman with him. Her manner, bearing and posture all spoke volumes about exactly how much she loathed being there. I found out from several of the guys on the floor that she was his daughter. She had apparently just returned home after having been expelled from another college. She had a host of problems with schools and other issues as well. The general consensus was that she was "Nucking Futs." Apparently Sam had decided that she should try working instead of academia and I was supposed to be her new baby sitter.

I spent as much time as I could on operations on the floor, avoiding the inevitable return to the office for the meeting that I dreaded. Eventually I could put it off no longer and headed for my office.

"Hey Press," said Sam, as I walked into the office. "I'd like you to meet your new assistant, Charlotte. I noticed that he didn't give a last name, but in a couple of seconds it no longer mattered, nothing did.

She was about 5'3" and slim, with an obviously enhanced rack. Her red hair was drawn back away from her face in an attempt to appear professional. Her eyes were large and green, and luminous. Her lipstick or lip gloss or whatever she had on those lips just made me want to chew on them. The overall impression I got from her was that she was only being contrite long enough for Daddy to get over whatever she'd just done, and then she'd be off on her next adventure.

She did take a hard look at me, and her gaze lingered on me for just a shade longer than necessary. Her hands as we shook hands were soft and so warm that I expected them to start smoking at any second. Again she maintained the contact for a little bit longer than I thought necessary, and her smile had broadened a tiny bit when she let go.

Something happened though when we locked eyes. It was as if a switch was tripped that opened up all sorts of possibilities.

"Well, I guess I'll let you two get acquainted," said Sam. "Press, is everything alright on the floor?"

"Yep," I replied. "We're wearing out inserts faster than we should on the Miller job. So it's going to cost us a bit more than we expected by the time we get to 5000 pieces. But that's my problem, not something you have to worry about. If I haven't solved it by the 5000 piece mark, I'll re-quote the rest of the job. It's minor but it would reduce our profit margin by about 2 percent. I really believe their castings are actually harder than the specs they sent us. I think their castings came from Mexico so their metallurgical studies are suspect. We could reduce the feed rates by tweaking the program but that might cost us an extra 10 or fifteen seconds per part."

"Alright, you can handle that," said Sam, shaking his head. "If you need any help, I'll be in my second office. I should be in conference until about 2:30, with a follow up therapy session after that." I just smiled and nodded my head.

Charlotte took that opportunity to tap me on the shoulder. "Why, is 15 seconds a problem?" she asked.

I turned to face her so I could answer her question. As she looked at me again I was just stunned. "Uhm, it's 15 seconds per part," I said. "in this initial production run of these parts we're only running 5000 parts to see if the quote we gave them was accurate or not. 15 seconds times 5000 parts, is about 2 and a half days, since we're only running one shift on this project. If we're two and a half days late delivering the parts, our customers aren't going to be happy. Also if we tried a faster shipping option, we'd have to pay a lot more, which would again cut into our profit margin."

"Do you wear glasses?" she asked.

"Contacts," I said.

"I knew it," she replied. "You're a nerd. I like nerds. They're smart, and very creative. I think I'm going to enjoy working with you. I can think of all kinds of ways to use that creativity."

I really didn't know what to say. So I just went into my office. There were several things I needed to organize. I decided to have an impromptu meeting to discuss the Miller job.

"Charlotte, can you get all of the managers together for a quick meeting?" I asked her.

"How do I do that?" she asked. Her smile lit up the room. I had trouble concentrating on what I was doing.

"Just call them all and have them meet us in the conference room in 20 minutes," I said.

"Who are the managers?" she asked. "What are their phone numbers?"

I suddenly realized that she didn't know anything about working in an office. "Charlotte what did you study in school? I asked her.

"I had some English classes, and a couple of Math courses, and some science course too but I forgot which ones," she said smiling. "It doesn't matter though."

"Why doesn't it matter?" I asked.

"Because I didn't pass any of them," she said brightly. "It was mostly because I didn't go to class much. I really tried, but they just got so boring after a while. You know how it goes. Besides I knew that eventually I'd be taking over here for my Dad when he gets too old. And I'd have all of those smart guys like you to figure out stuff. So I just concentrated on my strengths. You know like meeting people and getting them in the mood to relax and discuss things."

I picked up the phone and called Myra. Myra Washington, worked in our secretarial pool. I had worked with her several times and loved both her intelligence and her work ethic. Myra was there in less than 3 minutes, and we got to work.

"Myra, I need to have an impromptu meeting with all of the managers. Can you get them all to the conference room?" I asked.

Myra smiled and picked up the phone. She pushed a couple of buttons and spoke into the phone. Suddenly I heard her voice from all over the building. She named off 8 people from memory and asked them to be in the conference room in 15 minutes.

"Will that be all?" she asked smiling.

"Myra, keep your options open, as soon as I talk to Sam you may be moving," I said.

Myra smiled and closed the door on her way out.

"I hate that fucking bitch!" screamed Charlotte. "She could have just shown me how to do it, but no! She had to fucking show off in front of you. That cunt was just trying to make me look bad. She thinks I'm some kind of a fucking moron. I'm going to have that bitch fired."

I was floored. Myra was a professional, and acted like one. She had majored in office systems and business in college and was very good at what she did. If everything was considered Myra should have been my assistant. If I'd gotten to pick an assistant, I'd have picked Myra hands down. Charlotte on the other hand was beautiful, and I really saw her in another role. More like girlfriend. I knew that Sam wanted me to keep her out of trouble, and show her the ropes, so maybe I could kill two birds with one stone.

After my meeting that morning, I explained my plan to Charlotte before calling Sam. I didn't want her to get angry at me. "Charlotte before today, I've never really wanted an assistant." I told her. "Now I find that with this office and my new responsibilities, I'm probably going to need two. So you're going to get a promotion. Myra will be my administrative assistant. And you can be my personal assistant. I just need to call your Dad and make sure I can spring her from the pool," I said.

"I can ask him for you," she said. "Where's his second office?"

"Uhm, Charlotte, your Dad's second office, means he's at the golf course," I told her. "Mondays and Wednesday, his foursome usually tees off at about 10 a.m."

"So who takes care of everything?" she asked.

"Well, in terms of running the floor and the manufacturing stuff, I have for the past year or so," I said. "That's why I got the new office. He wants me to start looking into more of the business and sales side of things too. That is why I need the assistants."

Over the next couple of weeks things really moved quickly between Charlotte and I. By the end of the first week we were dating. She seemed to show up at work every morning just to hang out with me. She took long lunches, and frequent shopping trips. I got the idea that the dating thing was what her dad had in mind anyway.

By the end of the first month we were exclusive. Charlotte had a very unusual and mercurial personality. She also had a jealous streak a mile wide. She allowed Myra to do all of the work, except for certain tasks that were considered to be hers alone. Anything that was done for me personally was considered Charlotte's.

She came in one afternoon after having a two hour lunch. During her lunch period I'd met with several customers who were making similar parts. We were discussing the possibility of one of them switching vendors for their castings. The move would save money for all three businesses. They would save on their shipping costs. Since we would also get all of their parts from the same vendor that would also get them both a big discount on the price they paid for casting, which meant they could pass those savings down to us as well.

It took us two hours to go over the proposal with them, and its advantages over the current system. It was like getting two porcupines to kiss, without either one of them or us, getting quill marks. After the meeting I was drained. Myra was in the office giving me a shoulder massage when Charlotte got back from lunch. Charlotte dropped her bags and had a fit immediately.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she screamed. "Get your God Damned hands off of him!"

Myra and I looked at her as if she was crazy. I told Myra to start typing up the reports from the meetings so we could send them to Sam. I then took charlotte into the conference room.

"Charlotte, what's wrong with you?" I asked.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with me? I come in to see some dried up old cunt with her hands all over my boyfriend, and you're asking what's wrong with me," she screamed.

"Charlotte, Myra has a husband and three kids," I said quietly. "She loves her family very much.

"Which means what?" she asked.

That really should have started the alarm bells ringing in my head, but it didn't. Any person, who thinks that someone who is married and has kids, doesn't give them any thought before doing something inappropriate, is probably going to be a cheater themselves. But I didn't think about that seriously at the time.

"Charlotte, you're the only person I want," I told her. "You're beautiful, you're sexy, and I love you." She smiled at that and just walked away.

"Just make sure grandma keeps her hands off you," she hissed.

I had trouble believing that Charlotte was only 22 years old sometimes. She was very aggressive sexually and very experienced. Charlotte had never said no to anything I wanted to try, and had already done most of them before.

Usually we'd go out to eat, and maybe hit a club or a late movie afterwards. Then we went straight back to my place. Charlotte's room at her mom and dad's house was probably bigger than my whole apartment, but it didn't offer us the privacy we needed. As soon as the door closed her clothes would be on the floor. Charlotte loved trying out new rooms, and new positions.

Charlotte would not only suck my dick on command, but liked it so much that she would frequently, have me pull it out of her vagina so she could suck it again. I think she knew what her pussy tasted like better than I did. She was also pretty loud and very vocal. She wasn't one of those girls who just softly moaned, I think everyone in my neighborhood knew when Charlotte had her orgasms.

Every day that passed found me deeper in love with her. At least it did for the first six months. One evening just after the 6 month point, I'd had to stay late at the plant. We were having some problems with a new robotic part loader. The robot wasn't picking the parts off of the pallets or loading them into the machines. It was just going through the motions and the locations were totally off. For some reason it took us a couple f hours to find out that the robot was actually performing the way it was supposed to. The problem was that we used English dimensions and the robot was reading them in metric dimensioning. We went through the entire program and did the conversions and had no further problems.

On my way home I spotted Charlotte's car a Saturn Sky roadster that her Dad had bought her when she tore up her first car, a Corvette. The car was in the parking lot of Manny's a club that a lot of the guys went to after work to blow off steam. I went in and saw her at a table with three guys who didn't work for us. The four of them were all huddled into one of the smaller booths. Charlotte's hands weren't visible but one of the guys sitting next to her had his head back and Charlotte seemed to be really interested in his crotch.

I walked over to the table and looked at her. As I supposed, she was jacking the guy off under the table.

"See you at work tomorrow, Miss Stevenson," I said loudly. She jumped back with the stupidest look on her face.

"Preston, no," she said. "I can explain. Two of the guys got up.

"No need for any explanations," I said calmly. "We aren't married. I just thought that we had something. Sorry, it's my mistake."

"Preston, I'm sorry," she whined, her eyes filling with tears.

"Why don't you give the little girl a break Preston," said one of the guys.

I turned towards him and punched him in the mouth as hard as I could. I hit him so hard that he spit out two teeth and my hand was bleeding.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up," I replied. His friends including the guy that Charlotte had jacked off, came out of the booth, while he just sat there holding his mouth.

Before they could do or say anything, several of my guys who were in the club were around me.

"Is there a problem Press?" asked Clay Thompson. Clay was one of my CNC operators. He was also as big as a house.

"Nah, no problems Clay, I'm just leaving," I said.

When I got to the parking lot, Charlotte came running out of the club. I started my car and drove slowly away from there. I didn't need a ticket and there were always cops around the club. Brightly colored muscle cars tend to draw far more tickets.

The next day at work was interesting. I came in went right into the office. As usual Myra was there already. I told her that I'd be working on the floor all day. I needed to make sure that the problems we had with the robot were actually solved. I asked her to forward anything from the office side that I needed to know about to my cell phone.

"When Charlotte comes in, should I ask her to join you on the floor, or stay here in the office with me?" she asked.

"It would probably be better for her to stay here with you," I said. "At least until I can figure out a way to get rid of her." There was no disguising the gleam in Myra's eyes when I said that.

At about 11o'clock Charlotte showed up. Her eyes were red, and she was looking around the floor for me. Luckily it was a very large building, and had a lot of machines scattered around. There were conveyors and CMM labs and all manner of things that I could hide behind to avoid her. After a while she changed tactics and called my cell phone. When I saw her number I just let the call go to voice mail. That day, was the first one since Charlotte came to work with us that she and I didn't go to lunch together. Charlotte often went to lunch twice. She shopped on one lunch period, and ate with me on the other. I sat down for lunch with Charlie Parreda, in his small office, just off the floor.

"So the bloom is off the rose?" he asked. I just nodded sullenly.

"It's my fault Press," he said. "I should have said something sooner. Sam is one of the good guys. He started this business out over thirty years ago, before you were even born. He started out in his garage with a refurbished Bridgeport mill, drilling holes and making slots in plates for anyone who needed parts. He's just like you and me. He's really only happy in front of a machine making something. Once the business got going he started hiring guys and getting bigger jobs. He was constantly expanding and making things better. You've helped a lot over the past couple of years. I see a lot of him in you. I know that he wants you to take over for him when he retires, and I guess he was hoping that you could tame that hellion he sired as well."

"That girl has never been worth a damn. Between Sam, and her mother, you couldn't ask for two classier people. The problem is they indulged her, and now she just has no boundaries. When she turned 20, she started showing up here at the plant. That first summer, she got caught in a compromising position, with two of our top salesmen. They both had to be let go and Sam just sent her off to another college. Last year, she wrecked her Corvette, just left it behind one of those huge trucks that come in every week to pick up our scrap metal. When the driver backed out, he couldn't see that little car because it sits so low, it wasn't visible in his mirrors. He just backed up and crushed it."

"That car cost $60,000 and she just left it behind a truck so she could catch up to the married guy that she was fucking. He was trying to break things off with her, and she wasn't having it. He quit the next day. He said it would be easier for him to get another job, than to deal with her."

"You've heard of guys who can't keep it in their pants, she can't keep her legs closed. Sam loves her, but she's too old for him to spank. And she's too used to having her way." He looked at me with a mixture of sympathy and humor. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

"Update my resume," I said slowly. "I guess I'll need a new job."

"Where are we going?" asked Charlotte, from behind me. "If you're leaving, I am too." I hadn't heard her come in.

She looked at Charlie, and said, "Hey old guy, is this your office?" he nodded. "Well we're going to need it for a while, If you don't mind."

"I was going back to work anyway ma'am," he said politely. "My lunch will be over soon."

I got up to leave with Charlie. As I passed by Charlotte in the tiny office, she grabbed my arm. "Press, where are you going? We need to talk," she said.

"Miss Stevenson, I think you're a bit over qualified to be wasting your time as my assistant. I'm going to ask your father to see if he can assign you to a position of greater importance in the company. Especially since you're not doing what you've trained for or aspired to." I said. "Maybe he can find something, where you can use those meeting people and helping them to relax skills. I've recently discovered exactly how good you are at that," I said. "However for the rest of the day, you still work for me, so please return to the office. The state safety regulations don't allow you on the manufacturing floor dressed the way you are. You could also consider taking the rest of the day off as a well earned reward for your faithful service and hard work over the past six months."

"Preston, we're supposed to be going to that concert tonight, and I'd really like to work this out before we go," she said.

"I'm afraid I have to work tonight," I said. "Perhaps you could get one of your friends from last night to go instead."

"I don't even know those guys. Preston, the only guy I'm going out with is you. I love you," she said. When she said she loved me. I almost folded, but stuck to my guns.

"I've been thinking about that, Miss Stevenson," I said. "It's totally my fault, but workplace romances aren't in the best interest of the company. They tend to lead to unpleasant circumstances among the employees, and usually result in lowered productivity. It was totally my fault for allowing it to begin. I'll report it to your father, and have him reprimand me."

"Preston, will you stop being a jackass. My father pushed us together because he was hoping we'd hit it off. I was hoping I'd hate you, but I don't. I love you. We're going to get married, have kids and run this company. We just need to get over this. It wasn't anything serious. I just made one mistake. It won't happen again," she said.

"Charlotte, the only mistake that you think you made, was getting caught," I said. "I'll talk to Sam when he comes in tomorrow. I don't want you working for me. There's nothing left for us on a personal level either. I just plain don't want to be around you. I'm sure that when the shit hits the fan, your dad will choose you over me, in a heartbeat, so I'll just spend the rest of today saying goodbye to everyone. That way I'll be ready to leave after I see him tomorrow." Then I walked away and left her there crying. I felt badly about hurting her, but decided that it was the lesser of two evils. I'd rather have her hurt for the few hours that it would take her to get over me, than me broken hearted over her for months.

Unfortunately Charlotte wasn't used to rejection in any way shape or form. She trashed Charlie's office and destroyed a bunch of his personal property during her rampage.

Everyone on the floor and in the offices was talking about both my fight yesterday, what there was of it, and Charlotte tearing up Charlie's office.

"Hey Press, I heard you hit that guy so hard that his kids will be born without any front teeth," said one of the mechanics. I smiled and watched as another one picked up a chair and pretended to throw it, imitating Charlotte.

The next morning I was already on the floor when Sam came in. I excused myself from the guys I'd been working with and went up to his office.

"Holy shit, what is all of this stuff?" he asked, pointing to the mountain of files on his desk.

"Production reports from everything we're running right now. Metallurgical reports and QC data," I said. "There are also master copies of every program we use and possible modifications to them for different scenarios on the disks. The rest are incident reports, Sales figures, Cutter designs, time studies..."