Chapter 2: First Impressions

Thanks to Doc for his editing help.

The whole day had become a disaster. It started the moment she tried to log on to her computer at work. Rachel was locked out. Harold had used her computer to access a customer's records and used his administrator's over ride. Then he neglected to log back off. He shut down the computer instead. Of course, he tried to blame Rachel.

She missed her lunch break because the trainee who was supposed to relieve her forgot, or so he said. The twenty year old had tried to date Rachel and she refused. "I don't date kids," she told him. The look he gave her, when she refused to date him, was filled with a promise of payback.

Between irritable and irritating customers, plus her missed lunch, Rachel felt miserable. Then, when she at last got a chance to call Cole, some irritating kid in his mid teens plopped himself down at her desk and interrupted her conversation with her son.

A half hour later, she was summoned to Harold's office. "Rachel, may I present Mark Hunter, a very, very important client of this bank. I believe you have already met Mister Hunter.

Rachel drew her hands to her face in horror. "Oh," she gasped. Mark hunter did not acknowledge her presence. Instead, he turned his back to her and asked to have a man wait on him in the future, instead of some brainless woman.

"No!" she whispered in a strangled voice.

Then Mark Hunter stared hard at Rachel Jones and told Harold he intended to sever all ties with this bank.

Thirty minutes later, branch bank manager Harold Osterman was ready to get on his knees and beg Mark, "What will it take to change your mind? Mike Hunter was a good friend of mine. I hate to see all four of his accounts leave here. Mike always got good service from us."

"Fire her and the money stays here." Mark pointed to the now worried assistant manager.

The young woman stiffened, "Please, no, it was all a bad mistake on my part. I am sorry, I did not realize..."

"Not as sorry as I was to be humiliated the way I was when you had me bodily thrown out of this bank just because I interfered with your conversation with your horny boyfriend." He stared hard into her eyes until she lowered her gaze.

"I don't have a boyfriend. I was talking to my son, he's ill." She looked back up at him. "If I lose this job I will have to place him in a home."

"She is telling you the truth. Her son is paralyzed below the waist. He is housebound and can travel only in a wheelchair." Harold Osterman frowned at her. He saw his defense of Rachel Jones as a possible maneuver to placate Mark and save an otherwise bad situation. It would also give him leverage over her if she remained a bank employee. She was a little old for his tastes, but he was flexible where sex was concerned.

Still angry, Mark said, "Forget it. I hate to see some kid get punished because his mother is an idiot." She flinched but said nothing.

Mark had an inspiration. He laughed to himself and smiled a mean smile. "Okay, here's the deal. You assign her to take over the job of managing all of my affairs at this bank. She belongs to me and I own her. That means body and soul she's mine."

"Just remember, I have first call on her time whenever I want her and however I want her. Any time of the day or night her time is my time." He saw the angry look form on her face and gave her a cruel grin.

"This means, today she takes care of all her present business for your bank and hands it off to someone else. And then, after today she becomes solely mine. She handles all business for the Willows naked club up in the mountains and Uncle Mike's investment accounts and especially Hunter Manufacturing. I mean everything."

Claude laid a cautioning hand on Mark's arm. "Mike's other affairs are quite extensive, far more than you or your mother have any idea."

He tried to slow Mark's impetuous decision and perhaps reverse it. "I care for your mother."

"Yeah, so I noticed," Mark interrupted him. The lawyer's face turned bright red.

"Mark, listen to me, we are talking more money than your mother realizes. She learned about the resort because she intercepted a letter addressed to you and came into my office ready to do battle."

"I did not violate your confidence." Claude knew that was a necessary lie. "She has no idea of the size of Mike's, now your holdings."

He pointed toward the miserable woman, "This young lady doesn't have the background to manage an estate of that size."

"Then she runs it into the ground and I don't have it to worry about it any more. She had better learn how to do her new duties right, that is if she wants to keep her job."

"I see some interesting times ahead for us," Claude Richards, attorney at law muttered to himself. He decided Claire was mostly right in what she planned. This kid was definitely a wild card.

A little over an hour later Mark's business was concluded for the day. Claude led Mark out of the bank. Meanwhile back inside the bank Harold turned to the frightened and confused woman.

"Rachel, as a reward for your brainless discourtesy to one of the largest depositors in this branch you have been handed a great promotion as your punishment."

"Oh?" She looked at her former boss in confusion.

"Yes. For all practical purposes you are no longer an employee of this branch. When I first became aware of this mess, I intended to terminate you with cause after Mister Richards made the complaint on behalf of young Mister Hunter. That is all a non-issue now."

"You will have a private office and a secretary close to my office. You will also have the enmity of the present account managers who have been handling the Hunter business affairs since Mike Hunter's death. I also hope you have a thick skin. Rumors are going to fly about you and that young man."

She thought hard and made a quick decision. "I don't care about the account manager. I want his assistant and any others who did the actual work to be transferred over here to work under me."

Her now ex-boss looked at her and smiled, "Great idea. You just might be equal to the task. You also must keep that young man tamed and friendly. I hope so because right now he is a loose cannon who might go off at any moment. You and I would both be hurt a whole lot if he is not kept damned happy."

She looked at him in surprise. She felt a few tendrils of fear work their way through her stomach. "Exactly what do you mean? Spell it out."

"Rachel, if he wants to take you out to that naked club up in the mountains, you better take your clothes off and ask, 'What next, sir?' Is that plain enough?"

She started to get angry, "That's sexual harassment. I could sue."

"And you could lose. No, you would lose. If, after all the delays and motions for continuances were over, you did get it to court you would lose, without a doubt. There would be twenty witnesses, all of whom heard you proposition him. I would be one of them. Now do you understand?"

"I ... I refuse to be a whore." She glared at him, "I..." She could go no further.

"Rachel, welcome to the real world. If you walk away from this you are unemployed and unemployable. This bank will not jeopardize the loss of revenues it would suffer if Mark Hunter were to take all of his affairs elsewhere." Rachel wanted to slap this fat pig's face.

"Right now, all told his entire net worth is somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty million dollars. Now do you understand?"