Chapter Twelve

"Ye wanted to see me sir?"

Alexander Dimera looked up from the newspaper. "Ah, Mr. Flaherty. Please, have a seat."

Brian sat down uneasily in a large leather chair.

"So, how did it go Friday?" Alexander asked casually.

Brian shrugged. "No problems. I damaged several cases of parts, per your orders. Nothing t' do now but sit back and watch their customers leave."

Alexander gifted the foreman with a frosty smile. "Unfortunately that is not the case. The parts were discovered, by Mr. Sheamus Brady no less. Not only were the parts repaired, but they also went out on schedule."

The foreman paled noticeably. "How - how did this happen? How did he discover the parts? They were boxed up with the others?" Brian stammered.

"That's for you to find out. This makes twice now that Mr. Brady has interfered in my plans. I want him removed from the factory."

"I can't fire him; Rhianna would have a fit."

"Then you must make her fire him."

"How do I do that?"

Alexander smiled coldly. "Rhianna.cares for you, doesn't she?"

Brian paled even further. "We're just friends, sir. There's nothing going on between us."

"Relax, Mr. Flaherty. Trust me, if that upset me, you would have already known my displeasure."

Brian swallowed the lump in his throat. "Aye sir."

"Rhianna is young, innocent. I think we can use this little 'crush' of hers to my advantage."

"Sir?"

"I want you to woo her, charm her, court her until she's hopelessly in love with you. And then, when she's given you her heart, you will crush it. And then when she's heartbroken and devastated, the girl will come running to me."

The foreman nodded his head as the plan became clear. "I see. Very devious plan, sir. But may I ask a question? Ye seem to be putting a lot of effort into this plan; why? You're going to be married; you've already won her."

"I have won her hand, but not her heart. I don't want to marry her and have her pine away for some lost love. I will if I have to - nothing will keep me from claiming my bride. I would just rather that she belong to me, completely. The sooner, the better. That's where you come in. You will fulfill her teenage visions of love and romance, and then you will shatter them. Leaving her disillusioned and vulnerable to me."

"I understand sir."

"Good. And understand this. There is no room in my plan for Sheamus Brady. Do what you have to."

Later that morning. The foreman's eyes bulged visibly from their sockets. "How many?" he stammered as the color fled from his face.

"Around a hundred." Rhianna repeated calmly. "Maybe more."

It was Monday morning in the offices of Cassidy Industries. In the factory below workers were preparing for a new day and already the droning whine of machinery could be heard.

Brian Flaherty sat quietly at his desk for a moment while he struggled to absorb the news Rhianna had just given him. He had only walked in the door minutes earlier and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy his morning cup of coffee when Rhianna stunned him with the news of this weekend's near disaster.

He shook his head in disbelief. "No. I don't believe it. I can't believe that there were that many faulty parts in the shipment. I mean, we usually have a couple, but a hundred?"

"There shouldn't be any at all. Isn't it the quality control inspectors' job to make sure that this doesn't happen?" Rhianna asked firmly. She had had the entire weekend to think about the defective pieces and to ponder ways to ensure that errors of this magnitude didn't occur again.

The color slowly returned to the foreman's face as he addressed her concerns. He placed a calming hand on her shoulder and replied in his typically patronizing tone. "Yes, ye're right, but they're bound to make some mistakes. They inspect hundreds of pieces daily; one or two pieces will slip by now and again." He smiled down at her.

But Rhianna wasn't to be put off so easily. "Except it hasn't been just one or two, more like ten or twenty - per customer! I've been reviewing the customer complaint logs. The rate of returns and replacements is astronomically high. Frankly, I'm amazed that we still have any customers at all. We won't soon if we keep this up. One defective part that goes out these doors is too many." Rhianna stated firmly, her voice strong and unwavering.

Brian inhaled deeply and slumped his shoulders. He was a tad unnerved by Rhianna's abrupt change in personality. The sweet, unsure, frail girl he had known seemed to have been replaced by a leader with a spine of steel overnight. {This could make things difficult for our plans.} he realized.

"Okay," he acquiesced. "So do ye want me to fire the inspectors?" he asked softly.

Rhianna cocked her head to the side as she pondered his question. "No," she finally decided, "Let's give them one more chance. Perhaps they'll be more alert if they know they are being watched. But I am going to make Sheamus, ah, Mr. Brady their supervisor. I want him to personally double check every part that goes out that door."

"As ye wish." {I've got to get rid of Sheamus.} He moved in closer to her and reached out a hand to cup her cheek. When he spoke his voice was soft, caressing.

"I'm glad everything turned out so well. I just wish." he broke off suddenly and turned away from her.

Rhianna gently turned him back around. "Wish what?"

His brown eyes gazed into hers intensely and Rhianna could see his pain on his face. "I just.I thought that we had gotten close, that maybe ye.cared for me the way I care for ye."

Rhianna blushed and looked down at the floor. "I do..care." she said softly, her eyes downcast.

"Then why didn't ye come get me Friday night? Ye needed help and I would've been here in an instant had I only known. Ye shouldn't have had to worry and work so hard." He gently took her hands in his and rubbed tiny circles on her palms with his thumbs. "This is very hard and dangerous work; ye could've been hurt. Besides," he added with a smile, "I don't like to think of these beautiful hands getting dirty with hard labor."

Rhianna blushed under his gentle gaze. She loved the way he smiled at her; she felt deliriously happy. Yet at the same time, she felt a little odd - as if something was missing. She should be beside herself with joy; Brian had told her he cared for her. Yet for some reason she suddenly found herself thinking of Sheamus.

She pushed him out of her mind and focused on the handsome man in front of her. She smiled up at him.

"So, the next time anything happens, ye'll come get me? I am the foreman and I need to be aware of everything that goes on here."

Rhianna nodded, feeling guilt and shame for having forgotten about Brian. He was right - he should've been here. "You're right. I'm terribly sorry."

Brian smiled. "It's okay." And acting on impulse, bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips.

Later in the afternoon Rhianna sat at her desk looking over the next week's schedules. She absentmindedly ran her fingers over her lips, tracing the sweet kiss Brian had given her earlier. She sighed. Again, she should have been happy, but it only seemed to reaffirm that something was missing. Once again her thoughts drifted to dinner Sunday night with Sheamus. She recalled their spirited argument about her singing. {Passion. Hmmf.} She snorted. {He doesn't know the meaning of the word.}

She looked up when she heard the office door creak open. Brian slowly walked in and it was immediately clear that something troubled him.

"Rhianna, there's something I need to tell ye." He said seriously as he looked into her deep green eyes.

She motioned for him to take a seat as her heart began to race. She could only assume from his tone that he had bad news. He sat in a chair beside her and took her hands in his.

Brian took a deep breath. "I was upset at the high number of defective pieces in the shipment; I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I did a little checking, looked at the parts themselves." He paused momentarily to fully grab her attention. "All of the parts, ALL of them came off of the same machine. I thoroughly checked the machine; it's running normally. This is definitely a case of operator error."

He inhaled another deep breath and continued, his voice dropping to a thick whisper. "This many defective parts off of one machine is at best an indication of gross incompetence. At worst, it speaks of sabotage." His last words hung in the suddenly still air of the office.

"Sabotage? Ye mean that someone did this on purpose?" she questioned, not wanting to believe her ears.

"It's the only plausible explanation. Even our slowest worker would not make this many mistakes in one week. This was intentional."

Rhianna's mind raced to match her heart. She didn't want to accept it, but his words made sense. Why else would there have been so many errors during this first and most crucial shipment? Someone had wanted her to fail. And if those parts had gone out as planned, she very well would have.

She turned hard eyes toward her foreman. "Is there anyway to find out who's doing this?"

"I already have. Every part produced in this factory gets stamped with a number indicating the machine it came off of. These parts came from Machine 3, Section 5. Sheamus Brady's station."

"What?" the word flew out of her mouth, but it was purely automatic response. Her mind flashed suddenly. Friday night, they were going to replace the parts and the machine that Sheamus had immediately gone to was. machine 3 in section 5. {But that only proves that he operates that machine. It doesn't mean that, that.} her thought floundered though, unfinished. She racked her brain for some defense.

"I'm sorry Rhianna. I know ye've become rather close to Sheamus. But all the evidence points to him. He did it."

"But, but that doesn't make sense. I mean, he was the one who found the defective parts. Why would he tell me about them if he had made them in the first place?" she asked hotly, relieved to have seized upon a reasonable doubt.

Brian shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe, so he could come to the rescue - play the hero again." He reached over and gently caressed her cheek. When he spoke again his voice was softer, gentler.

"Think about it Rhianna. Ye take over for your father and suddenly your customers are leaving ye left and right. Things are at their darkest when Sheamus Brady happens by and manages to convince them to place another order. Incidentally, he just happens to know many of your customers personally. That same week we have the largest number of defective parts in our entire history, and he just happens to discover them. By the way, how did he find them? They were already packed into crates at that time."

"He told me that he had felt a sudden need to check them one last time, that he'd had a hunch." She replied mechanically, her mind whirling.

Brian snorted with derision. "He had a hunch. Right." He sighed and turned gentle eyes back toward the girl in front of him. "Rhianna, this kid has traveled far in the years he's worked here, because he's smart and ambitious. Good qualities, but also a dangerous combination, especially where ye're concerned."

He squeezed her hand and gazed into her wide eyes. "Rhianna, ye're in a very dangerous and vulnerable position right now. Ye're young, naïve, trusting. Beautiful. And ye have a considerable dowry, which consists of, among other things, ownership of your father's business. These qualities make ye easy prey for opportunistic men who think only of their own gain. I've seen the way he looks at you, Rhianna. He has designs on ye, and he won't stop until he's gained your title and control of your business."

Her mind flashed suddenly to several nights ago, after Sheamus had helped her in the forest. She had been telling him about her dowry. Rhianna recalled the strange, calculating look that had come over his face then. His blue eyes had looked at her almost greedily. And ever since then he had been polite, caring, complimentary (in direct contrast to his usual mocking, angry manner.) In fact he seemed to go out of his way to charm her at every opportunity.

She remembered the tense conversation Sunday night regarding her engagement. She had sensed an undercurrent of bitterness in his comments. {Could it be he was upset to learn that I was already engaged? That his plans were for naught?}

She sighed. She didn't like what she was thinking, but what other explanation was there? Sheamus has never been very open with her, has never really given her a reason to trust him. She recalled the three times that he had come to her rescue, all of them under bizarre coincidences. He was walking by the office and heard her conversation with her customers; he was on a walk through the forest when he heard her cry for help; and finally he just happened to decide to check on the parts.

It was all too much to be mere coincidence. For all she knew he even staged her attack in the forest to appear the hero. {It was awfully convenient that he was passing through the forest at the same time.}

She flushed hotly, feeling foolish at having been deceived by the scoundrel. Her anger flared and she trembled.

Brian leaned closer to her and took her trembling face in his hands. "Look, I want to be wrong about Sheamus, I really do. He's a good kid, from good family. But his family has suffered a great deal, and continues to suffer. That would drive even a saint to commit a deadly sin. Rhianna, I don't want to see ye hurt. Let me take care of this for ye. I will quietly let Sheamus go, and ye won't have to worry about it."

"No." she said firmly. "I'll do it."