"I mean it," Lori said, gesturing slightly to emphasize the gun in her hand. "Say one word, just one, and I swear to God, I'm putting a bullet right between your eyes."
Thankfully, Derek didn't say anything. Lori was so scared she wasn't sure if she was bluffing or not, but she didn't want to find out whether or not she could pull the trigger. Derek didn't force the issue, but he didn't seem worried, either. He just stood there, looking at her impassively. A little too impassively, to be honest. The way he stared at her...it was like she didn't have the gun at all, like she was just a crazy girl who'd wandered into his office. He just kept looking at her with perhaps the tiniest hint of disdain in his eyes. Lori reached behind her and locked the door.
"There," she said, hoping she sounded tough and suave, like Dirty Harry or something. "Now we can have a nice private chat." She gestured slightly with the gun. "Have a seat." Still without any sign of a crack in that unnerving calm, Derek sat down in his executive chair. "I know I was scheduled to report to you for 'special training' tomorrow, but I thought I'd just jump the gun a bit..." She realized the unintentional pun, and caught herself in a hysterical giggle.
Derek didn't say anything, but he did raise an eyebrow for a moment. Then he lowered it again. He leaned back in his chair, looking for all the world like he had the upper hand. Lori realized her hand was shaking a little, the gun slick and sweaty in her grip. It felt heavy, heavier than she'd thought it would. This was her first time holding a gun, and she hoped it would be her last.
"I thought it'd be a good idea to talk to you privately before starting your 'special training', Derek, because I can't help but notice that the girls who've been training with you, well...oh, I'm sure you'd say they were more friendly, now. More approachable." Derek just sat there, tapping his fingers in a slow, measured rhythm on the arm of his chair. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. "But that's why I'm doing all the talking, Derek, and you're not."
She slipped into the chair opposite his desk, and sat down. It felt nice and soft, very expensive--they'd all been a little surprised that Derek had just been hired straight into such a nice position, complete with a corner office and the funds to decorate it however he liked. But that didn't seem so surprising now. "Because I don't trust you. I mean, none of us ever trusted you, Derek. You were always an oily bastard, and we all figured you must have some kind of hold on Ms Plimpton to get this job to begin with, but I really don't trust you now."
Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. He never stopped, never changed the rhythm. He never looked away from her. Lori wasn't sure if he even blinked. "I'll admit, I probably should have noticed sooner." She realized she was rambling a little, but he was throwing her off with the way he was so damned calm about the whole thing. She'd thought that maybe she would come in here, he'd see the gun, and he'd...break down, maybe. Start sobbing. Admit his guilt...except that she'd have shot him if he'd said anything. Wouldn't she?
"But you made a good choice, starting with Staci. Half of us thought she was a fucking slut anyway. When you announced that she'd be attending 'special customer service training', well...we all just thought it was a euphemism for 'fucking me in the office for an hour every morning'." Lori switched the gun to her other hand for a moment and wiped the sweat from her palm onto her blouse.
"So when Staci came out of your office every day with a stupid grin on her face, we didn't think twice. When she started wearing higher and higher skirts, we just bitched about how unfair it was that she could get away with anything because she was fucking Ms Plimpton's office pet. I didn't even notice for a while that she'd stopped bringing in crossword puzzles and started bringing in Harlequin romances, because fuck, it wasn't like I talked much with Staci anyway." Lori tried to steady her breathing, calm her jangling nerves. But the calmer, the more impassive Derek seemed, the more nervous she got. She just wanted to find something to crack that calm veneer, say something that would prove that she knew it all and that he was in deep shit now.
"But when Ms Plimpton started dyeing her hair? That was when I started to think something was wrong. I didn't know what, I thought maybe she and Staci were jealous of each other, but...but why over you? You're not exactly a looker." She half-hoped he'd flinch at that, but he just kept tapping his fingers. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. She looked down at his hand, at the gaudy ring he wore. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.
"And then you started in on 'special training' with Gina. And I knew you couldn't be fucking Gina. She was practically a nun. But every day, she walked out of your office with that same stupid grin Staci wore--and Staci, she was smiling like that practically non-stop by then. Chewing gum on the job, giggling like a schoolgirl and flirting with all her clients...of course, she's a natural blonde. You didn't need to make her dye it."
Lori jabbed the gun at him just a little. "Because it was you, wasn't it? Don't answer that," she said quickly. "It's a rhetorical question." He didn't answer, though. He didn't even clear his throat to answer. He just sat there, tapping his fingers. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. The ring glittered with every motion of his hand. She had a sudden irrational urge to scream at him, to tell him to stop tapping his fingers, but she controlled it. She was in control here. She had him just where she wanted him.
"When Gina walked in with her new manicure, I knew something was up. Pink fingernails? Bleach-blonde hair? You might as well have tattooed your name on her ass." For all Lori knew, he did. She pictured it for a moment, Derek signing each girl with his name, marking them as his. Lori shivered. "But I still didn't know what. I just knew that all the girls were changing, becoming..." She trailed off as she tried to put it into words.
All she could really get was a succession of images. Ms Plimpton, handing out gym memberships to every girl at the office to help them 'get trim and slim'. Gina, talking to a client over the phone like she didn't even care about who heard her, moaning, "Oh, God, you're turning me on, I've got my hand down my panties and three fingers in my twat," and the smell of sex everywhere in the office as it became clear she wasn't just saying it. Lori walking past a vacant conference room and hearing gasps and grunts, putting her eye to the crack in the door and spotting Staci being fucked from both ends by two of their long-term clients, taking a cock in her mouth and another in her cunt and clearly loving every second of it.