Mahony was kept very busy for the next few days and was barely at his seat. He still had the usual exchanges with Lisa in the mornings but was confined to polite pleasantries and him mostly ignoring Lisa's gripes over the shareholder's presentation.

It wasn't till Friday morning that Lisa suddenly jumped up from her seat as if she sat on a thumbtack as soon as she plopped herself down on her office chair. She let out a loud expletive, hand on her butt, and pulled her diamond necklace from the crack between the seat cushion and the backrest of her chair.

"How about that?" Mahony said as he watched her pull out the pendant.

Lisa looked at Mahony, her gaze narrowed. She looked the pendent over closely. Satisfied that it was her pendant and was undamaged. Instead of clasping it around her neck immediately like Mahony was expecting. Lisa bent down to retrieve her bag which she had unceremoniously dropped into the bottom drawer of her desk only a moment ago and placed it into the inner zippered pocket. Once again, dropping her bag back into its usual place with just as unceremonious carelessness as before.

"Aren't you glad you've gotten it back?" Mahony asked, curiosity peaked. He had expected dramatic display of happiness and relief but found her lack of reaction a behavior very much out of character.

"Why are you asking?" Lisa responded in a not so nice way.

Mahony held up his hands, "Sorry I said anything." He went back to his screen, determined to ignore Lisa.

Lisa instead stood up and walked over to his desk, and dropped a folded piece of paper on his desk. Mahony picked up the paper and unfolded it. The pendent is only the beginning, retribution is mine. Immediately, recognizing the phrasing, like the note from before, Mahony looked at Lisa, studying her face.

"Is this you?" Lisa accused.

"What?" Mahony jumped up from his seat. "We are on this again?"

"You did this, admit it," Lisa said.

"Did what?" Mahony said indignant.

"What do you want? Huh?" Lisa challenged.

"I've told you before, I don't want anything from you," Mahony spit back.

"Bullshit! You're deliberately messing with me," Lisa said.

"Why would I want to do that?" Mahony asked. "What do I have to gain?"

"I don't know, because you won't tell me," Lisa said.

"This is ridiculous," Mahony nearly shouted, "there's nothing to tell because I genuinely do not care what you do with your life." He threw up his hands.

"Look, this is your last chance," Lisa said. "Either you tell me the conditions for your silence or I'll deal with things my way from now on."

"Oh, my fucking god!" Mahony exhaled the words with frustration and walked away from his desk, away from Lisa. What's wrong with the woman? What part of him not interested in receiving anything from her for his silence didn't she understand?

Mahony walked in a random direction and went through the door to the stairwell, and climbed up a flight of stairs, wanting very much to go as far away as possible. By the time he stopped he realized he was standing just at the entrance to the Sales department. Perhaps it's his subconscious guiding him that he ended up here. He walked through the door and was surprised to find Brad at his desk.

Brad turned when he heard the footsteps. "Mahony, what brings you here?"

"You're here early?" Mahony said surprised.

"Yeah," Brad got up from his seat, "got an early morning teleconference with our distributors to deal with a customer compliant. They wanted the meeting early so here I'm." Brad walked towards Mahony, he eyed him up and down, "What's the matter? You look like you are about to punch something ... or someone?"

"Yeah, that girlfriend of yours," Mahony said.

Brad's brows shot up. "No way ... the mild-mannered Dave Mahony. What's she done to get you so riled up?"

"The same issue as before, can you believe it?" Mahony said, his lips pressed tight together. "She found her pendant, and on top of which she also got a note like before alluding to the missing pendant was part of some retribution."

"Really?" Brad said with feigned surprise. "Where did she find the pendent?"

"Wedged between her seat cushion and the backrest of her office chair. Can you believe it? It was there the whole time." Mahony sighed with frustration. "The pendent must have somehow dropped into the crack, got wedged there. After a week of her sitting and moving around, the pendent finally surfaced."

"You're not making sense," Brad said, shaking his head. "What does Lisa's missing pendant have anything to do with you?"

"The note, she thinks that I sent the note 'promising retribution'," Mahony said.

"Not that again," Brad said finally comprehending the hang up. "She does have a one-track mind."

"One-track mind my ass. She sure as hell not using that towards her work," Mahony complained.

"Now, calm down," Brad soothed.

"Calm down?" Mahony looked at Brad with incredulity. "You have no right to be this calm, you're just as much of a problem as she is."

"What did I do?" Brad said with slight defensiveness.

"Explain to her, until she understands that I don't want anything from her or you, for that matter, for not saying anything about your relationship." Mahony looked at Brad imploringly. "I obviously can't get through to her, so you'll have to. Or ..."

"Or? ..." Brad said waiting for Mahony to continue.

"Or, I fear she's going to do something even we'll regret," Mahony said.

"That sounds ominous." Brad patted Mahony's shoulder. "I'll talk to her. But first let me get through my telecon first." Mahony nodded as he was being herded towards the door. "Hey, before you go, why don't you go grab a cup of coffee, we just got a brand-new expresso machine and new beans. It's fantastic." Brad turned Mahony around and guided him towards the break room of the Sales department.

That early evening, Brad and Lisa met at the Paradise Motel afterwork, "I see you found it," Brand said and laid back down, resting his head on his folded arms.

"I doubt I 'found' it," Lisa said sarcastically. "More like it was planted for me to find. I sat in that chair the entire week, and it only just decided to make its presence known now?" Lisa scooted up to lean against the headboard. "I find it highly unlikely."

"You think Mahony did this?" Brad asked.

"Who else could it be?" Lisa said. "He had the best opportunity to plant it. He always comes in before me, and he's always alone in the morning. He can plant it at his leisure and no one's the wiser."

"But why?" Brad asked.

"To mess with me, that's why." Lisa said.

"What for?"

"He's sick," Lisa said, "probably likes these sadistic games. I mean, he's the most boring person I have ever known. He never talks about anything else but work, no social life, nothing. To me that's plenty suspicious. What does he do for fun? These games, that's what."

"Don't you think you're over thinking things?" Brad asked.

"Mark my words, he's that type ... sick mind games," Lisa said with conviction. "There's got to be a way to stop him for good. I'll not have him lead me around like some gullible fool, marching to his beat."

"But you have no proof that it's Mahony," Brad said.

"Proof?! The proof is that he saw us together, that's the proof," Lisa said.

"What kind of logic is that?" Brad asked.

"He knew he got us good; we even went so far as to admit to him in person. It stands to reason that he'd want something in return. Anyone would," Lisa said adamantly.

"Maybe he really doesn't care what we do or don't do," Brad offered.

Lisa snorted. "Right, there's no such fool on this earth," Lisa said. "He can literally ask for anything from us, and we'd have to give it to him."

"I don't know about that," Brad said.

"Are you kidding me? Lisa stared at Brad. "Are you saying if he actually started extorting you, you wouldn't pay up?"

"That depends on what he wanted," Brad said, "if it's something I don't have or can't afford, there's little I can do."

"So, you're ok with him ruining you, dragging your name through the mud, ruin your marriage, maybe even ended up having your children taken away from you," Lisa said. "You're truly ok with that?" She challenged.

"Why are you worrying over things that haven't happened or by my estimate, would never happen," Brad said.

"You're taking this whole thing entirely to nonchalantly," Lisa fired back.

"Woah. Big words," Brad teased, "now we are serious."

"Fuck you." Lisa tossed back the covers, headed for the bathroom.

"Don't get mad at me." Brad got up to follow after her. He caught her around the waist and wrapped his arms around her. "Look, I just worry that if you keep this up, you're really going to force Mahony to demand for stuff. You know what I mean?"

"That's what he's waiting for, drive us crazy so that we'll do anything to comply just to have him off our backs," Lisa cautioned, entirely convinced with her theories on Mahony's motivations. "We just need to get him before he gets us."

"Now, Lisa, be careful there. Don't do anything you'll regret," Brad said seriously, "I don't like the way you phrased things just now."

"What?" Lisa looked at Brad with a glint in her eyes that he hadn't seen before.

Brad released his arms around her middle and put up his hands as if in surrender. "Whatever you're thinking, I want no part in it," he said thinking that Sarah was right. Lisa was her own brand of crazy.

"That's not up to you, is it?" Lisa said

"Come on, Lisa," Brad changing tact, "how did we ended up talking about such unpleasant things?" He wrapped his arms around her again.

"It's because you won't face this seriously like I'm," Lisa pouted.

"Come back to bed." Brad took Lisa's hand and started leading her back to bed. "Things aren't as dire as you think."

"Dammit, Brad," Lisa mock complained, her earlier resolve slipping by the way side, "you need to take this seriously."

"Oh,but I am," Brad whispered in her ear.