by Holly Rayner
Her heart sank. Great, he knew about this weekend, the getaway, her lying about the plane. Mike was efficient if nothing else. And still, as annoyed as the man made her, she actually felt guilty.
“Mike, I’m so sorry, I can explain everything. I actually flew out to the M—”
“—The Middle East. Yes, I know all about it,” he interrupted. “But that isn’t what this is about.”
“Is isn’t?”
“No,” he said breathlessly, tossing a stack of papers in front of her. “I do know all about your little tryst with the Sheikh, or whatever it is. But, my dear, I’m here to talk to you about this.”
Emily leaned forward and her eyes skimmed over the papers, which she immediately recognized. It was her faulty accounting—proof that she was the one who stole from Salt River Resorts to the tune of ten thousand dollars.
She put her hand on the stack, pained, and stared up at Mike in shock. “Mike, I’m so sorry. I… I can explain everything. I know nothing is going to be good enough but, please, let me explain myself.”
“No need!” he responded, almost comically. “You stole money. Stealing is stealing is stealing. That much is clear, yes? What I’m really interested in…” He paused, frowned, and then corrected himself. “What I’m looking for is information about your boy-toy. He wants to buy the company, did you know that?”
“I…I heard rumors,” she stammered, not sure where this was going.
“Right, right,” Mike mumbled incoherently. “My commitment to retirement is not great.”
“Come again?”
“Getting fired,” Mike specified. “Don’t take me for a fool. I know what’s going on here.”
“Actually, when I spoke to Tariq he specified that nobody would be losing their jobs, so…”
Mike laughed, hard. He slapped his knee and looked at her as though she were a silly child. He bit his lip and narrowed his brows suspiciously. “I know the plan,” he said. “I can write this script pretty well, actually. The Sheikh takes over with the Hasan Group and all of a sudden—bang! Emily’s the new boss. Am I right?”
Emily blinked, surprised. He actually thought Emily was going to replace him? The thought had never occurred to her. Sure, she’d dreamt about it, but it was never something she thought could actually happen.
“Mike, no,” she said slowly. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Spare me,” he dismissed with a wave of his hand. “I’m not going to let it happen, and here’s how I know. Because the Hasan Group isn’t buying us out.”
“They’re not?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it. And my insurance in this plan is going to be you, Emmy-Wemmy. You are standing at the right hand of the devil.”
“Right now…or with Tariq?”
Mike chuckled again, pointing a finger at her. “You’re a funny one,” he said through gritted teeth. “I mean with the Sheikh. Now listen, Emily, I like you. I’ve always liked you. But, you’re a thief. That’s just the truth. But luckily for you, I wanted to talk to you personally before I took any legal action… and I can make your problems go away…”
She blinked. “If?”
“If you help me sabotage the buyout. You access the company accounts and make it look like we’re going broke. You’re pretty good at abusing your privileges with our accounts, aren’t you Emily?” He sighed, tapping his pen against his desk. “You don’t help me, and I’ll make sure you are virtually un-hirable. I will out you to the company, call the police and sue you. I will have you thrown in jail, and your relationship with the Sheikh will fall apart as quickly as it came together. Do I make myself clear?”
Emily didn’t know what to think. On the one hand, Mike was right to be furious with her—she had stolen from the company, after all. She was in the wrong. If he pressed charges and sent her to jail he would be in the right. On the other hand, asking her to stage a sabotage against the man she loved just so that Mike could keep his job and ease his paranoia was just plain wrong.
Her thoughts twisted over to her mother and her pulse quickened. Her mother, while no longer at death’s door, was still ill and in need of care. If Emily went to jail, her mother would be helpless.
She cringed inwardly and wanted to burst into tears when she realized her decision was already made for her. She simply couldn’t afford to have this come out and haunt her life forever. Nothing was worth that.
She shrugged helplessly. “Just… tell me what to do.”
Chapter 13
“You’re staying late again?” came the tired voice on the other end of the phone.
“Yes,” came Emily’s hushed tone. She looked around her office to see if anyone was listening in on her conversation. For whatever reason, she always felt like whenever she was on the phone with her mother, people could hear them from a mile away. “I know you hate it when I work so much overtime.”
“I thought we were having dinner tomorrow; I was going to make the drive out with Aunt Kelly. Is that not happening anymore?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Her mother’s tone was downcast. “Oh.”
“Yeah, well, disappointment seems to be a theme for the week, doesn’t it?” Emily complained in a whisper. While most of the office had cleared out, there were still a few sales reps lingering about before close.
It had been like this for a solid week. Emily came in at eight in the morning and didn’t leave until ten at night. Mike had her working insane hours to help her manipulate accounts in his favor in private. He had promised in return that not only would he not turn her over to the police, but the money she would earn working overtime would be a great start at finishing playing off her mother’s debt. He was a slimy one, but he had a good point.
“What does that mean?” Emily’s mother, Janet, asked curiously.
“It means I’ve been working a lot.”
Her mother hummed and hawed on the other end of the phone; Emily could hear music playing loudly in the background. Some days, Emily swore she did that just to bother her when she was on the phone.
“You can turn your music down,” Emily lectured.
“You can turn your schedule down,” Janet twitted back. “Come on, come take care of mom and I’ll treat you to dinner and drinks.”
“You should rest, you sound tired,” Emily retorted in a small voice, now feeling tempted to abandon the horrific world of servitude and ditch to get drunk with mom. It sounded odd, seeing as she had previously had a rocky relationship with her, but now she quite enjoyed chatting with her about life and love. As it turned out, one of the best ways to let go of childhood resentment was to get your mother loose and find out what kind of a girl she’d been when she was in her twenties.
“I’m exhausted,” he mother admitted. “But I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever. First, you take off with mister handsome and now you can’t seem to leave work for anything! I’ve tempted you with shopping, girl’s movie night, and now drinks, and you’d rather sit in your chair and do math, of all things.”
“That’s why it’s called ‘work’ and not ‘awesome fun time with Mom’,” Emily mocked.
“Well I hope you at least have a chance to go fancy it up with your new man,” he mother said with some concern.
In fact, she had. She and Tariq had a wonderful date planned, and Emily was itching to see him. She hadn’t felt this excited about someone possibly ever. Every interaction with the Sheikh felt like a first date. She would always get butterflies when she spoke to him, and yet she hadn’t seen him since their unforgettable vacation together. Every day since then had been spent ruining his chances at a successful buyout.
Mike’s paranoia had Emily in his office every lunch hour, trying to quell his delusions about getting fired. The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt with the amount of time she’d had to spend with her boss lately. It was as though he was determined to make her life at the company miserable all while maintaining his crush on her.
<
br /> Too much Mike, not enough Tariq.
She’d told her mother about Tariq and their adventures together. She’d wanted to keep him a secret, but as usual, as soon as she saw her mother, within ten seconds it all came pouring out. Her mother seemed thrilled that she’d finally met a man, if not a little worried that Emily wouldn’t have time for her anymore. If Emily had learned anything since her mother’s illness, it was that nothing was going to take her away from her. They were blood, and that relationship was way too precious to give up on.
“In fact, I actually canceled a date with him,” Emily admitted, embarrassed.
“With the absolute hunk?” her mother teased. “I thought he was a catch?”
“He was,” Emily whined and then quickly corrected, “He is!”
It was, unfortunately, true that Emily had canceled their previous date plans. Mike had her working so much overtime, she barely had time to eat, let alone go out with the Sheikh. They had made plans after coming back from Paris—dinner and a movie—but she just didn’t have the time. If she was going to sabotage the deal between Salt River and The Hasan Group before the buyout happened, she didn’t have long to get it done. Every spare minute she had was being spent at work, much to her dismay.
Besides, she would feel guilty seeing Tariq at this point, as much as her heart ached for his companionship. Funny how Mike had said her relationship would fall apart if she didn’t sabotage the buyout, yet here she was ruining her new relationship at the same time as doing just that.
“Emily,” her mother said, now dropping any playful façade. “What’s going on? You like this guy. You’re smitten with him. Now you’re breaking dates and avoiding me. Not to mention you’re working overtime like crazy. Is everything okay?”
“I know it’s a mother’s job to worry,” Emily said, quoting her mother’s favorite lecture, “and I’m sorry to disappoint you, but nothing’s going on. Just work.”
“Okay, but…” Her mother sighed loudly into the phone, causing a crackle to erupt from her speaker. Emily cringed and held the phone away from her ear just long enough to miss the most horrifying question her mother had ever asked her.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” Emily asked incredulously.
“I said, are you sleeping with Mike?”
Emily slapped her forehead and hid her blushing face from the rest of her coworkers as she ducked behind her cubicle wall. “Mom!” she hissed. “No!”
The line went silent for a moment and she could sense a shrug on the other end. “All right then,” her mother said. “Just making sure you’re not staying there for any non-work-related reasons.”
“Trust me,” she admitted sadly, “It’s all work-related, unfortunately. If it was for anything else, my life might feel a little more exciting.”
“That’s my girl,” her mother cheered. “All right, get back to work. I’ll just sit here and get old. And by get old, I mean order a pizza.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, kid. Don’t work too hard,” Janet replied. With that, her mother hung up the phone and Emily was left feeling guiltier than she had five minutes ago.
Emily stared at the computer screen in front of her and rubbed her eyes. She looked down at her knuckles to see her makeup had rubbed off on her fingers; she was so deliriously tired she forgot she even put any on.
She checked her compact to see if the smudging of her eyeliner looked apparent, which it did, then did her best to rub the rest of the winged liner out with her fingers until her makeup resembled a smoky look, instead of a hungover one. Frustrated, she shut the compact and tossed it back into her bag with a defeated sigh.
Looking back at the computer screen, Emily continued her manipulation of the accounts to make it appear as though Salt River Resorts was in massive debt, making sure only to choose files that the Hasan Group’s auditors hadn’t looked at yet.
In her brief phone conversation with Tariq, the one where she’d cancelled their dinner, Emily had tried to poke around the subject a little bit. She’d tried to joke, saying she’d been working a lot of overtime and did Tariq really want to become invested in such a company? In fact, she’d downplayed Salt River so much, she wasn’t even sure why the Sheikh was still interested. Still, she tried to get to know as much as she could about his involvement with the buyout, and what could possibly make him pull out of the deal.
Since that conversation, Emily hadn’t heard much from Tariq. Not because he hadn’t called or texted, but because she simply didn’t have the time to talk. As it turned out, industrial sabotage was difficult.
Hours after her conversation with her mother, Emily was still at her desk. Aside from grabbing a salad from the restaurant across the street, she hadn’t had much sustenance throughout the day. Coffee, salad, more coffee, and now she was making her way to the vending machine to grab a bottle of water, a yogurt, and about a dozen bags of chips. She slid her money into the vending machine and couldn’t believe she was passing up a night on the town to eat some three-year-old salt-and-vinegar chips. She took her loot and walked back to her desk.
The office had pretty much cleared out for the night. In the past few hours, she had wiped several accounts, done some purposely sloppy record keeping, and converted several financial records to indicate Salt River Resorts was in the poor house.
It was her seventh night in a row staying late in the office, and her ‘hard work’, or ‘sucking up’ as some called it, wasn’t going unnoticed by Lindsey.
“You’re staying late again?” her friend said as she approached Emily’s desk. “Go home, it’s ten o’clock.”
“Are you drinking?” Emily said with a laugh as she noticed the glass in Lindsey’s hand.
“Maybe a bit,” the girl shrugged. She looked perfectly dolled up for a night out—red blazer over her work outfit, red lipstick, her blond hair done up in curls.
“Hot date?”
Lindsey scoffed. “I wish. Nah, I had to take some promotional photos for a charity thing earlier with Salt River—” She paused and seemed to think on this, furrowing her brow in the process. “Well, whatever we’re going to be called once your boyfriend takes over.”
“Right,” Emily breathed nervously. “If that even happens. Mike seems pretty against it.”
“Right,” Lindsey repeated in a mocking tone, “But Mike has bosses, too, and they say sell, sell, sell! You should be over the moon, girly. I’m not, especially if I have to watch the two of you having tickle fights in the office. I’m pretty sure I’d puke.” She took another drink. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Emily shrugged, spinning slightly in her swivel chair. “Just overworked.”
“And underpaid,” Lindsey retorted, raising her glass as if giving cheers and taking another sip.
“I’ve been working so much I had to cancel my date with Tariq.”
She didn’t know why she said it. She supposed it was because she was so disappointed not getting to see him, but bringing it up every five seconds wouldn’t undo the cancellation. In fact, it might just cast suspicion on herself. She bit her lip and looked up at her friend, who had taken her usual seat on the wobbly corner of her desk.
“That sucks,” Lindsey shrugged. “The things we do for work. This whole buyout thing has really got everyone in a panic, huh?”
“Yeah. Especially Mike.”
“Screw him,” Lindsey said with dismissal. “The best thing that could happen to that jerk is that we get bought out and he gets fired.”
Emily gave a nod of approval to her friend but stayed invested in her busywork on her computer.
Within a few moments, Lindsey suddenly narrowed her eyes and gazed down at her friend suspiciously. “Wait a second.”
Emily pointedly avoided her gaze, instead staring at her computer screen.
“I know what’s going on,” Lindsey said in a sure tone. “You’re sabotaging!”
“What?!” Emily shouted, louder than she meant to. She resisted the urge to cover the co
mputer screen with her hands, making her look even guiltier. She should have guessed that Lindsey would figure it out.
“I knew it!” Lindsey said with a chuckle, pointing in Emily’s face. “You’re doing your patented ‘I’m happy with a man, it’s time to bolt!’ routine.”
Emily felt a cold sweat suddenly leave her body and her eyes met Lindsey’s. “Oh,” was all she said.
“Come on, admit it!” Lindsey prodded. “When’s the last time you saw the Sheikh?”
Emily wanted so badly to tell her friend that it wasn’t of her own choosing that she was ignoring Tariq. She put her hands over her face and sighed into them, unsure how to proceed. “Do you really think so?” she said through her fingers.
“Seriously Em, you can’t keep running away from guys because you’re like, scared of happiness or whatever.”
Emily stole a glance from behind her fingers and cocked a brow at her friend, a sly grin prancing at the corner of her lips. “You’re right, maybe I can put it all out there and be as happy as you and Tom.”
Lindsey blinked. “Point taken,” she sighed. “Ugh! Why does dating suck so much?!”
“Such is life,” Emily said with a click of her mouse as she returned to her numbers.
“So what, the Sheikh isn’t doing it for you or what? You just scared of getting hurt? Here, I thought you were swept up in this whirlwind, too-good-to-be-true romance. So what’s the deal, was he married or something?”
“You’re seriously reading way too much into this,” Emily protested. “Tariq’s great and I plan on seeing him again, okay? I just have to get some things finished at work first. I’m hoping maybe Mike will see how well I’m doing and give me a promotion.”
“Ew,” Lindsey grimaced, her face scrunching up uncomfortably. “Since when does anyone care what Mike thinks?”
“Um, he is my boss.”
“Who cares? You’re dating a sexy billionaire. You’re going to be a kept woman!”