by A. K. Evans
I hated it for Flynn Beauty.
I hated it for myself.
While I wasn’t one to sit back and let the chips fall where they may when I believed I could do something about it, I had to admit I was stuck. I had not the slightest clue of where to go from here.
It wasn’t that long ago when I’d been sitting in my office trying to figure out what I might have overlooked with Kat during the last few weeks, and my office phone rang.
“Elise Flynn,” I answered.
“Elise, it’s Juliette,” Juliette declared nothing but panic in her voice.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Kat is here,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but she’s walking back there with Skye. I tried to stop them, but they didn’t listen.”
“Call security,” I told Juliette.
“Okay.”
I disconnected the call.
Sure enough, just as soon as I got off with Juliette and set the phone back down in its cradle, I saw Kat walking in front of the glass panes lining the front of my office. Skye was right behind her.
Standing up, I prepared myself for it.
I had many things I wanted to say, and I knew I wouldn’t have much time since security moved quickly in this building.
Kat and Skye both looked into my office, made eye contact, and walked right in. They didn’t wait for me to wave them in; they strode in like they owned the place.
“Get out,” I clipped.
“Elise, please,” Kat begged.
“Get out,” I repeated. “Get out, get out, get out.”
“Please listen to us,” she pleaded with me.
“Absolutely not,” I shot back. “I can’t believe I was so stupid. I saw it. I knew it was happening, I knew something wasn’t right with you, and I did nothing about it.”
Kat jerked back as though I’d just physically assaulted her.
“Don’t act so surprised,” I said. My eyes slid to Skye’s only briefly before returning to Kat’s. Then I continued, “I might have missed something happening right under my nose once before, but I won’t let it happen again.”
“You need to let us explain what you saw yesterday,” Kat maintained.
“I know exactly what I saw,” I bit out. “I saw a woman I trusted sitting together and having lunch with another woman I trusted after one of those women had proven to be untrustworthy. And now I know that neither of you has a loyal bone in your body.”
“I know it seems that way, Elise, but if you—” Kat got out before I cut her off.
“No. I won’t do anything for you,” I exploded. “I gave you a job—both of you. I paid you well, and I put you both in positions that so many others would have worked their asses off to have. You threw it all away. I don’t know why, and I honestly don’t care at this point. I just want the both of you gone.”
The security guards had walked in just as I got those words out.
Kat and Skye saw them enter. Skye grew nervous, and Kat took two steps toward me. She was hauled back by the guard as she pleaded, “Elise, please give me five minutes. Please.”
I shook my head. “If you ever step foot on this property again, I’ll have you both arrested for trespassing,” I warned them. “And that’ll be just the beginning.” My eyes slid to the guards. “Please see to it that they are escorted out of the building,” I requested.
Skye went willingly, seemingly having accepted that this was her fate. But Kat didn’t. She fought them the whole way. I turned my back, so I wouldn’t have to look at her. It was easier to ignore whatever she might have been shouting at me if I didn’t see it.
And now I’d been sitting here a few minutes contemplating what to do because not only did I have the whole betrayal and sabotage thing to worry about, I also had the company morale to deal with on top of that. The scene with Kat and Skye was disruptive enough to know the rest of the staff was wondering what had happened.
Out of ideas on what to do, even though I knew he needed to rest and recuperate, I had no choice at this point. I had to call Porter.
I lifted my cell phone off the desk, found Porter’s name, and was about to tap on it when the office phone rang. Setting my cell down, I lifted the office phone out of the cradle and said, “Elise Flynn.”
“Hi, Elise,” Juliette began. “Sorry to interrupt you, but I have a Mr. Kieran Decker here to see you.”
Kieran was here?
“You can show him back, Juliette. Thank you.”
I disconnected the call and sat there staring at my desk, dumbfounded. If nothing else, this would go down as one of the strangest days of my life.
What was Kieran doing here?
Looking up, I saw Juliette walking past the window panes toward the door.
Kieran was following behind her. God, he was handsome.
He also looked incredibly worried.
I stood from my desk and started to walk around it as Juliette held her arm out to indicate to Kieran that he could enter. He moved his lips, likely thanking her, and stepped into my office.
His concerned eyes roamed my face as he moved toward me. The silence stretched for about ten seconds before I asked, “Kieran, what are you doing here?”
“I walked into work this morning, and Avery told me you left lunch in a hurry yesterday because you didn’t feel well,” he started. Then his voice dipped low, and he continued, “I came here to check on you. I wanted to make sure you were alright.”
He came to check on me. He wanted to make sure I was alright.
How stupid had I been to think that what I felt for him wasn’t the real thing?
I spent too much time in disbelief that Kieran grew even more concerned. “Are you okay, Elise?” he pressed.
That was all it took.
Those four words ripped my world apart, and the flood gates opened.
Kieran’s arms were immediately around me. My nails dug into his shirt at his sides as I held on to him for all the support I could get. I’d been foolishly telling myself I had nobody to depend on to get through this, and the truth was I’d been lying to myself. I had Kieran. Even though he didn’t know my business’ ins and outs, he knew how he felt about me. And while he hadn’t said any words to me that indicated the depth of how he felt, there was no denying the fact that he cared.
As that realization seeped in, I felt my panic and nerves begin to calm and settle.
In the gentlest voice I’d ever heard him use, Kieran urged, “Lady, please tell me what’s wrong.”
Pulling my face back from his chest, I looked up at him and searched his face. Never in my life had I ever felt as lucky as I did right then.
“I think Kat was working with Skye to sabotage the spring launch,” I shared. “I saw them out for lunch together yesterday when I was out with the girls.”
“So, you aren’t sick?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not unless you count being sick of dealing with stuff like this as being sick,” I mumbled.
“Wasn’t Skye the employee you let go back in January?” Kieran wondered.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “And Kat was my assistant. Yesterday I told her she no longer had a position here.”
“And yet she ignored that and showed up here anyway,” he reasoned.
I nodded slowly. Then I suddenly realized I hadn’t told him that Kat had been here today. “How did you know that?” I asked.
“She approached me outside,” he explained. “They both did.”
Fury coursed through me. “What did she say to you?” I questioned him.
“She begged me to get you to listen to her,” Kieran began. “I had no idea what she was talking about, obviously, but she ran up to me and asked if I was coming in to see you. When I confirmed that I was, she told me to tell you to check the spring products in the warehouse.”
My brows pulled together. “Check them?” I repeated.
Kieran nodded. “What did she tell you when she was in here?” he wondered.
“Nothing. I didn�
�t give her a chance to speak,” I confessed.
Shooting me a look that told me he wasn’t surprised by that, he muttered, “I see all that practice in patience is working well.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to deny I still had a long way to go. What did he expect from me? My assistant was hanging out with the enemy.
“Do you need to go back to work?” I asked.
“I need to make sure you’re okay,” he replied.
“Will you go with me down to the warehouse?”
Kieran grinned and nodded.
Damn. I wasn’t sure I deserved this man.
I led him out of my office and down to the warehouse. And while he held my hand the whole way there, I had to admit I avoided the curious glances I could feel coming from my employees.
When Kieran and I walked into the warehouse, I asked my shipping manager to direct me to the spring collection. Once we were there, I started looking around. Kieran must have noticed because he pulled a pocket knife out of his jeans, flipped it open, and asked, “Need one of these?”
For the first time since yesterday afternoon, I smiled. “Yeah,” I answered. Pointing to the sealed packaging around the blush, I asked, “Can you open this?”
Kieran did as I asked, opened the box, and held it out so I could take one of the blushes out. I opened the individual package, slid out the compact, and flipped it open. It was empty.
What?
That was weird.
I took another, did the same, and found it was empty as well.
“Are those supposed to be like that?” Kieran asked.
I shook my head. “No. There’s supposed to be a powdered blush pressed into it,” I explained.
“Do you want me to open a different box?” he offered.
“Yeah,” I answered, feeling my stomach start to churn violently.
Even though I agreed to have Kieran open a different box, I already knew we would find the same thing.
Everything was going to be empty.
That’s why Kat told Kieran to have me check the warehouse.
But how did she know? And why did she want me to know how she’d deceived me and set me up for a disaster a second time?
Sure enough, just as I suspected, the next box had empty blush compacts.
“My entire spring collection is a bunch of empty packaging,” I told Kieran.
“Something tells me you need to call Kat and have her come back here,” he shared.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m afraid you might be right.”
Kieran reached out to curl his hand around the back of my neck. After giving me a reassuring squeeze, he promised, “I’m going to stay here with you until you figure this out.”
“Thanks, baby,” I rasped.
After pressing a kiss to my forehead, he urged, “Let’s go get to the bottom of this.”
On the way back to my office, Kieran and I stopped to talk to Juliette. I told her to call Kat and have both her and Skye return to the office because I wanted to talk to them. Juliette agreed, even though there was caution written all over her face.
“It’s okay,” I promised her.
“Okay,” she replied as she picked up the phone.
Kieran and I hadn’t been back in my office for a full five minutes when Kat and Skye returned. It seemed they must have been waiting outside, hoping Kieran would get me to do as they requested.
When they walked in, I did my best to remain stoic yet serious. I didn’t want them thinking I trusted them at all.
“Thank you for asking us to come back,” Kat said.
“What do you have to say to me?” I asked.
I watched as she looked at Skye, swallowed hard, and returned her attention to me. Then she lamented, “I’m so sorry, Elise. I never meant to put you through what I’m sure you went through over the last twenty-four hours or so. I just wanted to be sure before I said anything.”
She wanted to be sure?
Confused by her statement but slightly more irritated by it, I quipped, “Well, whatever it is, it’s time to share because you’ve already been caught. I saw enough in the warehouse to know that you know about all the empty packaging.”
“It wasn’t us,” she insisted.
“And yet you know about it,” I reasoned. “Tell me, Kat, how does that work?”
“It was me,” Skye announced as she stepped forward. She’d been lingering about two feet behind Kat, but she stood right next to her counterpart when she spoke.
My eyes narrowed on her. “That doesn’t surprise me,” I clipped as I felt Kieran’s hand squeeze me. He was giving me a warning, silently telling me to tone it down and hear them out. Unfortunately, I was too riled up to heed his warning. Instead, I said, “What I don’t understand is why Kat is helping you try to destroy my company.”
Skye winced.
“She’s not trying to destroy your company, Elise,” Kat declared. “She’s trying to save it.”
“Save it?” I repeated. “How? By altering the formulas in my products or by somehow convincing you to see to it that thousands of empty products get shipped out? Tell me, Kat, how is that saving my company?”
“She didn’t do it,” Kat returned.
“She just admitted it was her,” I argued.
Kat sighed. Skye spoke.
“I didn’t mean that it was me who did this to you and Flynn Beauty, Elise,” she started. “I meant that it was me who realized that you had someone else trying to sabotage you. Luckily, Kat somehow knew I wasn’t responsible for what happened a few months ago, and we’ve been working tirelessly to try and figure out who the culprit was.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “I mean, I guess if I knew that it was likely I’d be facing criminal charges soon, I’d take the time necessary to plan an elaborate scheme to blame someone else, too,” I reasoned. “So, I guess I’ve got to ask this now. If the two of you aren’t behind this, who is responsible?”
Instantly, fear washed over them. But when I took a moment to study them, I realized the fear had nothing to do with either being concerned about facing criminal charges. It was about something else entirely.
It was clear as day that they didn’t like what they were about to say any more than they thought I would appreciate hearing it.
So much time had passed, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything for some reason. I was going to take all the time I had to prepare myself for it.
At the same time, it seemed that neither Kat nor Skye was going to speak.
Luckily, there was one level-headed person left in the room.
Kieran.
“Ladies?” he called.
Their eyes went to him.
“Who is doing this to Elise?” he pressed.
With tears in her eyes, Kat looked back at me and whispered, “It’s Porter.”
Just like that, I felt like a blade had struck me.
And that blade went right through my heart.
Thankfully, when my legs buckled and my body began to collapse, Kieran caught me in his arms.
Porter?
Porter wouldn’t do this.
He was my brother.
Kieran guided me over to the couch, and once I was seated, I noticed the look of sympathy on Kat’s and Skye’s faces. They couldn’t be telling me the truth. They had to be excellent actresses.
“I’m really sorry,” Kat lamented.
“You’re lying,” I snapped. “Porter is my brother.”
“That’s why we struggled to tell you about this,” Skye returned. “We knew it was going to devastate you. But we couldn’t allow you to have another product launch that ended up in disaster like the last one.”
“This is why we were meeting with each other yesterday,” Kat added. “We were trying to come up with a plan to tell you.”
Shaking my head in disbelief as Kieran kept a firm hold on me, I rasped, “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe this.”
“Elise, we’re not making it up,” Skye insisted.
&nb
sp; “I’ve got an email as evidence that you were the one who had my formulas altered, Skye,” I reminded her.
Skye stood up straighter and maintained, “I never sent those emails.”
“So, they sent themselves?” I shot back, hoping she realized how ridiculous that sounded.
“Porter did,” Kat interjected.
“Why would he do that?” I asked.
Kat and Skye looked at me, completely dumbfounded. “We have no idea,” Skye said. “But he is probably one of the only people in this office who would have the capability to send out an email under someone else’s name.”
Obviously, I knew that was true. But just because Porter was capable of doing that doesn’t mean he would. This made absolutely no sense. On the one hand, I wholeheartedly believed Porter was innocent and would never do anything to jeopardize this business. We’d been working to build it to what it was for years now. It was foolish to believe he’d do something to ruin that. And yet, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but acknowledge the fact that Kat had gone so far as to stop Kieran outside to get him to tell me to go to the warehouse. If she and Skye were trying to destroy Flynn Beauty, why would they warn me about the spring collection? Of course, maybe they were trying to cover their asses now that I’d caught them out together.
When I took too long pondering all these thoughts, Kieran spoke. And I couldn’t have been more grateful for him than I was at that moment.
“Do either of you have any evidence to substantiate your claims that Elise’s brother is responsible for what happened months ago, and what’s happening right now?” Kieran asked.
God, he was so level-headed.
Patient.
Completely, totally in control.
Kat nodded as she and Skye moved toward the opposite couch. That’s when I noticed Skye was holding a large manila envelope. She opened it, pulled out a piece of paper, and held it out to me. Kieran took it from her and handed it to me.
As I read it, Kat explained, “He ordered double the amount of packaging than what was needed, Elise. Why would he do that if he wasn’t behind this?”
I finished reading through the email that appeared to have been sent from Porter to our packaging supplier. Sure enough, there was double the amount of packaging ordered.
Unsure of what to believe, I looked up at Skye and noted, “You said you didn’t send the email that came from your address.”