“Morning, Mr. Elkin.” Tana reached to shake his hand, and her presentation folder spilled onto the floor. She hadn’t stapled it and the pages scattered everywhere.
Tana wanted to sink into the carpet—to disappear. But it was too late for that. “Sorry about that.” She shook Jonas’s hand anyway. “It’s great to see you again.” Then, because there was nothing else to do except put herself back together, she knelt and gathered up the loose sheets.
“Everything all right, Tana?” She could feel his assessing eyes on her. Jonas, unlike Chase, was all about the family business. He’d take it over someday; she was sure of that. So now was the time to make a great final impression.
Only her papers for the presentation had all fallen out of order and she’d be forced to wing it.
“Yes. How are you?” Oh, Lord. What was she doing? This wasn’t a casual chat.
“I’m doing very well, thank you.” Jonas’s stern gaze made her feel like a kid in the principal’s office, and when he jotted something down on the legal pad in front of him, her confidence slipped further. “Have a seat. I’m looking forward to hearing why you’re the best candidate for this position and some of your ideas.”
Tana stumbled over the name of the resort, calling it the Elkin Resort. From there, it went downhill. By the end, when Jonas shook her hand again, she was ready to cry. She made it back to an empty break room before she lost control of her emotions.
The night had been too short, the day too hectic, and she was tired. One thing after another, and now she was crying in a break room. Sobbing. It wracked her body, shaking her shoulders and making her stomach hurt.
“Tana? What’s wrong?”
She whirled around to find Chase standing in the break room doorway. “Nothing’s wrong,” she said, denying everything. Until she couldn’t. And then she let it all come out. The lack of sleep. The cupcakes. The stop at the grocery store. And the asshole client.
Chase’s eyes flashed angrily. He came into the room and put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing gently. “You don’t have to worry about that. You won’t face any consequences from that jerk. You’ll be okay.”
The soothing tone of his voice set her off. “Just stop.” Tana yanked herself away from his hands. “I’ll be fine. I was fine before you came here, and I’ll be fine once you’re in LA.”
Tana had to prepare herself for the worst, and she had to start now. That was just how things worked out in her life. And she certainly didn’t need him fighting her battles at work or she’d never gain the respect of the other employees.
Surprise flitted across his face. A look that was quickly followed by hurt, and then by an expression that broke her heart. She could tell he was trying to figure out what to say.
Say anything, she thought wildly. Tell me I’m wrong. Call me out on how foolish all of this is.
Chase stepped forward and kissed her, so lightly and gently it brought tears to her eyes. “Give Lindsey a big birthday hug from me, okay?” Chase straightened up and put his hands in his pockets. Then he walked out, leaving her alone in the break room.
Tana pressed both hands to her chest, her face burning. She’d been awful to him, but it had all been too much. Taking one deep breath after another, she held each breath for the count of four and let it out on the count of four. It was an old technique she’d used when Lindsey was a baby. Too bad she’d hadn’t remembered it before she went off at him. Her reasons might be justified, but not her actions. Chase hadn’t deserved the brunt of her emotional breakdown.
When she had a solid handle on herself—and fresh makeup—there was an apology in order. But for now, the rest of life pressed in. Lessons and her daughter demanded she pull it together. There was no time to wallow in self-pity.
I need help with all of it, Chase. He couldn’t hear the words in her head, and of course, he continued to walk away, disappearing around the corner.
17
Chase flipped through a catalog of rental equipment, noting items for Jonas. His brother had called him in for a final opinion on that, and why not? He could do a few more things to help before he left.
“Almost done?” Jonas asked.
“Sure am.”
Almost done with this, and almost done with the Elk Lodge. Except he wasn’t, not really. Things were still unresolved with Tana.
He’d been up most of the night thinking about the way Tana shut down on him. She’d thrown the job offer in his face like he’d already decided to take it. He hadn’t, but now he was thinking about it constantly, just by virtue of the fight. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”
The office door burst open.
“You have a thief on your staff.” The thundering voice struck like an earthquake.
Chase jumped, and Jonas looked up sharply. Who would barge into their office like that? He turned to find a familiar parent waiting at the door. Oh, crap—one of the wealthiest guests at the lodge. He stormed across the room and loomed over Jonas. “Your ski instructor stole my daughter’s tennis bracelet. She’s inconsolable.”
Chase had heard all about the tennis bracelet in question when he overheard the man discussing it with someone else in the lobby. According to the father, it was worth five thousand dollars. What kind of guy bought a six-year-old a five-thousand-dollar bracelet? The type of guy who’d go ballistic if it went missing, apparently.
“Sir, I—which ski instructor?” Jonas, who had looked tense before, now appeared ready to explode. “I can assure you, we—”
“Tana Birch. She must have known how much the bracelet was worth.” The man puffed up, looking torn between bragging about how much he’d spent on the jewelry and furious on his daughter’s behalf. “There’s no one else who would have taken it—it was on my daughter’s wrist this morning before her lesson, and now it’s not. She says she took one minor fall out on the slopes. Your instructor took it.”
“Absolutely not,” Chase cut in. “She wouldn’t do that.” Take a bracelet off a child who’d fallen during a ski lesson? No. It was an outrageous proposition. The last thing Tana would have been paying attention to was a bracelet, especially one hidden under snow clothes and mittens.
“Oh, she would.” The man dug something out of his pocket and slammed it down on Jonas’s desk. “I have proof. Right there. Go ahead. Read it.”
Chase and Jonas exchanged a look, and Jonas nodded at him. Chase picked up the paper like it was radioactive. The man had printed out a newspaper article. An article about Tana. Chase felt like he was falling through the floor to the center of the earth. An arrest?
“It names her as a person of interest,” the client spat. “For theft. I expected better from you. I really did. Hiring criminals to work at your resort with no concern for the safety of your guests? Unbelievable.”
The angry dad was right about one thing—the newspaper did mention Tana. It even went so far as to mention her married name and her maiden name. Why hadn’t she told him the ex hadn’t just left her, but that he’d dragged her into something illegal?
What if she hadn’t been dragged?
Think, Chase. Think.
Chase had his share of stalkers in the past and knew from working with private investigators that a “person of interest” was just someone connected in some way with the criminal. It usually just meant they’d interviewed the person, not that they’d committed a crime.
His brain was filled with a riot of conflicting thoughts. He trusted Tana—she would never steal, not from a client or anyone else. He had to keep his grandmother insulated from stresses like this. They needed to calm the client down—and they had to protect his family’s reputation.
But above all, he had to protect Tana. Wait, no. Not above all. He couldn’t throw his family under the bus for Tana. His only option was to stick with the truth. But he didn’t have the full truth.
“Sir, I assure you, we will look into this. But Tana is trustworthy,” Chase tried to reassure the man. How had he gotten the newspaper clipping? It wa
s strange, wasn’t it? If the tennis bracelet had been stolen during a morning lesson, that didn’t leave a lot of time for this guy to do research in the hotel’s business center. Chase didn’t ask any of those questions. “Please, let us handle this.”
“I’ll be back in an hour. And if it’s not resolved, then I’m going to the police...and the press.” The man delivered this last threat with deadly confidence, and Chase’s heart sank. That was the last thing any of them needed.
“Sir—”
“Don’t bother.” The client headed for the door. “Do the right thing, and don’t screw it up. One hour.”
Chase turned slowly back to Jonas, expecting to find him staring after the man in utter disbelief. Instead, he found Jonas with the handset of his phone already to his ear, dialing a number.
“What are you doing?” Chase gripped the printout. “We need to talk about this.”
“I’m calling security.”
Chase reached over and pushed the button to disconnect the call.
Jonas glared at him.
“Don’t do that,” Chase said. They needed to sort this out before they jumped to conclusions.
“I’m doing it.” Jonas moved the handset out of Chase’s reach and dialed again.
“Will you at least tell me who you’re calling?” Outside, a group of kids ran by the window, cheering and screaming. “Jonas, tell me.”
“I’m calling our lawyer. I need him down here right now to deal with this.” Jonas murmured something into the phone, then hung up and dialed again. Another muffled conversation.
“That’s two phone numbers,” Chase pointed out. “What’s your plan?”
“I’m calling security, too. I want to see Tana Birch in my office; right now.”
Chase paced to the window, at loose ends. He held up the article and squinted at the grainy picture. It was small, maybe two inches across, and it showed a married couple. At first, it didn’t look anything like her—but her eyes and the curve of her mouth were unmistakable.
How could she not have told him about this? About getting arrested, about all the theft… Was it possible she didn’t know? He didn’t see how it could be, since she’d changed everything about her life in response to the past. But maybe...
He cursed silently. It would be best if the guy had no incriminating evidence. Oh, stop—this isn’t evidence, Chase told himself. This is a newspaper clipping. And if he was going to do anything about it, he had to do it now. They needed to take a beat before they took actions they’d come to regret—especially Chase.
“Jonas,” he said urgently, and his brother looked up at him. “There has to be a mistake.”
Jonas looked past him, toward the door. There was no one there—he was just looking into the distance. “It’s really too bad,” Jonas said, stress evident in his voice. “I was going to offer her the job today.”
Chase couldn’t catch his breath. Of course Jonas was going to offer Tana the job. She was a perfect fit. Kind, smart, and a top-notch skier—they couldn’t ask for anyone better to lead the ski program. And now this?
“Wait a minute.” He stepped in front of his brother’s desk. “We don’t have the full story here. Shouldn’t you start with Tana? Get her side of the story before we get everybody in here? Jonas, listen to me.”
Jonas was furiously texting on his phone. He didn’t appear to have heard a single thing Chase said.
Ron Winthrop walked into the room, out of breath and adjusting his tie. “Jonas. Chase.” The company attorney shook both their hands, looking from one brother to the next. “What’s going on? It sounded urgent over the phone. I’m glad I happened to be driving out this way.”
“One of our ski instructors has been accused of stealing an expensive piece of jewelry from one of our guests.”
Ron blinked, his mouth dropping open.
“Accused is the main point, I think,” Chase put in. “Nobody has any proof.”
Jonas’s eyes flicked down to the newspaper printout in Chase’s hand. “We’re going to need that article.”
No. Chase wanted to rip it into tiny pieces and light it on fire. But if he did that, Jonas would just research it for himself. “Fine.” Chase put the paper down on Jonas’s desk, fury rising in him in a fiery wave. “Ron, I just want you to know that this is something out of this person’s past. It’s not a conviction.”
Ron stared at him. “Got it.” He looked at Jonas again. “What is it you want me to do?”
“I want you to sit in on the discussions we’re about to have and make sure the lodge is protected, as much as we can be. I don’t want to upset my grandmother with this.” Jonas shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But we only have an hour to deal with this before the guest acts against us. I’d like to avoid that.”
“This is way overboard,” Chase tried to get his brother’s attention again. “Jonas, take a breath.” How much did Jonas know about Tana? For that matter, how much did he know about Tana?
His brother’s set jaw told Chase he wasn’t going to back down. “Chase, you need to leave. You’re too involved to be impartial in the matter.” Apparently, his brother knew more than he thought.
Fear crept across Chase’s gut with icy fingers. What if Tana wasn’t who she seemed? He didn’t want to go there. Not without all the facts. Not without talking to her. But it would have to be later. Right now, he needed to get outside. Find a place where he could breathe. And think.
Chase left Jonas’s office and headed for the lobby. Unfortunately, he ran smack dab into Tana, flanked by two staff security officers. She looked terrified and kept shaking her head. Their gazes locked for one brief second, and then she was out of view. And Chase couldn’t follow her.
18
“I’m sorry, I just don’t understand what this is about,” Tana said, fear gripping her, a sense of déjà vu rocketing through her body. Why had Chase been practically running out of the lobby while security was bringing her in? She was due for a lesson, and Tana worried no one would tell them she couldn’t make it. “Can one of you at least let me know why you’re bringing me in like this?”
“Mr. Elkin requested to see you right away,” said one of the security guards, his face going red. “He’s right in here.” They ushered her through the doors of Jonas’s office, and Tana realized it wasn’t just him—another man was there, professionally dressed in a suit and tie.
Tana’s heart sank. This looked like a firing meeting. The security staff had been her first clue, but she hadn’t wanted to believe it. She stepped through the door in a numb haze. Why hadn’t Chase stayed here for whatever this was? Someone must have found out about the two of them, and she was being fired.
“Tana.” Jonas nodded at the security guards, and they stepped back, leaving her to face off with him and some stranger. “Have a seat.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk.
“I’d rather stand.” If she sat down, her muscles would cramp and tighten from stress. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve had an accusation from one of the guests here at the lodge.” Jonas’s eyes met hers, but he looked stiff, uncomfortable. No wonder. This was the most uncomfortable she’d been since the day the police had come to her apartment and arrested her years ago. “Against you.”
“For what?” An accusation could mean anything. Jonas had reassured her regarding the disgruntled guest, so this had to be about Chase. Whatever it was, it had gone to the level of Jonas and security—which didn’t bode well for her. “I’ve been giving lessons all morning. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Stealing.” Jonas said simply. “A tennis bracelet has gone missing, and our guest came to us with concerns that you were responsible.”
Tana sucked in a deep breath and swallowed back the urge to be sick. This was so much worse than she’d thought. She felt as if the floor had suddenly opened and was trying to swallow her whole. “I didn’t steal anything.” Her voice sounded thick with tears and she hated it.
Chase hadn’t been brave enough to face this with her. A secondary wave of humiliation hit. He’d known. He’d known this was going to happen and he hadn’t wanted to be there.
“Mr. Elkin, I didn’t steal anything.” Neither one of the men relented, their faces stoic and unyielding. They didn’t believe her. Tana had never felt so alone in her life.
“I want to assure you,” Jonas said, “that you absolutely won’t lose the cottage or your health benefits while things are being investigated. That will only happen if the charges are proven, and we terminate your position.”
“Do what you have to do,” Tana said, biting back everything she wanted to scream. She turned and started for the door. She wanted to break into a run. Anger pulsed along her nerves, lighting them up, and her hands clenched into fists. She dimly heard Jonas call after her, but her pulse pounded in her ears. What did it matter if they had an investigation? She was going to lose it all anyway. That’s how these rich clientele places worked. Reputation over everything. One accusation could ruin Tana’s life. Again.
“Tana, wait.” Chase’s voice echoed from behind her as she entered the lobby. “Please.”
She rounded on him, unsure of what to say.
“Are you all right? Tell me what happened,” he persisted.
Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. “Do you know already?”
“I know we had a disgruntled client. He came into the office when I was with Jonas, and he brought a newspaper article. He said you stole a bracelet, and then that article—Tana, I don’t believe it. Why didn’t you say something before?”
The Billionaire Athlete’s Christmas Fling: Elkin Brothers Christmas Book One Page 11