I pulled up a series of emails that had come from Chen's company to my Gran through Andi when my brothers came into Gran's office.
“The acquisition of Chen’s company is done. Have you identified how Chen got in?" Ryan asked.
"I'm getting close I can feel it," I said, my hands flying across the screen and then stopping as I studied the email from Chen to Andi.
My heart stuttered a little bit, as I read his words.
As we agreed upon, Ms. Walker, you'll find everything you need attached.
I studied the subject line which made it look like it was some sort of spreadsheet. I got up from my chair and went back out to Andi's computer sitting down and deep into the recesses of the machine's hard drive.
My brothers filed out behind me. "You found something. What is it?" Hunter asked.
"I'm not sure, give me a minute."
It took me a few minutes but then I found it. The spreadsheet had indeed been a real document with information about the distribution of Strong shoes, but attached to it had been a little worm that burrowed into Andi's computer and opened the back door for Chen to get in.
I reviewed the email again.
As we agreed upon, Ms. Walker, you'll find everything you need attached.
What did that mean? Was it possible that Andi had been a part of this the whole time? My first instinct was to say no. She adored my grandmother. And while for a long time, she didn't think much of me, I knew she liked my brothers. She would never do this.
I went back to look at some of the emails surrounding the one that had had the virus. All of them had messages similar to the one Chen had sent the virus in. They didn't say anything outright to suggest she'd betrayed the family, but they were also vague enough to be incriminating.
"What is it Noah?" Carter asked.
I looked up my three brothers leaning over Andi's desk waiting for me to tell them what I found. "It came into Andi's computer."
"What does that mean?" Ryan asked.
"It means Chen emailed her the worm that got in and created all the static,” I said, feeling unsettled by it while at the same time feeling guilty that I was suspicious.
"She wouldn’t have done it on purpose. Chen must have duped her," Carter said, although his tone lacked some conviction. Hunter came around the desk and looked at the computer where I had all of the emails from Chen to Andi from the time period opened.
He pointed to the screen. "The hell she didn't. Look at that."
I shook my head. "This doesn't mean she was in on it. Chen is wily."
"Andi isn’t stupid, Noah." Hunter said, glaring down at me. "Just because you're sleeping with her doesn't mean—”
"Hunter, that's enough." Ryan said.
In my mind I was wondering how any of them knew what I was doing with Andi. Maybe she'd told their wives after all. Of course, at this point it didn't matter.
“Did she give you any indication that something was up in China?” Ryan asked.
I closed my eyes knowing she did. “She went to dinner with him alone a couple of times.”
“See,” Hunter said, overly eager to believe she backstabbed all of us.
“Did she give a reason?” Carter asked.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Once was to have a tour of the city and the other was to investigate if he was involved.” I know both of those reasons could have been lies.
“Gran sent Andi because she trusts her,” I pointed out.
“She sent her because she knew more about the inner workings of the company than anyone else besides us,” Hunter said.
"Someone needs to talk to her," Carter said, his voice more measured than Hunter’s, but still filled with concern.
"He's right. We need to find out what she’s up to before we tell Gran," Ryan agreed.
"I'll go talk to her," I said, shutting down all the emails. I figured I'd text down to the IT team to get a record of everything on the machine and then to scrub it clean. Maybe we just get rid of it.
"I think someone else should go." Hunter said, standing back to let me out from Andi's desk.
I glared up at him. "Why?"
He pursed his lips at me. "You know why, Noah. We need somebody who's going to be able to stand up to her."
I scoffed at. “You don’t think I can stand up to, Andi. What do you think I’ve been doing for the last three years?"
"I think what Hunter is not so eloquently saying, is that if you have feelings for her that it might make things difficult. One of us should go."
I was getting seriously pissed and sick and tired of having to fight and scrap for respect. Why would I come work here when they clearly didn’t believe in me?
"You don't have feelings for her?” I charged back at them. “She's been with this company for a long time, surely you feel something." I pushed Hunter out of the way. "I know what I'm doing. I will get to the bottom of this. I'll do what needs to be done and then I'll go tell Gran all about it."
I didn't wait for them to stop me and instead headed directly for the elevator and down to my motorcycle. I wasn't lying to them. I was going to confront Andi about all this.
When I pulled up to her house, I noticed a slick looking car in her driveway. She was either spending her newly earned money from Chen or had company. If it was the latter, it wouldn’t matter because Andi and I were going to talk now.
I made my way along the walk next to her house and could hear talking inside. I realized her windows were open, so I stopped for a moment to listen in.
"Oh, I'm quite confident, thanks to Noah,” Chen said.
He had some fucking nerve. Once again, he was putting the blame on me. My heart stalled in my chest as I wandered. If Andi was going to buy it again. Of course, the irony of the moment wasn't lost on me as I was here to accuse her of being the hack as well. What sort of future would there be for us if we could believe the other person would betray the other.
"Noah has nothing to do with this."
My heart soared like it never had before. And in the next instant came down again, as I knew the tables were now reversed.
Except they weren't. Andi was a lot of things, but she wouldn't betray my Gran. I knew that deep down in my gut. I thought back to what my father said about trust and realized this was the moment that our relationship was going to be made or broken. How I responded to this would determine whether or not Andi and I had a future.
"He's done a number on you, hasn’t he? Well, soon enough, you will know the truth. When your beloved Margaret Strong turns on you, along with all the Strong brothers, you'll know that what I'm telling you is the truth."
I frowned as I realized he was right. My brothers were currently suspicious of her.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"As we speak. Noah is uncovering proof that you are part of the hack. Of course, we know that's not true, but Noah is planting evidence against you. Why do you think he showed an interest in you? He’s not a man to fall for a woman, and yet he’s been wooing you for weeks, all as part of the plan."
Jesus fuck, he was still trying to make me the bad guy here. It was time to put an end to this once and for all.
I walked up onto the stoop and pushed the door open, but leaned against the doorframe. "Are you going to tell her about how you set her up?"
Andi looked at me, her eyes wide with shock and worry.
I straightened and stepped into her house. "Looks like an interesting little meeting going on here. I feel like I should be a part of it."
The only indication that Marcus’ was annoyed with my appearance was the slight clinch of his jaw. He hid it well behind a smarmy smile. "No, I'm so glad you could make it. I take it that you finally found proof of my and Ms. Walker's deceit."
"What?" Andi shrieked. "I haven't done anything."
“I found it,” I confirmed.
Andi’s panic ratcheted up. "I didn't do anything. Noah, I swear. You know I would never do anything against Margaret."
"I have to admit, Noah, I was expecting you to find the virus a lot sooner than you did. I must've overestimated your talent. Or maybe you decided to overlook Ms. Walker's betrayal because of your very clear feelings for her," he said with a glance towards Andi.
"No, you have to believe me. I would never —"
I held my hand up to stop her. She snapped her mouth shut. I saw the fire in her eyes because my gesture was rude, but I needed to focus on getting rid of Marcus.
"Tell me, Marcus, while you've been so busy trying to take over Strong Incorporated, have you been keeping a watch on your own company?"
Marcus’ eyes narrowed, but he kept his mask of smarm on. "My company is doing just fine, thank you. Even better now that Strong Incorporated will be added to the mix."
"I cannot tell you how relieved I am to hear that." I looked over at Andi. "Isn't that good news, Andi?”
Her expression was uncertain as she looked from me to Marcus and then back to me again.
She nodded. "Yes, that's good news indeed." Then, as if a light bulb went off on her head. She nodded more vigorously. "It's very good news, Marcus."
I turned and I smiled at him. “Well now that we've got that settled. Maybe you can be on your way, because I do have some things that I need to talk to Andi about."
“Noah, you can’t believe what Marcus is saying,” she said with desperation in her voice.
Marcus laughed and shook his head. “When you’re finished and need a job, Andi, you know where to find me. I’m heading to the Strong office building now.”
“My brothers will be there to greet you,” I said offhandedly.
“You’re remarkably calm about all this Noah. Then again, I suppose you never really worked for your grandmother, have you.”
“I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support my family or the business.”
He smiled triumphantly. “Well, now you can support me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. And might I suggest that before you go over to the office, you check in with yours.”
His eyes narrowed again, as he studied me. “I have no need to check in with my office.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Then again, it’s not your office anymore.” I looked at Andi. “I’m not sure how these takeover things work.”
She managed a smile to play along with me, but I could see the worry in her eyes.
“Perhaps you should be clear on what you’re trying to say, Noah,” Marcus said with annoyance.
“While you were busy buying majority stock in Strong Incorporated, we bought your company.”
He laughed. “It’s not possible. I own Strong Incorporated now.”
“Actually, your company owns Strong Incorporated, and now we own your company.” I smiled like the arrogant asshole I could be.
For the first time since I’d met him, Marcus looked concerned. “We’ll see about that,” he said, pulling out his cell phone.
“You do that.” I motioned to the door. “But can you do it elsewhere. I have business with Andi that can’t wait.”
“This isn’t over, Noah.”
“It is for now, Marcus.” I ushered him out the door, shutting it behind him. Then I turned to Andi. “Now. You have some explaining to do.”
30
Andi
What the hell was going on? Noah couldn't possibly believe Marcus, could he? He knew the kind of man Marcus was. But watching Noah and Marcus match wits in my living room, I couldn't get a clear indication if Noah was buying what Marcus had said.
Once Noah had ushered Marcus out, I wanted to feel triumphant that the plan had worked, but when Noah turned around and looked at me, saying I had some explaining to do, I wondered if maybe he didn't believe Marcus. Surely, he knew I'd never betrayed Margaret or his brothers, but then again, hadn't I doubted him? He certainly had evidence to suggest that I could've betrayed them. I met with Marcus several times during our trip to Hong Kong. Marcus had planted something incriminating in my computer. Wasn’t Noah tech savvy enough to know I’d been set up?
Instinct had me putting my guard up and wanting to be angry that Noah might believe Marcus. But I recognized that lashing out might not be the best way to convince Noah that I was innocent.
Noah stood looking at me with his arms crossed over his broad chest. How come he and I only connected in two ways; in bed and when arguing? Perhaps he’d been right all the long in that attempting a relationship was foolish.
"Tell me you don't believe him. You know I would never betray Margaret,” I said.
He studied me. "Like you believed me when I told you that what Marcus said was a lie?"
I looked down in shame. "That was wrong of me."
"Yes, it was."
I found the courage to look at him again. "So, you believe him? Is he right and that Margaret and your brothers and you believe that I gave him access to the computers?"
"I was sent here to talk to you about it. Actually, my brothers wanted to send Hunter to come talk to you about it, but I told them that it should be me."
I wanted to cry and yell at the same time. I was feeling like a desperate caged animal needing Noah to believe me and knowing how ironic that was because when our roles had been switched, I hadn't believed him. At least not without a doubt.
"Maybe it would have been better if it were Hunter,” I said, unable to hide my defeat.
Noah frowned. "Why?"
"Because it's more difficult to look at you and think that you don't believe me."
"Except I do believe you and I'm the only one who does right now."
I felt relief at Noah's admitting he believed me, but on top of that was anger that he would toy with me like this. And unfortunately for me, anger almost always overwhelmed any of my other emotions.
“Why didn’t you say so?” I snapped.
“I just did,” he said.
I huffed out a breath. “Why didn’t you give any indication when Marcus was here?”
He shook his head. “I love how headstrong you can be, but sometimes you should be chagrined, not pissed,” he said with the first hint of annoyance in his voice since we started talking.
He was right of course. But if I didn’t hold onto my irritation, I might cry, and I didn’t want that.
“It would also be nice if you trusted me.”
“Why do I always end up being the bad guy?” All the steam ran out of me. I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide.
“Because you don’t trust me when you should.” He moved closer to me.
I looked up at him. “Do you trust me?”
“I do.” He put his hands on his arms, rubbing up and down.
“Why?” I dropped my head against his chest, inhaling the scent of him, letting his warmth wrap around me even though I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
He shrugged. “Because I love you. And while there's a lot I don't know about you, I do know that you're fiercely loyal to my grandmother and to this company. I have no doubt about that."
My head jerked up. "What did you say?"
“You’re fiercely loyal to—”
“Before that.” My heart was beating a million miles a minute. Did he say he loved me?
“There’s a lot I don’t know about—”
"No before that."
He shook his head. "I'm not saying it again until you say it to me."
I didn’t hesitate. "I love —"
He put his finger over my mouth. "When you say it. You better mean it."
I bit his finger. He snatched it away giving me a chance to tell him how I felt. “I love you, Noah.”
His smile was radiant
. “I know.”
My hackles went up. “How do you know?”
He pulled me in closer and kissed my temple. “Because you let me make love to you without a condom. The Andi I know would never do except with the man she loved.”
I frowned. “You think you’re so smart.”
He laughed. “I am smart. I’m here, aren’t I?” His expression turned serious as his eyes took in my face and his fingers brushed my cheek. “I don’t expect things with us will be as easy as it seems to be for my brothers, but I want to try Andi. Even if it ends up blowing up in our faces, I want to try.”
“Do you think it will blow up?” I asked, knowing it didn’t matter. I had no choice to try with him.
“It doesn’t have to. Not if we trust each other.”
“I trust you, Noah.”
“It’s about damn time,” he said cheekily. Before I could respond his lips were on mine. Deciding I could share my retort later, I eagerly kissed him back. The kiss quickly inflamed my body and apparently his too as soon our clothes were flying off as I pulled him to my room.
He lifted me and tossed me unceremoniously on the bed. His grin was lecherous as he looked down on me. “I’ve waited three long fucking years for you.”
“Was it worth the wait?”
He pushed my thighs apart as he settled his knees between my legs. “I feel like I have three years to make up for.” His hands drew down my body, tweaking my hard aching nipples before sliding further down to hold my hips. “I’m going to start here.” He moved lower, his lips kissing my thighs as they moved closer and closer to my center.
My hips gyrated in anticipation.
“Will I get a turn?” I asked, then gasped as his tongue flicked over my clit.
Hate to Love You Strong Brothers #4) Page 18