by Ivy Layne
It happened that fast.
When Chase reviewed the contracts his lawyer discovered small, key points had been altered between his final review and his signing. Somehow he’d been distracted and the documents switched, but they were legal and he couldn’t prove he hadn’t known what he’d signed. In the end, Chase was shut out and Aiden had control of his company.
I wanted Aiden to be innocent.
I did.
Every time I looked at things from a different angle they always came out the same. Chase had been kicked out of his company and Aiden had taken his place.
The worst part was that they weren’t even using half of the technology they bought. Getting rid of Chase hadn’t made sense considering the most valuable part of the company wasn’t ready for end-users yet. Chase was still fine-tuning it and without him, they couldn’t make it work.
I’d been working in the department Winters, Inc. had created out of CD4, and I’d heard enough gossip to know the best parts of the company they’d stolen were dead in the water. It didn’t make sense.
The more I knew Aiden the less I would have expected him to make a mistake like that. It would have made far more sense to keep Chase on than it had to get rid of him. Aiden was too sharp, too practical for a mistake like that.
And there I was, making excuses for him again. It turned my stomach to work on another acquisition for Winters, Inc. I was tempted to toss my purse, my mug, my stapler, and my cactus in the box still beneath my desk and walk out forever.
Not yet.
I’d give myself until the end of the week to find something, I could use to get Chase’s company back. If I hadn’t found anything by the end of day on Friday, I was cutting my losses and leaving.
A little voice in my head asked if I was staying for Chase or staying to see Aiden just a little longer. I shut it down. My date with Aiden had been a moment out of time. A dream. Now it was over, and it was never going to happen again. Ever.
If I wanted to stay for the rest of the week, if I wanted a little more time to finish out this plan, I had to do my job. Ignoring my desperate need for coffee, I pulled my chair up to my desk and started with the first item on Aiden’s list.
Given that I was the most junior and least qualified of his executive assistants, my list was the most basic. Pulling data, assembling a few spreadsheets I guessed Aiden and Gage would use to negotiate a change in pricing.
Just as I was about to deliver everything he’d asked for, an email popped into my box with files attached and the note; Four copies, collated and stapled, marked for signing. NOW.
It was from Aiden’s email address. I pulled up the documents and saw they were revisions to the contracts being negotiated in Gage’s office. I sent them all to the printer and headed for the copy room so I could get started putting little yellow tabs next to all the lines that required a signature.
The copy room was empty and strangely quiet. It only took me a minute to realize the printer/copier was completely powered down. I’d never seen it turned off. Hopefully, I pressed the power button on the side. Nothing happened. It was plugged in, but it wasn’t getting any juice. A quick look around told me that the coffee maker was similarly dark. A blown fuse? This was the last thing I needed.
I poked my head out of the coffee room and caught Marisela’s eye. “How long has the copier been down?” I asked briskly.
She shrugged one shoulder and turned her eyes back to her monitor. “I didn’t know it was. Look, I have too much to do to babysit you. If you can’t get it working, call maintenance.”
I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, flipping a switch on the wall, and poking at some of the buttons. Useless. I was good with computers, great with spreadsheets, and I was a half decent programmer. Nowhere near as good as Chase, not really good enough to pursue it as a job, but I was decent. However, I knew nothing about hardware. I expected to plug things in, press the power button, and have them turn on. When that didn’t happen, I was lost.
I picked up the phone in the break room and called down to maintenance, impressing upon the woman who answered that if the copier didn’t get fixed, Aiden and Gage were going to be very unhappy. She promised someone would be up in a matter of minutes.
I paced the tiny copy room, my nerves piling higher with every second that passed. I couldn’t forget Aiden’s ‘NOW’. He did not sound like he was in a patient mood.
All my confusion and bitterness aside, I didn’t want to mess up his negotiation. Maybe I should. Maybe I should be looking for ways to sabotage him, but I couldn’t, wouldn’t, cross that line. All I wanted was to find a way to force him to give Chase’s company back. I didn’t want to hurt him.
It really was only a few minutes until someone strolled into the copy room, took a quick look, and disappeared, saying something about a breaker. He’d barely turned the corner when the copier and coffee maker came to life. I heard him in the outer office saying something about a space heater in a long-suffering voice of complaint, and Henry answering that he had cold feet. Who has cold feet in June?
I didn’t care. Now that the printer was working I could resend my documents, get them ready for signing and hand them over to Aiden and Gage. One of the many benefits of working for a company like Winters, Inc. was the equipment. They spared no expense and the machine in the copy room printed, collated, and stapled four copies of the contracts in only a few minutes. It took me longer to go through and mark the locations for initials and signatures than it did for the machine to prepare the documents.
I knew these papers could only represent a small portion of the deal they were negotiating. There weren’t enough documents here for this to be the whole thing, but it must be an important part if they were making changes. I couldn’t bring myself to extend my curiosity.
Just being on the edges of an acquisition made me anxious. Again, I thought about throwing in the towel and cutting my losses early.
What was the point of staying until Friday? Did I really think I was going to find the smoking gun I was looking for?
I strode across the central hallway and around the corner to Gage’s section of the executive floor. His office doors were closed, his two assistants working furiously at their desks. The closest one looked up as I approached and said, “Oh, thank God. We’re having problems with our printer over here.”
“I’m sorry it took so long,” I said, holding out the documents to her. “We had a flipped breaker in our copy room and I had to call maintenance.”
She held up a finger instead of taking the documents. “You’re here now. Just knock on the door and hand them in.”
I rapped on the closed double doors to Gage’s office with a light knock. I could hear tense voices on the other side and the shuffle of someone standing and walking to the door. It swung open to reveal Gage, his blue eyes tense, his jaw set. I handed him the contracts and went to step away.
“Wait,” he said, tersely. His eyes scanned the top page, then the second, then the third, as he rapidly flipped through the contract. When he was done, he went back to the third page and ran his finger across the line holding a sequence of numbers.
His eyes rose from the papers, hot with rage. In a low, controlled voice he said, “I told Aiden you’d try something like this. He swore you wouldn’t.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, keeping my chin up and my voice cool. Gage was furious, but I refused to let him rattle me. I’d done exactly what Aiden had asked. No more and no less.
“Then what the fuck is this?” He demanded showing me the line of numbers in the contract. They didn’t mean anything to me.
“I have no idea. I didn’t review the contract, I only printed it up. If there’s an error, it’s not on my end.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Violet whoever you are. I saw the contract before Aiden sent it to you. I know you changed the numbers. This deal is on the edge as it is. Maybe you thought you could take advantage. Maybe you’re working for them. I don’t
really give a fuck. You’re fired.”
Chapter Eleven
Violet
“You’re fired.”
I refused to flinch at those two words. Oh, the irony. I’d lied on my application, I’d hacked Aiden’s emails, I’d been digging through the confidential files, and now I was being fired for something I hadn’t even done. I was almost tempted to laugh, but I wasn’t giving an inch.
Gage wanted a reaction. He wouldn’t get one from me.
He stepped fully out of the doorway, closing the door behind him. To the assistant I’d spoken with, he said, “Call security.”
She picked up the phone and quietly summoned two security officers to the executive floor.
“Nothing to say?” he pushed.
I kept my mouth shut. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but it was useless to defend myself. Life had taught me that begging for mercy just made you look guilty. Hadn’t I been about to quit ten times that day already? Now the decision had been made for me.
I had no interest in standing outside Gage’s office under his angry stare. “I’ll go back to my desk and get my things together.”
“You’re just fucking ice-cold aren’t you?” Gage stepped closer, trying to intimidate me.
He could try. But he was right, I was ice-cold and there was nothing he could say that would shake me. I turned to walk away. His hand shot out and closed around my wrist, fingers biting into my skin. “You’re not going anywhere without a security escort.”
“Fine,” I conceded. “Let go of me.”
The door behind Gage opened and Aiden stepped through, closing it behind him. His eyes landed on Gage’s fingers wrapped around my wrist.
“What the fuck?”
Between gritted teeth, Gage said, “She changed the numbers in the contract.”
Aiden’s dark eyes flashed to me.
I shook my head. “I did not. I opened the files only to print them. I changed nothing. I did exactly what you asked me to do, and no more. I don’t know what happened, but it wasn’t me.”
Aiden studied my face, staring into my eyes, taking in the resolute set of my chin. Looking at his cousin, he said “Let go of her goddamn wrist. Now.”
Reluctantly, Gage loosened his fingers. I had the urge to snatch my wrist back, but I wouldn’t show that much weakness. Slowly, I let my arm fall to my side.
“Did anyone have access to the documents after you opened them on your terminal?” Aiden asked slowly.
Understanding hit me in a thunderbolt. I knew the others hated me, but messing with company contracts? That was a huge escalation from stapler stealing and switching salt for sugar.
“When I went to get the contracts off the copier, it was dead. We had a breaker flip and I had to call maintenance. I called from the copy room and waited there. I was away from my terminal for close to ten minutes.”
“And were the files open while you were gone?” Gage asked, grudgingly.
“Yes,” I admitted, feeling like an idiot. It had never occurred to me that the other four would go that far, but it should have. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”
“Look at me,” Aiden demanded. My eyes rose to his before I could think about refusing his order. “Swear you had nothing to do with this.”
In a clear, steady voice, I said, “I swear I did absolutely nothing to sabotage your deal or this contract.”
Looking past us, Aiden spoke to Gage’s lead assistant. “Can you access the copier by my office?”
She nodded, careful not to look in my direction. “Yes, sir.”
“I’ll send you these contracts,” Gage said brusquely. “Mark where we need signatures and bring them in as soon as you have them.”
“Yes, sir,” she agreed.
Aiden hadn’t taken his eyes off of me. Two security officers exited the elevators and walked toward us, eyeing me carefully. Were they expecting me to run? Aiden let out an irritated growl.
“I don’t have time for this today, Violet. I don’t know what your game is, but I’m tired of playing it.”
“I’ll clean out my desk,” I said quietly.
It was for the best. Maybe the others had tried to sabotage me, but I was taking it as a sign from the universe. My ill-conceived plan to save my brother’s company was dead in the water. I should get out of here while I still could.
“Go back to your desk and stay there. I don’t want you to leave that seat until you talk to me.”
“I fired her,” Gage said. Aiden shot him a glare.
“She’s unfired. She’s my assistant, not yours. You don’t get to fire her.” To me, he said, “If you leave before I’m ready to boot you out, I will hunt you down and drag you back. Do you understand me?”
It took everything I had not to crumple under the force of his anger. I kept my chin up and my voice level when I said, “I understand.”
Aiden gestured for the two security officers to come closer. To the first, he said, “Escort Ms. Hartwell back to her desk and remain on the floor. No one from the executive team leaves until cleared. No one.”
The officer nodded briskly and took a step to place himself behind me. “Yes, sir.”
To the other, Aiden said, “Check the cameras on the outer office. I want to know if anyone approached Ms. Hartwell’s terminal while she was in the copy room. Pull the keystrokes.”
“Yes sir. I’ll check into it immediately.”
Aiden nodded at him in agreement and he turned to leave. Looking between myself and Gage, Aiden shook his head. “We don’t have time to deal with this mess until these contracts are signed. After that…”
He trailed off. Just as well. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what came after. I still thought getting fired sounded pretty good.
Pulling my dignity around me in a shield, I nodded once and turned on my heel, keeping pace with my security escort. Just before we reached my desk I asked, “Am I allowed to get a cup of coffee?”
With a hint of a smile, the security officer said, “We’ll both get one. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long afternoon.”
I picked up my mug from my desk and looked up to see Marisela and Thomas gawking at my escort. I ignored them both but didn’t miss Marisela’s smirk and Thomas’s smug smile as they watched us disappear into the copy room.
I wasn’t really surprised. Gage had confronted me so aggressively, it’d taken me a minute to catch up, but there wasn’t any doubt who was responsible. Peter didn’t have the balls to mess with one of Aiden’s contracts. Henry was too loyal. But Marisela was both cocky and petty. My money was on her. Thomas would have egged her on, but I was betting he wouldn’t risk his job just to get back at me.
I made myself an extra strong latte—I’d finally figured out the coffee machine—and parked myself at my desk. Fortunately for all of us, I didn’t have anything left on my list from Aiden, and I spent the rest of the day on my normal duties: Answering emails, the phone, and other busywork no one else wanted to do.
At one o’clock the security officer standing guard over the five of us took lunch orders. They weren’t kidding around about not letting us leave. By the middle of the afternoon, Marisela was starting to look a little uneasy. I was only worried that the contract negotiations would extend into the evening.
I wanted to go home, pour a nice glass of wine, and hit the couch. I only had a week and a half until Chase came home, and I’d have to share the TV. I had to catch up on my shows before then. I reminded myself that I could always get my own place, but since I was about to become unemployed, again, it seemed more practical to keep imposing on Chase’s hospitality.
Someday I’d pay him back for everything he’d done for me. Someday.
At six o’clock, Marisela tried to leave. The security officer who’d been watching us politely stopped her. When she blustered at him, he ignored her. She went back to her desk and sulked.
Just before seven Aiden and Gage strode in, flanked by two more security officers. They headed straight for Marisela. She
did her best to look innocent, but she couldn’t quite pull it off. Aiden stood before her desk, looking down at her with a mixture of pity and disgust.
“I’m going to assume it was a spur of the moment idea. If you’d taken the time to think it through, you would have remembered the cameras and the keystroke tracking software. Sloppy. I’m disappointed on a number of levels, Marisela. You had promise, but you let yourself get emotional and you made a stupid mistake. You also endangered a key negotiation. The company comes first. Always. Clearly, you’re fired. I don’t recommend using me as a reference.”
Marisela started to babble, an angry, tearful mix of accusations against me and claims of injustice. Security closed in, impervious to her entreaties. Aiden turned to leave, stopping by my desk on his way out.
“I meant what I said. You don’t walk away until I send you away. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
No one moved until Marisela, her security escort, Aiden, and Gage had all left. Thomas, Peter, and Henry gathered their things and scurried out without a word. Hard to say how much of a role they’d played in altering the contract and trying to get me fired, but I had a feeling their stupid pranks would stop.
I didn’t really care. I had much bigger problems than salt in the sugar bowl.
Up until now, I’d always thought leaving was my prerogative.
I had no doubt Aiden meant what he said. If I walked away before he was ready to let me go, he’d find me. So far, he’d kept me close despite knowing I couldn’t be trusted.
Now, when he had the perfect excuse to get rid of me, he demanded I stay. My plan to save Chase’s company had fallen apart. Instead of catching Aiden Winters, he’d caught me. Until he decided to let me go, I was trapped.
Chapter Twelve
Aiden
The week started as badly as the previous one had ended well. Our supposedly cut and dried acquisition of a shipping company had gone tits up first thing Monday morning. The mess with the contract, Marisela, and Violet sure as hell hadn’t helped.