Her brow pleated with confusion. “No. When did I have the time? Why?”
Possibilities tumbled through his mind. When indeed? Aubrey had been with him all day, even when he showered. Besides, they’d been out of the house most of the day. And then he remembered the woman he’d thought to be a member of the household staff he hadn’t met heading toward their bedroom yesterday. Aubrey might not have stolen the data on his computer, but one of her father’s minions had both motive and opportunity.
He unmuted the phone. “I didn’t leak the information, but I’m staying at Holt’s house in Napa Valley. Someone here could have accessed my laptop and stolen the file.”
Beside him Aubrey gasped.
Patrick swore. “That’s exactly the kind of underhanded trick that bastard would try. When you sleep in the enemy’s viper pit, Liam, you open yourself up to his bite. I hope like hell your choice hasn’t done irreparable damage to EPH.”
His grandfather disconnected with a slam. Liam closed and slowly lowered his phone and then swore.
“What happened?”
“Your father had someone steal files off my computer.”
“What?” She gaped in disbelief.
“Today’s newspaper printed confidential EPH accounting files. Files I had on my laptop. I didn’t submit them and neither did anyone else at EPH.”
“You think my father would do something that despicable?”
“Yes.”
“How dare you!”
“Yesterday morning I angled my laptop away from the window so I could read my e-mail without the early morning light glaring on the screen. Today my computer is facing the window. If you didn’t use it, then somebody else did.”
Doubt clouded her eyes. “M-maybe the maid shifted it when she dusted.”
“You can ask, but what you’re going to discover is that your father had one of his flunkies hack into my computer, steal my file and turn it over to the Times. The question is whether or not you knew what he planned and kept me out of the house to facilitate the process.”
She flinched. Wide-eyed and pale, she climbed from the bed, dragging the sheet with her. “I can’t believe you said that. You said you loved me. And now you have the audacity to suggest I’d help my father hurt you? You can’t love someone you don’t trust, Liam.”
He raked a hand over his face. Did he suspect Aubrey? Not really, but the doubt had been planted, spreading its roots through him like a poisonous, choking vine. Was Aubrey just one more example of his habit of choosing the wrong women?
“Has your father ever asked you about EPH?” Her gulp and the nervous flutter of her lashes as she looked away gave him the answer he needed. Tension knotted his neck and dread twisted his gut. He had a question to ask, one to which he knew damned well he didn’t want to know the answer. “Did you schedule our first meeting to squeeze me for information, Aubrey?”
Her hand clenched by her side and guilt filled her expression. Pain knifed Liam from all sides. Damn, he’d been a stupid, gullible fool.
“Yes, but you didn’t tell me anything, and then after what happened between us, I couldn’t…” She lifted her chin. “I tried to say goodbye, Liam, but you wouldn’t let me. You sent flowers and you called. And then we promised to keep our business and personal lives separate. We made rules.”
As if making rules kept people from breaking them. Had Aubrey played him for a fool? Had she betrayed him the same way Patrick had, by using information Liam had shared in confidence to hurt his family? Or was she telling the truth? He needed space to find the answers, and he needed to get back to New York and start damage control—if he still had a job.
“Liam, you have to believe me. I would never deliberately hurt you.”
“I’m going home.”
“I understand. I’ll start pack—”
“Alone.”
She staggered back a step, pressing a hand to her chest. Resignation settled over her features. “Fine. Go. I told you this wouldn’t last, but I expected your promise to hold for more than a few hours.”
She retreated to the bathroom and closed the door. Why did the quiet click feel like a nail in his heart?
Shaking with a tangle of emotions she couldn’t even begin to separate and identify, Aubrey hammered on her father’s apartment door.
When he didn’t open immediately, she pounded again. She knew he was at home. The doorman had verified it when she’d asked on her way up. Finally, the door opened, revealing her father in his bathrobe. She’d never known him to go to bed before midnight. It was only nine.
“Aubrey, I thought you were in California.”
“I came here straight from the airport.” She shouldered past him and into the den. The remnants of Chinese takeout littered the coffee table, along with two glasses. Two plates. He wasn’t alone. Was the woman waiting in his bedroom? Not a road Aubrey wanted to travel. She’d suspected he had women since divorcing her mother, but she’d never been confronted with the evidence. That he had someone now when she was alone seemed like a mocking twist of fate.
If she weren’t furious and a little afraid that Liam’s accusations might possibly have a grain of truth to them, she’d excuse herself and talk to her father tomorrow. But she’d repeatedly replayed this morning’s encounter during the seven-hour flight home, debating both sides of the situation.
Liam was wrong. He had to be. She’d get the proof and then…What? Liam didn’t trust her. Didn’t that say it all? Love didn’t stand a chance without trust. But she had to know if Liam’s doubts were well-founded or if he’d just been looking for a way to end their relationship.
“Aubrey, this isn’t a good time.”
“Did you have someone hack into Liam Elliott’s computer and steal his files?”
Something flashed in her father’s eyes, but it vanished before she could interpret it. “It’s late. I have company. We can discuss this tomorr—”
His evasiveness made her shift uneasily. “Did you?”
He folded his arms and set his chin in that stubborn my-way-or-the-highway expression she’d come to know so well, and Aubrey’s heart sank. She silently shrieked, No!
“I asked you to get the information and you didn’t. The report you requested from the sales team was a good start, but—”
“I deleted that report.”
“All files are backed up on our e-mail server. You know that. You should have brought the report to me, Aubrey. It’s your job.”
Her job to betray someone who trusted her? Nausea rose in her throat. Anger, pain, betrayal and guilt whirled through her like debris in a tornado. “How could you?”
“We needed the competitive edge the information could give us. It’s business, Aubrey.”
“It’s my life! It’s the man I love.” As soon as she said it she knew it was true. What she felt for Liam wasn’t infatuation. Infatuation wouldn’t hurt this much. She wanted to crawl in a dark hole and tend to her wounds. She wanted to strike out at her father and at herself for her part in the whole sordid disaster.
How unfair that she’d discover that she loved Liam Elliott now when it was too late.
Her father’s scowl deepened. “I assigned you a job. I never intended for you to get personally involved with Elliott.”
“No, you intended to get what you wanted regardless of the casualties, and as usual you bulldozed over anything and anyone in your path. This time it was me, Dad.”
He lifted a shoulder as if to say, “So?”
“You know everything there is to know about running Holt Enterprises, but you don’t know anything about being a father.”
He flinched. “This is not about being a father. This is bus—”
“No, Dad, I’m going to say my piece and for once you’re going to listen. I didn’t want a new sports car every two years. I didn’t want expensive jewelry or designer clothing. All I wanted was time with you to prove that I was just as good as the son you wanted but never had. All I wanted was a father who loved me and
one who would say so. Just once.”
She hated the telling tremor racking her body. She hated the tears streaming down her cheeks even more and angrily swiped them away. Both were signs of weakness and Matthew Holt didn’t tolerate weakness.
A muscle ticked in her father’s jaw and he swallowed. He opened his mouth, but Aubrey halted his words with an upraised hand.
“I can’t work for someone I no longer trust, someone who would deliberately use me and hurt me in some selfish quest to become number one. I quit. I’ll clean out my office this weekend, and I’ll be out of my apartment as soon as possible. I refuse to be your pawn any longer.” She headed for the front door before she completely broke down, but then paused, took a bracing breath and turned back.
“I want Hill Crest and I want it now. Gram’s will said it would be deeded to me when I married, but thanks to your greed and your lack of scruples the only man I’ve ever wanted to marry will probably never speak to me again.”
Her father’s lips thinned, but otherwise he displayed no emotion. Did he realize the wreck he’d made of her life? Did he even care? “I’ll take care of it.”
Aubrey’s fingers closed around the doorknob.
“Aubrey.” His gruff voice stopped her. “I never thought you’d be hurt.”
She swallowed the sob rising in her throat, opened the door and looked over her shoulder at her father. “No, Dad, you never thought of me at all. That’s what I’m talking about.”
“Liam, Aubrey Holt to see you,” Ann said from his open door.
Everything in Liam flashed cold and then hot and then cold again. After the weekend he’d had butting heads with Patrick, soothing family members and working with the PR team to formulate a damage control plan, the last thing he wanted was to start his Monday off by dealing with the one crisis he hadn’t faced. The one he’d deliberately blocked every waking moment. But damn, Aubrey had haunted his dreams.
“I’m busy. Tell her to make an appoint—”
“Liam,” Aubrey said from behind Ann’s shoulder, “please.”
Damn. Double damn. If somebody took a dull knife and cut out his heart it would probably hurt less than seeing Aubrey. He clenched his molars and jerked his chin, indicating for Ann to leave them. His assistant stepped aside for Aubrey to enter and then pulled the door closed behind her.
Aubrey looked like hell, as if she hadn’t had any more sleep than he’d had since he’d left her on Friday. The circles smudging the pale skin beneath her eyes were almost the same deep purple as her eyes. Her black pinstriped suit and stark white shirt didn’t help.
What is she wearing under there? The question struck as swift as a rattlesnake. No longer your business, Elliott.
He didn’t stand, didn’t offer her a seat. Rude of him, but he didn’t owe her any politeness. Besides, if he stood he might lose the battle against the need to take her in his arms. Aubrey was part of his past. Just one more woman on his list of poorly chosen lovers.
Their relationship was over. Finished. Done.
Damn.
He sat back in his leather desk chair and folded his arms across his chest. “What do you want, Aubrey?”
Fisting her hands by her side, she inhaled slowly, deeply, and shifted in her sensible black pumps. “I came to apologize. You were right. My father did have someone go through your computer.”
Hearing her confirm what he already knew didn’t repair the damage. “Fine, you’ve apologized. Goodbye.”
Instead of heading out the door she took a step closer to his desk. “When my father found out about us, he told me he wanted me to be happy. I had no idea he was setting me up so he could use me to get to you and to EPH through you. I want you to know that I don’t condone what he did, and I didn’t have anything to do with his plan, Liam.”
She took another step forward. “You’re also right about our first meeting. I did set it up to try and pry information out of you, but that job ended before we made love. Anything you told me after that I kept to myself.
“After the ball, my father pressed me to find out more about what was causing so much turmoil at EPH. I asked the sales team to milk our mutual advertisers for any rumors they may have heard about the shake-up at EPH. The advertising sales manager compiled a report and sent it to me. But I destroyed it, Liam. I couldn’t forward that information to my father because I was falling in love with you. Even though it was commonly known gossip I knew it might hurt you.
“My father found the report anyway. I don’t know if that’s what spurred him into hiring someone to hack into your computer or if cyber-snooping was already part of his plan. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I was trying so hard to impress him that I compromised my integrity. I’m ashamed of my part in this mess and I’m sorry you were hurt.”
He steeled himself against the tremor of her voice, but it got to him and that pissed him off. “Are you done yet?”
“No. One more thing…I love you.”
He sucked in a sharp breath at the unexpected jab.
“And it’s not the transient kind of infatuation my mother fell in and out of on a regular basis. I love you. I love your smile, your patience, your enthusiasm and your loyalty to your family. I love the way you make me feel like the sexiest woman in the world and how you made me feel loved for the first time in my life.” Her lips quivered. “And I’ll never forget the happiness you’ve given me in the past few weeks. Thank you for that.”
The knot in his throat nearly choked him. He couldn’t speak and he could barely breathe.
“But I also know we can’t get past this because of your loyalty to your family and my misplaced loyalty to mine. Goodbye, Liam. Be happy.”
She left him clutching the arms of his chair in a white-knuckled grip and fighting the burn in his gut and the one in his eyes.
“Do you want to tell us why you called this ‘urgent’ meeting?” Gannon, Liam’s oldest brother, asked as he sat down at the long table in the EPH executive boardroom on the twenty-fourth floor.
The sun shining in from the rooftop garden didn’t lighten Liam’s mood. He waited for Tag, his younger brother, and Bridget, his sister, to take their seats before sitting or replying. “I wanted to personally apologize for the leak to the Times. I screwed up.”
Gannon snorted. “No kidding.”
Defense surged hot and fast through Liam. He tamped it down. As executive editor of Pulse, Gannon had been the hardest hit by Holt’s devious attack. Tag, Pulse’s news editor, came in a close second.
Aubrey’s confession and apology from earlier that morning whirled round and round in Liam’s head. “I left my laptop where I shouldn’t have. I was careless. It won’t happen again.”
Tag leaned forward, lacing his fingers and bracing his arms on the table. “Did you suspect a setup?”
“No.” Should he have? It was a question he’d asked himself over and over and over. Dammit, if only he and Aubrey had stayed at a hotel. Or would something like this have happened eventually anyway? Had Matthew Holt tagged Liam as the weak link at EPH? As Patrick said, Liam had made himself available for the enemy to use.
Tag shrugged. “If you didn’t suspect anything, then I don’t see how this screwup is your fault. Holt’s a bastard. We all know that. Getting involved with his daughter probably isn’t the smartest move you’ve ever made, but you’re not known for making stupid moves, Liam. I’m betting there’s a pretty good reason.”
Liam snorted at that. Every woman he’d ever hooked up with had been a mistake. “I didn’t know who Aubrey was when we met, and she…she blew me away. I’ve never been that attracted to a woman before. But I should have said goodbye as soon as I learned her name.”
But then he wouldn’t have gotten to know Aubrey, wouldn’t have had the chance to find peace in her presence or ecstasy in her arms. He couldn’t honestly say he regretted his time with her. In fact, even knowing the painful end, if he had to do it all over again, he would. But he’d leave his laptop at home.
>
“Do you love her?” asked Bridget, who had remained silent until this point.
Liam exhaled slowly and considered the question he’d refused to ask himself since Aubrey had walked out two hours ago. “Yes.”
Would he get over his feelings, the way Aubrey predicted? He didn’t think so.
His little sister moved in for the kill. Liam recognized the glint in her eyes and the shift in her posture. Her recent marriage to a Colorado sheriff and distance from EPH had softened Bridget in many ways, but it hadn’t diminished her energetic roll-up-the-sleeves-and-dive-in personality. He was happy she was here for a visit; he’d missed her. “Do you think she knew what her father had planned?”
“At first I thought she did. Now I know better. Aubrey didn’t set me up. She came by to apologize this morning.” Without a doubt she’d told the truth today. He’d seen the honesty and pain in her eyes. She’d been duped by her bastard of a father, and Matthew Holt’s actions had cut her deeply. Liam’s heart ached for her. He knew how much betrayal by someone you loved and trusted hurt.
Is cutting her out of your life any less of a betrayal?
You promised to make your relationship work.
He stifled his conscience and dealt with the facts. “But Aubrey admitted to asking Holt Enterprises’ sales reps to quiz our mutual advertisers and then report any rumors about EPH. She said she tore up the report, but that Holt found it anyway. I could never be certain that kind of encroachment wouldn’t happen again. Aubrey’s trying so damned hard to prove her worth to her father that I’d always have to watch my back and my tongue for fear the next time she heard insider information about EPH she wouldn’t discard it.”
“So you love her. What are you going to do about it?” Bridget asked.
What could he do? “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” his siblings chorused in unison.
“What choice do I have? Aubrey’s right. As long as she works for Holt and I work for EPH we can’t get past this. We’d each be an enemy and a potential spy in the other’s family camp, especially after this. We’re a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, for God’s sake. There is no happy ending.”
Dynasties:The Elliots, Books 7-12 Page 59