Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1)

by Ashland, Jodi

  Bryce pulled away and walked to his side.

  “If you’d drop me at my car, I’m pretty sure I can drive myself home.”

  “No way. I’m taking you.”

  “I need a car in the morning.”

  “I’ll pick you up.”

  “But—” She moaned.

  Bryce got in the car and started it. “No buts, Jade, or I’ll call your parents and you can deal with them.” He played his trump card. Apparently it worked, because she didn’t say another word for the rest of the ride home.

  Bryce helped her up the stairs of her U-District condo and waited until she was inside before he turned to leave.

  “Bryce.” Jade called to him when he reached the sidewalk. “I kind of need help with something.”

  He turned to look at her. “What kind of help?”

  “I need help washing the blood out of my hair. I can’t go to work like this and I can’t see the back of my head.”

  “Oh.” How could he get out of this? He was struggling around her as it was. Washing her hair would push him to his limits.

  “I know this is kind of a weird request.”

  “Kind of?” He didn’t move.

  “Please. I don’t want to have to call my mother. She’ll be frantic, and she won’t want me to go to work tomorrow.”

  “Maybe that’s a good idea.”

  “What would you do?”

  “What do you mean what would I do?”

  “If you were CEO of a company and regarded as a fragile young boy, would you stay home tomorrow?”

  “No.” There was no way he’d miss work under those circumstances. He shifted back and forth. He’d have to touch her. A lot. Could he get through it without doing something inappropriate? “Okay, I’ll help, but I’ve never done this before.”

  “It’s just hair.” Jade gave him a reassuring smile.

  He didn’t feel reassured.

  Bryce followed her into the condo. The modern furnishings of glass, sterling silver, and black fabric gave the space a comfortable feel. There was no colorful paint or art on the walls, just splashes of reds and yellows from decorative glass pieces elegantly displayed on the tables. A light on the fireplace mantel illuminated a piece of round glass with a setting sun inside it.

  Jade saw him stop to admire it. “It’s Venetian glass, one of my favorite pieces. I got it at a gallery in British Columbia.” Jade led him into the kitchen. “I’ll be right back. We’ll use this sink. Can you get the water warm while I get towels and shampoo?”

  “Sure.” Bryce kept his hand under the running water until it was the right temperature. He started when something rubbed against his leg. It was a black cat with long white whiskers. “What’s your cat’s name?” he asked when Jade returned.

  “Whiskers.”

  “That’s original.”

  She shrugged. “I couldn’t think of anything else to call him.” Jade folded up a towel, laying it across the front of the sink. “My friend Alex bought him for me when he was a kitten.”

  Alex. A knot formed in his gut. It was raw, uncontrollable instinct. And it was ridiculous. He had no reason to be jealous when it came to Jade.

  “I’m going to lean over the sink. You can use the sprayer to get my hair wet. Keep your hands in the water to make sure it doesn’t get too hot.”

  “What about the stitches?”

  “The doctor said I can spray water gently over them. He said the wound should still be numb for a few hours.” Jade leaned over the sink with her head down.

  His leather jacket wasn’t going to allow his arms to move enough. He shrugged it off, placed the coat over one of the chairs, and took a deep breath. Bent over like that, Jade presented one hell of a sight, one he’d remember in his dreams. Quit delaying. You’ve got to touch her eventually. He tried to stand as far from her as possible while he sprayed the back of her head.

  “I think you can add shampoo now,” she said.

  He pulled his fingers through her hair to make sure it was wet all over. She winced when he got too close to the stitches. “Sorry.” He poured shampoo into his hand and gently lathered her hair. Strawberries assaulted his senses. “Everything is lathered up.”

  “Okay, now rinse it out. We’re almost done.”

  Bryce leaned over her to rinse her hair out. His groin came in direct contact with her ass. He focused hard on the blood in the sink as it swirled away, leaving her dark brown curls with their artificial red tips behind. That beautiful hair, soft as silk, flowed through his fingers. The way he was touching her, the way he wanted to touch her… He shouldn’t have come in, no matter how sweetly she’d asked.

  “Can you hand me that towel over there?” Jade pointed to the kitchen table. “Lay it over the top of my head.”

  Bryce was grateful for the distraction, did as instructed, and stepped back.

  She straightened up with her hands on her head and stepped away from the sink, swaying suddenly when she turned to face him. “Whoa, I’m seeing stars.”

  Bryce grabbed her sides. Big mistake. Her shirt had ridden up as she rubbed the towel on her head, and he was touching her bare, and very soft, skin. He didn’t dare move.

  “Do you work out?” Jade gazed at his arms, her eyes lighting up with what looked like desire.

  Oh shit.

  He cleared his throat. “Uh, no… rugby, I play rugby on the weekends.” He released her, careful to make sure she didn’t fall over. “You okay?” He tried to keep his tone casual.

  “Yeah, I think so.” She grasped the counter to keep her balance.

  Put on your jacket and go. Now. “Pick you up at five?”

  “Five?” Jade grimaced.

  “You don’t want anyone to see me drop you off, do you? Marge gets in early.”

  “Right, good point.” She slowly walked him to the door, one hand on the wall for support.

  When she stumbled, Bryce steadied her but let go as soon as she recovered. “Maybe you should stay home tomorrow.”

  “Not on your life.”

  “I could call your mom and get her to convince you to stay home.” Bryce stepped outside and walked down two steps.

  “You do, and I’ll tell her you washed my hair.”

  He stopped. “You play dirty, Jade.”

  “I know.” She laughed.

  When he was alone in his car, he shook his head and took a deep breath. Somehow, he’d become Jade’s protector. Not something he’d asked for, or even wanted, but now… He pushed the thought away. It was impossible.

  NEAL HAD BEEN APPALLED by the dearth of security cameras and their poor placement in the Synergy Technologies parking garage. Fortunately, one of the cameras was aimed directly at the elevator that Jade had come out of. It clearly showed Bryce leaving the same elevator within minutes of Jade. Her car wasn’t visible from the other security cameras throughout the garage, which probably indicated that the perp was very aware of this fact.

  His team had cross-checked the seventeen vehicles leaving the building within an hour of the attack, looking for employees, spouses, or friends of anyone who worked for Synergy. They found no correlation. Even the CSI team had been unable to find any useful evidence. The nature of Jade’s injury indicated a blunt instrument was the likely cause, but the perp must have taken the weapon with him.

  Though he didn’t have much, it was time to call Jade and update her.

  “Hello, Detective… Neal,” Jade said.

  “Is this a bad time?”

  “Actually, it’s a good time. I just got out of a meeting.”

  “I wanted to give you an update.”

  “Did you find anything?”

  Jade sounded eager. He hated having to disappoint her. “Unfortunately, no. We’ve reviewed the security footage from your building, and other than Bryce’s car, no vehicles belonging to Synergy employees left the building within an hour after you were attacked.”

  “I feel so much better knowing it wasn’t one of my employees.”

 
“I didn’t say it wasn’t. I just can’t prove it was.”

  “Bryce showed up just after I was hit. He probably scared him off.”

  Or he was the attacker. “Either way, I’ve reported the incident to security at your building. I indicated it could be bad for business if the employees don’t feel safe. They’re going to install more cameras and patrol the garage more often.” He was going to make sure of it.

  “Thank you, Neal.”

  He didn’t want to scare her but… “Jade, if I may be frank.”

  “Of course.”

  “You may be perceived as a threat to your managers. You’ve already fired one of them and indicated you wouldn’t think twice about firing anyone else. Just be careful.”

  “I will. I didn’t realize firing someone could cause so many complications.”

  “Taking away someone’s livelihood can push a person over the edge.”

  “It’s just one mistake of many I’m making these days.”

  Just like Gloria, Neal found he enjoyed talking to Jade. His girlfriend had broken up with him over a year ago, and his family had scattered in the wind. After Katie, his sister, died, his step-dad moved Mom to Florida where his baby sister Deidra was going to college, and Selena, his closest sister, was in San Francisco managing her new bookstore. He missed his family, missed having someone to talk to this way. “That bad?”

  “Yeah, that bad. Two months ago I was in college like any normal person my age, and then my grandmother dies without ever telling me she was sick, she forces me to be CEO, the managers don’t respect me, I’ve been to the hospital twice, and my laptop was stolen. My luck has to turn around soon.”

  Neal zeroed in on the last thing she said. “Your laptop was stolen?”

  “Yeah, I was stupid and in a hurry. I left my car door unlocked and the laptop on the front seat in plain sight.”

  “Did you report it?”

  “I didn’t realize it was missing until the next day. I called the police to report it, but they weren’t able to get it back.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “On my dad’s birthday, July tenth.”

  Just before she was attacked. “Was anything else taken besides the laptop?”

  “I don’t think so. None of my CDs were missing, and my camera was in the glove box where I normally keep it. I took it out to get pictures of my dad opening his gifts.”

  Though someone could have scared off the perp before they had a chance to sweep the car for other valuables, Neal’s gut told him the laptop was the target. “Was there anything special on that laptop?”

  “Yes, it has a copy of our financial system on it. I had arranged to drop it off the following morning with my finance professor. It didn’t matter though, since he was run off the road by a drunk driver the night before. Add that to my list of bad karma.”

  Neal’s instincts were going into overdrive. “Jade, why were you taking a copy of your financial system to your professor?”

  Jade must have heard the change in his voice. Alarm colored her own. “Synergy is having financial issues, and I wanted an outside opinion on what we can do to solve our problems. Is something wrong?”

  Bingo.

  “It’s just a hunch. I don’t think the stolen laptop and your attack were isolated instances.”

  “What? Why would they be related?”

  “They both involve Synergy, and I don’t believe in coincidence. I’m going to want to talk to the individual who set up the laptop, and I’ll check with my department to see if they’ve found anything related to it.”

  “Zachary Miller. He’s the one who put the data on my laptop, but he doesn’t have anything to do with this. I don’t see how the laptop and my attack have anything to do with each other.”

  “It’s my experience that random break-ins and muggings don’t happen to the same person in such a short time frame, if ever. And on top of it, you’ve received two threatening notes. Someone is targeting you, Jade. From what you’ve just told me, your company is having financial issues, the laptop had financial information on it, your finance professor was run off the road, and you were attacked just after you fired—”

  Jade gasped. “My chief financial officer. How could I be so blind? Mr. Greenberg came to my office the other day and told me he’d heard we’re having financial issues. It must be Stan.”

  “I’ll talk to Mr. Greenberg. I want you to call me if anything strange or unusual happens, no matter how trivial. Don’t assume it isn’t related. Stan Templeman left town after you fired him. If he comes back, keep your distance until I figure this out.”

  “Don’t worry, I will. I really appreciate you calling.”

  Neal said goodbye to Jade. The break-in and the attack could be random, but he didn’t believe in random. Both crimes had been committed in uncontrolled, highly visible locations where anyone could have disturbed the perp at any time. Both crimes smelled of desperation. Add in the supposedly random drunk-driving incident… None of it sat well with him.

  It was starting to add up. He’d suspected all along that Arnie’s death was no accident. And maybe Gloria’s hadn’t been either. Having two deaths connected to Synergy Technologies and then an attack at the same company would be enough to get his captain’s attention.

  Neal picked up the phone and dialed. Within twenty minutes, he had the full details regarding the stolen laptop. Jade had called it in at eleven-forty a.m. the morning following the robbery. She’d reported the missing laptop and indicated no signs of forced entry to her vehicle. An officer had been dispatched to the scene to do the necessary paperwork.

  There was little to no hope of finding the laptop, but the call had been made and they had to follow up. Jade had speculated that the laptop might have been stolen when she’d stopped at Macrina Bakery the night before and left her car unlocked for a few minutes. The officer talked to the employees in the surrounding businesses.

  One of the waiters at the bistro across the street did remember Jade’s black BMW. According to the waiter’s statement, he was on a smoke break and was admiring the BMW parked outside. He didn’t notice anyone stealing the laptop. He saw the owner of the car, a beautiful woman with red hair, get in, and then he was called in to help with a large party of ten.

  The officer had no further leads and had filed his report.

  The problem as Neal saw it was that Jade had called in the report and the officer had spoken to her on the phone. The officer didn’t know what Jade looked like.

  Neal pulled up her driver’s license description in the database. It indicated she had auburn hair. She might have a few natural red highlights in her hair if she turned the right way in the sun, but for the most part, he would categorize Jade’s hair as dark brown. He’d noticed unnatural red highlights at the tips of her hair, but he wouldn’t consider Jade’s hair red.

  He’d visit the waiter at the restaurant again and show him a picture of Jade. If his instincts were right, she would not be the woman the waiter had seen.

  But there was one person linked to Jade who Neal would put into the red hair category, and her name was Mackenzie Ballinger.

  BRYCE CAME TO AN ABRUPT HALT at Jade’s office door.

  Zachary was kneeling next to Jade, his elbows on her desk, and he was pointing at something on the monitor.

  Jade laughed at a comment he made and smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

  Bryce’s teeth ground together. He’d been seeing a lot of Zachary in Jade’s office lately. He doubted Jade was having this many IT problems. Hell, he couldn’t recall a time he’d seen Zachary more than a couple times a year, if that. And the way he was kneeling beside her was completely unprofessional. Had Zachary and Jade had a relationship during the summer she’d worked in IT? They seemed awfully chummy.

  Zachary turned to see him at the door. He scrambled to his feet. “Uh, hello, Mr. Radisson. I was just finishing up here if you need to see Jade, I mean, Miss Buchanan.”

  “Stop calling me that, Z
ach.”

  “Sorry.”

  Bryce walked in without an invitation and with every intention of ending their little interlude. He stood over Zachary, a good six inches taller. “I have some paperwork I need Jade to sign.”

  Zachary backed away from her desk. “Right, okay, I’ll see you later, Jade.”

  “Let me know when the laptops come in.” Jade turned her focus to Bryce. “Everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine. I have the final contract for Avit Avionics. Donald was late getting it to me, but it’s in order.”

  “Is this the new customer you were telling me about?”

  “That’s the one.”

  Jade smiled. “Congratulations, Bryce. You’re a miracle worker. I don’t know how you keep bringing in new business when we’re having such difficulty with everything else.”

  Bryce smiled, accepting her congratulations. He’d worked hard for this one, wooing the customer for the past year. “It’s my charming personality.”

  “It’s something about your personality, but I don’t know if I would call it charming.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I’ll look through it right now and have it back to you this afternoon. Any major changes?”

  “No. They accepted the standard price discount and didn’t ask for any customization.”

  “Are you going to the company picnic tomorrow?”

  Interesting change of subject. “I was planning on it.”

  “Great, I’ll see you there.” Jade took the contract from Bryce and gave him a stunning smile. The kind of smile that stopped a man in his tracks and left him wishing it was aimed at him. In this case, it was.

  Shit.

  CHAPTER 17

  JADE HOPED BRYCE WOULD NOTICE her hair up with the sides in a barrette and the rest falling down her back to show off the classic diamond studs in her ears. The light sage green, knee-length sundress accentuated her curves in just the right places.

  She needed to look elegant and classy for Synergy’s yearly summer barbeque held at her grandmother’s mansion on Lake Washington, which was now owned by Jade’s parents. Her grandfather had purchased the lakeside lot after becoming a multimillionaire while working for Microsoft in the early eighties as a software engineer.