by Lexi Blake
“How did your meeting go?” She tried to put on her business face. It was hard to remember to be Ellie Stratton, future CEO with a plan, when she was around Riley. It was more fun to be goofy Ellie.
And yet she liked working with him. She liked knowing he was across the hall and would be there, waiting with advice or a kiss if she needed one. And when she got tense, the man knew how to make her relax. For the first time in her life, she felt like she had a real partner.
She needed one since things had gotten very tense around Steven.
He closed the door behind him and strode over to her desk, his face going grim. “You’re not going to like this.”
Her stomach dropped a little. His meeting this morning had to do with her accounting issues. He’d hired a forensic accountant with his own money. She would pay him back, but she couldn’t have gossip about a serious cash problem with the company, so they’d decided to keep it quiet.
Four days before, she’d met with the reporter Kyle had introduced her to. Something about the man had made her uncomfortable. Especially his lines of questioning about her father and his business practices. He’d basically insinuated that Phillip Stratton had been a thief. He’d accused her father of stealing intellectual property and then asked her if she intended to do the same when she was CEO.
She’d ended the interview early. She had very little hope the man would write anything positive about her.
“Give me the bad news.” It felt like she was in a vise and it was slowly closing around her.
Or she was the frog in the pot. Not thrown in, but placed gently and allowed to get used to the water as the heat turned on. It would be boiling before she knew it was time to jump out.
Was Steven moving her into position? Was this some kind of game she hadn’t realized she was playing?
Riley passed her a folder. “Someone has systematically stolen over ten million dollars from the company in the past ten years. It all comes out as R&D expenditures, but Phoebe ensures me she’s tried to match them to receipts and they don’t exist.”
This was bad. She took a deep breath and opened the file. “We don’t always have receipts.”
“You haven’t lost ten million dollars’ worth of receipts, Ellie.” Riley moved around her desk, getting into her space. “Also, Phoebe found an issue with the purchase of a group of hard drives. The dates claim the company purchased them for over fifty thousand dollars. At the time of purchase, they were out-of-date and not worth more than two grand for the lot.”
And no one had caught it until now? How was that possible? “Who signed the orders?”
“The paperwork is gone.”
Naturally. “I need to talk to the head of accounting.”
Riley shook his head. “Baby, you hired her a year ago and she recently went on maternity leave. She’s the one who sent this to you. The man who would have had actual knowledge retired and I can’t get hold of him. I have to assume he was in on the game or very bad at his job.”
“He was hired by my father.” She hadn’t talked to Riley about her father and she felt guilty about that. He’d been open and honest with her and she’d held back.
Because he worked for Drew Lawless, and she wasn’t ready to look him in the eye and admit what she knew.
“Do you think your father had something to do with this?” Riley asked.
“I don’t know.” At least that wasn’t a lie. “But some of this money went missing after he got sick. Damn. At least a million of it has been in the last six months. That’s what tipped off Debra. Did your accountant look at any recent books?”
“I didn’t want to pull them in case the gossip started.” His hand went to her hair. “It’s going to be all right, Ellie. I have an idea where I would like to look. Every bit of that money went into a set of three accounts Phoebe was able to find. They look like holding companies for the manufacturers the checks were written to.”
“And we’re sure these aren’t real companies?” Maybe there was a mistake.
“They’ve got LLCs, but I sent someone to the addresses listed. Two were actually shipping centers and one is a PO box. I’m getting everything ready to legally demand the records for who opened those boxes.”
She closed her eyes in frustration. He was unfortunately right, but that knowledge would come at a cost. “The minute we get legal, the press will find out.”
“Ellie, baby, you know who I think this is.”
She did. He’d been working on her for a week with this particular conspiracy theory. “You think it’s Steven. You think he’s been stealing from the company for years. It couldn’t be my father. Not the last two years.”
“Yes, I think it’s Castalano. I’ve looked into his other business deals and he’s got a very shady reputation.”
So had her father, but then business could get messy. There weren’t a lot of CEOs out there who were known for their moral and upright standing. They got where they were by being ruthless. “What did you dig up?”
“Did you know he formed a company twenty years ago with your father, Patricia Cain, and a man named Bill Hatchard?”
Her stomach turned at the thought. She knew it all too well. “It was my father’s first business. He’d worked his way up the ladder, but he’d never really had anything of his own. They designed a code that allowed more data to be pushed through a stream. It was how he made the money he and Steven based StratCast on. They paid off Patricia Cain and she started her lifestyle website.”
Patricia Cain was the authority on everything from cooking to decorating to manners these days. She had a popular television show called Patricia’s Paradise. She was beloved as a matron of good taste and domesticity.
Ellie’s father had called her the most hateful bitch he’d ever met, with the exception of one.
She’d never known the name of the nastier lady, but she’d met Patricia and couldn’t believe there was anyone worse than that woman.
She’d never met Bill Hatchard. Her father had told her he was nothing but a drunk with some cash they’d needed.
“There are some people out there who think he stole that code, Ellie,” he whispered.
She knew the truth. “I’ve heard the rumors. Do you think Steven knew about it?”
It was something she wondered more and more lately. Her father had been very intent on confessing his own sins but hadn’t talked about the others.
“I do.” He stared right at her. “Ellie, I want to talk to you about something.”
Before she could reply, the door to her office flew open and Lily was standing there. “Ellie, I think there’s something you should see.”
Her assistant’s eyes were wide and she bit her lower lip.
“What’s going on?”
Lily stepped in with the paper in her hands. “This was just delivered.”
It was a copy of the Business Daily Journal with the important story below the fold but on the front page.
STRATCAST IN DEEP TROUBLE
She gasped as she read through the relevant points. “How do they know this? He’s reporting that our coolant system is a complete bust, putting us behind two of our competitors in the race. That’s not true.”
Riley looked over her shoulder. “What data are they citing?”
Her hands clenched into fists as she read the article. “They apparently have the reports from the miscalibrated tests. How did those get out?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Is that the worst of it?” Riley already had his phone in hand.
“No.” She forced back tears because the humiliation was quite piercing. “They’re reporting that I’ve had numerous affairs with coworkers, starting back when I was an intern all the way through you. I apparently let men influence me on a regular basis.”
“I will sue the holy hell out of that rag.” Riley’s jaw had tighte
ned.
“What they say about me is meaningless. We have to get those reports fixed, Riley. They can affect the stock.” Even if she got the real reports out there, it likely wouldn’t stop a sell-off.
“I have some contacts. I’ll fix this.” Riley looked down at her and if they’d been alone, she would have walked into his arms.
But they weren’t and she had a job to do. She nodded his way. “I’ll make some calls, too.”
He strode out, leaving the door open behind him.
At least she wasn’t in this alone.
“Is there anything I can do?” Lily asked.
“You can tell me what the gossip around the building sounds like.” She’d been avoiding it for a week and a half. Hell, she’d been avoiding everything, especially Steven Castalano. Lily knew all the gossip. She was the fount from which information flowed. Long ago they’d decided to work the grapevine this way. Lily made friends with everyone, even talked to them about the boss sometimes. In return, they felt comfortable around Lily and told her what was going on.
Ellie didn’t care if someone didn’t like her, but she needed to know if someone was coming after her. Lily could provide that information.
“You want the skinny on you or Steven?” Lily asked.
“Both.”
“There are rumors that Steven’s sick, but I don’t know how much of that I believe. I think he’s playing it up to get sympathy.”
“Is he getting it?”
“Oh, yes. He’s definitely got the upper management in his pocket. They think you’re trying to take advantage of a sick old man. Blue collar doesn’t trust him as far as they can throw him. He’s burned them too many times. He and your dad. In the sections where you’ve worked—R&D, marketing, and HR—they’re solidly in your corner.”
“And the ones I didn’t intern in?”
“They wonder if you’re not a lot like your father,” Lily said gravely.
She shouldn’t be surprised. Her dad had been a dick to work for. “All right. All I can do is prove that I’m not. I won’t get a chance to do that until I’m CEO.”
“Some people think that’s not going to happen. There are betting pools and right now you’re losing.”
“Who’s winning?” Did she want to know the answer to that question?
“Outside management.”
Then Steven really had been talking. He was using the employees to send her a message. He could be the one to put the crown on her head or to take it away altogether.
He’d called and given her a new deadline. He’d told her she had to get him the money by midnight tonight or he would pull his support.
He would do that anyway if the stock price suddenly fell.
He might try to put the blame on her. Even the rumor that she attempted to sway stock prices to devalue the company before a buyout would ruin her. And possibly get her into legal trouble.
If this was a game Steven was playing, what did he expect to get out of it? Money?
“How about the gossip concerning my personal life? I’m sure there’s some of that.” She needed to know everything. It was becoming clear to her that there was a puzzle laid out in front of her and she didn’t have all the pieces.
Lily frowned. “It’s not good. Don’t get me wrong. The regular workers adore you. They don’t give a crap that you’re sleeping with your lawyer.”
So they hadn’t been discreet enough. “All right. What is management saying about me and Riley?”
“It’s only a couple of people, but they’re old-school.”
“So they’re Steven’s cronies?”
Lily nodded. “Yes. There’s been talk of changing StratCast policy since the new boss . . .”
“Go ahead and complete the sentence.” She braced herself for what she knew was coming.
Lily winced. “Can’t keep her legs closed.”
That was a kick to the gut.
Lily moved in, her palms flat on the desk. “They are hypocrites, Ellie. I happen to know two of those assholes have had affairs with their secretaries. I’m sure there’s a lot more. There are rumors that you’ve slept with Kyle.”
“Okay, that might be the worst thing that’s happened to me today.” The idea that anyone thought she’d slept with Kyle made her sick to her stomach. “Any others lining up to pin a scarlet letter to my chest?”
They were hypocrites and she wasn’t about to answer those charges. Still, it let her know where her board would likely be.
“There’s some talk that you brought Darvisch on board with a little extra on the side.”
“Of course.” Darvisch was the brilliant coder she’d hired. Naturally she’d screwed him to bring him on board. “I must have a magical vagina. Really, I missed my calling. I should have gone into prostitution. Is there anything relevant I should know? Some other piece of gossip that doesn’t involve me screwing multiple men?”
“That’s where they hit us, isn’t it?” Lily slumped back into the seat in front of Ellie’s desk. “They go straight for the sex organs. We can’t possibly have a brain because we have breasts.”
She felt a bitter smile cross her face. “Funny, no one accused me of harlotry back when I wore those buttoned-up suits.”
“Yes, they did.” Lily sighed. “I never told you, but there were always rumors about you and the nerds.”
It was going to be that kind of day. “Nice.”
Lily was quiet for a moment before leaning forward. “Are you sure you know Riley?”
“What does that mean?”
Lily’s mouth firmed to a stubborn line, and for a second Ellie thought she might shake it off. Instead, she stood up. “It means I think he’s lying to you. I think he’s been doing it from the day he walked in here.”
“Why would he lie? And about what?” She’d gotten the feeling Lily didn’t like Riley, but she had no idea why. There was a wariness that rolled off Lily when Riley was around. It was one more worrisome thing she’d ignored in favor of reveling in her relationship with him.
“I don’t know, but he’s doing something. He had those accounting files before you asked him to look at them. It’s why I asked Kyle to talk to Debra. I wanted to know if he’d requested the file and given a reason.”
“How do you know he had the accounting files?”
“I broke into his office and found them,” she said, seemingly unrepentant.
Ellie stared at her, her jaw agape. “You broke in? You can’t do that. Lily, I know you have some out-of-the-box methods of keeping me informed, but I can’t have that. The man is negotiating the contracts for my buyout. It makes sense he might want to see the accounting files. He has the right. Hell, he has the responsibility.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Lily replied stubbornly. “You’re wrong about that. You’re trying to excuse the behavior. The accounting had already been done. It means nothing to the buyout unless you’re going to change your mind. It doesn’t affect the price. The only thing that affects the buyout price is the stock price.”
She was right about that, but Riley could have had other reasons. He was a thorough man. “If you had questions, you should have come to me.”
“There’s more. He’s shady, Ellie. He’s been down at R&D late at night. After even you’ve gone home. What would he be doing there? No one was working that night.”
She could come up with a hundred reasons. Maybe he got lost. He was new at the company. Maybe he liked to walk around after he ate dinner. She often did that when she worked late. She stretched her legs. Maybe he was looking for someone.
Was she looking for excuses?
“I’ll talk to him about it.” It was really the only thing to do.
“Or you can let me talk to security. It takes a badge to get into R&D.”
“He has upper-level clearance.”
Lily
sighed. “Then I can know what his movements have been. Security wouldn’t send us routine reports, but they will have on file what parts of the building he’s been in.”
It seemed wrong not to trust the man she was sleeping with. “I’ll talk to him first.”
“And tip him off?”
“You’re being paranoid.” And very likely she was, too. Steven wanted his money. The buyout couldn’t happen until the board meeting, but he wanted the cash now, so he was applying pressure. She could handle it. So what if someone called her a whore? She couldn’t stop them. It was something every woman who ran a company had to deal with. Her life would be picked apart and found wanting, and she had to toughen up or get out of the game.
“Please let me talk to security,” Lily begged.
“I’m going to ask you a stupid question. Why do you need my permission now? You certainly didn’t when you broke into Riley’s office.”
“You care about him. I care about you. I don’t want you to hate me at the end of this, but my every instinct tells me he’s bad news. I broke into his office because I needed some proof. Now I don’t want to strain our friendship by moving on without you. If you tell me no, I’ll stop.”
“No.” She was going to be an adult about this and ask him.
Lily nodded. “All right, but I want you to know that when all this falls down around you, I’m going to be by your side. I’m going to be your friend. I won’t tell you I told you so.”
She turned and walked out.
Ellie stared down at the paper and told herself Lily was wrong.
She had to be.
—
Something was going really fucking wrong. Riley paced as he listened to the phone ring. Three, four times, and then an electronic voice explained the caller he was attempting to contact was not available.
He damn near threw the phone to the ground.
Bran. Bran would pick up. He pressed the button to get his younger brother on the line and was immediately rewarded.