Without a word, I took the box in my arms and headed for the stairs, deciding to skip waiting for the elevator. My coworkers looked on in shock, but I kept my eyes forward, even as they stung with unshed tears. I wouldn’t cry. I couldn’t.
I narrowly avoided Caroline on my way out of the building—I just couldn’t explain everything to her now—and called Aaron as soon as I slid into the back of a cab. I didn’t want to dissolve into tears as soon as I heard his voice, but I almost crumpled when he answered with a “Hey, babe.”
Outside of the bedroom, he only called me that when he was upset or when he knew I was. Either way, we were in for some kind of night.
“I had a fight with Ronny,” I said, voice tight. “I quit.”
“Audrey …”
“Meet me at my place?”
“Of course. See you in twenty.”
I was pacing when he arrived. He didn’t say anything, only walked toward me across the living room and pulled me into a hug. He smelled like security, and balsam and amber.
“I’m sorry,” he said into my hair.
“Don’t be,” I responded, voice muffled by his shirtfront. “I tried, and, honestly, I’m tired of trying to help somebody who doesn’t want to be helped.”
Aaron’s strong hand smoothed my hair in a soothing rhythm for several minutes until my breathing slowed and I felt more like myself again.
“What happened?” he asked.
His tone was still gentle, but it had a strength behind it that told me it was time to take stock of the situation and explain my actions so Aaron could help me.
I took a breath. “Ronny and I had an argument about my performance at work and the way things should be done.”
Aaron’s brow furrowed. “Your performance? That’s ridiculous. If it weren’t for you, that agency would fall down like a house of cards. No offense to your cousin.”
“No, you’re right. It wasn’t so much my performance as …” I heaved a sigh. I knew Aaron would be angry when he found out what Ronny had implied, but he would be angrier if I kept things from him. “Well, he accused me of ‘sleeping with the enemy.’ I believe those were his words.”
Aaron laughed. More like, barked—sharp and unamused. He pulled away from me, holding me by the shoulders and looking me square in the face. There was a dark cast over his features that told me he was holding back rage. “He turned you out of the company for that?”
“Well, to put a finer point on it, it was me who quit—”
“Audrey, you are one of the most professional, hardworking women—no, people—in this industry, and if Ronny is stupid enough to think that you would—”
I closed my hands over his and gently squeezed his fingers, willing some of the tension out of his body. “Thank you for saying so. Ronny is … I don’t know, part of me is furious at him, but the other part doesn’t want to be too hard on him. He’s going through something difficult right now.”
“I pulled the offer today—I don’t know what he’s still worried about,” he said. “Patterson has moved on.”
“No, it’s not that. I don’t know.” My mind drifted back to his frantic voice, the way he looked as if he had just seen a ghost when I opened his office door. “There’s something else. Something weird he won’t tell me about, and it has him spooked. Aaron, Ronny and I tell each other everything.”
Anger still burned behind Aaron’s eyes, but now there was something else there. Curiosity. And concern. “Weird, how?”
I pulled out of his embrace and wrapped my arms around myself. My apartment was warm, but something about this whole situation sent a chill down my spine. It was as though there was an ugly, invisible revelation hovering just above us, waiting to drop.
“It’s hard to say. He hasn’t been himself for weeks. And now that I think about it, the changes might have started even before then. It’s like he’s scared.”
“Of whom?”
Aaron pulled out a chair from my cozy dining room table, just big enough for two, and gestured for me to have a seat. He sat across from me, one hand rubbing circles onto my knee. It looked like a soothing gesture, and it was, but I also knew it was one of Aaron’s little habits to keep himself from getting nervous. He was almost impervious to fear and anxiety, but I knew his tells by now.
“I don’t know, but I’ve overheard him on the phone with someone a couple of times now, sounding more shaken up than I’ve ever heard him in my life. Talking about needing more time or something, or wanting to get out of some kind of deal. But I don’t know of any deal.”
“Audrey … are you sure you can’t remember anything else?”
I felt a bit as if I was being questioned by a police officer again, albeit one using his kindest tone of voice. Aaron had gone from being ready to fight Ronny, to being incredibly interested in his well-being in under a minute. I knew it meant there was something here I wasn’t seeing. Something of extreme importance to the man sitting before me.
“I can’t be sure, but I heard something about a girl or a woman who was supposed to be left out of things? Maybe me?”
Aaron stood, his hand moving from my knee to my shoulder, where he continued to rub circles while he thought. He stood facing away from me, staring out the window.
“Aaron?” I glanced up at him. “I know that look.”
“You won’t like it.”
“Try me.”
“Do you think there’s any way he’s involved in all this?”
I had been mindlessly gnawing on my thumbnail, but I pulled my finger out of my mouth. “Who? Ronny? Involved in what?”
“Everything. The investigation, the money gone missing, the rumors.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry, Aaron, have you met my cousin? He can hardly choose between two ties without having a nervous breakdown; he’s not exactly criminal mastermind material.”
Aaron wasn’t laughing. In fact, his face was stony and somber. “We can’t leave anyone outside of the realm of suspicion. You wouldn’t believe the looks I got in the meeting today. I don’t know what people have been saying about me, but it’s nasty, and it’s been spreading like wildfire. I looked like a fool up there, unable to account for the money missing from our ledgers. This is a conspiracy, Audrey. We need to treat it like one.”
I felt an icy expression settle over my features. No matter how much of an ass Ronny made of himself, no matter how deep he’d gotten in with people I didn’t know about, he was still family. I just couldn’t believe he would do something so insidious, especially not when it affected me.
“I’m not sure what kind of impression you got from that story,” I said carefully, “but I didn’t get the sense that he was running some kind of con game on you. It sounded more like he was in deep trouble himself.”
“Well, who knows what kind of people he asked to help him take down my company? They’re certainly not going to be nice.”
I frowned. “But whoever is after you would have to have an intimate knowledge of your company. Ronny doesn’t have that.”
“He could be working with someone who does,” he said. “It would benefit him to cut the legs out from underneath his largest competitor.”
Office gossip had always said that Aaron Patterson, while excellent at his job, could get a little paranoid and single-minded when backed into a corner. I realized I was seeing that side of him now, and I desperately wished it wasn’t directed at my cousin.
“I don’t think you understand. Ronny is my family. I’m involved with you. Ronny would never lift a finger to harm me, ergo, he wouldn’t do anything to harm you. So, if I were you, I’d drop it.”
Before things get ugly, my tone clarified.
Aaron’s eyes flashed in annoyance, but he gave up his crusade. “Fine,” he said. “Maybe you’re right.”
I could tell I had far from convinced him, but I decided not to press the issue further. I smoothed my hands down my thighs and stood, walking up behind Aaron to circle my arms around his waist. After a m
oment, I felt him lean back against me.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But I’ll figure something out.”
13
Aaron
It was all over the news. Patterson Advertising was dealing with the biggest scandal in its history. And it happened to include rumors that the CEO had embezzled millions of dollars over the years.
The photographs they showed were all unflattering, most of them taken as I was leaving Patterson last week wearing dark sunglasses and holding a venti black coffee from Starbucks. They made me look like a shady character and added insult to injury.
The stack of newspapers with stories about the scandal were waiting for me when I arrived at work, piled up neatly by Nora who valued her job too much to be the bearer of this much bad news. I tossed them into the trash can without reading them. I’d seen enough on my news app earlier that morning.
It was too late to silence the media—the fire had already caught and was spreading through the city. As a marketing magnate, I knew a thing or two about damage control. I knew how important it was to keep your head, and not to stoop to the level of rumors, not to read the worst of what was being said about you. You needed to keep up a strong, unified front, even if that front included apologizing for something you had done wrong.
In this case, however, I had not, in fact, embezzled anything, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to apologize for it. That wouldn’t do any good; it would just land my ass in jail.
I braced my hands against my desk, letting my weight sag against the wood. My phone hit the desk with a clatter. I speed-dialed Audrey, switching on the speakerphone.
“Audrey.”
She didn’t need much more from me. “I already saw. Aaron, I’m so sorry.”
So was I, but sorry wasn’t going to fix anything.
“I’m backed into a corner over here. Any efforts Patterson takes to smooth over the damage will just make us look worse, and they’ve pinned it all on me. All of it. The board called an emergency meeting, and I have to go before them in five hours. I have no idea what I’m going to say to them.”
“You’ll think of something,” Audrey assured me. “This isn’t your fault.”
“Yes, but unless I can miraculously produce whoever is responsible, that doesn’t matter.”
“Well, I spend more time with you than anyone else,” she said. “I’m hardly ever away from you. I would know if you were embezzling money. Tell them to ask me!”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that testimony would hold up in a court of law. Or even in the court of my board members. Audrey, listen …” I sighed, squeezing my eyes shut. I hated asking for help from anyone, no matter the circumstances, but Audrey was the only person I could imagine being able to help me at the moment. I needed her closeness, her reassuring touch on my arm, her sharp mind. “Can you do an early lunch? Eleven?”
“Of course, Aaron. I’ll be there.”
I spent the next couple of hours locked in my office, slogging through phone call after phone call, trying to help the heat die down as much as I could. Unfortunately, since I was the one being accused of embezzlement, most news outlets didn’t want to hear what I had to say unless they could spin it into a confession.
Audrey arrived at eleven with Chinese takeout in hand and folded me into a hug, the paper bag crinkling between us as she squeezed me tight. She didn’t need to say anything. I could feel her support.
We ate in busy near-silence, speaking only to show each other something potentially helpful we’d found, while flipping through newspapers, online records, or any of Patterson’s financial records I’d had Nora print out for us.
After we’d finished the food and sorted through a mountain of paperwork, Audrey sighed and hung up my office phone. She’d done her best to intercede on my company’s behalf to the local newspaper, hoping they would listen to her rather than me, but news of our involvement and her abrupt departure from Pace had already spread through the city. Apparently, this didn’t do much to create good faith between her and the press.
She sagged back in her chair, tossing her empty takeout container in the trash can. “I think we’ve done enough,” she said. “At least publicly. At this point, we need to figure out what’s going on for ourselves. Those investigators aren’t looking at anyone else but you.”
“Well, why would they?” I asked. “They’re being handed all the evidence against me on a silver platter. I just wish I knew who was dishing it out.”
There was a knock on the door, and Audrey shot me a worried glance.
I stabbed the intercom button on my desk phone and snapped at Nora, “I told you to cancel my meetings.”
Her voice came through on the other end. The nervousness in her tone belied her usual calm demeanor.
“Uh, Mr. Patterson, I’m so sorry, it’s just that he insisted—”
“Who?”
“The detective.”
I straightened up and smoothed my shirt. “Have him come in.”
Detective Sawyer entered, and I knew I was in deep trouble. He looked too smug as he brandished a piece of paper. “This is a warrant for all your client files and financials. We’ll need complete access to your system, and your staff is to cooperate with our investigation.”
“Have you guys even tried looking at any other leads?” Audrey asked with barely restrained anger. “Or are you just so focused on Aaron that you’re trying to make the narrative fit?”
I placed a comforting hand on her knee to stop her. “Detective Sawyer, you’re more than welcome to look at our files. I’ll have our IT people give you access.”
Sawyer turned to go but paused at the door and glanced over his shoulder at Audrey and me. His gaze was almost pitying as he surveyed us one more time. “And Mr. Patterson?”
“Yes?”
“If I were you, I would get in touch with a good lawyer.”
The door swung shut behind him as he disappeared.
Audrey seethed beside me, her cheeks turning red with anger. “Can you believe him? Who does he think he is, walking in here and accusing you, acting as if you’re guilty?”
“He’s law enforcement, just doing his job.”
“Well, he’s not going to be acting so high and mighty after his team finds zilch on you in the records.”
“Unless this really is a frame job, in which case, they might.”
It was the worst-case scenario, but I had to point it out. I could tell from the way Audrey’s shoulders slumped that I had taken the wind out of her sails. She was tired, and she’d been working overtime to help dig me out of the hole I’d found myself in. I admired her dedication, but I could see it was time to draw the line.
I took her face in my hands and kissed her. She leaned into me as if she could lose herself in the kiss and forget everything going on around us.
“Thank you for everything,” I said as I pulled away. “Now, go home and get some rest.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What? No, you can’t send me away. There’s more to do here … we have to make sure there’s nothing in these records that make it look like—”
I cut her off with a playful nip on her lower lip. “We’ve done what we can do for the day. I have to go before the board soon, and I’ll remind you that you’re not currently employed by either Pace Marketing or Patterson Advertising. You should be enjoying your free days while you have them. I’m sure as soon as you start sending out résumés, you’ll be snatched up in five seconds flat. Go read one of your books or watch a movie. Anything that isn’t work.”
I could see by the fire in her eyes she didn’t want to go. She wanted to stand by me throughout this entire shit-storm. I was touched, but I wasn’t about to let her take any more hits for me.
Audrey opened her mouth, probably to protest, but then there was another knock at my door, more hesitant than the last.
“What?” I whipped my head around. Any patience I’d had was long gone.
My o
ffice door creaked open, and I was ready to fire whoever walked in on the spot, but then I saw it was perhaps the one person besides Audrey who I would be glad to see. Devon.
“Oh! Sorry,” he stammered, averting his eyes as though he had walked in on us having sex. He’d always been shy about romance and avoided any conversation I tried to have with him about sex or dating like the plague. I found his tight-lipped modesty about the whole thing a little ridiculous.
“It’s fine, Devon. Miss Miller was just leaving.”
Audrey shot me a look, angry at being foiled in her plans to convince me to let her stay, but there was a tenderness in her eyes that made up for it. We were fine, and she would be fine, too. Just as soon as she got some rest and pulled herself out of this awful media circus.
She squeezed my hand and then drifted away, gathering her purse as she went. I would see her later tonight; I was sure of it. She smiled at Devon as she passed, and he returned it, but I caught a flash of something dark in his eyes. Suspicion, maybe, or distaste. It occurred to me that I’d never seen him and Audrey in the same room together for more than five minutes at a time, but I saw no reason he should dislike her. Still, I couldn’t deny what I’d seen …
I shook off the feeling. I was being paranoid again. Devon didn’t have anything against Audrey. How could he?
Devon rushed over to me as soon as Audrey closed the door, a steaming cup of coffee in each hand. “Aaron, what’s going on out there?”
“What do you think?” I muttered, taking my coffee from him. “It’s character assassination. They’ll be dragging me through the streets next.”
“That’s not funny … I’m worried about you.”
I took a couple of deep swigs. I’d had no appetite for breakfast, and Audrey had done most of the eating at lunch, so I was pretty sure by the end of the day my blood would be half dark roast drip.
“Join the club,” I said.
Devon eyed the newspapers in my trash can and shuffled from foot to foot, looking a bit like an anxious penguin. “There’s no truth to anything they’re saying in the papers, right?”
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