But how to start? What to say?
Keaton was lying on the mattress, deep in sleep. The sheets were tangled around his waist and Tami took every care not to disturb him as she slid from the bed and tiptoed around to pick up her clothing, including going out to the entrance of the apartment to retrieve her bra, blouse and jacket. She let herself into the half bath off the entrance and gave herself a quick wash, then dragged on her clothes.
Her hair was a mess, her throat pink in patches where Keaton’s beard had left its mark. She touched her throat with trembling fingers. She’d relished every moment of last night, but she was terrified now that the memories would be as fleeting as these reminders of Keaton’s passion. She swallowed and blinked back the burn of tears in her eyes.
No one had forced her to do this. She could have just let Our People, Our Homes commence their investigation right from the start. But she’d taken personal responsibility for what had happened and seen it equally as her responsibility to make restitution. But her ability to do that had been hindered by her father the way he’d tried to block and stifle every single thing she’d ever tried to do. She should have known he’d do whatever he could to see her fail again.
She stared at her face in the mirror. She was every bit as weak as her father had always said she was. She was the one who’d approached him for an easy out instead of facing the consequences of her choices. And she was the one who’d agreed to his conditions without any consideration as to the effect of her actions. She’d put Keaton and his family’s businesses at risk. And even though she’d wanted to make everything right and she’d ended up making everything wrong instead.
She knew now, she loved him. Deeply, completely. And, feeling as she did, she couldn’t continue to live the lie she’d agreed to perpetuate for her father. It was past time to take ownership of what she’d done. This thing with Keaton couldn’t go any further with her deception lying like a coiled snake between them. Even though it meant she’d be getting into a whole world of trouble—trouble that would likely double as the investigation into the missing funds at Our People, Our Homes deepened. She had no doubt that Richmond Developments would take legal action against her. She couldn’t hide from any of it. Not even the anger she knew she’d see on Keaton’s face when she told him the whole truth. She deserved it, and as much as it would flay her heart, she had to take this step.
Tami squared her shoulders and turned out the light before making her way to the living room. There she sat, staring out the window until the gray light of dawn began to streak the Seattle skyline. A movement in the hallway alerted her to Keaton’s presence and the fierce burning sensation in her stomach ratcheted up another notch.
“You’re up early,” he commented with a yawn. “Couldn’t sleep?”
She watched as he rubbed his jaw with one hand, heard the rasp of whiskers on skin. She would take each of these memories and tuck them away, because she knew once she told him what she had to, that they would be all she had left.
“Keaton,” she said on a sigh. “We need to talk.”
All signs of slumber disappeared from his face and his eyes sharpened instantly.
“Talk? Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say?”
“Because you won’t. I should have been upfront with you before we got to this.”
Despite the fact that he wore nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms and his hair was still tousled from her fingers running through it, his demeanor changed instantly to that of the corporate warrior he truly was at heart. Somehow, that made it easier. Seeing the expression on his face and the closed body language was all so much easier to face than the sexy man, warm from sleep and still bearing the marks of her fingernails on his shoulders from when he’d driven her mad with desire and pleasure and all the things she didn’t deserve.
“Well, spit it out,” he said sharply.
“I think I need to go to the beginning. To when I started at Richmond Developments. You see, my appointment there wasn’t everything it seemed.”
He raised one sardonic brow and crossed his arms across his bare torso. “Carry on.”
“My father is Warren Everard.”
She could see a muscle working in Keaton’s jaw, but he remained silent. His eyes, however, flashed with barely repressed fury. The burn in her stomach increased.
“You don’t go by your father’s name,” he said bluntly.
“No, I don’t. I changed my name twelve years ago when I decided I no longer wanted to be associated with him.”
She took in a shallow breath, then another. She could guess what Keaton would say next and he, true to form, didn’t disappoint.
“And yet you became his puppet?” His voice seethed with repressed fury.
“I, um, asked him a favor. In repayment, I agreed to be positioned in your employment and to feed him information.”
“That was you? You’re responsible for us losing the Tanner project?”
Keaton’s voice had reverted to being flat and clipped, but she had no doubt as to the emotions behind his words.
Loathing.
Disgust.
Anger.
“I have no idea how he got the information, but it wasn’t from me,” she said in a level voice that didn’t betray the near overwhelming flutter of nerves in her chest.
“You seriously expect me to believe that?”
Tami rose on shaking legs and stood her ground. “Believe what you want—I know what’s true.”
He sneered. “True? Really? You have the gall to say that when you were your father’s spy?”
She swallowed back the bile that threatened to flood her mouth. “I know you’re mad at me—”
“Mad? You think I’m mad? Oh, I’m way past mad. You’re going to regret this. I will use all the legal might I have at my disposal to make you pay for your treachery. Your actions cost us millions—worse, you’ve cost decent people their livelihoods.”
“Keaton, please. Hear me out. My father has at least one other person positioned in the office that I know of. Someone in HR. That’s how I got the role. I’m not certain who it is, but I suspect it was the woman I met on my first day—Monique. If she’s working for my father, she could have filtered a lot more people into Richmond Developments who are reporting back to him, too.”
“You can be sure there will be a thorough audit of staff, but out of everyone, you were the one outside of our family that I talked to about the Tanner project. Not anyone else. Just you.”
“Keaton, I’m sorry. I never expected—”
“Never expected what, exactly? To lie? To deceive? To deliberately earn my trust with that sweet little speech at dinner last night and then shove it back down my throat? To see my company potentially crumble into dust while allowing your father’s firm to scoop up business that we’d all but won? Interesting, when that’s exactly what you set out to do.
“Congratulations, you are truly your father’s daughter. I hope he’s proud of you. You’ve not only betrayed me, but you’ve betrayed every honest person working for my family. I don’t know how you can live with yourself. You no longer hold a position at Richmond Developments and you are in gross breach of your employment contract. Expect to hear from our company lawyers on Monday. Now, get out of my home.”
She knew there was nothing left to say or do so she grabbed her handbag and started to leave. Keaton’s voice stopped her as she reached the door.
“Why now?”
“What?”
“Why tell me now?” Keaton demanded.
There was a note of anguish in his voice that made her insides coil in a knot. She’d done this to him. She’d betrayed him, hurt him and ruined everything.
Tami drew in a deep breath and let the truth fall from her lips. “Because I realized that I’ve fallen in love with you and I couldn’t keep working for you with t
hat between us. I only wanted to do what was right, Keaton.”
There was more, so much more she ached to tell him, but she knew if he now heard about what had happened at Our People, Our Homes, he’d never believe she had been an unwitting pawn in that disaster. As it was, the expression on his face grew even darker.
“Haven’t you told enough lies already? I don’t need to hear your clichés,” he said, his lips twisting in a bitter line. “Leave. I don’t want to see you again.”
The security guard was waiting for her when the elevator got to the ground floor.
“Miss, I’ve been instructed to see you off the premises,” he said firmly.
It was all Tami could do to nod in acknowledgement and then put one foot in front of the other as she left the building. Inside, her heart was slowly being torn into a million pieces. Somehow she had the presence of mind to call a cab and get home, where she stripped off her corporate clothing and made it into the shower. But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t scrub away the sense of utter desolation that filled all the empty spaces inside. She’d brought this on herself. Her decisions. Her responsibility. Her mistakes.
After the shower, Tami wrapped up in her robe and curled in a ball under her bedcovers. Even then she couldn’t escape the enormity of what she’d done. The vastness of her betrayal. Keaton’s words continued to echo in her mind—you are truly your father’s daughter. And it was true. In trying her hardest not to be like him at all, she’d allowed herself to become a tool for his use, and in doing so, had caused damage equally as bad as anything he’d ever done.
* * *
The weekend passed in a haze of nothingness. There was no one she could turn to. Early on Monday morning she was roused from her bed by the doorbell to her apartment. She peered through the peephole to see a courier standing there, and she opened her front door.
“Ms. Wilson?” he asked, holding his digital scanner toward her with a stylus at the ready.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Parcel for you. Please sign on the screen.”
She did as he asked and he bent to pick up the box at his feet and passed it to her.
“Have a great day!” he said cheerfully as he raced off down the hall.
Tami was beyond words. She recognized the logo on the address label of the box. Richmond Developments. Inside her apartment, she ripped open the lid and saw her personal effects from her desk nestled inside, together with a white envelope printed with her name on it. Inside was a statement from the legal department outlining the terms of the cessation of her employment, including, in detail, the alleged breaches of her employment agreement and the steps they would be taking against her to seek compensation.
Compensation? Knowing what the Tanner project would have been worth to them, she would need to live a hundred lifetimes before she could even scratch the financial surface of what she’d owe. And that wasn’t even considering what she’d tried to repay to Our People, Our Homes. A sound erupted from her mouth. It should have been a hysterical laugh but it was more like a howl of desolation. She had never felt more wretched in her life.
* * *
Keaton paced the office. It had been three days since Tami’s revelation and the sense of betrayal was as raw today as it had been back then. How had he been so stupid? Hadn’t he learned his lesson with Honor? He’d called his brothers and sisters over the weekend and told them he’d let Tami go because she’d admitted to acting for Everard Corporation. They’d been equal parts shocked and angered at her duplicity. He hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to tell them she was the old man’s daughter. For some reason, he felt like it was his fault that he hadn’t known sooner. Either way, it made no difference, she was gone and he and his siblings had agreed to start an internal investigation using an independent company so as not to alert any other potential plants within Richmond Developments as to what they were doing.
So far, only Monique in HR had been brought up for further investigation and she’d been arrested for facilitating corporate espionage, although it appeared there might be another infiltrator in the contracts division of the finance department. Kristin had been hot under the collar about that eye-opener and it had taken all her self-control not to face up to the guy and accuse him outright.
Honor had gently reminded them that there was a process to follow and that while it would take time, and they’d all hate the idea of knowing there were moles within their organization, it was better to do this methodically and in accordance with employment law.
But nothing took away the hurt that dwelled deep inside him that Tami had, from the outset, planned to spy on their company. And how, despite everything, he’d allowed her behind his carefully constructed walls and let her into his heart. Was he that poor a judge of character? He’d fought the feelings she’d engendered in him. He’d put the attraction down to being purely physical and congratulated himself on his ability to rule with his mind. But having kissed her that last night in Sedona, he’d honestly lost his battle with himself. The next week had been hell, knowing he’d probably hurt her with his rejection that night. And none of that had dimmed his need to reach out for her. Even now, he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and that, more than anything, made him angry at himself and, unfortunately, everyone around him.
Even news from Fletcher that they had the lead on a new proposal that might help turn things around on the lost Tanner project was little comfort. Especially when, on a video call to discuss the various aspects they wanted to push where their company created a point of difference with others who might be pitching for the tender, he realized he was incorporating some of the suggestions Tami had made back on that first night in Sedona. Her suggestions about offering low-interest loans to allow low-income families into homes in better areas, and to bring affordable social housing into the project, had germinated in the back of his mind, and all his siblings had caught on to the idea and were expanding it with a financial team to see how it could be blended into the overall plan.
So how did someone like Tami, who’d turned out to be a total snake in the grass, have such a strong social conscience? To all appearances, she’d been good at her job and wasn’t afraid to pitch for the underdog. And yet, that didn’t gel with the fact that she’d deliberately walked into her role with the express purpose of feeding information back to her father. Keaton shook his head. He couldn’t make sense of it and he’d allowed her far too much real estate in his mind already. It was time to shelve his feelings about her and let the legal department take care of the rest.
He turned as there was a knock at his office door and he saw Honor hovering there.
“You’re looking rather fierce. Is it safe to come in?” she asked.
“Sure. I was just thinking.”
Honor gave him a gentle smile. “That’s definitely you. Always thinking. Sometimes overthinking, too, though. Am I right?”
He automatically smiled in response but there was no humor to it.
“You know me too well,” he said bluntly.
Honor sat down in one of his guest chairs and he took the one opposite her.
“I do know you well, Keaton, and I have to admit that I’m really worried about you. You’re not yourself.”
“We’re dealing with a lot here.”
“We’ve been dealing with a lot here since December last year,” she pointed out. “But that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s you, in here.” She leaned forward and tapped him on the chest. “Something’s not right. Talk to me. Tell me what’s troubling you.”
“Look, I really don’t have time for—”
“Don’t give me that, Keaton. If you don’t make time to talk to me now, when will you? And if not me, then who? Kristin? Logan? Your mom?”
He must have pulled a face because she carried on.
“See? Then it’s me. Look, I know I hurt you, but I thought you were okay with Logan
and me now. At least tell me if that’s what is still upsetting you,” she pressed.
“No, that’s not what’s upsetting me.”
“There! So you admit you’re upset about something.”
Keaton groaned. “Of course I’m upset. We lost a major contract.”
“But we’re on the verge of winning another, so I know it’s not that. Hmm, but I think it’s tied to that somehow, isn’t it?”
“Fine. Tami is Warren Everard’s daughter. Satisfied now?”
Honor reeled back a little in shock. “His daughter?”
“His own personal spy.”
Honor shook her head slowly. “Wow. I was shocked when you’d told us she’d been let go for spying. I have to be honest, from what I learned about her while we were in Sedona and in the days after we came home, for me at least, it just didn’t ring true to her character. But now you’re saying she’s Everard’s daughter? Do you think her father coerced her?”
He snorted a laugh but then became serious again as he weighed up telling Honor the rest of it. He had to tell someone. It was eating him up.
“We slept together.” Okay, so maybe he hadn’t meant to be that blunt about it, but those three words pretty much summed it all up. “Do you think her father told her to do that, too?”
“You what?” Honor asked incredulously.
“You heard me.”
“But you’d only known each other a couple of weeks.”
“Three and a half, actually. Seriously, Honor, is there a statute of limitations on when a couple can have sex when they’re attracted to one another? I would have thought you’d be the last person to cast judgment in that regard.”
“No, of course not, and I’m not passing judgment,” Honor said, with that same incredulous expression on her face. “But I know you—you don’t rush into that kind of thing. She must have felt very special to you. No wonder you’re hurting.”
Scandalizing the CEO--A Workplace Romance Page 11