Scandalizing the CEO--A Workplace Romance

by Yvonne Lindsay

  Tami had felt special to him. It’s why the betrayal of finding out exactly who she was had made him so angry. Yes, and hurt, too.

  “Keaton...” Honor leaned forward and stared earnestly into his eyes. “You know that sometimes people are driven to do things they would never normally do because of extenuating circumstances.”

  “Circumstances like you and Logan, last year?” he asked with a tinge of acrimony.

  Honor’s expression turned sad and he saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes. “I never wanted to hurt you, Keaton.”

  He felt something ease in his chest. “Yeah, I know. We weren’t right for each other, no matter how hard we tried. And I’m sorry for that comment. It wasn’t fair of me. I hold no bitterness toward you or Logan anymore. Don’t feel guilty about it. Now I understand what it’s like to be so drawn to someone that you go against your own common sense. I think I comprehend even better why you couldn’t resist your attraction to Logan.”

  Honor bowed her head and wiped away an errant tear. “Thank you. That means a lot—and it’ll mean a lot to Logan, too. But it doesn’t solve the current issue, does it?”

  “With Tami? It’s solved. She’s gone and Legal are preparing a case against her for breach of her employment contract.”

  “You’re actually going after her?”

  “She cost us millions of dollars, Honor. I can’t just let that slide. Logan and Kristin are with me on this. Besides, it’s not like her daddy can’t afford to pay her damages, especially now he has the Tanner project.”

  Honor firmed her lips and shifted in her chair before answering. “Will it make the hurt go away?”

  Keaton looked squarely at her. Trust Honor to cut straight to the chase.

  “No, it won’t, but it’ll send a message to anyone else lurking in the shadows that we won’t tolerate disloyalty of any kind.”

  “I can see that is necessary, but Tami really didn’t seem the type to be into subterfuge and corporate espionage.”

  “Do those people ever broadcast what their true intentions are?”

  “No, of course not, but you know what I mean, don’t you? She was just too... I dunno...” She waved her hands in frustration. “Too nice. She was passionate about the things that make life good for people. Tami never struck me as the kind of person who made a single decision based on personal gain.”

  “She was clearly very good at her role as her father’s pawn then, wasn’t she?” he said cynically.

  “I honestly don’t think that was all an act. It makes me wonder what circumstances drove her to work for her father in that way. Maybe, if you can understand what those circumstances are, you can get a better grasp of why Tami did it.”

  “Do we really need to know why?”

  “Keaton, you’re an intelligent man with a compassionate heart, when you let anyone else see it. Can you honestly tell me you don’t still care about her? That you aren’t driven to figure out the why behind her actions?”

  She got up to leave and gave him another long, concerned look before turning and heading for the door. Honor was asking too much. Figuring out why Tami spied on them was not on his agenda. The reason was obvious—money. It drove her father and it obviously drove her, too. But she’d been the one to come clean to him and she’d insisted that she hadn’t passed any information on to her father. Keaton hadn’t believed her then and he didn’t feel inclined to believe her now. So where did that leave him? Was it Monique from HR or the snake in Kristin’s department who’d passed on the information?

  He weighed them up in his mind and rejected Monique almost immediately. She wouldn’t have had clearance to access the information Everard wanted and IT had already scoured her computer and found no track back. And while the guy who’d been suspended pending an investigation in the finance department had a higher clearance, unless he was an extraordinarily skilled hacker, he wouldn’t have been able to access the secure network where Keaton and his siblings had discussed the new venture. No, it all came back to Tami. She was the only person, outside of the family, he’d even mentioned the project to.

  But what if Tami’s father had gotten the information more indirectly from her somehow? He thought about when he and Tami had discussed the company’s plans back in Sedona. She’d mentioned she’d made notes on her phone. Was that how Everard had found out? Did he have access to her phone? And, if he did, was she complicit or was she as innocent as she claimed?

  Keaton huffed a sigh of frustration. However Warren Everard had gotten his data, the damage had been done and Tami was out of Richmond Developments and out of his life, even if he couldn’t quite dislodge her from the back of his mind.

  Ten

  “I’m so glad you could come with me tonight,” Nancy Richmond enthused as she led Keaton through the throng of heavily perfumed and expensively clad attendees at the charity dinner she’d coerced him into attending with her.

  She’d been slow to get back out among her peers after the scandal and fallout from her husband’s death last December, so he’d been pleased to be able to escort her this evening, to be honest.

  “Me, too, Mom. You look exceptionally lovely tonight,” he said with genuine feeling.

  “Oh, you!” she said with a blush and patted his arm lovingly. “You always know how to say the right thing.”

  He placed his hand over hers and pressed her fingers in response. His mom had been an integral part of the management team at Richmond Developments for longer than he could remember, but with his father’s sudden death, she’d withdrawn from almost every aspect of her life that had taken her outside her home. She’d grieved for far more than the man she’d loved intensely for over thirty years. Discovering their entire marriage had been mirrored with another woman and family on the other side of the continent had done a huge amount of damage to her confidence. Especially when it initially appeared that Nancy’s marriage had been the bigamous one. By the time it was discovered that Douglas Richmond’s first marriage had not been legal, the fallout had already been widespread. Keaton would have done anything to get her back to her old self, and if coming along to this two-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner for a veteran’s charity put a smile back on Nancy Richmond’s face, then that’s what he’d do.

  “How’s that lovely new assistant of yours doing?” Nancy asked after they’d been shown to their table. “I didn’t tell you, did I? I popped into the office when you returned from Sedona. You were all locked in one of your meetings and Tami looked after me. We got to talking and she mentioned how she’d overcome her fear of flying and was super understanding about how I feel about it. Her suggestions on how to manage my anxiety made such good sense to me. So much so, Hector and I are thinking of a spa retreat to Palm Springs in a few weeks.”

  “That’s great, Mom,” Keaton said, equally surprised that Tami hadn’t mentioned the time she’d spent with his mom and thrilled that his mother was beginning to think about taking steps away from home on her own. But hang on a minute... Hector was their family lawyer. He’d been a great support to Nancy, but a trip together? His father hadn’t been gone that long.

  “Oh, look at your face,” Nancy said. “Don’t worry, we don’t plan to sleep together...yet.”

  Keaton blanched. Thinking about his parents that way was something he’d never done, but his mom and Hector? He really didn’t want to go there.

  “You’re an adult in charge of your own choices,” he said stiffly. “And, as to Tami, she has left us already.”

  “Oh, she didn’t work out in the end? That’s a shame.”

  “Actually, Mom, I had to let her go. She’s Warren Everard’s daughter.”

  “Really? Goodness! And she never told HR about the potential conflict of interest.”

  “We had reason to believe she was instrumental in us losing the Tanner project. It seems that an HR senior staffer was also on the Everard payroll and assisted
in planting Tami in my office.”

  Nancy gasped in shock. “Well, I never. Still, if her father was behind it, it should come as no surprise. That man would stoop to anything to get what he wants. He and your father went head-to-head several times. Warren Everard always was a bastard—excuse my French.”

  “That’s something I’ve always loved about you Mom—you like to call things as you see them.”

  “We have that in common, my darling boy,” she said with a proud motherly smile. “But getting back to Warren and Margot Everard, everyone always said they were very difficult and demanding parents. They said they’d cut ties with their daughter once she turned eighteen but you know how people gossip. Many said it was more the other way around. Either way, I couldn’t imagine doing that to one of my children, no matter how difficult their upbringing, but then again, Margot always was such a cold fish. Appearances meant everything to her. They still do.

  “You know, given their situation, I can’t imagine Tami ever wanting to work for her father. If there’d been a familial reconciliation I’m sure the gossip lines would have been buzzing. Why on earth would she do something like spy on you for him when they haven’t spoken in years?”

  “Who knows?” Keaton said with a shrug. “The fact remains that she admitted her relationship with Everard and what he’d asked her to do.”

  “Such a shame,” Nancy said.

  Keaton couldn’t help but agree.

  * * *

  He had just returned from a run the next morning when his mom called, her voice throbbing with excitement.

  “Keaton, you’ll never believe what I’ve just heard!”

  “Good morning to you, too, Mom. It was a lovely night last night, thank you.”

  “Oh, yes, all of that,” she said offhandedly. “But listen. One of my girlfriends phoned me for a chat today and she said that she’d heard from Bitsy Tyler, whose daughter is married to that guy who works in the prosecutor’s office. I never liked him, you know, he’s got snaky eyes and a fidget that makes you wonder what he’s thinking all the time. Anyway, Bitsy said that Warren Everard’s daughter was under investigation by the police for her involvement in a rather large sum of missing money from the Our People, Our Homes charity.”

  Keaton stood still and gripped his phone so tightly the plastic squeaked. “Just how much money are we talking here?”

  “Their entire operating capital. Two and a half million dollars.”

  He let out a long, low whistle. “And she’s accused of taking it?”

  “No...well, not directly, anyway. Apparently she was dating her boss—he was the director of the charity and now neither he, nor the money, are anywhere to be found. One of my bridge-club ladies apparently asked Margot Everard to her face about it yesterday and Margot said they have no contact with their daughter and she had nothing to say on the matter.”

  Keaton barely heard her after the part where Nancy told him that Tami had been dating the charity’s director. It raised all sorts of ugly questions in his mind. Did she make a habit of sleeping with all her bosses?

  “Do you think she was an active party to it, Keaton?”

  He dragged his attention back to her question. A part of him wanted to say an emphatic yes, but there was a tickle at the back of his mind that urged him to look beyond what had been presented on the surface.

  “It’s hard to say without knowing more, Mom. And it’s not our place to discuss it, to be honest. If she’s being investigated we have to trust that they will uncover her involvement, or establish her innocence.”

  “I can’t accept that the lovely girl I met in your office would be capable of such a thing.”

  On the surface, Keaton would normally have agreed with his mom, but then he had his own experience of Tami’s ability to appear to be one thing when she was very definitely another.

  “Appearances can be deceptive, Mom. We all learned that the hard way with Dad.”

  His mom went silent on the other end of the phone and he cursed himself for his insensitivity.

  “Mom, look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “No, darling, you’re right. Appearances can be deceptive, but I’ve had a lot of time to think about my situation and for all that your father cheated on me the entire time I knew him, he still managed to provide me with a very good life and three children I love to the moon and back. What he did was wrong on so many levels I still can’t bear to think of them all. But I’ve learned to move past that and, in my own way, find forgiveness for him for what he did to us because if I hadn’t been able to do that, I would forever be a victim of his circumstances, and that I refuse to do.”

  “You’re an incredible woman, Mom. I’m so proud of you.”

  “And I’m proud of you, too. I’ll let you know if I hear any more about Tami. I’m sure there’s more there than meets the eye.”

  Keaton ended the call and went to take a shower. He leaned his forearms against the tiled wall of the shower stall and set the jets of the shower to a penetrating pulse down the back of his neck and his shoulders. A part of him continued to seethe with fury over the betrayal he believed Tami was responsible for, especially in light of her apparent involvement in the theft of funds from the charity she’d worked at before. But that niggle in the back of his mind continued to urge him to push harder and look deeper.

  As to his mother’s forgiveness for his father, he wasn’t prepared to rejoin the Douglas Richmond fan club just yet. He’d idolized his father his entire life. Had dedicated every breath in his body to making his father proud. Everything he’d done or achieved had been because he’d given twice as much effort, as if he could somehow make up for his missing twin. He’d worked damn hard for everything he had achieved. He’d made sacrifices and not stopped to count the cost. And for what? To be overthrown the second Logan had turned up. As the older twin, his brother had taken over everything that Keaton had worked for his entire life, even his fiancée. Then, to add further insult to injury, to discover he, Logan and Kristin were not Douglas’s only children? Well, that had been a shock too far. Keaton didn’t think he’d ever be capable of thinking about his father without the deep sense of betrayal that had infiltrated pretty much everything in Keaton’s life in the past four months.

  Keaton snapped off the faucet, stepped from the shower and grabbed a towel. As he dried off, he accepted he was going to have to talk again with Tami. The gossip his mom had shared with him raised more questions than provided answers.

  Once he was dried off and dressed, Keaton checked the personnel file he had in his laptop for Tami and typed a note in his phone with her address. They were going to have this out, right now.

  * * *

  Keaton did a quick check on the address he’d entered into his GPS. Yes, this was definitely the one. There was certainly no evidence here that Tami was the daughter of one of Seattle’s richest men, nor that she’d had any benefit from the two and a half million dollars that was reportedly missing. This suburb was everyday, middle America—nice, certainly, but not what he’d been expecting for Warren Everard’s daughter.

  The clapboard home was small and set back on the lot. A small garden looked as though it struggled to survive out front and the path to the door showed signs of weeds coming through the cracks in the path. He went up the shallow stairs that led to the front door and knocked hard, still unconvinced he had the correct address. It wasn’t long before he heard movement behind the door.

  “Who is it?”

  That was definitely Tami.

  “It’s Keaton. I need to talk to you.”

  He heard the sound of a chain being slid off the door before the lock turned and the door slowly opened. His eyes roamed her instantly, taking in the dark discoloration beneath her eyes, which lacked any of their usual sparkle, and the paleness of her face. She wore a pair of yoga pants and an oversize woolen sweater that dwarfed
her frame. And yet, despite all that, his body reacted instantly to her. He clamped down on the urge that spiraled through him and of all the memories of their lovemaking—of how she sounded, tasted, smelled—that his mind seemed determined to revisit.

  * * *

  Tami could barely take her eyes off him. Dressed in a good pair of casual trousers and a finely knitted sweater, Keaton looked as if he’d just stepped away from a designer photo shoot. Even his hair was its trademark perfect. His cool gray eyes looked straight back at her and she shifted slightly under his scrutiny, suddenly self-conscious of her appearance. She knew she didn’t look good and hadn’t cared, right up until this moment.

  “May I come in?” he asked, his voice a little more gruff than usual.

  “Of course,” she answered in a small voice and stepped back to allow him into her hallway.

  As he stepped past her, she caught a trace of his cologne, the woodsy scent reminding her of what it had been like to be close enough to him to feel as though they’d been one unit, working together. But she’d ruined all that, hadn’t she? She dragged in a breath and closed the door behind him.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone. Please, come through to the kitchen. Can I get you anything?”

  “Coffee would be great.”

  As she moved about the kitchen, she felt his gaze on her, even watching her every movement as she measured out beans into the coffee grinder, as if he didn’t trust her to do even that right. Her hand shook and she dropped some beans on the countertop. She was turning into a clumsy wreck. She cleaned up and put the coffee on, before turning to face him. The sooner he cut to the chase, the sooner he’d leave.

  “You said you needed to talk to me. What about?”

  He must know she’d already received the document from the legal department of Richmond Developments outlining her responsibilities under her employment agreement and then listing her breach of the same, and that they would be seeking damages. Surely, he hadn’t needed to come to her door to discuss that further? Faced with the other disaster in her life—the investigation into Our People, Our Homes—dealing with Richmond Developments was peanuts in comparison.