He didn’t even have the grace to look shamefaced.
Tami sighed wearily. “Why are you here, Dad? I thought you said you were done with me.”
“I wish,” he muttered with a sour expression on his face. “I want to know if you knew that crowd at Richmond damn well set me up!”
There was an unusual gray cast to Warren Everard’s skin that was at odds with his normally ruddy complexion. And his breathing was labored, as if he was under great physical stress.
“Are you okay, Dad? You don’t look well.”
“Of course I’m not well,” he snapped. “Now answer the damned question!”
“No need to shout at me. Knew what, exactly?”
“About the contamination?”
“What contamination?”
“Don’t play games with me. I know precisely how cozy you got with Keaton Richmond. Did he set the whole thing up just to see me fall?”
Tami paled. Keaton’s covering letter had told her the spyware her father had had installed on the phone could pick up conversations and phone calls, as well as back up notes to where he could access them. Did that mean he’d heard everything between her and Keaton? Even their lovemaking?
A hot flush of embarrassment began to flood her body, but it was rapidly followed by an anger that she’d never felt before. This was a violation that went beyond corporate espionage. She had no cause to feel embarrassment. She should feel nothing but pity for the man who’d fathered her. He was so driven that he considered nothing private. So driven that he thought he had the right to win at all costs and to hell with anyone who stood in his way.
“What...contamination?” she said deliberately.
“The Tanner project. The entire thing is stalled because of land contamination due to illegal toxic dumping in the area thirty years ago. Bastards falsified reports and hid the truth so deep even my lawyers didn’t find the details until it was too late. When I sent out my people they began ground testing, which subsequently raised so many red flags I’m surprised the land doesn’t glow at night. Keaton Richmond knew about it, didn’t he?”
Tami shook her head slowly. “Dad, he was privy to the same information you were before making the pitch. He knew nothing.”
“I don’t believe you. I’m suing everybody involved with this. The vendors, the realtors and if I discover Richmond Developments knew any of this I’m going to damn well sue them too. We’re going to be tied up in court now for so long I’ll probably never live long enough to see the conclusion. This is going to cost me millions!”
He turned sharply and stomped his way down the path to the road, where his driver waited patiently beside the car. She watched as he got in and the car then drove away. A tiny smile curled her lips.
She shouldn’t feel so satisfied when this was clearly making her father ill, she told herself. But the fact was, he’d used subterfuge to steal that contract out from under Richmond Developments and he was now reaping his just reward as far as she was concerned. That it had led to a very lucky escape for Keaton’s team was a monumental bonus. She doubted, given the struggles the company was experiencing at present, that they’d have weathered the fallout her father now faced from the Tanner project without major losses.
Tami also wondered how her father would feel when he received the correspondence she’d directed her newly appointed lawyer to send him. She’d approached a law firm to act on her behalf in the Our People, Our Homes case and the Richmond Developments matter. While there, she’d mentioned her father restricting her access to her trust fund and her lawyer had made the appropriate enquiries. The information requested had confirmed her father had blocked her late grandmother’s wishes regarding Tami’s access to the fund, citing Tami’s instability and unreliable character.
While he had, judging from the balance sheet provided, managed her trust fund very well since her grandmother had passed away ten years ago, she couldn’t see him being fair going forward, not after the way he’d abused his position as the trustee of her fund, or with the Tanner project. It was past time for her to take more control into her own hands, to have a say in how the fund was handled. Her father’s actions had weaponized the fund that was rightfully hers to manage. And, given the way he’d treated her recently, there was no way she had any reason to ever be in contact with him again, or have him control a single aspect of her life, so her attorney had been instructed to take steps to see to Warren Everard’s removal as a trustee.
She turned and went inside, feeling freer than she had in a very long time. After what had happened with Mark, and then her father’s manipulation of her, she knew she couldn’t be that person anymore. She needed to take charge of the things that were important to her. Making everyone around her happy was all very well, but she needed to take care of herself, too.
Would Keaton have heard the news about the Tanner project yet? It was possible her father had only just found out, and when he couldn’t reach her had driven straight to her house. Should she call Keaton, or maybe go and see him? Tami grabbed her mobile phone and began to key in his number but the phone beeped three times and then the screen went dark. The battery was dead. Since phoning was now out, that meant she had to go see him. She doubted she’d be permitted back into the Richmond tower, but maybe she could try to catch him at home.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she grabbed her car keys and bag and headed out the door. Keaton deserved to get the news on the Tanner project now, and not through some other intermediary source. When she got to his apartment tower, however, she hadn’t counted on the security guard being the same guy who’d been on duty when she’d left the last time.
“But this is important—I must see him,” Tami insisted.
“No, miss. It’s more than my job is worth to let you upstairs. Send him a letter.”
Tami groaned and started to turn away, but caught sight of the very man she needed to see coming in through the main doors from the street.
“Jeffrey, is there a problem?” Keaton asked as he drew near.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Richmond. I’ve told her she’s not permitted on the premises, but she refuses to leave. Would you like me to call the police?”
Tami wheeled around to face Keaton. “Please, I won’t be long. It’s really important or I wouldn’t be here. I promise.”
Keaton looked at the security guard. “It won’t be necessary to call the police.” He shifted his gaze to Tami. “Come with me.”
He led her to the elevators and they ascended to his floor. Through the short journey, he didn’t make eye contact, nor did he say a word. Maybe this hadn’t been the greatest of her ideas, Tami thought as she watched the numbers count inexorably up. She let out a breath as the elevator pinged and the doors slid open, then followed Keaton down the thickly carpeted hall to his door.
Inside, she was assailed with the memory of her last visit here. Of how they had barely made it past the entrance foyer, so strong had been their hunger for one another. It sent a shiver of longing through her body.
“Cold?” Keaton asked.
“No,” she answered, staring straight into his eyes.
She noted the exact moment his pupils flared and his sharp intake of breath as he understood exactly where her thoughts had been.
“Take a seat in the living room,” he said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
She did as he said, and was again lost in the memory of the state she’d been in the last time she’d sat here. Sated, yes, but tied up in a hundred knots for the truth she’d had to deliver. And now? Well, she was just tied up in knots.
She started when Keaton returned. He’d changed out of his suit and into a pair of trousers and a finely woven sweater that looked like it had cost more than her monthly house payments. A look at the subtle logo on his breast confirmed her suspicion.
“Can I offer you anything to drink?” he asked.
“No, thank you. I meant it when I said I wouldn’t be long. I wanted to tell you the news myself, before it makes headlines tomorrow, which I’m sure it will do.”
“And that is?” he said, sitting down opposite her.
“It’s to do with the Tanner project,” she began.
Keaton stiffened in his chair. “Go on.”
“The land is contaminated. My father came to see me about an hour ago. He accused me of setting him up.” She uttered a bitter laugh. “Ironic, isn’t it? He used me and now he blames me. Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to say. I just wanted you to know that I’m glad he beat you to that contract. Apparently a large tract of the land was an illegal toxic dump site and the records were purged somehow. If the past is any example, I’m guessing the land will need be left empty until testing levels show it is safe for development. Given my father’s reaction, I’m guessing that will be a very long time.”
Keaton leaned forward, his forearms resting on his thighs and his hands clasped together. “You’re certain of this.”
“Oh, yes, he came to my front door and told me himself. To be honest, he looked physically ill over it. And I’m not surprised. A part of me does feel some compassion for what he must be going through—I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t. But overall I’m just so relieved that Richmond Developments has dodged a bullet. Anyway, I wanted you to know first. Before it makes the news.”
Keaton leaned back again in his chair and blew out a long breath. “Wow, I was not expecting that. But thank you for coming to tell me. The rest of the family will be thrilled.”
Tami let her eyes roam over him and felt that familiar tug of need deep in her chest. She wished things could have been different between them, but wishes weren’t reality. She knew that only too well.
“Well,” she said as she slowly rose to her feet. “That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you for hearing me out. Don’t bother getting up. I’ll let myself out.”
She felt his body heat behind her before she even got to the door.
“Tami?”
She hesitated, turned. This close she could see the silver striations in his eyes. She swallowed. There were bare inches between them. All she had to do was close the distance and she could kiss him. But that could never happen again. She’d betrayed him. He’d never want to build again on the camaraderie they’d shared during the outdoors experience, nor repeat that night they shared almost two weeks ago. Trust was all-important to him and he didn’t believe he could trust her, even when she’d shown him that she wasn’t the bad guy here. But she had entered his business with the intention of stealing information, and for that she would forever be filled with regret. She’d never counted on feeling like this about him. Never counted on wanting to love him.
“Yes?”
He took in a deep breath. Every part of her yearned to hear him ask her to stay. To say he’d forgiven her for her intentions. To say his feelings for her mirrored her own.
“Thank you for coming here today. I appreciate that you brought the news to me in person.”
She deflated like a pricked balloon.
“Yeah, well, it was the right thing to do. I might have made some stupid decisions in my life, but I do always try to do good. Maybe you’ll be able to find it in your heart to believe me and, in time, forgive me. Goodbye, Keaton.”
Tami turned and fumbled for the door handle, then flinched as Keaton reached past her to open the door for her. She mumbled something that might have sounded like a thank-you, before heading back down the hall and to the elevator. She kept it together until she reached her car, and once she was inside, key in the ignition and doors locked, she let go all of the nerves and tension and, yes, even the tiny flicker of hope that had bloomed for an infinitesimal moment, and sobbed at the empty future that now faced her.
Twelve
Keaton couldn’t get Tami out of his head. A part of him knew he needed to put this whole business behind him and take a stride forward into his future. Another part of him hung back, telling him he wasn’t done here yet. And that part questioned his every thought and every decision. It was an unhealthy obsession, he told himself, and yet he couldn’t stop the snippets of memory that would pop into his thoughts at any given time of the day or night. Even at his apartment, she invaded his thoughts. Not even his bedroom felt the same anymore.
If he was to be totally honest with himself, his life felt empty and he didn’t like it one bit. He should be on top of the world, he told himself. They’d dodged a flaming arrow with the Tanner project and the new bid for the job Fletcher had initiated had been accepted. Everything was on the up. Logan and Honor had set a date for their wedding this coming summer, while his mom had booked the Palm Springs retreat with Hector. Even Kristin seemed marginally happier these days.
He’d thought it would be easy to move on without Tami in his sphere—after all, they’d only known each other a very short time—but somehow she’d inveigled her way into every nook and cranny of his mind. And, yeah, his heart, too, if he was going to be totally honest. It seemed Logan actually knew him better than he knew himself—in relation to Tami, at least.
He paced the floor with nervous energy. Today Mark Pennington was due to arrive on a flight from New Zealand to Los Angeles, and then catch the next available flight to Seattle. It turned out that the offer of a very lucrative contract to appear to manage the dispersal of twenty million dollars through several charities, but to filter the money instead into an offshore account and eventually distribute it between himself, Jones and Keaton, had been just the right enticement to get Pennington to risk his safe position in Nauru. Sure, he’d tried to avoid actually returning to US soil—saying he could do all that remotely—but an offer of an additional bonus apparently sweetened the deal enough for him to hop on a plane. Jones, the guy he’d hired from the private investigation firm and who’d visited Pennington in Nauru, would collect him from the airport and take him to a restaurant, where Keaton would join them as part of the sting. Keaton would be wired so everything Pennington said in their meeting could be recorded and, where possible, used to bring any additional charges against him.
Keaton checked his watch for the umpteenth time and realized it would be a good idea to head to the restaurant now. He’d be wired up there before the investigator and Pennington arrived. He used a driver to get him to the destination in Renton. The restaurant would have no other patrons this evening aside from a few plainclothes officers who would be involved in the arrest.
Security buzzed from downstairs to let him know his car and driver were waiting. Keaton was glad to finally be moving and became filled with a sense of purpose. He was doing this for Tami and for the charity that had been ripped off. Maybe once this was done he’d be able to draw a line under the whole experience and start afresh.
The restaurant was dimly lit and the offerings from the laminated menu leaned heavily on fried food. The tablecloth was none too clean, either, Keaton observed as he sat down at the table after being prepped by the technician with the trace equipment. One of the officers from the three small groups scattered around the restaurant rose and joined Keaton at the table.
“Jack Hima, pleased to meet you. Thanks for helping us out here,” the man said, extending his hand.
Keaton took it and smiled. “Feels very cloak-and-dagger, doesn’t it?”
“Sometimes you have to think like a rat to catch one.”
“And this guy really is a rat.”
Hima nodded. “We’ve done a little poking into his past. There are warrants for him under another name. He’s a greedy bastard, all right. Likes the high life on other people’s money. But don’t worry, we’ll get him this time and once we’re done with him in Washington, he’ll be facing charges in Oregon and Idaho as well.”
It sounded like Pennington was a professional thief. It irked Keaton intensely that he hadn’t been caught up until now. But his
reign of abuse would end today and it gave Keaton no small amount of pleasure to know that. Tami hadn’t stood a chance against a man like Pennington. She was the most open and accepting person Keaton had ever met. He only wished she hadn’t agreed to spy on him for her father.
Hima slid his phone from his pocket and checked the screen. “Looks like they’re almost here. I’ll go back to my seat. Just remember, keep it business, as we coached you. A guy like this has a big ego. Hopefully, he’ll trip himself up and give us more to hold against him before we make the arrest. If not, we’ll take him down, anyway.”
Keaton nodded and took a deep breath to calm the nerves that had begun to flutter in his stomach. He really wasn’t cut out for this undercover stuff. He vastly preferred the cut and thrust of business to this kind of thing, which belonged in the shadows. He saw a movement at the main entrance to the restaurant and two men entered. The hostess, another plainclothes officer, he’d been told, showed them to his table. He rose, and even though it went against every honorable notion that had been drilled into him by his parents, he offered his hand to Pennington.
“Glad you could make it,” he said.
He stared at the guy. Obviously he’d been traveling a long time, probably the better part of twenty-four hours not counting layovers. His clothing was disheveled, his eyes red-rimmed, and his hair stuck out as if he’d been running his hands through it several times. He kept looking around nervously, as if expecting someone to jump out of the woodwork at him. Which they would do, eventually, Keaton thought with satisfaction.
“Yeah, well, you made an interesting proposition. Let’s get down to business.”
He and the investigator sat at the table with Keaton, then the hostess came over with menus and filled water glasses.
“You hungry?” Keaton asked as he saw Pennington eye the menu thoroughly.
“Starved.”
“Go ahead, order. It’s on me,” Keaton said with as much munificence as he could muster.
Scandalizing the CEO--A Workplace Romance Page 14