I stood there in the kitchen with that check in my hand, not knowing what to do. I wanted the check to disappear; I wanted the mail to disappear. I wanted my growing understanding of the dirty business that had gone on here to leave my head entirely.
Please…five minutes ago I felt good, really good, for the first time since my speech.
But that wasn’t about to happen. Life didn’t have a rewind-and-rewrite feature. I had just been punched in the face with a seriously ugly life lesson, and it couldn’t be taken back. My head wouldn’t fit that deep into the sand, no matter how hard I tried.
“Dallas,” I whispered shakily, remembering him moaning my name as he came. But Dallas wasn’t even his name. Maybe a nickname, at best.
He lied to me. He lied to me and slept with me.
Sobbing, I hurried around grabbing my things and getting ready to leave before he woke up. I left the incriminating mail back in the bowl where I found it. I couldn’t lock the door behind me when I left, but I didn’t care.
I walked back slowly, trembling and weeping the whole time, glad that the rain pouring down on me hid my tears.
I managed to get back to my cabin before I fell apart completely, but when I did, I really lost it. Crying, swearing, yelling myself hoarse. Sobbing in the shower like a broken teenager.
I thought this was it. I thought he was the one. He had me completely fooled.
I slept with him.
How could I have been so stupid?
I finally ended up crying it out on my bed, still in my robe, hair still tangled, knowing in the back of my mind that I would be a mess when I got up, but not caring. I didn’t have the strength or focus to look after petty shit like my hair when my world was crashing in.
A few hours and a couple of buckets of tears later, I crashed asleep, too tired for the gnawing hole in my heart to keep me awake any longer. My mind had raced itself into total exhaustion.
If Dallas—Calvin—had tried to contact me while I was sleeping, he hadn’t left any messages. Neither had Gregory. Fortunately I hadn’t had any meetings scheduled with him, Bella, my supervisors or the board. Just another stack of advertising crap that needed approval by tomorrow evening.
I still had to talk to Gregory, though. I had a job for him, and it absolutely would not wait until tomorrow.
I showered again, conditioned my hair, and spent half an hour turning it from a rat’s nest into a neat French braid. The steam from the shower took care of most of the puffiness from crying, and I hid the rest with makeup. I didn’t want there to be any chance that Gregory would notice how upset I was. He would instantly want to fix it, and there was no fixing this.
There was only responding to it. And to do that, I would need the truth. The whole truth. Something I wasn’t going to be able to get from “Dallas.”
But now I had his full name, and a location. And an agency name and address.
And that would be more than enough to track down his client, given enough time and effort. Whether “Dallas” had been lying about wanting to back out of the job or not, ultimately, he was not my enemy, even if he had messed me up pretty damned badly.
The man behind him, the unknown client, who had paid a ton of money to get a struggling actor to dabble in corporate espionage…he was my enemy. I was going to find him, with Gregory’s help, and he was going to pay.
Once I was sufficiently cleaned up, dressed and primped, with my pain firmly under wraps, I put on my raincoat and went over to Gregory’s cabin to bang on the door.
He opened the door on the second knock and frowned out at me. “You shouldn’t be out in this mess. Get in here.”
“I wouldn’t be,” I said, stepping past him into his cabin, “but I’ve got some information that can’t wait, and it’s not a conversation for over the phone.”
He nodded, his frown going thoughtful instead of disapproving. “I see. Well, in that case, let’s get you settled and get to work.”
Once the soaked raincoat was hung up and Gregory had a fresh coffee in my hands, we sat down at his small table to plan a response to my unknown enemy’s shitty, cowardly attempt to seduce me into giving up company secrets.
“I need you to do another background check,” I said, keeping my voice even despite the touchy subject.
He lifted an eyebrow. “New suspect?”
“No. I just found out Dallas’s real name.”
He sat back, the implications sinking in and a mildly horrified look briefly crossing his face. “He lied about his name?”
“He lied about a lot of things. Apparently he’s actually named Calvin Dawson. He’s a Dallas-based actor, not a rancher, though he does seem to have experience. I suspect a lot of what he told me about himself was true, to better sell the lies mixed in with them.” Was my voice shaking a little? Stop it.
“Actor, Dallas based, former rancher. Anything else?” Gregory was typing rapidly on his laptop, thick fingers moving nimbly.
“Yes.” I gave the agency name and the amount of the check. “Someone was paying serious bank to try and get my supposed corporate secrets. Thing is, though, nothing that I told Dallas—Calvin—was particularly secret.”
“That’s good. I’m assuming he never touched your laptop or phone either.” He looked at me steadily.
I stopped to consider. We had only spent one night together. He hadn’t had access to my laptop, and he’d had access to my phone for only a few short hours. He had been snoring away the whole time I had pulled myself together and left, and my phone showed no signs of tampering.
“No. If he was inclined or instructed to, he never actually had the chance.” He might also have chosen not to. He was a good actor, but I kept going back to his apparent anguish over an “unethical job.” Had he been trying to warn me off?
“Good.” Gregory started typing again. “I’ll find out everything there is to find, boss, don’t worry.”
Chapter 14
Ruth
“I have good news and bad news,” Gregory told me the next morning. “Your choice.”
“Bad first,” I said, bracing myself. It had been tough, waiting on this information through a serious delay. The storm was finally over. It had caused some delays, blacking out the ranch and killing internet connectivity for over six hours.
Only one thing had worked in my favor. That whole time, “Dallas” hadn’t tried to contact me. I didn’t know whether he thought I was busy, or was having similar problems at “his” ranch and simply didn’t want to walk over in a full-on, hail-filled lightning storm. Or maybe he had guessed that he was in deep shit now and was avoiding me.
I didn’t know. Right now, I couldn’t care. It was just another knife in my side while I was trying to focus on work and my own security.
“The bad news is, you’re absolutely right. Calvin Dawson’s internet profile has been largely scrubbed, but I was able to find an old photograph from his yearbook at a Dallas high school.”
He showed me on his laptop: seventeen-year-old “Dallas” grinned back at me, hair overlong and floppy and face still a boy’s.
“It really is his nickname,” I murmured. Somehow, that made me feel a little better, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on why.
“That’s not the only thing he told the truth about,” Gregory went on. “According to several inter-agency messages published by someone who left the industry, he was among several young actors blacklisted for being ‘uncooperative.’”
“I see.” So he was honest about that, too. “Any luck determining who his actual employer is?”
“Not yet, but I’m looking. His agent appears to keep two sets of books, one for his more sensitive clients, and that one appears to exist completely offline. Minus a private investigator or bribing his clerical staff, we may not be able to get at the specifics.”
I frowned and nodded. “Okay. If it comes down to it, let’s do the investigator. Paying offline staff for information is a scumbag move, and in case it comes to a legal battle, I want to
have an above-board source for all our information.”
“That means we can’t use some of these intercepted emails,” he reminded me.
“Then we’ll use them as breadcrumbs to lead to something actionable.” I felt bad just peering into people’s communications, but we were precious low on “breadcrumbs” as it was.
“Smart,” he commented…then peered at his screen and frowned. “Looks like ‘Dallas’ nearly got himself fired a few days ago. The forum posts where his agent complained about his lack of cooperation mentions that the client only agreed not to drop him because he was ‘already in place.’”
I thought about his drinking binge and frowned. “When was that?”
“Tuesday.”
I nodded, wincing. “That fits what was going on with him then. He got very drunk.”
“There seems to be an element of coercion here,” Geoffrey mused and looked at me somewhat worriedly. He seemed bothered by the idea that someone had gotten this far under my skin and then turned out to be a spy. Maybe he was trying to mitigate things.
“I’m aware,” I said. “He even tried to tell me that. He did talk about quitting, but I don’t see him actually going and doing that.”
“No.” And his scowl was back. “So what do we do about this?”
“Leave,” I said. “Continue the investigation and get as much information as we can before getting the lawyers involved.”
“Agreed,” he said. He still kept an eye on me at all times, even while he was typing. “Should I call the helicopter in?”
“Yes, and cancel the rest of my stay. Don’t ask for a refund—I doubt this mess is the owner’s fault.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose and leaned back in my seat. “Any updates on the situation back home?”
“The threats have ended. The attempts at further doxxing have ended. This fits the theory that someone was astroturfing the entire movement against you—hiring people to provoke the crowd. As soon as you came here, it started dropping off drastically.” He looked very serious, and as this sank in, I scowled.
“Even more evidence that they set me up to come here. But how did they steer me to this place in particular?” I was trying to remember the specifics of how we’d planned this outing. “I mean, knowing I wanted to own a ranch could have been taken from one of my interviews. But how did they know I was coming here in order to set Da—Calvin up to do his part?”
I was keeping up a decent professional mask, but under it all I could feel my heart like something rolling around on a rocking boat: dizzy, untethered, and all over the place. My eyes kept stinging; each time I forced the tears down, swallowing hard, lifting my chin and soldiering on.
Don’t let anyone working for you see you break down. Especially because in Gregory’s case, he was overprotective. I had no doubt that if I started seriously leaking, he would march out in the mud over to Calvin’s make-believe ranch and punch him right in the teeth.
Like I kind of wanted to do. I also wanted to beg him to tell me it was all bullshit, and that he wasn’t still working for some fucker who wanted to use him for corporate espionage. And I wanted to ask him…why? Why had he done this? Why hadn’t he quit when he had realized that what they wanted him to do was wrong?
“If I recall, it was Bella who recommended this place,” Gregory said slowly, his tone careful.
I looked up at him in shock, but only for a few moments. He was right.
Oh, God.
For a moment, I felt like the most gullible person in the world. I had fallen for a guy who had been hired to betray me. Was I also best friends with a corporate spy?
I rubbed my temple. “If someone got to her somehow—” I started.
He frowned deeper. “Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. Someone else, maybe someone on the board, might have put the idea in her head. Or her desk might have been bugged. I hadn’t checked it in a few days when she made that suggestion.” He admitted it in an annoyed tone, clearly disgusted with himself for the slip.
I shook my head. I hated the whole idea that Bella might be involved. She was my best friend at work next to Gregory. But again…apparently I’m a shitty judge of character, going to bed with a corporate spy and all.
It humiliated me. I had danced to some stranger’s tune without even realizing it. Leaving like he wanted, going where he wanted, loving who he wanted. Now I wanted to find out who the hell had done this to me—the guy calling the shots. Once I did, I was going to send a whole team of lawyers after him.
And maybe punch him in the teeth myself. If I could find a way to get away with it.
I sat back in my chair, closing my eyes. “I know you want to downplay the possibility of Bella being a problem because we’re close,” I said. “But I’ve already been massively betrayed once in the last twenty-four hours. Kinda hard not to wonder if it isn’t the first time someone has screwed around behind my back.”
But I didn’t want it to be true. Bella was my friend. We had confided so much in each other. Why would she betray me?
Could I trust anyone? The board members? Gregory?
Myself, if I was such a bad judge of character?
I was twisting my braid in my hands. I dropped it, shaking my head slightly. “When we get back, please make sure there isn’t a bug or something at her desk or on her laptop before we go questioning her on her vacation spot recommendations. I don’t want to upset her if she’s innocent, and I don’t want to give her the warning that we’re checking if she’s guilty.”
He nodded once. “Got it.”
I couldn’t let doubt win the day—especially self-doubt. I had to rely on what there was actual evidence of. So far, the only one who had betrayed me was “Dallas”—and he seemed to have done it at least half against his will.
I still never wanted to see him again. It hurt too much.
It would always hurt, but right now, I felt like I was going to explode if I stepped in the wrong direction. I couldn’t willingly do anything to make the pain worse. I just couldn’t.
“All right,” Gregory said. “Get packing, then. I’ll make the arrangements and come meet you at your cabin when I’m done.”
The walk back to my cabin was dreary and cool, and I took it with my head down and my hands shoved in the pockets of my windbreaker. My heart felt like it weighed a million pounds, making each step drag while the ache in my chest just lingered.
How could Dallas do this to me? How could he have sex with me, more than once, knowing the whole time that he was a plant set there to manipulate me into giving up company secrets? I was only lucky that he had not asked the right questions while I was stupidly wrapped around his finger. I didn’t have much to hide about my company or its best practices, but some things were sensitive—like my current ad campaigns, for example, or any potential vulnerabilities in our onsite security. Other things.
I could remember parts of that amazing night that would have left me gladly telling him my social security number just to keep him from stopping what he had been doing to me. Thank God that it had never come to that. Because…it could have. He had simply had me that enthralled.
But I had to wonder…was his not taking greater advantage a matter of incompetence, a missed opportunity—or part of his attempts to rebel against a situation he had long since gotten uncomfortable with?
I got back to my cabin and started packing, not much caring that my clothes weren’t folded or that I tucked in my laundry bag with the clean stuff. I would sort it when I got home. Maybe I could start sorting myself out then too.
I had thought I was in love. I had thought he was in love. I had thought that my night with him was the start of something special. But no. It had been the beginning of the end…and as tears dripped into my suitcase, I found myself wishing that I had never let him touch me.
Even though it had been amazing. The best I had ever had, hands down.
I was packing up my laptop when I heard a knock at the door. Thinking it was Gregory coming to collect me, I opened it
without asking who it was first.
It wasn’t Gregory.
“Hey there,” said “Dallas” cheerfully, his million-dollar smile on. “I didn’t hear from you all yesterday and I wanted to check in. I know things got kind of intense last night and I didn’t want to have left you feeling, you know, shy about it or anything.”
I stared at him mutely, then stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind me. I didn’t want to be alone in a closed space with him. I was worried he would seduce me in that irresistible way again. I was also worried that I would break his nose if I got him in private.
“Oh, no, that wasn’t it,” I said in an almost toneless voice. My heart was in my throat, my eyes were stinging again, and I was starting to tremble.
He paused, tilting his head. “You okay? Did something happen besides all the rain and hail?”
I heard booted footsteps coming up the walk and looked up to see Gregory slowly approaching. The scowl on his face would have even scared off someone on bath salts. He stopped a bit away, keeping an eye out for my signal to either grab the guy or chase him off.
“Yes, Calvin, something happened,” I said very bluntly, letting some of my anger loose. “I found out that you’ve been playing me.”
He stiffened, smile vanishing, all the color draining from his face. He stared at me. I stared at him. Gregory folded his arms and stared at him as well.
“Shit,” Calvin said, looking between us. “This probably looks really, really bad.”
“You bet your ass it does,” I snapped. “You’ve been lying to me and manipulating me from the beginning. And then you went and did worse.”
I stared at him hard. I wasn’t going to mention sleeping with him in front of Gregory, but he damn well knew what I meant.
“Jesus,” he said. “Look, I know this is hard to believe, but I haven’t been…I mean…look, I’m stuck in this goddamn job, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been doing it. Not since I found out you weren’t just some rich asshole like the ones who kept trying to use me. Or the one who has managed it out of desperation. I just…I didn’t know, okay?”
Taming The Cowboy (She's in Charge Book 4) Page 10