How to Rebuild (Hearts & Horsepower #4)

by A. K. Evans

  “I need you and Porter in my office now,” I told Kat through the phone mere moments after receiving the confirmation from the manufacturing lab.

  “Sure. Is everything okay?” she wondered.

  “No.”

  My voice didn’t even sound like my own. Apparently, when you’ve been betrayed or sabotaged, that’s what happened.

  A moment later, Kat hurried into my office. Porter walked in seconds after her.

  “Close the door and have a seat,” I demanded from the chair in the sitting area of my office.

  Porter shut the door and came to sit on the sofa next to Kat. “What’s going on, Elise?” he asked. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

  “It was our fault,” I declared, pinching the bridge of my nose.

  “What?” he questioned me, seeking additional clarification.

  “I received the results of the independent testing,” I began. “There were high levels of parabens in the eyeshadow palettes.”

  “How is that possible?” he asked.

  “Yeah, the lab we used has been producing eyeshadow palettes for years for us,” Kat added.

  I gave her a look that I hoped communicated just how dumbfounded I was by it, too.

  “Exactly my thoughts, Kat,” I agreed. “Unfortunately, someone sent them a new formula, and they followed it.”

  “New formula?” Porter repeated. “We didn’t create a new formula.”

  “I know, but someone still sent them one.”

  Kat gasped. “Are you saying that….” She trailed off.

  “Skye emailed them a new formula,” I confirmed.

  “What? Why would she do that?” Kat wondered.

  I shook my head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “What are you going to do?” Porter asked. “That’s a huge liability.”

  Nodding, I insisted, “I know. I need to let her go. Immediately. But we have to figure out where to go from here.”

  “What do you mean?” he wondered.

  “She destroyed the integrity of this company,” I snapped, still reeling from the shock of it all. “I cannot allow this to destroy everything I’ve worked so hard to build. We need to brainstorm, and we need to figure out the best course of action moving forward that will allow our customers to feel safe buying from us again.”

  “What if there’s more?” Kat asked.

  My eyes shot to hers. “What do you mean?” I shot back.

  Kat looked nervously between Porter and me before she explained, “Well, I mean, we’ve been so focused on the eyeshadow palettes because those were causing obvious reactions. There were still claims about the holiday bath and body products. What if those formulas were tampered with, too?”

  “Damn it,” I swore the minute the words were out of her mouth. “It’s going to take more time and money to get all of that tested.”

  “So, let’s check the emails,” Porter suggested. “I might handle all of the marketing, web development, and press here, but I can easily get into the emails and see what she sent on those products.”

  Nodding at him, I demanded, “Do it now. I want to know just how bad this is before I take the next step.”

  Without delay, my brother got up and left my office. I sighed as I felt my emotions beginning to consume me. I needed to hold it together.

  “Is there anything I can do?” Kat asked. “I feel so horrible.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t believe this, Kat. I just don’t understand why she would do this,” I said.

  “It honestly makes no sense,” she replied. “Aside from the fact that she has potentially hurt lots of people and opened the company up to lawsuits, she’s hurting herself, too. I mean, who in their right mind would risk losing their job over this? It just doesn’t seem like her. She’s always been so career-focused and driven.”

  Yeah. Skye was. That’s what I always liked about her. She didn’t slack at her job, and she always seemed to have the company’s best interests at heart. But isn’t that how it always was? Wasn’t it the quiet ones you had to look out for?

  And that’s when it hit me.

  “She knew,” I declared.

  “What?” Kat replied.

  “The morning I left New York,” I started. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it at the time. Remember when I got off the phone with you when I was at the airport and told you she was calling?” Kat nodded, and I continued, “Skye had been awake for a while. She claimed her dog, Scooter, had been whining to go out, so she woke up early and never went back to bed. Then she told me that she had already had breakfast and watched all three of the vlogs.”

  Kat’s eyes widened. “You think the dog needing to go out was a cover for her being awake so early and having watched all the vlogs?” she guessed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you think she’s working with somebody else? Like another brand?” Kat wondered.

  I shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe. That’s the only thing that would make sense, right? She was in the perfect position to destroy this business. It’s possible one of the competitors found her and tempted her with more money.”

  The whole thing blew my mind. I realized people did strange things for money. But I thought it was crazy that she’d be willing to risk the health and safety of so many innocent people if she had something against me.

  For the next fifteen minutes or so, Kat sat there with me as we discussed all the possible reasons why Skye would have done this. Kat promised to do some digging to see if she could find out if someone was hiring Skye at another company. If so, we’d have a motive and could go after that company legally. We just needed the proof.

  “Thank you for sticking by me, Kat,” I said.

  She smiled at me. “You know I’d do anything for you, Elise. I’d do anything for this company,” she assured me.

  Before I could respond, Porter walked back in and had a disturbed look on his face. This wasn’t going to be good news.

  “What did you find?” I asked, feeling my impatience grow with each step he took toward us.

  He simply handed me two sheets of paper. I took them from him. The one on top was Skye’s email that indicated she’d attached the formulas for the bath and body products. When I looked at the second page, I saw the formulas. After quickly scanning them, that’s when I knew I had no choice but to let her go immediately.

  She had added benzalkonium chloride to the holiday moisturizers.

  It was a disinfectant that was often used in sunscreens and moisturizers as a preservative. Unfortunately, it was also linked to allergies and severe skin, eye, and respiratory irritation.

  Nope.

  Nope.

  Nope.

  This wasn’t happening. Not in my company. Not on my brand. Not at all.

  I looked up at Kat and instructed, “Please call security.”

  Kat gave me a wide-eyed look but immediately got up off the couch and walked out to her desk to do as I asked. I stood up in front of Porter. Tears welled in my eyes, and his features immediately softened as he pulled me in for a hug.

  “I’m sorry, Elise,” he lamented.

  “We need to recall all of the holiday products, Porter,” I cried into his chest. “This is going to be so bad for the brand.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, his arms holding me tight. With me in the comfort of his embrace, he promised, “We’ll make it through this. You’ve worked too hard to have something like this happen and take it all away from you. We just need to be smart about how we handle it. I’ll be there every step of the way.”

  For the next few minutes, I didn’t say anything. I allowed my emotions to pour out of me while my brother comforted me.

  “Elise?” Kat eventually called.

  I pulled out of Porter’s embrace and looked at her. Security was standing outside my office.

  “Just a second,” I told her.

  She nodded, and I looked at my brother. “Do you want me to go with you?” he offered.r />
  I shook my head. “No, I’ll have security, and I’ll take Kat with me. I need you to start working out the best way to manage another recall. What can we do to soften this blow?”

  “You’ve got it,” he replied.

  “I need to get myself cleaned up before I confront her,” I noted, jerking my head to the bathroom in my office.

  “Okay. If you need anything else, just let me know,” he urged. “As I said, we’ll figure this out.”

  “Yeah.”

  Porter walked out, and I dashed into the bathroom. I quickly cleaned up my face before moving out to meet the security officers. I explained the situation to them. They followed me into the conference room while Kat called Skye to meet us there.

  When Skye walked in a few minutes later, the expression on her face immediately changed. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “I think you already know,” I answered.

  She shook her head and dared to look completely dumbfounded. “I’m sorry, Elise, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she insisted.

  If I didn’t know any better, I might have believed that she was genuine. I slid the formula sheets across the table.

  She stepped forward and picked them up. We waited patiently while she scanned them. Eventually, her eyes left the papers, and she looked up at me. “I don’t understand,” she started. “What are these?”

  My brows shot up in surprise. “You don’t know?” I scoffed.

  “No,” she stated. “I mean, they look very close to the same as our eyeshadow formula and our moisturizer, but they’ve got things in them that we don’t use.”

  “Exactly. Which is why we’ve had the public outrage we’ve been having,” I explained. “You sent these formulas to the manufacturing lab, and they added toxic levels of chemicals we don’t use in our products to them. Thousands of customers received contaminated products.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. Skye looked genuinely shocked. She shifted her gaze to the officers standing beside me before they moved to Kat. I didn’t look at anyone but her. When she returned her attention to me, she insisted, “I didn’t send these formulas, Elise. I would never do that.”

  “I had a feeling you’d say that,” I started as I leaned forward and slid two more sheets of paper across the table. “This is your email, isn’t it?”

  Skye picked up the papers, looked at them, and tears formed in her eyes. “I… I didn’t send these.”

  I ignored her lie and returned, “I’m sorry, Skye, but we have to let you go. Your position with this company has been terminated, effective immediately. The officers will escort you back to your office, where you’ll collect only your personal belongings.” I started to walk around the conference room table toward the door. I stopped a few feet away from her and held out my hand for the papers. She passed them to me, and I continued, “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that you’ve signed an NDA. If you leak our formulas to any competitors, I’ll have no problem enforcing those contracts you signed.”

  “Elise, please—” she pleaded.

  “Don’t, Skye,” I ordered, cutting her off. “I trusted you. I trusted you with my brand. I thought you were one of the most driven women in this office, and I never doubted putting you in the position I did. I’ve always liked you until today. You set out to destroy my company. I’ll never forgive you for that.”

  At that, I walked out of the conference room and back to my office. Once there, I packed up my things and moved across the hall. Walking into Kat’s office, I said, “I’m heading out of here now, and I’m not going to be in tomorrow. I need a couple of days. I’ll see you on Monday.”

  There was a look on her face that I couldn’t quite read, but as quickly as it was there, it was gone. I had a feeling she was dealing with just as many emotions over the whole thing as I was. “Sure,” she replied. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.”

  “Thanks, Kat.”

  Just as I started to walk away, she called, “Elise?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m really sorry about all of this,” she lamented.

  “I know. Me too.”

  With that, I walked out. After stopping in my brother’s office to let him know I was taking the day off tomorrow and getting his promise that he’d call me with his thoughts on where to go next with our public communication, I left.

  I looked over the parts I had just spread out on the workbench in front of me, confirming what I needed before I took off down the hall. I was in the shop’s cleanroom and had just torn down an RB26 engine that Ryker had pulled out of an R32 Skyline GTR when the customer dropped it off with a knocking noise coming from the engine.

  It was Friday, and I had been back at work for almost three weeks now. As much as I enjoyed the break and visiting with my family, I was happy to be back to doing what I loved.

  Having inventoried the parts in my mind, I walked out of the cleanroom and down to the front office. I made a quick stop in the bathroom to wash my hands on the way. After I’d done that, I walked behind Avery’s desk toward the one that sat next to hers. I typically was the only one who came out and used this computer for anything related to work. Avery took care of ordering anything the guys needed out in the shop, but I always ordered the parts I needed. The truth was that not only did I not mind doing it, but I also liked having the break from the extreme concentration I used when assembling an engine.

  As I sat down in the chair in front of the desk, Avery looked over and said, “Hey, Kieran. How’s the RB engine coming along?”

  “It’s done,” I answered.

  “Done?” she repeated, evidently shocked.

  I stopped looking at the computer, focused my attention on her, and clarified, “The teardown is complete.”

  She lifted her chin in understanding and replied, “That makes more sense. What did you find?”

  “The crank was scored, two connecting rods need to be replaced, and there are metal shavings in the oil pump,” I shared.

  She winced before she reasoned, “That sucks, but at least you don’t have to replace all the rods. Are the pistons okay?”

  “Yeah, I think they’re going to be alright to reuse,” I confirmed.

  Just then, the phone rang. “Sorry,” she lamented. “Give me one second.”

  I got back to ordering the parts I needed to rebuild the engine while Avery took the customer’s call. It took her a few minutes, but once she hung up the phone, she leaned over the arm of her chair with a big, bright smile and asked, “So… are you excited?”

  My brows pulled together.

  “Excited? For what?” I asked.

  “Tonight,” she exclaimed. “Logan’s birthday celebration.”

  Tonight, we were all going out for Logan’s birthday. His actual birthday wasn’t until early next week, but his woman, Kendall, had planned the whole night out with everyone. They’d decided to go to Big Lou’s Restaurant and Saloon tonight because it was where the two of them had met each other a year ago. We’d been out with Logan for his birthday last year when his brother and sister-in-law walked up with Kendall and introduced them. It was funny to think that they’d gone through everything they did at the beginning of their relationship, and now they were here. Engaged. I couldn’t have been happier for Logan. He was one of my best friends. All of the guys I worked with were.

  The minute Avery got the words out, the steel door that led from the office out into the shop opened, and Logan and Knox walked through it.

  “Speaking of the birthday boy,” Avery declared as they entered, and Knox made his way over to her.

  “My birthday isn’t until Monday,” Logan noted.

  Knox bent down and kissed Avery on the cheek as she waved her hand in the air at Logan. “Yeah, yeah. I know. But we’re celebrating it tonight. I was just talking to Kieran about it,” she shared.

  “What about it, babe?” Knox asked.

  Avery grinned up at him and whispered in a voice loud enou
gh for all of us to hear, “He’s next.”

  I looked between Logan and Knox. Neither of them had any clue what she was talking about. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a chance to ask her because the steel door opened again, and Ryker and Nash walked in.

  “What’s going on?” Nash asked. “Was there a team meeting Ryker and I missed the memo for?”

  “No, we’re just listening to my girl get all excited about tonight,” Knox answered.

  “I’m not just your girl anymore, Knox,” she reminded him.

  “Right. That’s right. I’m sorry, Nash. We were listening to my fiancée get excited about tonight,” Knox corrected himself with a roll of his eyes.

  When I returned to work after the holiday break, I’d been surprised to learn that not only had Logan and Kendall gotten engaged at Christmastime, but Knox had also asked Avery to marry him. Ryker had proposed to Scarlet about a month or so before Christmas, so now Nash and I were the only single guys remaining.

  “Excited?” Ryker asked.

  Avery huffed. “I’m not excited for me,” she insisted. “I’m excited for Kieran.”

  “Me?” I asked. “Why are you excited for me? It’s Logan’s birthday.”

  “Because Scarlet is bringing Elise,” she declared as though that explained anything.

  “Pardon?”

  “Elise,” she repeated. “She’s Scarlet’s best friend, and she’s going to be there tonight. Scarlet told her about you because you’re her type.”

  My eyes went to the guys, hoping they’d step in and say something. The fuckers all stood there with smirks on their faces.

  When I took too long to respond to her, Avery went on, “Kieran, I’ve met her, and she’s so nice. To top it off, the girl is drop-dead gorgeous.”

  I didn’t have the heart to tell Avery that her definition of gorgeous was quite possibly very different from mine. The bigger problem for me at the moment was that now that I’d met Flynn, I knew I’d compare every woman to her. While Avery was sitting here telling me that I was Scarlet’s friend’s type, I couldn’t help but think about the woman who was exactly my type. Flynn. A stranger who sat next to me and talked with me for hours on a flight. A woman I’d likely never see again.