Whose Lie Is It Anyway?

by Abby Gaines

  “Where are you?” he demanded, trying to get context.

  “At the apartment. I’m starting work on the EC Solutions bid.”

  “Take the day off,” he commanded, desperate for some breathing room. “You need a break after all that flying.”

  She laughed, a honeyed, intimate sound that threatened to arouse Jared all over again. “I’m not tired. After that little fantasy of yours I couldn’t be more wide awake. I may as well get started now, because if you want to beat Transom, you’ll have to move fast.”

  For a second, Jared was tempted to tell her everything.

  He couldn’t.

  Besides, he was ninety-nine percent sure she wouldn’t find his time-bomb. His own accountants had looked over the EC Solutions finances a couple of years ago and found nothing amiss. Best to keep quiet, risky though it was. Holly would figure it all out later, of course, so either way anything between them was screwed.

  He would go ahead as planned.

  The decision left Jared strangely shaky. He took a swig from the glass of water next to his bed. This was no time to chicken out.

  But he would feel better if he was with Holly when she went through the EC Solutions books. Being so far away, he had no control over what she found out and when.

  “Leave it for now,” he said. “We’ll work on it together when I get back.”

  “It looks like a great business opportunity—you don’t want to miss out,” Holly objected. “And I have nothing else to do.”

  Damn again. Holly didn’t like to be unoccupied… Then inspiration struck.

  “I want you to take another look at Wireless World,” Jared said. “Since you’re so concerned about the fortunes of the Greerson family, why don’t you see if there’s some way we can keep them involved? Some way that’ll be good for the business and won’t hurt my interests.”

  There was a moment’s silence. “Really?”

  “Sure, why not?” He’d been thinking about it, anyway, after Holly’s impassioned pleas during their flight to New Zealand, and if anyone could figure out a workable solution to keep the family involved, it was her.

  “That’s wonderful.” To his horror, Holly sounded all choked up. “I—” he braced himself to hear another I love you “—thank you.”

  Jared exhaled his relief that she hadn’t let slip those words again—words she’d never have uttered the first time if she’d known the truth.

  “It’s nothing,” he said. “It really is nothing, honey.”

  After she’d hung up, he looked at his watch. Six-thirty. Another tedious day waiting for the FBI to work through due process. But at least he wouldn’t have to worry about Holly going over the EC Solutions accounts.

  IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for Holly to figure out a proposal for Wireless World’s owners. By lunchtime she’d pensioned off Bill Greerson Senior, shifted Bill Greerson Junior sideways from sales to human resources—the staff loved the guy, he just couldn’t convince them to sell anything—and retained Bill Junior’s brother on a six-month consultancy contract, renewable if his performance justified it. The Greersons would be happy, but Holly was even happier—a buzz of joy had enveloped her all day. Joy not just that Jared had done the right thing for the Greerson family, but that he’d done it for her.

  Now she wanted to do something for him.

  Another of those highly suggestive phone calls did cross her mind. But that would be playing with fire when she had no intention of delivering on any steamy suggestions. Holly eyed the EC Solutions folder in front of her while she munched on her chicken and mayo sandwich.

  Jared had said he wanted to go through the accounts with her, but she could make that process a lot easier if she did a preliminary run-through on her own. And faster, which would get them in there ahead of Keith Transom.

  The thought spurred Holly into action. She downed the rest of her sandwich, poured a coffee and settled in for a long afternoon’s work.

  She worked nonstop, snacking on cheese and crackers when hunger pangs attacked, waking herself up with cups of iced water alternating with strong black coffee.

  At nine o’clock that evening, Jared phoned to report that he’d had an interview with the FBI that afternoon, and they wanted to see him again tomorrow.

  Holly told him what she’d worked out for the Greersons. He approved it in grudging tones, but she heard the smile in his voice and loved him for it. Then she told him she’d started work on EC Solutions.

  At the complete silence from the other end, she wondered if they’d been cut off. “Jared? Are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “I have plenty of time to do this,” she assured him. “I finished with Wireless World hours ago.”

  “I told you to leave EC Solutions. You need to catch up on your sleep.” Jared threw the sentence out as the first thing he could think of.

  Holly made an indistinct sound of mingled surprise and pleasure, and for once, Jared could read her mind the way she read his. How can he say he doesn’t love me, yet worry so much about how much sleep I’m getting?

  Jared paced his hotel room, phone in hand. He should have known Holly wouldn’t drop something just because he told her to. A sudden clamminess gripped his heart.

  Every instinct told him to confess what he’d done, and to call a halt to his plan.

  For once, he ignored his instincts.

  He didn’t want to be accountable to any woman, let alone one who set the bar as high as she did. He didn’t love her, didn’t want to be the kind of guy she loved. So why did he feel a sense of imminent loss that would be greater, even, than the loss of Greg?

  The very fact that he cared about Holly’s opinion told him he’d gotten too close to her.

  So he said, “Do whatever you want.”

  After he ended the call, he imagined her sitting in the apartment, working her way through those files. She was thorough, yet fast. So fast she would overlook what he was hiding?

  A crazy notion struck him. If she didn’t spot the problem, maybe she’d never find out what he’d done. Transom wouldn’t want his own idiocy made public—he’d pay up without a murmur. And if Holly never knew, she’d have no reason to despise Jared. Maybe when this was done they could start over.

  No. The only thing he planned to start after this was his next round of acquisitions, for which he would not be employing the services of Ms. Holly Stephens.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  AT MIDNIGHT, Holly concluded that EC Solutions was a fantastic proposition. Undervalued, well-run, poised for major growth—it was amazing no one had tried to acquire it earlier.

  She called Jared to give him the good news. He hadn’t been enthusiastic about her doing the work today, but she wanted to tell him anyway. He picked up on the first ring. “Holly?”

  “Hi.” Her voice was tired but warm, and Jared found himself holding his breath.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “Great! I just wanted to tell you I’m really excited about EC Solutions.”

  Hope burgeoned within him. “You’ve gone through everything already?”

  “Not everything. But it’s looking good so far. I guess I just wanted to talk to you.”

  Against his will, he knew a stab of pleasure. He needed to enjoy what few hours he had left. “Me, too.” They talked for a few minutes, but when Holly started yawning Jared said, “Okay, lady, it’s time you went to bed.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” she said through another yawn.

  “Get some sleep,” he ordered. “Dream about me.”

  “You think that’ll be restful?”

  He grinned. “I hope not.”

  She said good-night, and Jared ended the call grateful to have one more day in hand. Maybe things would look better in the morning.

  HOLLY RUBBED her tired eyes, and looked longingly toward the bedroom. Then she picked up the file of EC Solutions’ customer contracts. Everything looked exceptionally well ordered, but she couldn’t shirk her duty to exa
mine every detail. She could put a little more time into this now, then sleep in late.

  At two in the morning she shook her head to clear her exhausted brain. This couldn’t be right. She must have misread this contract between EC Solutions and one of its clients, Java Code.

  With a sigh of impatience at her idiocy, she read through the small print again. Only to arrive at the same conclusion.

  There was no doubt about it. The contract featured an extraordinarily severe penalty clause for nonperformance by EC Solutions. Every other contract she’d read tonight had contained a similar clause, but involving far less money. With this one, if EC Solutions didn’t provide Java Code with the contracted service, for whatever reason, it was due to pay a million dollars for every month of that service failure.

  It was nothing short of bizarre. Holly tried to work out why the company would have entered into such a contract in the first place—but failed. She pursed her lips. If Jared bought the company, her first piece of advice would be to cancel that contract. Though that might not be easy—there was a twelve-month cancellation clause for either party. Another anomaly in an industry where one or two months was standard.

  It didn’t necessarily matter, as long as EC Solutions had been delivering on the contract so far, and as long as nothing prevented it from doing so for the next twelve months.

  With a sigh, Holly pulled out the accounts receivable file she’d read earlier. She couldn’t remember seeing copies of any bills sent to Java Code, but the monthly value was small, and dozens of other clients paid the same amount each month, so she may not have registered it. Best to check that EC Solutions had indeed been providing the service contracted.

  At three o’clock in the morning, she sat open-mouthed and completely wide awake.

  According to the files, EC Solutions hadn’t delivered any service to Java Code for more than three years—thirty-eight months, to be precise. With that twelve-month cancellation period, EC Solutions owed Java Code nearly fifty million dollars, even if it canceled the contract today.

  EC Solutions might be worth ten million on paper— Holly had already worked that out—but with this liability, it was worth nothing at all.

  She laughed out loud out of nervous relief that she’d found the problem. She ought to double her fee—Jared would be eternally grateful to her for unearthing this contract.

  Unease pierced her smug relief. EC Solutions appeared such a promising business at first glance, it was odd that such a contract should even exist. Perhaps the original deal had been struck by people who were no longer with either company, and no one else was aware of it. But why would EC Solutions have stopped servicing Java Code without formally ending the contract? For such a well-run company, it was breathtaking sloppiness.

  On one level it didn’t matter how it had happened. She knew everything she needed to tell Jared not to go ahead with the deal. But maybe Java Code could be convinced to settle the contract in a way that would make the deal still affordable. After all, it could take a protracted court battle to enforce the penalty clause.

  Jared might know something about Java Code. She dialed his cell phone, hoping he would still be awake at midnight.

  Jared cursed loudly when he saw Holly’s number come up on his phone, and waited for her to blast him to kingdom come.

  She sounded a lot more tired now, but her tone was puzzled, not furious. “Jared, there’s something odd about one of EC Solutions’ contracts. Do you know a company called Java Code?”

  He waited a long time before answering. Tell her.

  “What about it?” he asked.

  “They have a weird contract with EC Solutions.”

  “Weird?”

  “I need to do a bit more digging, but I wondered if you know who owns Java Code.”

  What had he told her when she’d started work for him? That he wouldn’t lie to her, but he reserved the right not to answer any question. “Why don’t you check it out with the Corporations Division tomorrow?” he asked. An evasion, not a lie, and it might buy him another day.

  “I can check it online tonight.”

  Jared groaned as the net tightened around him.

  A SEARCH on the Washington State Corporations Division Web site told Holly that Java Code was a wholly owned subsidiary of another company. The major shareholder of that company was a lawyer, who held the shares on behalf of a client.

  Holly’s unease intensified. It shouldn’t be that difficult to find out who owned Java Code.

  She looked at her watch. Three-thirty. In the morning—later in the morning—she would phone around and find out who the lawyer that technically owned Java Code was working for. But for now, maybe she could find out more by looking at the list of EC Solutions’ directors. One of them must have signed the contract with Java Code.

  Four of the company’s five directors had been on the board less than a year. The other was a founding director.

  Holly did a search on his name. He held no other directorships, and he was…another lawyer holding shares on behalf of a client.

  Her frustration sizzled. Should she call Jared to ask him if he knew these guys? But it was twelve-thirty in Hawaii. The man deserved an uninterrupted sleep.

  Holly yawned. Okay, she would sleep, too.

  SHE WAS WOKEN at seven-thirty, almost as tired as she expected to be, by her cell phone trilling “America the Beautiful.” Through bleary eyes she read Jared’s name on the display, and answered the call on “for spacious skies.”

  “Good morning,” she said, with more energy than she felt. Then it sank in. “Hey, it’s only four-thirty in the morning there.”

  “I couldn’t sleep.” He sounded pensive. “How are you getting on with EC Solutions?”

  “I’m not there yet,” she said, “but I will be.”

  Invigorated by the sound of his voice, Holly showered quickly and ate a bowl of cereal before she got to work.

  By eight-thirty she knew who owned Java Code.

  Jared Harding.

  It made no sense. Why would he buy EC Solutions when it had a punitive contract with Java Code, a company he owned himself? She would have thought he would exercise his contractual rights and sue EC Solutions. It would be the easiest money he’d ever make. And she assumed Jared was aware of the contract—she’d observed he was every bit as thorough as she was, due no doubt to his brother’s misfortunes.

  The answer must lie in the identity of the owner of EC Solutions. Perhaps it was someone Jared felt sorry for—Holly tried and failed to imagine such a scenario. She turned back to her screen, determined to get to the bottom of this.

  By nine-thirty she was even more confused. She now knew that Jared Harding already owned EC Solutions, through other companies. It wasn’t illegal for him to sell the company to another of his businesses, namely Harding Corp, but why would he want to? And why hadn’t he told her it was his company?

  Holly felt as if some giant piece of the puzzle lay just out of her reach—a piece she’d seen, but failed to recognize.

  She needed something to wake up her brain. Coffee. As she waited for the jug to boil she tidied away some of the papers she’d been too exhausted to clear last night. On top of the pile was the memo from the chief accountant, the one about Keith Transom.

  Her anguished cry rang through the apartment. Suddenly she knew exactly what all this was about.

  She paced the living room as she ran through it in her mind. Jared had known that if he showed any interest in a deal, Keith Transom would surely follow. Only this time Jared would let Transom win. And when the dust settled from the sale, there would be Jared, demanding his fifty-million-dollar compensation. Ruthlessly enforcing the letter of the contract, just as Transom had done to Greg nearly twenty years ago. Transom would be ruined—if not financially, then at least his reputation as an astute businessman.

  The scale of the plan floored Holly. Jared must have been working toward this for years. The lucrative deals Transom had won—been allowed to win?—had
lured him into the belief that if Jared was after something, it must be a good deal.

  But why had Jared gotten Holly involved? Surely he’d known she would find the Java Code contract, and that she would never condone his planned revenge?

  Or had he? It was so well hidden, maybe he’d hoped she would miss it. And she might have—if she hadn’t been out to do even better than usual because she loved him.

  She halted in the middle of the room, sickened. Jared had used her to test how well the trap was hidden, before EC Solutions handed over its financial records to Transom for due diligence.

  A wave of nausea hit her, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. It receded, only the bitterness of bile remaining. All this time he’d been deceiving her. With his professionalism, with his help in finding Dave, with his kisses. It had been a brilliant tactic. She’d actually started to think of him as a man who was honorable in his own way. Fool.

  UNABLE TO BEAR the suspense another minute, Jared called Holly’s number at 11:00 a.m. her time. She didn’t pick up the phone.

  She’s in the bathroom. Or on the other line, or out at the store. He tried again ten minutes later, and again half an hour after that. Then every hour for the rest of the day, until midnight her time, when he knew she’d need to sleep.

  So she knew.

  SIMON CROOK phoned Maggie via the trailer park office on Thursday night and gave her the good news. Dave Fletcher had confessed; Holly was in the clear.

  “Thank you.” The simple expression held relief, gratitude and something deeper.

  “I can’t take any credit,” he told her. “Holly and Harding found the guy and brought him back.” And hadn’t Crook’s boss had plenty to say about that?

  “You gave them the chance,” Maggie said. “You didn’t have her taken in by the New Zealand police.”

  “Yeah, well…you made a good case for your daughter’s innocence.”

  “It was more than that,” she insisted. “Admit it.”