“I’m not convinced,” he teased as he shifted his hips forward again, pressing his growing bulge into her hand.
Anabelle felt her own face redden with desire. “Before we do that, and I do want to, I need to tell you something. It’s important.”
He looked at her. “What is it?”
She reluctantly moved her hand away.
He sat up, adjusting himself as he did, his face flushed.
She felt bad about fanning the flames of his desire, then putting the brakes on it, but the two of them always seemed to get physical very quickly.
He regarded her in silence, waiting for her to continue.
She took a deep breath. “You know my friend, Sarah.”
“Yes,” he said, wondering what her friend had to do with any of this.
“Well, I thought her journalism background would come in handy to do some digging into where those nasty rumors about your company are coming from.”
He frowned. “Oh really?” He grabbed his beer. “You didn’t say anything about that.”
“I know,” she said, sheepishly. “I remember you saying that you wanted to keep this confidential, but I hope you don’t feel like I invaded your privacy. That wasn’t my intention. I only wanted to help you figure out what’s going on and Sarah is extremely resourceful and discreet. I trust her completely.”
He finished the rest of his beer as he considered his response. “I see. Well, I would have preferred that you at least mentioned to me what you guys were doing.” He set the empty bottle down.
Anabelle could tell that this bothered him, but he was trying not to show it. “I’m sorry, we didn’t know each other well at that point. I should have told you.”
He nodded, his brow furrowed. “Yes, you should have. Next time please let me in on things if they involve me, or the company. Before you do anything.”
“I will,” Anabelle said. “I promise.” She felt bad. They kept running over potholes trying to get this relationship straightened out.
“So what has your intrepid reporter friend learned?” he asked, clasping his hands together.
“Well, she’s really good at what she does,” Anabelle continued. “When she started tracking where all the comments were, she noticed that they would all be posted within an hour, no more, of when your company would release new information or when there was a write-up about your company in the news.”
“There’s lots of internet trolls out there,” he said, his expression turning more serious. “How can this help?”
“It shows someone is purposely trailing your company to slander you. It also shows that they’re either keeping a close eye on every financial report that goes out, because even the smallest mention attracts their attention, or they know when and where these posts are going to be made.”
He now had a deep frown on his face.
“That’s not all,” Anabelle continued. “They started all of a sudden. Not just with one comment here or there. They all started at the same time across the board, with similar messaging. It would seem to be from the same person. It began a few months ago. Sarah said that it appears that someone has you specifically in their sights.”
“Me?” Giorgio said, concern plainly etched on his face.
“Yes. All of the comments have not only tried to smear your company’s name, but they are painting you as solely responsible for the troubles.” She shifted forward on the sofa. “Did something significant happen around then? Was someone angry with you over something?”
He thought for a moment, his brow furrowed. “A few months ago?” he repeated. “Do you know how much stuff happens in a company like this on a daily basis?”
She inhaled deeply. She was hoping he would come to it on his own.
He shook his head. “I mean, there’s a thousand little things, but I can’t imagine someone being this intent on destroying my reputation. Not something with this degree of malicious intent behind it at least.”
Anabelle didn’t want him to feel insulted, but she had to tell him. “Sarah thinks whoever it is was angry that you took over as CEO. And that they’re hell-bent on getting you removed any way they can.”
He let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Me being CEO hasn’t been all smooth sailing, I’ll admit that. There’s been more than a few bumps in the road.”
She waited for him to continue.
“I guess it’s possible,” he said, looking down. “We never had these problems before I took over. My father was very well-respected. He had a much better handle on things. He knew the business and all the players inside and out.” He ran his fingers through his hair.
“I’m sorry,” she said, touching his arm. “I know this isn’t a pleasant conversation.”
“No, no it’s not.”
“There’s something else, something related, that I need to tell you.” She could see him cringe slightly.
He held out his hands. “Fire away.”
She thought of how to begin. She clasped her hands together. “It has to do with the night of the Dream Ball.”
He groaned and flopped back against the sofa. “That’s becoming quite the infamous evening for us.”
She nodded. “I know.” She took a deep breath. “There was something that happened that night that I didn’t tell you.”
“Oh?” he said.
“I wasn’t sure about it at first, plus there was so much else going on at the time. But, after talking to Sarah, it started to make sense.” She paused for a moment.
He just watched her silently, not knowing where she was going with this.
“I was in the bathroom, it was before you found me after talking to Raquel. I was upset and was hiding out for a bit. Someone came in and I don’t think they noticed that the far stall door was closed.”
Giorgio let her continue.
“The woman was talking on her cell phone. It sounded like she had gone into the bathroom for some privacy, but she was still talking in a hushed voice. She was saying things like it had to be posted while she was at the ball because people knew she was there. She made reference to some kind of announcement that was coming up shortly. She was mentioning something about suspect timing and secret overseas transfers, oh yeah, and scamming creditors.” Anabelle paused, trying to remember everything she had overheard.
Giorgio’s expression was turning serious.
“She told whomever she was talking to that it would make this person look like they were hiding something and scare the investors. She had already identified the sites where she wanted the person to post the comments.” Anabelle felt slightly breathless. This made her nervous. “She also mentioned that it would work because no one trusted the new CEO.”
Giorgio’s frown deepened, thinking on what she’d told him. A few things clicked, but something still didn’t make sense. “That’s interesting. It does sound a lot like what’s been happening. But, I’m curious what makes you so certain it’s related to my business? There were a lot of wealthy business people at that ball.”
Anabelle pursed her lips. She had to just say it. “It was the voice I heard talking on the phone. I think I recognized it.”
“Who did you think it was?”
“Portia.”
“What? What are you saying?” He looked genuinely shocked.
“I’m just telling you what I heard. I’m sure it was Portia. You had just introduced her to me that night, so her voice was fresh in my mind.”
Giorgio didn’t know how to respond.
“Is there anything you can think of where she might have been acting suspicious around you? Something new or out of character?”
“No, not really. I mean she’s intimately involved in the business. Has been for years, ever since she married my brother.”
Anabelle bristled slightly at his use of the word ‘intimately’. She thought back to the day she had seen the two of them together at lunch and how Portia seemed to be quite touchy-feely with him. She still wasn’t comfortable with their relationship,
but she didn’t want to admit she had seen him that day. She hadn’t meant to spy on him.
“Is there any reason she’d have a grudge against you?” Anabelle asked. She’d explore some leading questions and see how he’d answer.
He looked surprised. “She’s my sister-in-law.”
“What about your brother?”
“Anabelle, seriously, these are quite the allegations you’re making.” He slapped his hands against his lap.
“I know, and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have said anything if I wasn’t fairly certain it was Portia talking in the bathroom that night. Can you tell me a little more about her?”
He regarded her for a moment, feeling a little defensive about the pointed questions and insinuations about his family.
She watched him carefully. She could tell he was growing increasingly uncomfortable.
“Well, she and Nikolas have been married about four years now. He met her at the annual museum gala. They seemed to hit it off right away. She hung out with our family a bit. He proposed six months later. She expressed an interest in our business. She had finance and economics degrees and graduated top of her class, so we gave her a job. She’s been working for Tsar ever since, heading up our financial services sector.”
“She seemed quite friendly with you the night of the ball. I got a really cold feeling from her.” Anabelle wanted to say this next part as delicately as she could. “Did you and she ever…?”
“What? No! She’s with my brother.” He was clearly offended.
“I mean before that. She seems quite…flirtatious, very touchy-feely with you.”
He sighed. “It doesn’t mean anything. She’s just like that.”
“And that doesn’t bother you or your brother?”
Giorgio paused, feeling some buried emotions coming to the surface. “He did once say something to me, but that was a long time ago.”
“What was it?”
He looked at Anabelle. He resented the fact that this old issue was now being brought up again. He stared at the empty beer bottle as he spoke. “He had seen her with me, she was being…like you say…flirty. He’d gotten a bad vibe from it. I didn’t do anything, of course, but I guess she was crossing the line a bit. I blamed it on the wine she’d been drinking. She likes to imbibe. A lot. Still does. Anyway, he said that in their early days of dating, she used to ask lots of questions about me. He initially thought it was just her trying to get to know what his family was about, but he said the questions were only ever about me personally.”
“What kind of questions?”
He leaned back on the couch, avoiding eye contact with her. “Was I dating anyone? Had I ever been married or engaged? What did I like in a woman? Favorite things to do on a date. My job. Things like that.”
“Really?” Anabelle said. “I can kind of understand his discomfort.”
“Well yeah, but then she claimed it was because she wanted to maybe set me up with friends of hers. We believed her.”
“Did that ever happen?”
He thought for a moment. “Actually no. I hadn’t really thought about it. Except for her friend that pestered me to be on the Top 10 Bachelor list, but that wasn’t Portia’s doing directly. Besides,” he said, shaking his head, “it wasn’t just personal relationship stuff she was curious about. She wanted to know a lot about my role in Tsar, why I had a more senior position in the company than Nikolas did. What the plans were for our future advancement in the company.”
“And you didn’t find that…odd?”
He sighed. “We chalked it up to her wanting to get involved in the business…you know getting the lay of the land. It wasn’t long after they were engaged that she asked about coming on board. Nikolas was happy she wanted to be involved, to be closer to him.”
“And since then, has she continued on that line of questioning?”
“Well, she naturally asks a lot of questions. She’s part of the company, it’s her job to stay in the loop.”
“And she’s ambitious?”
He looked at her sideways. “Ambition doesn’t make a person bad, you know.”
“Of course not, but it can be misdirected.”
He didn’t respond at first. “She did want Nikolas and I to share the lead of the company after our father passed away, rather than have me as CEO and him as Senior VP. We’re only three years apart in age. She thought it would make more sense not to have such a big burden on my shoulders all at once, since our father died prematurely.”
“But that didn’t happen, obviously.”
“No, in practical and legal terms, it wasn’t going to work. I assured both her and Nikolas that we’d still work in very much a partnership.”
“Did that satisfy them?”
“Nikolas seemed to be okay with it, he understood that it made business sense. He wasn’t really after that role anyway. Portia took a little longer to come around.”
“So, she resented it?”
Giorgio started to feel uncomfortable with the line of questioning. “Not to any horrible degree, but things were frosty for awhile. She’d make little comments. Criticize my early decisions. But again, that was a long time ago. Things have been better since then. Portia seemed to let it all go eventually. She’s smart. She does add value to the business.”
Anabelle considered what he said. If it wasn’t obvious to him, it sure seemed obvious to her that Portia had designs on grabbing power in the family business one way or another. “Are you planning on making some kind of announcement soon?”
“Yes, that’s all part of a new strategy we’re embarking on, including the ad campaign. We have a press release going out tomorrow.”
Anabelle felt like he was purposely blocking the implications that Portia might be behind things. She’d give things a minute to settle down. “Can I get you something else to drink?”
“Water would be great, thanks,” he said, his face still etched in a frown.
She got up to get them both a glass of water as Giorgio headed to the bathroom. She was sitting on the sofa waiting for him when he got out.
He didn’t make eye contact as he sat back down, a little further from her than before. “Thanks for the water,” he said, then took a long drink.
She nodded. “Listen, I don’t mean to belabor this or anything, but what did Portia want to talk to you about when she came and found us together on the terrace at the ball?”
Giorgio visibly bristled at the question. “Just business stuff. That’s all.” His voice was curt. “Nothing funny, if that’s where you’re going.”
“I’m not. But…the person I overheard,” she purposely avoided mentioning Portia’s name again, “said she just confirmed that an announcement was forthcoming. And you had just spoken to her.”
He didn’t answer. He was deep in thought.
Anabelle decided to be patient.
“I still can’t believe that it was Portia you heard talking that night,” he said, clasping his hands together. “These accusations have been stressful, she’s been really understanding. She’s even tried to help me brainstorm countermeasures. She’s said she knows there’s no truth to those accusations.”
“I don’t believe there is either,” Anabelle said, placing a hand on his forearm. “I trust in your integrity.”
“Just not in that of my sister-in-law,” he sniped.
She withdrew her hand. “I’m just trying to help.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
She tried to ignore the biting comment, but it upset her. “No, you didn’t. But I also didn’t ask to overhear that conversation in the bathroom. Nor did I ask for her to be texting you non-stop while we were in the hotel room. She beckons and you disappear for hours. Even out of bed with me.”
He put his hands up to his face. “We went over that. I thought it was resolved. I said I was sorry. What are you implying now?”
“Just that she’s pretty insistent when she wants your undivided attention.”
He dropped his h
ands and let out a long sigh. He didn’t like having all this dredged up. He had faced so many questions, innuendo, and insinuations from all kinds of people when Portia had first arrived on the scene. It had taken over a year for that nonsense to settle down and it hadn’t been a pleasant time of his life. He thought he had finally gotten past it for good.
“Look, I think it’s just how Portia comes off, you know,” he said. “How people perceive her. She’s incredibly bossy. Even with Nikolas. Very bull-headed. Which can be helpful actually, in business situations. Plus as I said, she’s been really supportive to me during this mess.”
Anabelle thought back to that day when they were having lunch. Portia did seem to be comforting him. She wanted to know what that conversation was about without letting on that she was there.
“How so?” Anabelle asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. “In the usual way, she asks questions, she listens, she offers advice.”
“Are you two close?”
He furrowed his brow. “Just as family. Nothing else. I told you already.”
Anabelle pressed on. “Do you spend a lot of time together? Just the two of you?”
“Anabelle, I really don’t like this line of questioning.”
“It’s not a horrible question,” she stated, feeling defensive.
“It’s implying certain things,” he said, looking at her pointedly.
She bit her lip. She wanted him to just be truthful and upfront with her. “Do you go out together, for drinks or meals without Nikolas?”
“That wouldn’t be a crime,” he snapped.
“You know, you’re getting really testy about this. It makes me wonder why.”
He stood up. “Why? Maybe because you’re insinuating things about me, my family…”
Anabelle also stood, crossing her arms. “No, just Portia.” She looked at him directly, challenging him to respond.
“Look, I know you took a lot of things the wrong way the night of the ball,” he said, “but you’re letting your imagination run away with you. I keep answering the same type of questions over and over again about her.”
His defensiveness was sending off red flags for her. “I told you, I overheard her talking in the bathroom.”
Love in the City, an erotic romance novel Page 23
