by Jean Oram
He’d always wanted to see an opera live in Italy, thinking that was the pinnacle for someone with his musical tastes. But the first half of the performance had bored him. He was alone and didn’t speak the language. His bow tie felt too tight. The sound was amazing, the voices incredible. But…something was missing.
Maya.
Which was silly. She wouldn’t be able to sit through an opera. Why was he even thinking of her? She was meddling in his affairs, sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. She didn’t even trust his most loyal advisor, a man who had been working at his side for ages.
“Signore?”
“Yes?” The lobby bar had emptied, the opera ready to resume, and an usher dressed in a tux stood smiling, his hands clasped lightly behind his back.
“The opera is beginning.”
“Thank you. I won’t be going in.”
“It is not to your tastes?”
“It is. Very nice. Jet lag.”
“Ah, I see.” The man bowed his head and stepped away. “Have an enjoyable evening.”
Enjoyable. Connor didn’t even know what brought him joy any longer, other than bantering with Maya and trying to get her to call him names.
He pulled out his phone and played with the On button. Sighing, he opened his email, not sure what he’d find or why he was even checking.
There were quite a few messages, but two recent ones from Maya caught his attention. The first was about the entrepreneur deal. Details, etc. The second one was more intriguing. He touched the screen to open it, and scanned the first paragraph, trying to remind himself to stay cool and objective. It was about James. Of course.
The email was an argument against James, and his supposed corruption was outlined by several points. Number one, he’d overvalued the lumberyard by approximately half a million dollars. Number two said James was claiming to be getting bonuses. Number three, he had bought a home in Florida. Connor’s fist closed and he ground his teeth. He made himself read number four. He read it again. On the other side of the doors, a clear voice sang of love, deception, and betrayal.
Connor’s finger paused over the phone’s Off button. He could still go in and listen to the opera. He didn’t have to read this. He didn’t need to add it to his list of worries.
Number four…James was related to the lumberyard’s owner, who was also its financial manager, and James was a high school buddy of the appraiser he’d hired. Not exactly an impartial third party, as Connor had dictated.
Was that simply a coincidence? Or did all the pieces add up to something alarming? And if they did, how had Maya snooped it all out in a matter of days? How come Connor hadn’t discovered any of this?
And what was he going to do? He was set to sign on the dotted line in less than seventy-two hours. Should he bail? Carry on? Confront James and fire him? No, sacking James would create a hole so big Connor would end up burned out almost immediately from trying to pick up the slack.
The bottom line was that Maya was right on one thing: the lumberyard didn’t fit his portfolio, and what she’d found looked bad. Connor couldn’t recall why James had wanted to buy the company. Was it merely for tax purposes? Was it to flesh out their portfolio and make them more stable as the economy continued to twist and turn, with dips and dives? There had to be more.
But the big question, if Maya was correct, was how much did he stand to lose? And why did she still care?
Who could he trust? Who could he turn to?
He needed more time.
CHAPTER 14
Maya balled her hands into fists and stared down James outside his office. She knew the two of them were gathering a crowd in the open area, but she didn’t care. Not one bit. Connor was due to sign the lumberyard purchase agreement in less than twenty-four hours, and he hadn’t replied to her email about James. As far as Em knew, he was still in Italy. It was time to deal with things, patience and all that bull crap be damned. Maya had given her ex-boss time to reflect. Now it was time to act.
“I don’t think you have Connor’s best interests at heart,” she announced, ensuring her voice could be heard by all the eavesdroppers who had suddenly found this area of the seventy-second floor incredibly interesting.
Em shot her a look of warning from her desk near Connor’s office. She was half out of her chair, uncertain whether to intervene or not.
“What do you know about business? You’re just some lowly assistant,” James replied, his face tight with anger.
A faint gasp rose from the eavesdroppers—mostly female assistants. Maya caught flashes of righteous anger before she returned her attention to the well-dressed businessman.
“I know when someone is using nepotism for his personal advantage, and selling out his boss.” She dropped her hands onto her hips and watched him consider running away. Nope. He had too much at stake to turn tail. Good.
James strode to the nearest desk, where a secretary cowered, her eyes round. She leaned away as he snatched her phone and punched in two numbers. “Security. Floor seventy-two. I need someone removed. Now.”
Maya smiled. “Thank you for confirming my suspicions, Mr. Culver.”
James paused, the phone halfway to its cradle. “What suspicions?”
“That you are corrupt.”
James slammed down the phone and pointed at her. “You were fired by Mr. MacKenzie. Do you really believe you are one to judge?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Maya spotted Connor’s second advisor, Bill Hatfield, appear in his office doorway. He took in the scene, then gently closed his door again.
She turned to the cluster of employees. “It’s true. I was fired.” She turned back to James. “Because of you.”
“I had nothing to do with it. You were causing a disturbance with your conspiracy theories.” Red crept up James’s neck. “It is time for you to leave.”
“Sure, but before I go, I think the staff might find it interesting that you bought a house in Florida based on a bonus you got from Connor.” She turned to address the workers, who were leaning forward awkwardly, straining to hear what was being said over the loud rain that had begun drumming on the large office windows. “Anyone else here get a bonus?” People shook their heads, their attention drifting to James. “Funny, because according to Accounting, neither did Mr. Culver.”
Whispers riffled through the room and James shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know what you are trying to prove, Miss Summer, but you are not welcome here. You are bad for morale.”
“And you’re bad for CME’s bottom line. Why else would you convince Connor to purchase a sawmill? There is no profitable reason for him to buy a primary industry—especially one that has lost money for almost a decade.” She casually leaned against a nearby desk. “Well, unless, of course, you were trying to do a favor for someone in your family. Maybe an uncle who owned the failing lumberyard and was wanting to retire? Maybe promise him a secure future at Connor’s expense, through a little something called a finder’s fee? Smaller, of course, than your own kickback—sorry, bonus.”
“Are you trying to accuse me of something?” James asked, his nostrils flaring.
“It must be hard being you.” The man’s jaw clenched, and she could tell he was itching for her to explain why. “I know how hard you have been working lately. Connor has been leaving more details to you.” She glanced around at the eavesdroppers. “To everyone, really. But being the man who never gets any credit from the public as to your role in the company’s success... It must be hard to take.”
“I don’t need credit.”
“That’s good. Because I doubt you’d want to be the one named for losing Connor’s company over four hundred thousand dollars.”
“I never!” James swung his fist down as though searching for something to slam.
“The overvaluation, though? It’s by over 400 K, James. I’ve done a lot of research, and it seems very odd that someone with so much experience in the business, such as your old high school pal, Peter Stoker, woul
d make such a large error when determining the value of your uncle’s lumberyard.”
James licked his lips and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. His eyes were shifting from side to side and Maya knew she had him.
“Well, unless Peter was also doing someone a favor. Say, in exchange for a brand-new SUV for his wife? How’s she liking it, by the way? Is it nice? I hear she got a lot of upgrades.”
“That’s a coincidence! You don’t understand the complexities of purchasing another company, and are jumping to unreasonable conclusions. There are tax benefits—”
“That come nowhere near covering the loss that Connor is going to take on this.” Maya spread her arms out. “That everyone in this company is going to take.”
She saw the fear in staffers’ faces as they turned nervously to James.
“This is utterly ridiculous,” he spat.
“No!” Maya shouted, her patience gone. “You are utterly ridiculous! The fact that you would do this to the man you work for. The man who taught you everything you know. To betray him so deeply...” Her voice shook with emotion. “Don’t you get it? Don’t you get who you have become? Don’t you get what you are asking these innocent employees to be a part of?” The crowd behind her rustled nervously. “Who would hire a man who has a history of being fined for taking kickbacks when overvaluing companies? Do you know how bad this is going to look in the courts?”
A heavy hand landed on Maya’s shoulder, and James’s expression changed. She turned to face Connor, who was decked out in a suit and looking very sexy and in charge.
“Thank goodness you are here,” she said quietly. Now he could finally see what she’d been saying all along, and make it right again.
“That’ll be enough, Miss Summer,” Connor said, his voice flat, the dark lines that had been under his eyes when they’d first met seemingly tracking across again as she watched.
She smiled in relief when he gave James a stern look. Her work here was done. That corrupt man was going to be packing so fast it wouldn’t even make it onto Facebook before he was long gone.
She glanced back at Connor, ready to reap her reward, but his shadowed jaw was set, his cheeks flushed, and he was staring at her in a way that made her hesitate. It was almost as though he didn’t think James was in the wrong. That maybe she was.
“Please come with me,” he said.
James gloated, crossing his arms and leaning back on his heels, as though he was a bouncer and she was about to be bounced.
How could Connor be so blind?
Maya pulled her shoulder out from under Connor’s grasp as two security guards rounded the corner.
Em stepped to Connor’s side, wringing her hands. “Mr. MacKenzie?” she squeaked.
“I’ve heard enough, Em,” he told her.
She nodded and stepped back as he addressed the security guards. “I’ll see that Miss Summer is seen out of the building.” He placed a hand on Maya’s lower back. Over his shoulder he said, “James, carry on taking care of things for me, please.”
The man grinned smugly. “Like it was my own company, Connor.”
“Excellent. That’s exactly what I need to hear.”
Maya shook off Connor’s hand. “I will let myself out.” As she headed toward the elevator, she addressed the room. “I know I’m not the only one who sees that James is about to lose this company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Why are you too chicken to say anything?”
Gazes flicked away as she tried to make eye contact with people as she passed.
“That’ll be enough,” Connor said quietly. He began moving them faster, his palm once again an insistent force on her back.
Outside the building moments later, he trailed her onto the wet sidewalk, where she wanted to run from the humiliation and never look back. Her heart felt as though it had been stung by a thousand stingrays, and her eyes were burning with held back emotion.
As he reached for her arm, she dodged him, pulling her jacket tighter around her shaking body. If he couldn’t come to the conclusion that James had to go, then it could only mean one thing. Connor was in on it.
“Maya.”
“I held you on a pedestal you never deserved.”
“Trust me, Maya.”
“You know what? You can run your company however you want, but I thought you were someone else. Someone I wanted to emulate.”
His body rocked as if he’d been hit. His eyes were dark and tired. “Trust me…” He reached out and grasped her arm, staring at her as though he wanted to say something else. Finally, with drizzle hazing the air between them, he whispered, “Thank you.”
“For what?” she spat.
“For seeing things.”
“If you are talking about what just went on up there, you need glasses, because you don’t know what the hell you’re even talking about.”
He lowered his voice. “Maya, patience.”
“You are such a goddamn tease! I don’t know what kind of power trip you’re on, but I hate you, okay? I officially hate you. Send that out in an office memo.” She waved a hand across the sky. “This just in―Maya Summer hates Connor MacKenzie because he is a duplicitous, corrupt, jerk-faced ass.” Her chest burned with anger and betrayal. “You’re about to sign a deal that will lose you a ton of money, and you think it’s funny to tell me to have patience? You’re an asshole, Connor MacKenzie. Ass. Hole.” She blinked and turned away from a woman who had stopped to gawk at her outburst.
She turned back and whispered harshly, “I thought you had a sense of honor and I’m embarrassed to have worked for you. I will never use that worthlessly vague reference you saved on my computer. I’m not a toy you can use in your games, Connor. I am a woman, and I hate the way you’ve treated me.”
He reached out a hand, his brow arced in pain. “Maya, our time at the cottage wasn’t like that.”
“I’m talking about what went on in there!” She shoved a finger in the direction of the skyscraper. “It’s like Arlene Dickinson said, it’s not about being the best. It’s about doing your best. And you failed, Connor. Big time.”
“I’m not who you think I am.”
“That’s for damn sure.”
He gripped her shoulders, drawing her closer. “Why do you care so much, Maya?” When she didn’t answer, he gave her a slight shake. “Why, Maya? Why?”
Her bottom lip trembling, she broke free of his hold. She felt shattered. This was worse than any heartbreak she’d ever experienced. And all for a man she’d never even had. A man who’d never been truly real with her.
“You wouldn’t understand,” she whispered as she walked away.
* * *
The rain continued to drizzle outside the cottage, and Maya and her sisters sat around the fireplace, enjoying the blaze. “I can’t believe he didn’t care. That he was such a―a…” Maya downed the rest of her hot toddy.
“Whoa, girl. You’re going to end up hurling if you keep drinking that fast.” Hailey gently pried the empty cup out of her hand.
“I like my drinks to go down fast and easy. And we’re finally drinking something that doesn’t give me brain freeze.” Maya turned to Hailey, taking in her jeans and sweater. “Don’t you have a flight to catch to New York or something?”
“I booked the red-eye. Tell us more about this thing with Connor. You really think his advisor is up to something, and that he might be in on it?”
Maya nodded, her head throbbing with held back emotion. “It’s the only explanation.”
“Are you sure?” Melanie asked, hesitation in her voice. “It doesn’t quite fit right in my mind.”
“Neither does him showing her out of the building and not James,” snapped Daphne, with enough indignation it could have been her in Maya’s shoes. Daphne was usually so “let it go” that Maya briefly wondered if something else was going on with her kid sister.
Maya pushed herself deeper into the cushions of her chair, the heels of her hands against her cheeks. “I don’t know anymore
. Nothing is a snap. He was so calm, but he had this haunted look.” She reached for her cup to refill it. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Did you sort out that licensing thing?” Melanie asked.
“I meant something not me-related.”
“No luck?”
“Jamie’s girlfriend said she’d try. Everyone says they’ll try, but nobody is on my side. Nobody cares.”
“Yeah, go eat worms, would you?” Hailey snorted, tugging the filled cup away from Maya. She began singing softly, “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me…”
“I know, okay? I suck at making connections in the business world. I know, I know, I know. I’m too impatient. I want to get stuff done and people want to bond. You don’t have to say it, the universe is already saying it loud and clear.”
The sisters joined Hailey’s song, singing about eating worms because of not being liked, and Maya broke into giggles at the silliness of it all. “You guys suck.”
“Aw, Snappy, Snap, Snap,” Daphne cooed, making kissy faces as she pulled Maya close.
Maya laughed and pushed her away. “I hate you guys. I’m being serious.”
“So then?” Melanie asked. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to walk away.”
“But…” Hailey looked to her sisters for support.
“Maya, that’s not what you do,” Melanie said carefully.
“Yeah? And you guys have better ideas?”
Listen. Pause. Reflect. Connect. That was what she was supposed to be doing. Too bad that advice sucked.
“I have to get Tigger,” Daphne said, fiddling with her knit pullover as she stood. “The party she’s at ends soon.”
“Yeah, we should all go. Are you coming, Maya?”
“I’m going to stay here a few days. I need to get over this, and send out some more résumés. I may as well do it here without distractions. I might paint the screen frames, too.”
