by Lexy Timms
“I want to thank you again for meeting us today,” she said.
Theo smiled. “I’d like to thank you as well. If you don’t mind me getting personal, this opportunity means so much to me. I’ve been a fan of Simon’s work for years now.”
Simon made a non-committal sound and cast Theo a wary glance.
Heather sighed inwardly. She had her work cut out for her if she wanted to make this project a success. “Are you interested in technology?”
“I am. Back in the 1970s my father worked at many of the tech companies that are now industry giants. I’m a huge fan of that era because of my father,” Theo said. “My dad is going to be even more excited than I am when he finds out I’m working on a documentary about Simon Diesel.”
She tilted her head to study Theo. He certainly looked like a fan of the 1970s with his shaggy brown hair, huge mustache, and corduroy pants.
“Your father is Eduardo Nowak, isn’t he?” Simon suddenly asked.
Theo’s eyes widened. “Wow. Yeah. How’d you know that?”
“It’s my business to know,” Simon said tightly. “I recognized your last name. Anyway, Dover and most of today’s tech companies wouldn’t exist without your father’s inventions. It’s a shame CEOs and attention-seekers get so much credit for his hard work.”
“Geez. My father’s going to flip when he hears that you know about him,” Theo said. “He’s a big fan of yours.”
“Glad one of us has a good relationship with our father. Now that we’re all here, where would you like to conduct the meeting, Theo?” Simon asked, his tone dry.
Theo blinked, obviously surprised at Simon’s brusque manner. “Well, I thought I’d drive you guys to our production offices. That way you could meet some of the other producers and the director. I hope that’s okay.”
“That’s more than okay. We’d love to visit your offices.” Heather flashed Theo a winning smile, desperate to show the producer that she wasn’t going to be nearly as difficult to deal with as Simon. She made a mental note to remind her boss to be a bit more pleasant to the producer in the future.
“Great. Follow me.” Theo headed towards Dover’s entrance, and she quickly tapped his shoulder to get his attention.
“Simon’s a bit off today,” she said to him in a low voice. “Compliments make him uncomfortable, but I promise you he does appreciate it.”
Theo grinned. “No problem. I know all about Simon’s famous surliness with the media. I’m more than ready to deal with whatever he throws at us.”
The TV production office was about fifteen minutes away from Dover, so the drive wasn’t long. Theo ushered them into his tiny, cramped office. There was paperwork on Theo’s desk, the paper weighted down by half a dozen golden statuettes. No doubt awards he had received for his work as a producer.
“Wow,” she said as she glanced at the awards. “You’ve done really well for yourself, Theo.”
Theo motioned for them to take a seat and then focused on tidying his desk. “Most of those awards are for work I did as a cameraman. This documentary is my first shot at being a producer. That’s why I’ve decided to head up here. I’m usually based in Los Angeles, but I decided to temporarily relocate to Seattle. There’s some innovative documentary work going on in Washington right now, and I want to be a part of it.”
“Is that why you want to do this documentary? To advance your career?” Simon asked, a hint of derision in his tone.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Theo focusing on his career,” she said quickly.
“If this is about his career, how do I know this documentary is going to be in good hands?” Simon demanded. “He clearly isn’t going to care about how this affects Dover. Which is what this documentary should be about. The company. The staff. The work that we do.”
“We’re totally down to include all of that stuff, but the focus is on you, Simon,” Theo said as he sat down. “We want to capture the real you. Figure out what makes you tick. Let the world finally get the essence of the most camera-shy CEO in the world.”
“It sounds like a vanity project,” Simon muttered.
She was desperate to get Simon to see the value of this project. He didn’t have to like it, but if he was going to fight this every step of the way they were liable to not even get the film off the ground. “Think about what a documentary like this could do for the staff at Dover. The public’s trust could make our products sell more than they ever have. I emailed some of Dover’s accountants and they crunched the numbers. If the documentary does well, there’s potential for Dover to grow by five percent. That would be so important for us as a company.”
Simon sighed and didn’t respond.
Heather knew that he’d always hated the limelight. It had to be extremely uncomfortable for him to open up his life to complete strangers, especially with his father back in his life and the pressure of next week’s dinner.
Suddenly, she felt his hand on hers, followed by a gentle squeeze. Allowing herself a faint smile, she stole a glance at him.
His body was rigid in obvious discomfort but he was still trying to reach out to her, however quietly.
The subtle gesture touched her heart. Helped ease the stress she had been feeling all day with the documentary and his father hanging over them.
As his fingers laced with hers, warmth spread through her. It was completely unprofessional but Theo didn’t seem to have noticed and, frankly, she didn’t care. Their disagreements of late had worried her. Made her wonder if Simon might just push her away the way her ex-husband had. Of course, she had never seriously thought that Simon could ever be anything like Gary, but her marriage had been so contentious that part of her had grown accustomed to being disrespected. Even if her heart knew that Simon would never mistreat her like Gary had, her gut would knot up in worry. One squeeze of her hand and the apprehension in her gut was already starting to fade away.
“And it would be beneficial for our production company, too,” Theo said. “A partnership like this has the potential to be a game-changer. Your life could change because of this, Simon. You’ll go from being famous to being an icon. Like Thomas Edison. Or Alexander Graham Bell. They’re not remembered because of vanity. They’re remembered because they changed the world. The same way you have.”
Heather flashed Theo an approving look. The producer hadn’t gone with the usual type of flattery. Most members of the media acted like Simon was some kind of celebrity oddity. Theo, on the other hand, seemed to genuinely respect him. The same way she respected him.
“Thank you. That’s kind of you,” Simon finally conceded.
“Simon, did you just thank someone?” she asked.
“There’s still time for me to offend the man,” Simon warned, but he gave her a smile. “What direction do you want to take this documentary?”
“We don’t want this to be some fake, slick piece of corporate propaganda,” Theo said. “We want the real Simon Diesel. We want the kind of stuff that ended up in the newspapers all those months ago. I hope I’m not being too forward when I say that I admired the fact that you risked everything to be with Heather.”
Her cheeks heated. “We don’t want our relationship to be the focus of this.”
“Now you know how it feels.” Another smile from him. Only this one was way too smug for her liking.
“You don’t have to acknowledge anything about the current status of your relationship,” Theo said. “But the stuff that got into the papers is publicly known. It’s kind of fair game. Besides, Simon once credited you as being the reason he followed his dreams in the first place. I know he gave my dad credit earlier, but Heather, you’re the real reason Dover exists.”
Damn, he was good at flattery. Her head was already spinning even though she knew it was his job to butter her up. “So, you want to focus on Simon’s personal life?”
“We want to focus on all of Simon’s life, not just his work. The ups and downs. The drama of it all. We need that drama for
this film to work,” Theo replied. “You’re an important part of the story Heather. And so are Simon’s parents, especially his dad. If we can include Heather and your father in this documentary, Simon, we could take this film to some pretty prestigious film festivals before it even airs. Something like this has the potential to win major awards if we do this right.”
“I couldn’t care less about awards, but if you really believe this will help Dover then I’m willing to stop giving you such a hard time,” Simon finally said.
“That’s all I’m asking for,” Theo said. “A chance to prove that this is going to be a good partnership. Our first chance to test this out is at next week’s dinner.”
Simon snorted. “I don’t know how dramatic one of the board’s dull parties is going to be.”
Theo leaned forward, dropping his voice conspiratorially. “Oh, I think we’re going to see a hell of a lot of drama.”
WORK THE NEXT DAY WAS so hectic that Heather barely had time to wolf down a quick lunch. After printing out some mock production notes that Theo had sent her, she headed into Simon’s office to go over their plan of action for next week’s dinner since the documentary crew was gearing up to shoot some footage.
She took a seat and glanced over to find him typing away on his laptop. “Dover’s official social media accounts will be uploading photos of the dinner. I think we could do the same and upload some good shots onto your individual social media accounts.”
He abruptly stopped his typing. “What social media accounts?”
“You’ve got social media accounts that are tied to Dover,” she reminded him with a frown. “Simon, I’m pretty sure we went over this right after I started working with you again.”
“Uh...” Simon paused to mull things over. “You’re going to have to refresh my memory here.”
An irritated breath forced out of her lungs. It was so like him to totally forget anything that he deemed trivial. Simon might have a great memory for certain details, but only if he thought those details mattered. Social media was an effective part of any media relations campaign. Too bad Simon didn’t seem to care about that.
She threw back her shoulders, steeling herself for his usual attempts at shirking his media responsibilities. “I’ve been managing your accounts. Usually I’ve kept things pretty safe with quotes or Dover news, but this is our chance to make things more personal.”
His eyebrow shot up. “Do people actually pay attention to my social media presence?”
“Yeah, they do.”
He buried his head in his hands with a loud groan. “Don’t tell me it’s a repeat of those fawning blog posts.”
“Well... a lot of it is people sending you heart-eye emojis, anti-capitalistic rants, and people calling you a jerk for sleeping with your assistant.” Her face heated. “Or people asking if you’ve stopped seeing me so they can date me.” She grabbed her phone and went over to his desk to show him.
With her fingers scrolling through the replies on one of his accounts, she searched for some comments. Her heart froze when she skimmed through the most recent comments.
“Something wrong?” He must have noticed a change in her expression.
“This is bad.” As she scrolled even more desperately, a cold sweat slipped down her spine. Her mouth went dry as she took in each comment, each one more sickening than the last. “I-I think we need to call security.”
“Show me the phone, Heather.”
Hands shaking she did as he commanded, holding up her phone for him to see why they were going to need security.
Chapter 9
He swore under his breath. “Is this some kind of sick joke?” Simon had always avoided social media because he absolutely could not stand it, but these comments were downright chilling.
Hundreds of comments threatening Dover Inc., him and, worst of all, his father. Some of the replies were to a comment that had a grainy photo of him and his father walking out of Dover. Probably from the day his father had visited to take a company tour. Dover’s security had gotten good at handling the media, but not regular people with camera phones.
“Gonna gut your daddy like a fish. Lol.”
“Got some cell phone footage of this corporate hack heading out of Dover HQ with his dad. Who wants to bet he’s has to pay his old man just to keep him around? What a loser.”
“His father never loved him so now he’s paying him to stay. Maybe if we jumped his dad we’d get some money out of the old geezer.”
“I say we kidnap his old man and squeeze this capitalist douche for cash. Eat the rich!”
“Diesel faked that hacking. No way was that real, but they tossed Everett Eastman under the bus. Teach Diesel a lesson and rough up his dad. #justiceforeverett”
Simon’s eyes landed on a notification message and opened the private messages. Hundreds of them. Worse than anything in the public comments. Graphic, manipulated photos and footage with images of his father superimposed on to them, complete with violent imagery and horrifying death threats against his father. Each user describing in stark detail how they planned on killing his father. Looking at the images was like having a knife driven into his gut.
Refusing to take any more of it, he slammed the phone down onto his desk. “What the hell is this?”
“I don’t know. Were there more messages?” she asked in a shaky voice.
He nodded grimly. “Yes. Private messages.”
She reached her hand down to take her phone, but he placed his hand over hers, enveloping it. “Don’t read those messages, Heather.” He shut his eyes briefly and then opened them again to look at her. “Call me a male chauvinist if you like, but I don’t think a woman should be reading that kind of stuff.”
“We have to get you out of here,” she said.
“What? Why?”
“You could be in danger,” she said frantically. “Companies get threats all the time, but those comments were extremely specific. They’ve got photos of you and your dad. That’s scary.”
“Most of the private messages were about my father more than anything,” he said. “I’m far more concerned about you and Dad than I am about me.” Horrifying thoughts of his father being hurt or worse crashed through his head. They had only just reunited. His father had reached out to him and this was how he was going to be repaid for his trouble. With violence. Guilt didn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling in this moment.
She gasped. “Why would they want to hurt your dad?”
“He’s just come back in my life,” Simon said. “If anyone wants to hurt me he’s probably the best person to go after, because people know he’s family. My relationship with you is still kind of a mystery, so maybe they’re going after the person who isn’t as much of a mystery.”
“We need to get you out of here,” she repeated, turning towards the office door.
His grip on her hand tightened. Right now, she was his biggest concern. Because while most of the comments had been death threats against his father, his heart had hammered with dread at the thought of stumbling across a death threat against her. “Hang on. I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“They didn’t make any threats against me,” she insisted.
“I haven’t had a personal security detail in the entire time I’ve worked at Dover,” he explained. “I’ve always shunned it because it’s just a vain annoyance, but it will be my fault if I don’t protect you now. I’d like you to take the rest of the day off.”
“Simon, I’m your media assistant and my duties include dealing with social media,” she pointed out. “I haven’t been threatened, so let me stay here and do my job. Let me stay here and assist you. The first thing I’m going to need to do is make sure your social media accounts are secure.” She tugged at the hand that was still in his grasp, but he refused to let her go. Not until she did exactly as he told her.
“I mean it, Heather.” His eyes narrowed. “This isn’t up for discussion. I’m going to send you home with a security detail and
have some security guys monitor your house until we get to the bottom of this.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” she asked. “I understand if you protect yourself and your father, but I really don’t think these crazies are after me. I’m not that important. For all we know, these are just a bunch of trolls trying to scare us.”
“You think this is some kind of prank?” he asked.
“It could be.” She bit her lip. “Honestly, in this day and age it could be anyone. Bored trolls. Some kind of anti-capitalist group. A rival company trying to rattle us.”
“Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a prank,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow. “You’d be surprised at the amount of time some people have on their hands. Let me go, Simon.”
“Only if you swear you’ll stay at my place for the rest of the work day.” Even if she turned down this compromise he had every intention of protecting her no matter how much she resisted. Those chilling messages didn’t sound like a prank to him at all, and he wasn’t going to rest until he knew that Heather was safe.
Her nose scrunched up in confusion. “At your place? Why?”
“If you’re not going to take the rest of the day off, then you could at least work from my apartment.” He gave her a hard stare, still holding her hand. Holding on not simply because he wanted to get his point across, but because touching her made her feel more real. The warmth of her hand reminded him that, at the moment, she was okay, and he needed to remind his body of that or he’d lose control and go insane.
“Okay,” she finally relented. “We should at least talk to Dover security before we leave for the day.”
Reluctantly, he released her small hand, hating the absence of her touch. At least she had compromised. The sooner he got Heather to the safety of his apartment, the sooner this dread was likely to dissipate.
He stood up. “We’ll talk to security, come up with a plan, and then head to my apartment. Plus, we need to contact my dad to get him up to speed on this.”
