That cowardly bitch. Was she that afraid of losing? Of not getting something she thought was hers by sheer desire alone?
Looked like she was.
I was standing, staring at the laptop and fuming, planning to pick up the phone and call Harold Pennington myself to let him know just what was happening, when my email pinged with another incoming message. I hesitated to open it when I saw that it was from the same mystery address, but my morbid curiosity won out, and I clicked on it.
And was promptly sick in the garbage can next to my desk.
It was a video. Of the entire encounter. Our flirtatious banter. Me dropping to my knees. Stone tearing down my thong. The whole sordid affair.
Because that’s what it looked like. Not the intense and deep connection that Stone and I had been building over the last two months. No, this looked like a stereotypical office tryst, with the gold-digging tramp trying to work her way up the corporate ladder one blow job at a time.
The person who sent this was right; my career would never recover from something like this. I would be labeled a slut and ruined for life. Scarlet fucking letter style.
There was no way I could let that happen. Sure, Stone and I had something, something that I had decided was worth pursuing. But what if it didn’t work out? What if our relationship fizzled out and I had to go back to New York? I couldn’t do that if I was branded a tramp.
Either no one would hire me, or they would, but they would expect me to behave like these photos insinuated I did.
Stone would survive any fall out. Men always did.
They seemed to come out of these type of situations with both their reputation and their dignity firmly intact.
Sad but true.
No, I had no choice. I had to take the option that protected me, even if I destroyed my heart to do it.
It was the only way forward.
I couldn’t stop the tears as I opened a new email, composing a hastily worded resignation letter and hitting send before I could think better of it. Deleting the two emails that had just imploded my entire life, I slammed the lid of the laptop down. Pushing away from the computer like it had burned me, because it sort of had, I gathered anything personal I had in the office and headed for the elevator. I had to get to the house and get packed before Stone showed up. If he caught me, either here or there, there would be no way to hide what was happening. I couldn’t let him get involved. He was just beginning to re-establish a relationship with his family. If he asked his father to choose, Constance or me, he’d likely be devastated when I lost, ruining the connection he was forging with Harold all over again. I couldn’t put him in that position, not for me.
As I entered the lobby, I could see Moira coming back from her own lunch. One look at my tear stained face and she was headed my way.
“Penelope, what happened?” she said, her eyes showing her genuine concern as she reached for me. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” I said, trying my best to control the waver in my voice. “I will be. If I could ask you, Moira, to please book me the earliest flight out to New York. I will be leaving immediately.”
“Leaving? But I thought…” She didn’t finish, but I could see the confusion in her face. Yeah, I know what she thought.
“I’m sorry, Moira. I have to go. Please, just book me the flight. You won’t be able to reach me. I left my company phone on the desk upstairs.” I moved past her, dislodging her hands as I made for the exit. “Thank you. Really, Moira. Thank you for everything.” She just stared at me in open-mouthed shock as I left.
I was in a cab and back at the house before I realized it, my brain feeling like fog as I dashed inside, gathering everything I had brought with me and stuffing it into my ratty old suitcase as fast as I could. I barely looked around, not wanting to see the places in the house that held some of the best memories of my life.
I couldn’t bear it.
I managed to keep that focus, gritting my teeth and just moving, until I was on the plane, my first-class seat not expected, but very much appreciated.
As soon as we were in the air, I curled up in the extra wide chair and sobbed, watching the city I had come to love fade behind me, and Stone Pennington with it, leaving my heart as barren as the desert sands below me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stone
I drove for hours, meandering around outside the city and tearing down dirt roads, leaving red clouds of dust in my wake. I was too wound up to go to the office, afraid of what I’d say when I saw her again if I didn’t get my fucking temper under control first.
What the fuck was her problem?
This is what you get for taking a chance. I spent my whole life avoiding emotions to prevent situations exactly like this one. I watched my mom as she wallowed in her broken heart, never quite recovering from the loss of my father’s love. I swore to myself that I would never let that be me. Never let someone have that much power over me, and sure enough, the first time I dare to let someone in, she stomped all over my heart the moment I offered it to her.
Penelope Lund. Who woulda thought? Of all the girls I could have fallen for, I had to pick the prim New Yorker full of fire and sass.
To be honest, that’s what drew me to her in the first place. The fact that she was one of the few people who knew I was Stone Pennington, and she didn’t care. She wanted nothing from me. Not fancy gifts or jewelry like so many other women I ‘dated’, nor did she want me to use my connections to get her ahead in her career. She only wanted my time. At least I thought she had.
Now I wasn’t sure about anything.
I guess it was selfish of me to just assume that she’d pack up and move. I should have discussed options with her, letting her know she had choices, even if I knew which I wanted her to make. She wasn’t the kind of girl who wanted to be told what to do. I knew that about her and I still let my mouth dig me a hole I wasn’t sure I would be getting out of. But if there was one thing I could count on, it’s that Penelope Lund was strong. Every time I threw my attitude at her, she stepped up and threw right back.
This time would be no different, and I couldn’t wait.
With that thought in mind, I turned my truck back to Las Vegas, following the setting sun as I made my way to The Alamo.
Getting off the elevator, I went directly to Penelope’s office, only to find it empty. Her laptop was closed, but her phone was on the desk, so she must still be in the building. I wandered over to Moira’s desk, seeing her ending the phone call she was on.
She hung up the phone and jumped when she saw me, startled that I was so close to the desk. “Mr. Montgomery,” she said. I was really going to have to sort out this name thing, and probably sooner rather than later. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“Moira, I was hoping you could find me some dinner reservations for tonight. Nothing too fancy, but relatively soon, if possible. I am just going to find Miss Lund and then we’ll be heading out.”
Moira tilted her head and stared at me, confused. “Miss Lund?”
I sighed. Moira knew that we were both living at the Summerlin house, so even if she didn’t suspect the extent of our relationship, there was no reason for her to act like me taking Penelope out was a strange request.
“Yes, Moira. As soon as she returns to her desk, I’d like to leave, so if you would find us a place, that would be great,” I finished, turning to go to my office.
“But, sir,” Moira was practically shouting how, her eyes wide and, maybe a little afraid. “Miss Lund. She’s gone, sir.”
I stopped and turned, narrowing my eyes, not quite sure I’d heard her correctly. “Gone? Gone where?”
“New York, sir. I booked her flight this afternoon. She’ll have left by now.”
“She did what?” There was no way she’d have left. Even if she was that pissed at me, the Penelope that I knew, my Penelope, wouldn’t just leave town. She’d confront me. She’d sass me, tell me all the reasons I was wrong.
She wouldn’t just l
eave…would she?
Was it possible she had headed for New York and left me, the same way my father had all those years ago?
There was a strange sensation building in my stomach, churning and boiling, and emotion I didn’t have a name for, because anger was too damn tame.
Moira opened her mouth to continue, but the elevator dinged open at that moment, spilling a frantic-looking Silas on to the third floor, his eyes widening when he saw me.
“Stone! I’m glad I caught you,” he said, holding up his phone and waving the screen in my direction. “We need to talk, man.”
“Not right now, Si. I have a problem I need to handle.” I turned back to Moira, ready to demand more information, but Silas grabbed my arm, spinning me around.
“Seriously, man. We have to talk. Now.”
“Silas, I mean it. I don’t have time so whatever it is will have to-” I cut off as my own phone began to ring. I glanced at the screen, my heart jumping with hope it was going to be Penelope, even though I’d seen her phone on her desk not two minutes ago. Instead I saw Harold’s name lighting up my screen. I felt bad just sending him to voice mail these days - damn Penelope, making me feel all sorts of things lately - so I answered the call.
“Harold, listen, I can’t-”
“Stone, do you want to tell me why I received Penelope Lund’s resignation letter in my inbox this afternoon?”
Suddenly, I was paying all kinds of attention.
“She did what?”
“You heard me. She emailed in her letter of resignation this afternoon. What the hell is going on out there, Stone? I thought you had this project under control. Do I need to head out there again?”
“It’s not the project, at least, I don’t think it is.” I watched as Silas began shaking his head, gesturing again to his phone. “Listen, I have to look into this. Don’t do anything until I call you back, alright?”
“Alright, son. If you’re sure. But, call me if you need anything. I want this resolved as much as you do, I suspect.”
“Of course. I’ll call you back. Thanks, Dad.”
I had hung up the phone before it even registered to me that I’d called him dad. Silas looked at me, one eyebrow raised, but I just shook my head.
“Penelope quit her job today. She’s headed back to New York.”
“I know, man,” Silas said, turning his phone so we could both see the screen. “That’s what I need to talk to you about. My buddy out in California, Hack? The one in the Motorcycle Club? He’s been digging into the information we sent him. He’s sure there is more to these mistakes than it appeared on the surface.”
“What mistakes? Penelope’s?”
“Yeah, man. The screwed-up emails, the misinformation to the high roller clients, even the job postings that were in error. Hack thinks they are all related.” He scrolled up on his phone, pages and pages of data flying by, computer code pointing out what, to this Hack guy was probably obvious, but I couldn’t make sense of any of it. I frowned at the screen, shaking my head.
“What does all this mean? Are you saying someone was sabotaging Penelope?”
“We think so, but we have no actual proof. Just some, let’s say, less than legal investigative work done by Hack. He’d have looked deeper, but there are a few things standing in his way. First of all, he was not exactly invited to this little party, and secondly, something about him working across state lines, he needs your permission to dig deeper.”
If this could help me sort out what had gone on with Penelope today, then I was all for it. “Tell me what he needs me to do.”
A short time later, both Silas and I were sitting in front of Penelope’s laptop as Silas’s mysterious friend Hack worked on it remotely, the screen jumping from window to window as he dug around in areas of a computer only a true savant could find.
“It’s pretty obvious, once you get inside,” Hack said, his voice sounding tinny from where it came out of the speaker phone beside the laptop. “There is a pretty clear breach, where someone uploaded a Trojan to this device, and it granted them remote access. They have basically been playing around in here for weeks.”
“Can you tell what they were doing? Has the company been compromised?” If this was corporate espionage, it could bring Pennington Hotels to its knees. The legal fees to fight something like this alone would be astronomical, never mind the damage to consumer confidence if there was a data breach of personal information. Customers trusted us to guard their identities when the booked on line and gave us credit card info. If that had been compromised, we’d need to go to the press immediately.
This could be a fucking disaster.
I was saved from my negativity spiral when Hack spoke up again. “It doesn’t look like there was anything nefarious happening.” He paused, and there was the distinct sound of a deep inhalation, followed by a groan on the exhale. I looked at Silas.
“Hack,” Silas questioned. “Are you getting high right now?”
“Relax, Hedge,” Hack responded, referring to Silas by the nick name his Army buddies used. I wasn’t sure how he’d gotten it, but he didn’t use it out side his military circle. I was pretty sure that Hack and his MC buddies all used their military nicknames regularly, but I wasn’t clear on the details. “I can do this shit blindfolded. A little weed is only good for my process.”
“If we could please get back to the future of my father’s multibillion-dollar company,” I ground out, having no patience for the guys’ laid-back California attitude.
“Right,” Hack continued. “Like I was saying, it doesn’t look like they dug anywhere too deep. In fact, outside tampering with the email and social media posts, the only other thing this person accessed was… oh, shit.”
“What,” I said, my blood pressure rising with every stalled moment. The screen was still flashing, Hack’s cursor and keystrokes going faster than my eyes could even follow, swirling lines of code that made no sense to me at all. “What are we looking at?”
“I was about to tell you that the only other thing accessed was the laptops’ camera. It seemed innocuous, until I checked the email trash bin. Dudes, you’re not gonna like this at all.”
Finally, the rapid-fire motions on the laptop screen stalled as Hack brought up a single window. I recognized it as our company email server. But my heart fucking stopped when I saw what he was showing me.
Someone had been watching us, filming us. The violation I felt was instant, and my stomach revolted at the thought of some sick son of a bitch having access to private moments I shared with Penelope. If I thought I was mad before, I had never felt anger like I felt at that moment, and as I ground my molars until my jaw ached, I vowed to do what ever I had to do to find this pervert and make them pay.
“Stone,” Silas said, pulling my focus away from the photos. He better not have looked more than a glance, or we’d be having words. “Man, did you read this?”
I hadn’t even noticed the text in the email, too enraged by the photos to even consider that there was more to what I was looking at, but as I read the words now, I wanted to punch something.
“Motherfucker!” I roared, my fury a living thing inside my chest. “Can you find out who did this? I want to end them. They will rue the day they thought they could mess with my woman.”
Silas whipped his head to me, but I didn’t have it in me to address all the things that had changed recently. He hadn’t been staying at the house, our disagreement over Daphne had pushed a wedge between us, but he was here for me now, and I would make it right. But first, I had to take care of Penelope.
“The person doing the accessing is using a VPN and proxy servers all over the map. I could track it down but it would take time.”
“I don't have time. I have to fix the before these photos get released. They would ruin Penelope, and I can’t let that happen to her.” And if I ever had any hope of working things out between us, then I had to ensure that these photos never saw the light of day. She’d never forgive me if people
found out; I wouldn’t expect her to.
“Well, I’ll work on it, but in the mean time, I might be able to get something more immediate. I can tell you the exact moment the virus was uploaded to this computer. If you have security footage from that day, you could see if it was someone you knew.”
“That will do, Hack. What do you have?”
Hack provided the date and time, and Silas used his own tablet to access the security footage. We both sat there in shock as we watched my half-sister Constance enter Penelope’s office on the day her and Harold came to Las Vegas.
“That bitch!” I shouted, and Hack chuckled over the phone.
“I guess you know who you’re looking at.”
“You bet your pot-smokin’ California ass we do.” I growled. “I know enough to move forward on my end, Hack, but I’d appreciate it if you could keep looking. I want this to be air tight and as legal as possible so that I can wrap this up in every way. I don’t want Constance to wiggle her way out of trouble this time. She has gone too far.” If Constance thought she could play dirty and win, she had another thing coming. Her and her moron of a husband were about to learn that you don’t mess with Texas.
“You got it, guys. Hedge, I’ll get really dirty here and find everything I can for you. Give me three days and I’ll have it all wrapped up for you in a nice red bow.”
“Thanks, Hack. Appreciate ya, brother. Hooah!”
Hack responded in kind, and then we ended the call. Silas turned to me, his face displaying nothing as he waited for me to say something.
I took a deep breath, trying to get a handle on all that had happened since Penelope and I had lunch today. I was shocked when I found out she’d left Las Vegas. Shocked and pissed. I hadn’t taken her for a runner. But this information changed everything. She didn’t run from me. She ran to protect herself, and there was no way I could blame her for that. I wished she had come to me, so that we could face this together. But Penelope was used to taking care of herself, and I hadn’t exactly given her reason to think that I would be there for her, not after the way I had spoken to her at the restaurant, giving orders and only worrying about my own interests.
The Cowboy and the Bombshell Page 22
