Torrid Love - Caught!

by Lorie O'Clare

  “How dare you,” she hissed, and then turned and stormed out of his office.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Roxanne raced up the flight of stairs as fast as she could without tripping over the long bathrobe. She fought the sensation to break out into tears as she hurried down his hallway, through his oversized bedroom, and into the master bathroom where she had left her clothes. Dirty or not, she would put them back on and get the hell out of there.

  Emotions too strong and overwhelming flooded through her, making her want to puke. She fought to remain levelheaded as she slipped the heavy robe off her shoulders, and turned to put it on the hook where she had found it. She had a job to do, and she had every intention of doing it, but she would be damned if she would sit in Jordan’s home, practically naked, and do his dirty work while he flirted with other women on the phone.

  She picked up her wrinkled T-shirt, which smelled of grass and dirt, and gave it a hard shake.

  “What are you doing?” Jordan stopped in the doorway to the bathroom, and crossed his arms over his chest.

  A lump grew in her throat, and she turned her back to him while she slid the smelly shirt over her head.

  “I’m going home, Jordan, or to the office—anywhere but here.” Roxanne reached for her jeans, and felt Jordan’s hands grip her bare hips. “No,” she said, and grabbed her jeans as she struggled to make Jordan release her.

  The lump in her throat grew a bit when he did release her, and then stood watching her while she dressed. “I thought you said those were dirty.” He watched her slide into the jeans.

  “Well I can’t go home naked,” she spat at him, and then walked around him, through his bedroom, and then down the hallway toward the staircase.

  Roxanne heard her cell phone ringing as she reached the bottom of the stairs, and hurried back to Jordan’s study to answer it.

  Jordan was on her heels knowing there was no way in hell she would storm out of there on him. She had just jumped to some very wrong conclusions. He wouldn’t go for her throwing a jealous fit every time a woman called him. But for now, he would sit on her if he had to and make her hear what that phone call had entailed.

  “Hello,” she said, trying to push thoughts of their recent sex out of her head.

  “Is this Roxanne Isley?” a man spoke at the other end.

  “Yes, who is this?”

  “My name is Mark Dunne. Aaron Tipley asked me to call you. He said you might be interested in some computer assistance.”

  Roxanne reached for the chair she had been in minutes before and pulled her pad from Jordan’s desk.

  “Yes, when is the soonest you can meet?” she asked. “We have an emergency.”

  “That’s what Aaron told me. And he said something about payment?” The young man sounded eager to help, and be paid for his assistance.

  Roxanne negotiated with him until they agreed on the terms for his service. “Is there any way you could meet with me this evening?”

  Excitement almost covered up the pain that had lodged in her heart when Mark said that he would meet her at her house in an hour. That would give her time to get home and put some clean clothes on.

  “I’m going with you.” Jordan didn’t like the upset look she gave him. “You didn’t hear what you thought you heard just now on the phone.”

  Roxanne straightened, her expression going blank, although she couldn’t hide the emotion that swirled in her eyes. “Apparently I don’t have a right to say whether you talk to other women or not.”

  Jordan took her arm once she’d lifted her briefcase. “Know this now, Roxanne. There are no other women, nor will there be.”

  She nodded, not sure what to believe, and headed toward her car.

  * * * * *

  Mark Dunne proved to be invaluable, and Roxanne really felt they might be able to narrow in on their thief soon with his help.

  “The most obvious pattern here is that your thief uses library computers every time they access your accounts.” Mark offered the list of locations to Jordan.

  “I’d like to hire you to assist me until this matter is settled,” Jordan spoke while writing out a check several hours later. He handed the check to Mark. “I also need your word not to discuss any of this with anyone.”

  Mark simply stared at the check in his hand. “Holy shit. For this amount of money, I’ll do whatever you want.”

  Jordan nodded, knowing he’d just bought the young man and not regretting it for a minute.

  “First thing in the morning, I’ll work up a new program that should make it impossible for anyone to access your clients’ information. There will be all new passwords,” Mark said, and then looked up sheepishly. “Of course, I won’t put it into motion until you approve.”

  Jordan shook the man’s hand and then walked him to Roxanne’s door. She shook his hand as well and then stood behind him after Mark left.

  “You’re going home too, Jordan,” she said, making her tone firm. She was beyond exhausted and not in the mood to fight with him.

  Relief and disappointment swarmed through her at the same time when he didn’t argue. She could ponder why he didn’t insist that they sleep together, or worry that he’d left to go spend time with someone else. But she was too tired. Once he was gone, she simply turned off the lights in her house and then went to bed.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next day proved quiet at work even though she’d been out the day before. Little was going on, like the calm before the storm. But it gave her time to focus on her usual tasks, making sure all files were in order.

  Standing and stretching, she left Jordan’s office and walked down the hall to the small kitchen where a variety of snacks were kept. She’d overdosed on coffee lately and craved something a bit more nourishing. Grabbing a bottled water out of the small refrigerator, she noticed a basket of fresh fruit on the counter and helped herself to an apple.

  “I must admit that this kitchen is a lot cleaner now,” Dorothy said to her, as she closed the small refrigerator.

  Roxanne looked around, not remembering it ever being dirty.

  “Yes, it does look nice in here,” she said, and smiled at the receptionist.

  Dorothy still had her mouthpiece that she used to answer the phones attached to her head, and the cord dangled in front of her chest.

  “My sister will be impressed that Sonya manages to do a decent job cleaning.” Dorothy chuckled and turned her back to Roxanne as she began slicing an apple on the counter.

  Roxanne remembered authorizing one of Dorothy’s relatives to do the cleaning. She unscrewed her water bottle and took a long sip. “Your niece, was it?”

  Dorothy looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Yes, Sonya. It’s a good summer job for her cleaning this place.” Dorothy chuckled. “Keeps her out of trouble.”

  “I’d forgotten that we agreed to let her clean the office.” Roxanne took a minute to survey the kitchen and decided that it did look clean. “Well you can let her know that she is doing a good job.”

  “I’ll do that.” Dorothy patted Roxanne’s arm as she passed her with her plate of sliced apples.

  Roxanne walked back to Jordan’s office, noting Ralph Layette’s closed office door and feeling a bit betrayed and left out. Joe Dixon and Jordan were in the office with Ralph and that they had been in a closed-door meeting most of the afternoon. She hadn’t been asked to join them and she didn’t know what they were discussing. It irked her to be left out of matters and the urge to push open the door without knocking and demand to know what was going on made her pause before she convinced herself it wouldn’t be a good move.

  Jordan told her he needed her to remain at work while he was in the meeting. “Hold down the fort for me,” he had said, and she’d hated the way he had smiled at her. He really looked like he cared about her. She could see how preoccupied he was with solving these crimes. And rightly so. They were driving her nuts with each passing day. It was just real lousy timing that she’d happened to ente
r into a full-blown affair with her boss at the same time all of this scandal had occurred.

  They never had an opportunity to discuss the phone call he had received from Elaine, whoever she was, while Roxanne had been at his house. Not that Roxanne was sure she wanted to know anything about Elaine. The mere idea of the woman’s existence had Roxanne steaming with jealousy. She recognized the ugly emotion, and hated that she experienced it.

  Roxanne put her water on her desk and then turned to acknowledge Pedro when he appeared in the doorway.

  “Got a minute, boss?”

  “Since when am I your boss?” Roxanne laughed, and slumped into her chair, wishing it was five so she could go home and take a nap.

  Pedro Romero looked over his shoulder, as if to ensure that they were alone, and then grinned as he said, “You know as well as I do that Mr. Hall couldn’t run this place without you.”

  Roxanne rolled her eyes, and Pedro winked at her. “What do you need, Pedro?”

  “You’ve got a Sonya Wisdom, who has been on payroll for six weeks now.”

  “Yes. I was just talking to Dorothy about her. Is there a problem?”

  “I’m only mentioning it because she hasn’t cashed any of her checks yet.” Pedro held out a balance sheet, which showed the hours Sonya had worked, and her rate of pay being eight dollars an hour.

  Roxanne noted Sonya worked two hours a night, and often the hours were logged around the midnight hour.

  “Why don’t you check with Dorothy, and we’ll make sure Sonya gets her checks cashed.”

  “Good enough,” Pedro said, and left Roxanne alone with her bottle of water, and the slow-moving clock on the wall.

  She wondered why Sonya would work such late hours, doing a job that couldn’t be that enjoyable, and then not bother to cash her paychecks.

  * * * * *

  Roxanne woke later that evening with Matisse sleeping on her back, her face pressed into the cushion of her couch, and her cell phone ringing on her coffee table. Matisse protested when she pushed herself up to a sitting position, and reached for her phone.

  “Hello,” Roxanne said, and stood to stretch before padding toward the bathroom.

  “Roxanne, this is Mark Dunne,” the man on the other end said. “I’ve compiled some stats for you, do you have a minute?”

  “What do you mean by stats?” After the bathroom, Roxanne headed toward her bedroom, and flipped on her light, then walked over to close her blinds. She couldn’t believe it was after nine. She had fallen asleep shortly after getting home from work, and if anyone had called before now, this was the first time she had heard the phone ring.

  “I’ve gathered all the information I could find on our thief, and looked for all the similarities. We already knew that she always used a library, so I thought I would see if I could find any other patterns.”

  “Good idea.” She sat down on her bed and began stroking Matisse, who climbed onto her lap and began purring. “Did you find any other patterns?”

  “Well, we know she started accessing the accounts a little less than two months ago,” Mark began, “and she uses libraries. It also appears that she has only accessed accounts that you have had with your clients for only a few months.”

  “That isn’t true,” Roxanne said, waking up as she listened. “One of our largest clients has had several of his accounts accessed, and money taken.”

  “You would be referring to Roger Uphouse,” Mark said, and Roxanne listened as she heard papers being shuffled. “I said she has accessed new accounts, not new clients.”

  “Interesting.” Roxanne wondered what that might possibly mean. “You find anything else?”

  “Nothing that seems to stand out,” Mark told her. “She has been to ten libraries that we know of, has done the dirty deed at only libraries, and she never uses the same library twice.”

  “I’m sure Jordan has his investigator contacting each library,” Roxanne said, thinking out loud.

  “You would think so,” Mark said.

  “Have you talked to him about all of this?” Roxanne thought again about the new accounts, and wondered what connection might be there.

  “Yes. He told me he was in a meeting, and to call and give you the information,” Mark told her.

  Roxanne wondered what meeting he might be in this late at night. Possibly he still brainstormed with Layette and Dixon. But what if he was with Elaine? Her stomach twisted into an unpleasant knot, and she tried to keep her thoughts on the conversation. Never had she realized that she could get so damned jealous.

  “Well, I don’t have a clue what any of it means at this point,” she confessed.

  Mark promised to keep in touch and then said goodbye. Roxanne thought about their conversation a minute longer, and then her thoughts strayed back to Jordan. If he was still in his closed-door meeting with Layette and Dixon, then they must be making some headway. Roxanne didn’t like feeling left out when she felt she had as much vested in Hall Enterprises as Layette, and as for Dixon, well, she wouldn’t allow ill thoughts to kindle.

  On an impulse, Roxanne decided she would join them.

  Hurrying back into the bathroom, she stripped. “I know Jordan won’t turn me away,” she told Matisse, who brushed her back against the doorway. She hopped into the shower before she lost her nerve to head to the office.

  And if he wasn’t at the office, then maybe a drive past his house, just to ensure there weren’t any other cars parked there. She had no idea what she would do if there were.

  You’d walk into his house and punch any bimbo who might be with him right in the nose.

  * * * * *

  Roxanne used her master key to unlock the building, and then headed across the lobby to the elevators. Since the central alarm system was off, someone still worked somewhere on one of the floors. She rode the elevator up the many floors of the office building and then stepped out when the doors slid open and walked over to the glass doors that had the words “Hall Enterprises” painted on them. The doors were locked, but that didn’t surprise her, any more than the light trickling down the hallway from Jordan’s office. It would make sense that the men would have moved to the larger office at the end of the workday.

  The office had a clean smell as she let the glass doors swing shut behind her. She glanced toward the secretarial pool, and noticed the bottom drawer open to the first filing cabinet in the row against the wall. She took a step toward it, and then recognized cleaning supplies filling the drawer.

  “That’s right,” she mumbled to herself, remembering that Dorothy’s niece cleaned the place in the evening. Roxanne left the drawer open, and wandered down the hall toward Jordan’s office. None of the other offices had their lights on, and Roxanne wondered where the cleaning girl was at the moment. It dawned on her too that she didn’t hear any voices. What were Jordan and the rest of them doing?

  “Hello.” Roxanne didn’t know what else to say, as she walked into Jordan’s office and found a teenage girl sitting at her desk, using her computer.

  “Oh shit!” The teenage girl jumped up and away from Roxanne’s computer all in one motion. “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Roxanne said, recovering after a moment from her own surprise to find a stranger at her desk, instead of the three men she expected to find in there. “What are you doing?”

  The girl moved toward the computer with lightning speed, and moved the mouse frantically, as she clicked a few times.

  “Nothing.” The girl wore a halter top with baggy workout pants that rested on protruding hipbones. Her flat tummy was tan, and a single hoop earring hung from her belly button. The girl had brown hair that stuck out underneath a bandana she had tied over her head in the contemporary fashion Roxanne had seen other teenagers wear. Her nails were short, and painted a florescent green, and she wore a shade of green eyeliner that Roxanne thought she would have looked better without. One ear had too many stud earrings lining it for Roxanne to count, and she couldn’t see the o
ther ear to tell if it was equally pierced.

  “Mr. Hall told me I could do this,” the girl muttered, and moved past Roxanne after turning off the computer.

  “Oh,” Roxanne said, and turned to follow the teenager. “Did you see Mr. Hall tonight?”

  The teenager had already reached the doors leading to the elevators, and pulled one of them open. “No, not tonight,” she said over her shoulder and then she was gone.

  Roxanne stared down the empty hallway for a minute, trying to gather her thoughts after being startled by the teenager. She walked toward the doors to lock them, since the girl hadn’t bothered to do so, and then noticed the still open bottom drawer, and walked over to close it.

  Roxanne pushed the drawer closed with her foot, and then turned to stare at the row of empty cubicles that made up the secretarial pool. She had been in this office many times at night, and almost as many times had stared in this direction in the dark. Something didn’t seem right to her at the moment though, and she couldn’t place what it was. She moved slowly down the row of desks, each separated by the cream-colored partitions offering a small amount of privacy for each employee. Nothing seemed amiss, and Roxanne chastised herself for allowing the tightening of her tummy from nerves, as she searched for something that seemed out of place.

  “You’re being silly,” she scolded, and turned toward the hallway, and then walked with a sure foot to Jordan’s office. “Now, Mr. Hall,” she said to the empty room, “where is this meeting you claim to be in?”

  Roxanne stood over her desk, staring at the familiar items on it, and allowing her thoughts to return to the time in Jordan’s study at his home. She remembered the conversation Jordan had with that woman, Elaine, while she had sat there listening. Jordan had shown no remorse at all about flirting with some other lady right after the two of them had been so intimate with each other.

  Roxanne cringed as humiliation swept through her once again. She had enjoyed the wild sex they had shared in the forest, enjoyed it very much. She liked being the prey, hunted down and then surrendering. It had been a very erotic experience, but then Jordan had made her feel cheap. He hadn’t cherished her as she wanted him to, but had moved on and within less than an hour flirted with another lady on the phone.