by Marie Astor
As usual, the door to Wright’s office was closed, which was a stark contrast to Peter Langman who always kept his door open. Brad smiled at Wright’s secretary who was already burrowing him with her stare. “I have a meeting with Steven,” he told her.
“Just a moment. I’ll see if he’s available,” the secretary replied tartly.
Brad smiled obligingly. He was used to the charade—every time he had a meeting with Wright the door to his office would be closed, and each time Wright’s secretary would act as though Wright was busy solving the secrets of the universe behind the closed doors.
Wright’s secretary was middle-aged and dowdy-looking, which contradicted Wright’s vanity in all the other aspects of his corporate persona. His suits were always top of the line and the furniture in his office was top-notch designer stuff that had cost Orion a fortune, so it was surprising that he didn’t opt for an equal elegance in the choice of his assistant. On second thought, however, it made complete sense. After his ill-fated night at Citron, Brad viewed every beautiful woman as a potential threat. He had to admit it was smart of Wright to choose a prudish, efficient matron rather than a sexy vixen as his assistant. That way Wright didn’t have to worry about sexual distractions, or worse, potential sabotage from some sexy siren posing as his secretary.
“You may go right in,” the secretary announced after an obligatory five minute wait. God forbid Wright should ever start a meeting on time.
Brad rapped his fingers on the door for formality’s sake, and after hearing Wright bark “Come in!” went inside. Wright’s office was huge. Previously it was a conference room, but Peter Langman had it converted to an office, not wanting to give up his own office which was on the opposite side of the floor.
Wright was busy looking at some papers on his desk. He barely looked up from his task when Brad walked in. “Hello, Brad. How’s it going?”
“Great, thank you,” Brad replied in his upbeat corporate voice.
“Excuse the mess on my desk,” Wright said brusquely. “I’ve been going through the quarterly reports and I’m a paper kind of guy. Electronic copies don’t cut it for me.”
That’s because you’re a dinosaur, Brad thought. Wright was in his early fifties, which was ancient in Brad’s book. It was obvious that Wright did everything he could to look younger. His hair, which Brad suspected was dyed, was cut in a stylish haircut. His body was trim and fit thanks to daily workouts with a personal trainer—a detail Brad had found out by accidentally overhearing Wright’s secretary schedule Wright’s appointments with his trainer. His clothes were always immaculate, his posture was perfectly erect. But none of these things concealed the fact that Wright was over fifty and would soon be an old man while Brad was in his prime.
Brad began to give Wright his update, closely following the agenda he’d emailed Wright earlier. The entire time Brad spoke Wright barely looked up from his desk, his fingers busy reshuffling stacks of papers on his desk. This was nothing new—Wright always acted this way during his one-on-ones with Brad. At first it had irritated Brad, but now he refused to let it bother him. He was certain it was just another one of Wright’s attempts to get under his skin, and he wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. He continued to speak as though nothing was wrong. Just as he finished his update, Wright looked up from his desk.
“Right. Thank you. Your update addresses some of the concerns that I had, but there are still gaps,” Wright said, his hands reaching for yet another pile of papers.
Brad waited politely for Wright to continue, resisting the urge to strangle the arrogant bastard right there on the spot. It was tempting to think about tightening Wright’s designer tie around the collar of his custom-made shirt until the bugger’s face turned purple. Patience, Brad thought to himself, patience.
“I’m worried that the new contracts with China and Hong Kong will overstretch us,” Wright said.
Brad nearly choked. He had worked his tail off to lay the groundwork for these contracts and Langman had personally thanked him for it. Now Wright, who’d only been with the company for a handful of weeks, was questioning the whole thing? “With all due respect, sir, becoming a major gas supplier to China and surrounding areas has been Peter Langman’s vision for a long time.”
Wright nodded. “There is a big difference between a vision and a reality. Now Peter himself is wondering if these commitments weren’t a bit precipitous. In order for Orion to deliver on these obligations, its facilities would have to be stretched to the max.”
“Orion’s facilities are perfectly capable of delivering on these obligations. Before Orion made these commitments, I personally oversaw a study of Orion’s operating capabilities. I’ll send you a copy of the report after the meeting.”
“I’m familiar with the report.” Wright held up a stack of papers and Brad recognized the heading on the title page. The report had been confidential, intended only for Peter Langman’s eyes, so the old man must’ve given a copy to Wright. It figured. “But I’m not convinced by it,” Wright continued. “I would like to have another study conducted, this time by an independent party—”
“With all due respect, sir, we had one of the top consulting firms certify the report.” Brad interrupted his new boss for the first time.
“Yes, Donovan and Kroft. They are good, but they are not the best. I would like McKeenly to conduct a thorough review of our facilities and capacity. I also think the plant needs maintenance to be performed, so I’m going to speak to McKeenly about that as well.”
“Maintenance? We had maintenance performed last year, and Donovan and Kroft confirmed that Orion’s facilities are in top shape.”
Wright’s voice turned steely. “I thought I was clear when I said that I would like the study to be redone.”
Brad swallowed his pride and nodded. Arguing with Wright would only aggravate him further. Everyone in the industry knew that Donovan & Kroft was the go-to name for energy companies such as Orion. McKeenly, on the other hand, was a white-shoe powerhouse. They had started out as a financial consulting company and now had their fingers in as many pies as they could, but that didn’t make them any more competent than Donovan & Kroft. It was obvious that Wright was dead set on his decision and Brad wasn’t going to waste his time and try to convince him otherwise. With any luck, Wright was going to dig his own grave.
“That’ll be all for today,” Wright said curtly.
With a courteous smile, Brad took his leave. He had to stay calm. He had too much at stake to lose his temper.
Chapter 8
“I thought our first day went well.” Delilah threw her purse on the floor the moment she walked through the door of their house.
“It was okay,” Ally conceded, not wanting to get into an argument. She ran out of fingers on both of her hands counting the number of times they had almost blown their cover. The fact that Delilah had been responsible for most of those instances only added to her irritation. Somehow they had made it through the day, and right now all she wanted was a hot bath and a relaxing evening in front of a TV. She would flip on some mindless show and strategize for tomorrow. Ally hung up her jacket, kicked off her shoes, and loosened the collar of her blouse. Being undercover all day long was exhausting.
“So, what are you going to wear tonight?” Delilah called over her shoulder as she made her way to the bedroom.
“Tonight? Why?” Ally followed her friend into the bedroom.
Delilah was busy rummaging through the closet. “Isn’t it wonderful that we’re going to meet our co-workers? We need a night out on the town.”
“What are you talking about?”
Delilah stopped fiddling with hangers and stared back at Ally. “Don’t you remember? Mark invited us for drinks. It’ll be fun. Oh, I think this’ll be perfect on you.” Delilah held up a pair of cut-off denim shorts and a tie-front blouse. “Sweet and sexy.”
“The only outfit I’m going to wear tonight is my bathrobe. I’m dead tired and I’m not going anywhe
re.”
“Oh, come on! It’ll be fun. You’ll get a second wind once you get a drink inside you.”
“No, I won’t. We’ve made enough mistakes today to put the entire operation in jeopardy. I’m not going out there again until we both have our covers memorized, and the same goes for you.” Ally crossed her arms on her chest. If anything, she was being generous—she had her cover down pat. Delilah was the one who needed to study.
“Stop being such a control freak. We made it through, didn’t we?”
“Maybe I wouldn’t be such a control freak if you’d taken the trouble to memorize our aliases.”
Delilah blushed. “It was a momentary slip of the tongue.”
“Yeah, right. I’m Delilah—oh, no, wait, it’s Katherine after all,” Ally mimicked Delilah’s voice. “Good thing I stepped in.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t like my alias. How come you get to be Beatrice?”
“The agency assigns all the aliases, you know that. And while you’re on the subject why on earth did you call me Betty? It said in our instructions that the short name for Beatrice is Trix, but then you never bother to read the instructions.”
“I read the instructions,” Delilah snapped. “You can’t do everything by the book. It just slipped out okay? Anyway, Betty isn’t so bad. It’s way better then Katherine McGee. I’d love to know how they came up with that one. It sounds like a prude.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure you’ll think of ways to spice it up.”
Delilah narrowed her eyes. “That was uncalled for.”
Ally sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I’m just nervous, that’s all. This assignment is a big deal and I don’t want to blow it. Marion had made it clear that the only reason she gave us the job is that we look young enough to pass as interns. Otherwise, they would’ve sent in more experienced agents. I want to prove her wrong. I want to show her that we can solve this case.”
“I know. I was in the meeting with you. I heard her say it, and I want to prove her wrong too. But how are you going to do that by sitting cooped up in here? We should be out, mingling and gathering clues. Tonight is the perfect opportunity. We’d already promised Mark we’d be there. It’d be rude not to show up.”
“You promised him you’d be there. I didn’t promise him anything.”
“I said we’d both be there, or don’t you remember? Come on, we don’t have to go for long. Just for a couple of drinks. You know what they say, loose lips sink ships. Who knows what kind of dirt we could dig up?”
“Yeah, well, the saying goes both ways. Just watch your drink.”
Delilah frowned in indignation. “When have you ever seen me drunk? I’ll have you know that I can drink most men under the table.”
“You’ve got a point there.” Ally had made the mistake of drinking with Delilah on several occasions and both times she had passed out with Delilah tucking her in bed. Of course the following morning they’d both been in very rough shape, but Delilah certainly had a far greater stamina.
“I think I just found the perfect outfit!” Delilah held up a flared miniskirt and a peasant blouse. “And I’m going to pair it with these boots,” she added, holding up a pair of cowboy boots with her other hand.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit country?”
“Isn’t that where we are? In the country?”
“I don’t think Newport, Oregon classifies as country though.”
“You know what I mean, it’s a small town. Anyway, guys love cowboy boots on girls. They think it’s the sexiest thing since sliced bread.” The way Delilah was talking one would think she was from Texas, but she was born and bred in New Jersey.
“I guess if you consider sliced bread to be sexy,” Ally quipped. Delilah was determined to drag her out tonight and Ally couldn’t help being irked. She just wanted to spend a quiet night at home, regrouping and getting her thoughts organized.
“Hey, what is with you tonight? If you plan on being this cranky, don’t bother coming. I’m going without you.”
“I’m sorry. Like I said, I’m nervous. And I miss Jake.”
“Yeah, I understand. I wish I had a man like Jake pining away for me, miles away.”
“What are you talking about? You can have your pick of guys. Everywhere we go they practically fall all over you.” It was true. The minute men saw Delilah’s mile-long legs and bouncing breasts they went gaga. Her red mane and full, wide mouth finished them off completely. Even today, Ally couldn’t help noticing how Weiss kept ogling her friend during the entire orientation. The man had been so mesmerized by the sight of Delilah’s cleavage, which even the strictest of business suits failed to obscure, that a couple of times he almost lost his train of thought.
Delilah waved her hand in dismissal. “Sure, they’re all ready to line up to sleep with me, but it’s nothing serious. You and Jake have something real. I could tell from the first time I saw you two look at each other. There’s this spark between you two, like you only have eyes for each other. That’s what I want. I want a guy to care for me the same way Jake cares for you.”
Ally blew out a breath. “You just made me miss him a hundred times more.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s not your fault. I knew it was going to be tough to be away from him, but it’s turning out to be even harder than I thought. The worst part is that I couldn’t even tell him where I was going. I can’t call him or email him. Our job is not the most conducive to romantic relationships. Sometimes I think it’d be easier not to get involved in our line of work.”
“You don’t mean that. Would you seriously give up Jake for this job? I’d quit in a second if I had what you guys have if there was even the smallest risk of losing it.”
Ally nodded. “I never thought of it like that. Or, to be honest, I don’t want to think about it. The agency took a chance on me when no one else would. I had nothing and my whole life had been turned upside down. Thanks to this job I’ve been able to clear my father’s name and save his legacy. I’ll never forget that. I guess now I feel that I owe it to the agency. They’ve invested so much in me. The least I can do is do the best job I possibly can. And if in the process of doing that I can stop some scumbag from plotting some crazy scheme the way Platt ruined my father, that’ll just be an icing on the cake.”
“I think you’ve put icing on lots of cakes already. You have the largest number of cases solved out of all agents from our year. My hat goes off to you, girl.”
Ally waved her friend away. “Most of them were small potatoes. I’ve got a hunch that this could be a really big case, though. I just wish we were higher up the food chain at Orion. How are we supposed to get any kind of important information as interns? They’ll probably have us making copies all day long. I’m not one to question Marion’s judgment, but I can’t help wondering what she was thinking.”
“She stuck us in here because that was the only way in available at the moment. I’m sure if things get more serious the agency will figure out a cover for more senior agents. That’s why we need to make the most from the resources that we have. We’re both young and hot. And we make men drool. So let’s get out there and get the scoop from the best source a girl can have—sex-crazed men.”
“I think you mean you make men drool. I hardly think I rank in the same category.”
“You’re just fishing for compliments tonight, aren’t you? Well, you won’t get any more out of me. All you need to do is look in the mirror.” Delilah grabbed Ally by the shoulders and turned her to face the closet door mirror. “Blue eyes, perfect skin, long, dark hair. What more do you want? And don’t forget about that perfect nose of yours and those pouty lips that make men’s tongues hang out.”
Ally rolled her eyes. “I think you’re confusing me with you. I’ve never seen anyone’s tongue hang out on my account.”
“We’ve just got different styles, that’s all. I’m more into the flash’em and show’em kind of thing while you are more reserved
. But I know for a fact that there’s fire lurking beneath that cool exterior of yours,” Delilah said with a wink.
Ally giggled. “I guess so. Anyway, your legs are longer.”
“What are we, comparing assets now? I’m taller than you are. Of course my legs are longer. It wasn’t always an asset, though. I was gangly gawky until I turned sixteen and I used to get teased that I walked on stilts.”
“It must’ve really undermined your confidence.”
“It did, actually. Sometimes I think that’s why I did all the crazy stuff that I did. For a long time I saw attention from men as the only way of making me feel good about myself.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it come out like that. I was only kidding.” This time Ally felt really bad. Delilah had had a rough time. Before she joined the agency, which hadn’t been by choice—at least not at first—she used to be a high-class escort girl, and she’d actually enjoyed the lifestyle. Ally didn’t judge her friend, and the last thing she wanted was to stir up the past along with Delilah’s old insecurities. “I’m just being a real pest tonight. So I’m just going to shut up and get dressed. The least I can do is buy you a drink to make up for being such a jerk.”
“Make that drinks—an indefinite amount of drinks. But since it’s an office night out, I think your wallet is pretty safe. It’ll probably be an open bar.”
“Okay, I’m going to touch up my makeup and then we’re out of here.”
“Finally. It only took a lifetime of insults to convince you. Here, change into this.” Delilah handed her the shorts and the blouse she’d selected for Ally earlier.
“Oh, no, I don’t think so.” Ally pushed the outfit away. “That’s not appropriate for an office party.”
“Don’t tell me you plan to wear your suit.”
“What’s wrong with my suit?”
Delilah groaned. “I thought you just said you owed me and you’d do as I say.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t give you unlimited authority over what I wear.”
