Baiting Trouble (Sinful Business Book 2)

by Marie Astor

  “Come in,” Irene’s snappy voice carried through the door, bringing him back to reality.

  Jake opened the door and walked inside. “I wanted to apologize for imposing on you last night.” He placed the coffee tray on Irene’s desk. “Thank you for driving me to the office this morning.”

  She raised an eyebrow, leaning back in her chair. “An apology is not the reaction I usually get from a man after he’s spent a night in my place.”

  Jake coughed, willing himself not to blush. Being in a monogamous relationship had its disadvantages. He found himself completely tongue-tied and unable to flirt.

  “I should be the one thanking you,” Irene continued nonchalantly, reaching for a cup of coffee and a doughnut. “If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been stuck in that parking lot.”

  “It was nothing,” Jake said. “A mere courtesy between colleagues.”

  Irene bit into the doughnut, taking out a huge chunk and relishing it for a few moments. “Mmm, this is good. If your goal was to butter me up, you’ve certainly succeeded. No grudges. I should be the one apologizing for roughing you up last night.”

  Jake ignored her veiled taunt. “I shouldn’t have startled you like that. I deserved it.”

  “How’s the leg this morning?”

  “Much better, thank you.”

  “Good, I’m glad to hear it. Continue using the ointment I gave you for a few more days.”

  “Will do, doctor, thank you.”

  “Good, well, I’ve got a lot to do today, so if you don’t mind . . .”

  Jake rose from his seat. “Hint taken.”

  “I didn’t mean to be rude, but I do have a very busy day today.” She smiled. “How about dinner tomorrow night?”

  Jake balked. He knew that his job was to accept Irene’s invitation, but as ridiculous as it sounded, having dinner with this she-devil felt like cheating on Ally.

  “It wasn’t a trick question, Jake. And I promise to keep my martial arts tricks to myself.” Irene winked.

  “In that case it’s a deal,” Jake forced himself to reply. Irene Zong was being a bit too forward for his taste, but to get information out of her was, after all, his job.

  “See you tomorrow night.”

  “See you then.” Cursing under his breath, Jake closed the door behind him.

  The day had only just started and already he felt exhausted. Spending the night on Irene’s couch had given him a crick in his neck and a terrible headache to boot. He eyed his wrinkled suit with disgust. He didn’t want to risk it by having Irene drive him to his house this morning, so he’d opted to go straight to the office. He’d changed into a spare fresh shirt he kept at the office, but there was nothing he could do about his suit. Suddenly it hit him. Could it be that his groggy state was a result of something other than just a night of bad sleep? Could it be that Irene had drugged him? It wasn’t like him to fall asleep on the spot like that and he’d been stunned to wake up on Irene’s couch in the morning. He’d attributed it to his injuries from last night, but he should’ve known better. He taken far worse beatings in the past and he’d never passed out like that. All right, Jake thought, the game is on. Jake rushed back to his office and sent a message to his reconnaissance team at the agency to do a thorough background check on Irene Zong.

  ***

  As soon as Ally got home that day, she rushed to her room to hear the recordings from Irene Zong’s office. The recording could be listened to real-time as well, but she didn’t want to risk it while on Orion’s premises.

  Ally’s face grew warm as she listened the recording. Her instinct to wire Irene Zong’s office had been spot on. Well, at least it had served one of the purposes Ally had in mind. She wished she could’ve been there to see the body language—on the tape Jake and Irene sounded almost like lovers. Ally couldn’t believe that Jake had spent a night at Irene’s house. Ally had followed Jake’s car last night and stayed waiting for as long as she could after Jake and Irene went inside what Ally assumed was Irene’s residence, and a very nice residence it was too. Unlike the shabby house Ally shared with Delilah, Irene was in a brand new condo building located in the most pristine part of the town. Apparently McKeenly had a way larger budget dedicated to housing its employees than the agency did. But right now her shabby digs were the least of Ally’s woes. By the time she finished listening to the recording, her blood was boiling. She clenched her fists, grabbed her car keys and ran down the stairs. To hell with protocol. She needed to see Jake right now.

  “Hey, where’re you going?” Delilah intercepted her just as Ally was about to rush out the door. “First you take off from work without telling me and now you’re rushing off somewhere? How about keeping your partner in the loop?”

  “I can’t talk right now,” Ally panted. “It can’t wait. I’ll tell you everything later, I promise.”

  “All right.” Delilah stepped aside. “Drive carefully. And I will hold you to your promise.”

  “I know you will,” Ally muttered. She knew that Delilah wouldn’t rat her out to the agency, but even if it weren’t so, it wouldn’t have changed Ally’s mind. Right now she needed to see Jake. Marion, the agency, and Tian Wang could all go to hell.

  Ally pressed her foot on the gas pedal and whizzed out on the highway. Jake’s house was only a fifteen minute drive, but the way she was driving she reached it in five. No sooner had Ally gotten out of her car than she was banging on Jake’s door.

  The minute Jake opened the door, Ally burst inside. “How could you?” she glared at Jake.

  Without saying a word, Jake closed the door behind her. Then he turned to face her with a look of dismay on his face. “What are you doing here, Ally? I thought we agreed that seeing each other like this was too dangerous. We have to follow protocol—”

  “Protocol?” she exploded. “Don’t you talk to me about protocol! How’s banging Irene Zong protocol?”

  “What? How’d you—,” he cut himself off. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You know perfectly well what I’m talking about,” she snapped. “You’re the one who spent the night at Irene’s house.”

  Jake’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Did you spy after me, Ally? What’s going on here?”

  “I didn’t spy after you, Jake. I had something important to tell you about the case last night so I hung around the office. I was about to go and look for you when I saw you with Irene in the parking lot,” Ally broke off. “Anyway, I shouldn’t be the one explaining myself here. Why don’t you tell me what you were doing with her last night?”

  Jake shook his head. “What do you think I was doing, Ally? My job. I was doing my job, or at least trying to. God knows it’s difficult enough without you endangering our cover.”

  “Oh, please! The cover excuse is getting old. While you were canoodling with Irene, protecting your precious cover, I wired Irene’s office and—”

  “You wired Irene’s office?” Jake cut her off before Ally could finish her tirade.

  “I . . .,” Ally stammered, flustered, suddenly realizing that in her outburst she’d given herself away. “Yes,” she admitted boldly, deciding to go all in, “I did. It was about time we did something instead of just sitting around and worrying about being exposed.”

  “What do you think I was trying to do last night?”

  “Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea about that. The two of you sounded like lovers in her office this morning. And you’re going to see her again and have dinner with her! Is that why you wanted to break it off with me? So that you could go after Irene and call it doing your job?”

  “Is that what you think?” Jake’s eyes darkened. “This has gone far enough, Ally. You’re not being yourself and you’re not thinking rationally. If this is what us being together does to you, it’s best that we stop seeing each other. I should’ve never listened to you. I should’ve used my judgment, but instead I caved in like some rookie and let you talk me into it.”

  “Let me talk y
ou into it?” Ally fumed. “If you think that I’ve got no say in this, that I’m just going to walk away and let you bang Irene Zong—”

  He smirked and shook his head. “If I wanted to bang Irene Zong behind your back, as you so aptly put it, you would’ve never found out.”

  “I spotted you last night, didn’t I?”

  “Enough games, Ally. This is serious business and there’s no room for games. The stakes are too high. I won’t let you jeopardize your safety even if you don’t realize the danger you’re putting yourself in. From now on our relationship is going to be purely professional,” he said firmly.

  Jake’s words cut like a knife. Ally was about to interject, but he pressed on as though they were talking about the weather or some other benign subject.

  “Do you even realize how much damage you’ve done by wiring Irene’s office?” Jake asked, his eyes burrowing into her.

  “I didn’t do any damage. I got in the office early in the morning and no one saw me,” she replied, swallowing her hurt. So this was it? Their breaking up didn’t even deserve a pause in their conversation?

  “What about the video cameras? Did you bother turning those off? Now you’re all over the surveillance tapes.”

  Ally blanched. “I . . . I didn’t think about those.”

  “Exactly, and you know why? Because you weren’t thinking, period. You were too consumed by jealousy and other distractions,” he paused, seeing the broken expression on her face. “Ally, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way,” he began, reaching out for her, but she stepped away.

  “No, you’re right. I acted like an idiot. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.” Ally felt deflated. She’d busted into Jake’s place, guns blazing, but his stern, yet rational reaction sobered her. She’d acted like a capricious child, putting them both in danger. “Jake, I’m sorry,” she muttered sheepishly, her head hanging low. “I—”

  He gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t apologize, Ally. I’m equally to blame for all of this. Don’t worry—I’ll take care of the tapes tomorrow.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll get access to the security tapes and replace the footage so that they’ll never know the difference.”

  “You sound like you’ve done it before.”

  “I have, just under a different set of circumstances.”

  “Well then, it’s not so bad, is it?” She looked up at him, filled with hope.

  “No, it’s not so bad. But we’re still no closer to solving this sucker and time is ticking. I just got a message from Marion asking for an update and so far I’ve got nothing concrete to give her.”

  “I might have something,” Ally said quietly. “On the recording from Irene’s office I heard her talking with Weiss. He was in her office for just a few minutes, but something about their conversation caught my attention—”

  “Do you have it with you? Can we listen to it now?” Jake asked impatiently.

  “Yes.” Ally quickly pulled out the recording device from her purse and hit the play button, putting it on speaker. The crisp quality of the recording made it feel as though Irene Zong and Brad Weiss were right there in the room with them.

  Irene’s steely voice cut the air like a knife. “Thank you for the equipment maintenance reports, Brad. My team and I are going to look through these ASAP and let you know what our assessment is.”

  “You’re welcome, Irene. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can assist you with,” Weiss replied.

  “Also I wanted to let you know that we’re planning a corporate retreat for the senior management. It’s going to be a one day seminar to regroup and reassess company strengths. We’re going to have case studies for Orion’s competition, such as Tian Wang’s conglomerate and the like, to draw parallels to the areas where Orion might have potential weakness and how to address them.”

  “I see,” Weiss replied, sounding nervous. “When’s the date?”

  “It’ll be two weeks from now. I will give you the details once I have them. Attendance is mandatory.”

  “I’ll be there,” Weiss replied curtly.

  There was a sound of a closing door marking Weiss’s exit and then the recording went quiet.

  Jake whistled. “Very interesting.”

  “Turns out I’m not as inept as you think,” Ally couldn’t resist a reply.

  “No, you’re not, and I never said you were, by the way. Was there anything else for today?” he asked, making it clear that he was all business.

  Ally shook her head. “No, this is it.” She wasn’t about to mention that she’d spent the better part of the day obsessing over the recorded conversation between Irene and Jake.

  “Irene didn’t say anything to me about a corporate retreat. I’d think someone else from McKeenly should be there. Plus it would take at least a couple of weeks to plan the whole thing. I wonder what she’s up to.” Jake patted his chin pensively.

  “That is strange,” Ally conceded. “Could this information be above your rank at McKeenly?”

  “I’m a senior consultant there,” Jake bristled. “Planning a corporate retreat for Orion’s execs should be within my rank.”

  “Okay, okay, it was just a thought. No need to get so touchy.” Ally barely kept the amusement out of her voice. Even in his pretend job, Jake had to have authority. “There was something funny in Weiss’s tone—he got all nervous and jumpy, like he didn’t want to talk to her in the first place. Could ‘corporate retreat’ be a code phrase for something else?”

  “Like what? You think Irene and Weiss are up to something?”

  Ally shrugged. “I’m just speculating. But it certainly sounds like a possibility. We already know that the leak at Orion is coming somewhere from the executive ranks. Weiss could be our guy.”

  “And Irene could be our gal. For all we know she could be working for another conglomerate.”

  “Exactly. Let’s run an extended background check on them both to see if we missed anything.”

  “I already requested a background check on Irene Zong. Something about that woman gets my senses on edge,” Jake muttered.

  “She does seem suspicious,” Ally said, biting her lip to resist a sneer.

  “We’ll run another check on Weiss as well,” Jake said. “We’ll have to wire his office, keep an eye on him. I’ll have to come up with some pretext to get into his office. Might be tough being that he’s the COO, but it’s manageable.”

  “I think I know a way.”

  “Oh?” Jake raised an eyebrow.

  “Weiss’s got his eyes on Delilah, if you know what I mean.”

  Jake nodded. “I think I get the picture, but I don’t like it. It’s too dangerous.”

  “He asked her to spy on McKeenly.”

  “What? When?”

  “Yesterday. That’s what I wanted to tell you last night.”

  “I see. Sorry. What a mess.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Ally said, mortified by her earlier behavior. “Let’s just move on, okay?”

  Jake nodded. “Fine with me.”

  “Weiss asked Delilah to give him updates if she sees anything unusual. He said that he wants to keep an eye on McKeenly so that they don’t overbill the company, but I think there’s more to it. I think there’s something going on behind the scenes, something that Weiss doesn’t like, and for some reason he picked Delilah as his confidant. Men trust her. She has that effect on them. I think we should use it. What have we got to lose?”

  “These things can spiral out of control very quickly,” Jake said cautiously. “I’d like to talk to her first to make sure she’s got her head on her shoulders. I’ll talk to her tomorrow and then we’ll take it from there. I’ll notify you through the approved communication channel,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Sounds good.” Ally looked around, wondering if she should leave. Jake sounded so calm, so removed, as though a few minutes ago they hadn’t been in the middle of a heated fight
. As though there had never been anything between them at all. “I guess I should be going.”

  “Yes, I’ll let you know tomorrow what the next step is. Finally we’re getting somewhere. This is really good work, Ally. Marion will be pleased.”

  “Jake?” she said, almost choking. “Is it really over between us?”

  “Ally, please,” his voice was pleading, almost breaking, devoid of the steely resolution that filled it only a few moments ago. “I’m barely hanging on here,” he muttered. “This is for the best.”

  She nodded. “For now I’ll accept it because deep down I know that you’re right. But only for now.” She squeezed his shoulder, overwhelmed by the emotions running through her like an electric current. How she longed to wrap her arms around him, to kiss him. She could sense that if she moved even an inch closer to him, his makeshift veil of hardness would melt away and they would end up making love for hours, lost in their passion for each other. Their desire for each other was all-consuming, which was what made it so dangerous. But as Jake had said, they couldn’t lose sight of what was important, not now. “I’ll see you soon, Jake.”