Scandalizing the CEO--A Workplace Romance

by Yvonne Lindsay

  She was surprised when Keaton began to outline the investigation into the charity and her alleged involvement in it. A sour taste rose in her mouth. It seemed the grapevine had been well and truly busy.

  “The business of embezzlement at Our People, Our Homes. Is it true?” he asked.

  “What exactly are you asking? Did I steal the money? No, of course not! It is true that I let Mark use my password-protected computer—he was my boss and my boyfriend. I had no reason to believe he’d abuse my trust. It’s also true that he filtered the money through our joint bank account before immediately transferring it all out again.”

  Keaton looked squarely at her. “Were you involved in that?”

  It was as if she hadn’t even spoken. Hadn’t he listened to a word she’d just said? Tami closed her eyes, counted to three, then opened them again.

  “Only in that I let him use my computer. In itself, that was a breach of the user agreement I signed when I started at Our People, Our Homes.”

  The coffee machine hissed and spat its conclusion and Tami grabbed two mugs and began to pour the coffee. Her hands were still shaking and she hissed under her breath as a few droplets of the steaming-hot brew splattered onto her hand. Thank goodness Keaton hadn’t noticed or he’d probably see her nervousness as some kind of admission of guilt.

  “And you’re adamant that’s the extent of your involvement?”

  “Look, I don’t see that it’s any of your business, Keaton, but, yes. That is the extent of my involvement. And that’s what I told the police over four hours of questioning yesterday afternoon and six hours the day before, when they came to my house. The only thing I’m guilty of is giving Mark access to my computer.

  “We were cosignatories on the charity accounts and it never occurred to me to distrust him. I thought I loved him, so why wouldn’t I trust him? He kept talking about the future, about what we’d do together. For the first time in my life, I thought I’d found someone who loved me for myself and not for what advantage I could give them because of the family I was born into. Yes, being in a relationship together and being cosignatories was probably not wise. I should have requested to be removed from the signing authorities when things got serious between us. But it never occurred to me that he was using me. Even when I was faced with what he’d done I could barely believe it.

  “Now, looking back, I can see that he groomed me, wooed me, then manipulated me to get ahold of that money. And, in doing so, he set me up to look equally as guilty and left me as the fall guy to take the blame. Even though I knew it looked as if I was complicit in the whole thing, I took it straight to the board. I laid everything bare to them and I presented them with a solution.”

  It was a far-fetched story, but she hoped the truth rang clear in her words.

  “A solution?”

  He was dogged, she’d give him that.

  “Because I was responsible for the loss, I offered to make full restitution so we could continue to operate. I should have known it was a stretch and that I should have just allowed them to follow the correct procedure from the start when the loss was exposed. But I went to my father for help. I don’t know why I thought that anything might ever have changed between us, but at the time going to him was the only avenue I could see to make things right again. He’s a trustee of a fund left to me by my grandmother. I asked him for access to the fund to repay the money Mark had stolen. He agreed, but had conditions.”

  Keaton grunted, then went silent a while before speaking again.

  “If you didn’t take the money, why did you attempt to refund it? Why aren’t the authorities chasing this Mark guy down and making him pay it back?”

  Tami felt her throat tighten. How many times did she have to say it before he’d believe her?

  “He is under investigation, now, but he’s left the country. As to me wanting to return the money—I gave Mark the access and I ignored the safeguards set in place to prevent exactly that from happening. Me. No one else. I felt it was my responsibility.”

  “He still had to make the choice to abuse your trust. Where is he now?”

  “From what I understand, the money was traced to an offshore account, and Mark...well, the police believe he’s enjoying the tropical climate of Nauru. And, of course, there is no extradition treaty between the USA and the islands of Micronesia.” She sighed heavily. “He did his research all right. And all the time he was doing that, right under my nose, I believed him when he said he was planning a vacation for us. I guess I was so wrapped up in the idyll of being loved for myself, that I didn’t see the signs that I was being exploited. The police aren’t fully convinced that I’m not just biding my time, either, waiting to join him.”

  “Are you?”

  “No! Of course not. And to prove it I voluntarily surrendered my passport before they asked for it and I’m cooperating fully with the investigation.”

  “And this business with Everard. Exactly what did he expect from you?”

  Tears sprang into Tami’s eyes and her fingers tightened around her coffee mug. She blinked fiercely and took a long sip of the brew before answering.

  “He expected me to find out what you were working on and report back to him. The outdoors experience set his plans back a little, I think. He messaged me several times a day while we were away.”

  “And you told him what we’d discussed on our first night?”

  She shook her head vehemently. “I told him absolutely nothing about that. When we arrived back here in Seattle, I went to see him. He told me in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t see a penny of my money because I hadn’t personally given him the information he’d needed, and then he basically kicked me out of the house.” She swallowed another sip of coffee, the burn of it in her stomach reminding her that she probably should have eaten at some stage in the past twenty-four hours. But then again, the idea of putting food in her mouth had made her stomach lurch uncomfortably.

  “Look, Keaton, I don’t know what you want from me, but I never told my father anything about the Tanner project. I know that I don’t exactly look like the innocent party in any of this, but I wish you could believe me.”

  “I wish I could, too,” he said quietly.

  His words excoriated her heart and she knew, in that moment, that in his eyes she was damned no matter what she said.

  “I’d like you to leave now,” she said firmly.

  “One last thing,” Keaton said as he rose to leave. “The phone you used while we were away. Had you had that long?”

  “No, why?”

  “May I ask where you got it?”

  “My mother gave it to me when she organized my new corporate wardrobe,” Tami said. “Which reminds me, I need to donate those clothes somewhere. She said that Dad insisted I have the best technology available so I would at least look the part in my new role as your assistant.”

  Even then her father hadn’t believed in her enough to think she could do a job well.

  “Would you mind loaning the phone to me? I’d like to have our IT people look at it. I promise we’ll get it back to you.”

  “Sure. I don’t use it now, anyway. I’ll grab it for you on your way out.”

  Tami led the way down the hallway and opened the front door for him, leaving him standing in the hallway as she ducked into her bedroom and retrieved the phone from where she’d tossed it to the back of a drawer in her dresser. She handed it to Keaton and their fingers brushed, the warmth of his skin instantly permeating hers. The sensation robbed her of breath, but the moment he took the phone he severed their contact almost instantly.

  “Keaton, I’m really sorry. I wish I could go back and undo all the harm I’ve caused.”

  He looked at her, his eyes sharp and clear, before nodding abruptly.

  “We’ll courier it back to you,” he said as he moved out the front door.

  “Don
’t bother. I don’t want anything to do with a single thing from my father.”

  And in the next second he was outside and on the path heading for his car, as if he couldn’t wait to be clear of her. Tami rubbed her hand down her thigh, ridding herself of the sensation of his all-too-brief touch. And, as she watched him drive away and closed the door behind her, a shocking sense of loss billowed from deep within and drove her to her knees. She’d never felt so alone in her entire life.

  Eleven

  Keaton read the report that had come with the returned phone. That niggling suspicion of his had been confirmed. Tami’s phone not only had a remote-access function that had allowed a third party to listen in on calls and conversations, but everything she’d done, from photos she’d taken through notes she’d made on a notetaking app on the phone, had also been backed up to a cloud that was registered to an anonymous user.

  He had no doubt that if they explored further, they would discover the anonymous user was most likely a company sheltering under the umbrella of Everard Corporation. Keaton made a sound of disgust and tossed the report to his desk before getting up from his chair and striding over to the window. He heard the office door open, but was too absorbed in anger at the magnitude of what Tami had unwittingly done to bother turning around to identify his visitor.

  “Problem?” Logan’s voice came from behind him.

  “Read that,” Keaton said, half turning and gesturing angrily to the printed report on his desk.

  Logan let out a long, low whistle. “So that’s how the old bastard did it. Do you still think she was complicit?”

  Keaton’s initial reaction was to utter a sharp affirmative, but in light of the information he’d received from his mom and what Tami herself had told him, she either had to be the best actress and liar in the history of womankind, or she’d been cruelly duped. Not once, but twice. And each time by the men she should have been able to trust would love and protect her.

  “Not fully, no. She did mean to spy, but didn’t know she was being duped by her own father at the same time.”

  “So what now?”

  “What do you mean, what now? Even if it was inadvertent, she still gave Everard the information he needed.”

  “Are we still going to bring a case against her?”

  Keaton swung around to face his twin. It was still slightly disconcerting to feel as though he was looking at himself in a mirror. Aside from a chicken-pox scar above Logan’s right eyebrow, it would take someone who knew both men extremely well to be able to tell the difference between them. And, after a lifetime of believing he was an only son, and now discovering the twin he’d developed with in utero was still alive, it had been a hard road to accepting his brother into his life.

  “Y—” Keaton couldn’t say it. While he was still furious she’d come under their umbrella with every intention of spying, she hadn’t completely followed through. Was it enough that she’d been fired? Probably. “I’ll think about it.”

  Logan sat down in one of the chairs opposite Keaton’s desk and crossed one leg lazily over the other.

  “What are you doing?” Keaton asked.

  “Waiting for you to open up and admit you have feelings for that girl.”

  Keaton threw himself back into his chair and stared back at his brother. “Honor’s been talking to you, hasn’t she?”

  “Of course she has, but, honestly, even a blind man could see you’re hurting and it’s not just the loss of a contract that’s made you more prickly than kina.”

  “Kina?”

  “Sorry, I forget. You guys call ’em sea urchins, I think. You know, a squat round shell with spines about this long—” he gestured with his fingers “—and meaty flesh inside. It’s a delicacy back in New Zealand.”

  “If you say so,” Keaton answered uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure if he was comfortable about being likened to a sea creature, especially one with spines.

  “I do. So talk to me about Tami.”

  “I don’t know where to start. She arrived and somehow inveigled her way into pretty much every thought I’ve had since.”

  “Sounds like love to me.”

  “No. I’ve been in love.” He stared at the brother who was currently engaged to his own ex-fiancée.

  “Be honest. Did you feel for Honor the way Tami makes you feel?”

  “We barely know each other,” he protested.

  “Yeah, you do. In here.” Logan pointed to his chest. “Even if you’re fighting it in your head, your heart knows. Take it from me. Trust your heart.”

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Sure you do. You just need to take the leap. Metaphorically speaking, of course.” Logan got up from his chair and flung his brother a smile. “See you later at dinner at Mom’s.”

  Logan left him ruminating on his thoughts. Keaton picked up the report and read it again. Tami could have consented to all of this spyware on her phone, but if she was telling the truth, she’d been thoroughly tricked. Knowing how passionate she was for the underdog, it just seemed wrong that others could have used her this way, especially her family. He stared at the doorway his brother had just exited. Yes, there’d been a time when he’d wished Logan had never come back to the States. But, for all their banter, imagining a life without him now was impossible. Keaton knew it would destroy him if he was alienated from his family the way Tami was.

  He thought back to something Tami had said when he’d gone to visit her. For the first time in my life, I thought I’d found someone who loved me for myself. With what little he knew about her upbringing, he could imagine that when people knew she was Warren Everard’s daughter they might have formed sycophantic relationships if they thought it would gain them access to the Everard money. Even he and Kristin had faced that through school, and to a lesser degree in college. Some kids gravitated to those with privileged backgrounds for reasons other than genuine friendship. Some adults, too. Was that all Tami’s life had been? No wonder she’d been so eager to please her boyfriend.

  Keaton knew there was obviously very little love between her and her parents. Even that he found hard to comprehend. For all his own father’s faults, Douglas Richmond had loved his family—families, Keaton corrected himself—deeply, and within those families, they’d been brought up to love and respect one another, too. Despite all she’d been through, Tami had grown into a warm and compassionate woman. Someone who deserved better than to have her faith in people violated by the very ones to whom she should always be able to turn.

  So what, exactly, was this creep she’d imagined herself in love with like? Keaton wondered. What had she called him again? Mark? He pulled up the name of the charity on his computer and searched for their website, then any reference to the people running the charity. There was only one person who fit—a Mark Pennington was still listed as the director of the organization. Keaton opened a new search window and keyed in the guy’s name. There wasn’t a lot to be found about him, even through social media. Just a couple of references to college sports and some public appeal he’d headed for the Our People, Our Homes charity. It was as if he’d deliberately wiped as much personal information as he possibly could from the internet, which was no small feat.

  But there had to be a way to track him down and make him face the law for what he’d done. Keaton put a call through to their head of security—Janice May, who’d spent many years on the Seattle police force—and asked her for a meeting. After an intense hour of discussion, Keaton had a plan to move forward. Clearly Mark Pennington was a man motivated by easy money. If he could dangle a sufficiently enticing get-rich-quick scheme in front of him, it might just be enough to get Pennington to leave his tropical-island sanctuary and set foot on home soil. The minute he did that, the police would be ready to pounce. Janice had already spoken with an old colleague who’d confirmed there was a warrant out for Pennington’s arrest.

 
He would have loved to be the person baiting the trap for Pennington himself. But there were a couple of reasons why he couldn’t. The first was his desire to likely pulverize the guy for being such a lowdown dirty cheat. The second was that he was needed here. He couldn’t afford to take his eye off the ball here at work. Janice had suggested a private firm that would be able to assist him—all he needed to do was dream up a suitable scheme to bait the trap with enough money that would appeal to Pennington. The guy was a greedy slimeball, so Keaton didn’t think that would be too difficult.

  Careful planning was all it would take and Keaton was nothing if not careful. Two days later, his representative was on a series of flights to Nauru and the sting was in place. Now it was merely a waiting game.

  * * *

  “Why don’t you answer your phone!” Warren Everard demanded from the front porch of Tami’s house. “You’d have saved me the trouble of coming to this dump!”

  “Well, if you called my phone, I would answer it,” she said, blocking her doorway and refusing to let him in.

  Keaton had sent her an express envelope, which had included a copy of the report from the IT people at Richmond Developments. She’d been shocked to see how easily her father had manipulated her and accessed information she’d thought was private. There was no way she was letting him inside her modest home. It might not be much, but it was her sanctuary and she’d worked hard for it.

  She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and checked the screen on her old, outdated mobile, then held it up to him.

  “See, no calls, no messages.”

  “Not that piece of junk,” he sneered. “I mean the phone I gave you when you started at Richmond.”

  “Oh, that phone. That would be the one you planted spyware in so you could keep tabs on me and renege on the agreement we made?”