by Virna DePaul
But God, resisting his help, his care, his concern, was getting to be difficult.
Crunching numbers not only kept her aware of her job, but kept her mind off Branden.
Mostly.
A knock sounded at her office door and she jerked. Before she could say, “Come in” or “Go away,” Mike Gaunt stuck his head into her office.
“Hello, Ms. Michal. I know it’s Friday and you’re probably going to want to get out of here early, but do you have a few minutes?”
“Yes, of course,” she said. That wasn’t the answer she really had on the tip of her tongue, but what else could she say?
Mike stepped in, looking as nervous and uptight as always and carrying a folder in his hand. He sat down across from her and put the folder down on her desk. “Can you help me understand this?”
Cara glanced at the folder but didn’t pick it up. “What is it?”
“Look at it, please. I came across it purely by accident. Before I take it to Mr. Duke I wanted to give you an opportunity to explain.”
Cara didn’t like the sound of that. She picked up the folder and looked inside. It was one of her reports related to the sale of stock in a company located in Switzerland. She had run the report, then given it to Max. It listed out the terms and what the share cost would be in a “lit market,” a traditional exchange. Presumably, Max and his brokers had run with the information, offering the stocks to high-frequency traders who used incredibly fast technology to view the offers and to buy or sell within milliseconds. The price wasn’t listed out to the public until after the sale was complete. That was how most business at D&M was done. They were one of the biggest dark pool traders on Wall Street.
Cara was staring at the report and as she did, she could feel Mike Gaunt’s eyes on her. After a few minutes, she looked up.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Gaunt, I’m not seeing any issues with this.”
Mike made a face that made it evident he didn’t believe her. He put his hand out. “May I?”
Cara handed the report back to him.
“Who is S. M. Mahoney?” he asked.
“I have no idea.”
He held the paperwork out for her again, saying, “Look at the sender and recipient of this email.”
Cara did. It appeared the report had been forwarded—by her—to Max, Jean, and someone named S. M. Mahoney.
“I don’t know who that is, or why he or she was sent a copy of this report.”
“It’s a he. His name is Samuel Mason Mahoney and he is the CEO of Whitaker Enterprises.”
“The company that ended up purchasing this stock?”
“The very same.”
“But I don’t understand. I didn’t send this report to him.” By now bile filled the back of her throat and she swallowed hard against the acrid taste.
“It came from your email address.”
“That’s what this indicates, but I didn’t send it. I sent it to two people, the same way I do every report, and if it goes anywhere from there it’s up to them. I did not forward this. It had to be someone else who somehow accessed my account.”
Gaunt sighed and said, “I was really hoping that you would have an explanation for this. One that made sense.”
“Well, I don’t,” she said, her tone both angry and defensive. She wasn’t going to let her fear show. “Because I didn’t send that and I don’t know who did. Therefore, there is no way I could possibly explain it. Would you like me to make something up?”
“No. I’d like the truth, however. I’ll have to take this to Mr. Duke.”
“That’s fine,” Cara said. “I’d like it on the record that I’m not happy about you saying that like it’s a threat. I have every confidence that Branden—Mr. Duke—will believe me when I say I didn’t send it.”
Gaunt raised an eyebrow, which indicated loud and clear that he’d heard the rumors about Cara and Branden. In his defense, they were no longer just rumors, but it still pissed her off that he was sitting there thinking she would get special treatment. She didn’t need special treatment. She did her job to the very best of her abilities, and she hadn’t sent that report to someone other than the people she was supposed to.
“That will bode well for you, then,” Gaunt said. “And as for what’s on the record, I’m not threatening you. Mr. Duke hired me to do a certain job and that’s what’s I’m doing.”
“Good for you,” Cara said. It probably wasn’t wise to be so snippety. Gaunt seemed like the type who would hold a grudge, but he had very effectively ruined her entire day with his false accusations.
He stood and started to go, but at the door he turned around and said, “For what it’s worth, Ms. Michal, I do believe you. Unfortunately, my opinion doesn’t really count for much around here.”
Somehow she found that hard to believe. She figured anyone who worked for Branden was the best for the job, and therefore his opinions would hold a huge amount of weight. Still, Cara now felt bad for having cursed Gaunt under her breath. “Thank you,” she said as he went out and closed the door.
She picked up the phone to call Branden, then hesitated.
It was exactly what Gaunt and others would expect her to do. Exactly what she’d told herself she wouldn’t do.
Run to her boss. Her lover.
She put the phone back in its cradle. She would let Mike Gaunt do whatever he needed, and when Branden asked her about it, she would state her case. She couldn’t mix business and the pleasure Branden gave her after hours.
Cara returned to what she’d been doing before Mike interrupted her, but the numbers swam in front of her face. Something bad was going on at D&M, and somehow she’d become involved.
Less than a half hour later, there was another knock on her door. She debated not answering, even hiding under her desk, but eventually called, “Come in.”
The door opened and Gail stepped inside. “Sushi? Or Thai? We’re going out to lunch today and wanted to see if you’d take time away from your precious numbers to join us.”
Tammie appeared behind Gail, all smiles. “I vote Chinese, actually. And there’s a new mani-pedi place that has a lunchtime special. We can bring in boxes of lo mein and eat at the same time.”
Cara pursed her lips. She didn’t get out much, and with Iris out of town, she’d missed female companionship. Maybe lunch today would be a good idea—Tammie tended to talk nonstop, which could be a nice distraction.
Suddenly, Deena Raj appeared in the doorway. She was dressed in a white Chanel suit with a perfectly tailored A-line skirt and a red silk camisole just peeking out from underneath her jacket. Both the white and the red looked stunning with her olive skin and raven hair. She smelled like Chanel No. 5.
Cara stood up. “Hi, Deena,” she said, forcing a smile.
“Hello, Cara,” the woman said, and smiled pleasantly at Gail and Tammie.
“Um, lunch another time?” Gail asked, obviously nervous to have the other woman suddenly appear.
With a smile, Cara tipped her head, then gave a quick farewell wave as her two coworkers exited her office. She turned her attention back to Deena Raj.
“Please sit,” the woman said.
Cara did so, and Deena sat in the same seat Mike had occupied less than an hour ago. Actually, she didn’t sit so much as melted into it. Everything she did seemed to be done with such grace. Against Cara’s will, jealousy spiked through her spine.
“Cara?”
She suddenly realized that Deena had been talking and she hadn’t heard a word.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”
Deena raised one perfectly designed eyebrow and said, “I asked who else has the password to your D&M email account.”
“No one. This is about the report Mike showed me a while ago?”
“Yes. Since Branden’s busy, Mike brought it to me. I’m not your boss, Cara, but I am helping Branden clean house around here. This report is exactly the sort of thing we’re concerned with.”
“I can see why. I
can only tell you what I told Mike. Not only do I not know S. M. Mahoney, but I never send my reports to anyone other than Max and Jean…and now Branden. If it was forwarded from my computer, it wasn’t me who did it.”
“I understand. Unfortunately, who struck the key on the computer will be a difficult thing to prove. Mahoney bought that stock at a very low price. He sold it the following week at market value. He made over ten million dollars off the sale. This looks very much like an insider tip.”
Deena’s gaze was so direct Cara felt like it was penetrating her brain. She actually wished that it was, so that Deena could see Cara was telling the truth.
“I don’t know what to say, Deena. I promise you I had nothing to do with this, other than preparing the report and sending it to whomever I was supposed to. I can’t prove that, but if you check my other reports you’ll see that I never sent them to anyone other than Max, Jean, and then Branden after he took over.”
“We will check those. Again, it’s unfortunate that history alone won’t be enough to prove anything,” Deena said as she stood up.
Cara stood, too. “Am I in some kind of trouble?”
Deena studied her intently, as if seeing Cara for the first time. “I’m not sure. But Cara, if you have done something wrong, don’t think warming Branden’s bed will protect you. Because it won’t. And I’ll do anything to see Branden protected.”
Branden had been in a meeting when the calls came in from Mike and Deena. Now, standing in the hallway, he checked his messages.
The one from Mike said, “Mr. Duke, I’ve found something interesting that involves Miss Michal. I’d like to speak to you about it as soon as you have a free moment.”
The next one from Deena said, “Call me. Your girlfriend has found herself in the middle of a mess.”
Branden looked at the time: eleven-thirty. He had another meeting in an hour. He called and rescheduled, then instead of calling Mike or Deena, he held the phone in the palm of his hand, staring at it as if the weight was unfamiliar. Uncomfortable.
If he was being completely practical, he shouldn’t call Cara first. She wasn’t his girlfriend, as his sister had said. He hadn’t had one of those since college.
But it didn’t matter. With Cara, practicality was the least of his concerns. She might not be his girlfriend, but she was his.
And now Cara was supposedly in a “mess” at D&M, but hadn’t called him to fix things for her. Why?
He punched the autodial button assigned to her, and when she answered, he bluntly said, “Join me for lunch.”
A brief silence met his statement, then Cara quietly asked, “Have you spoken to Mike or Deena yet? Because that might affect whether you really want to have lunch with me.”
“I was in a meeting. Got messages from them both. I know they’re concerned with something having to do with work. I’d rather hear the news directly from you, but you were the only person I didn’t have a call from. Is everything all right?”
“No.”
Frustration pitched over him. Despite the closeness they’d shared recently, she was determined not to ask for help. Not to need anything. Not to need him. He resisted stating the cliché “no man is an island” and instead blew out a slow breath, then said, “Yet you didn’t call me.”
“I don’t want to run to the principal’s office with my every little problem,” she said. Branden could tell by the sound of her voice that she didn’t think whatever was going on as a “little problem.”
“Fine. You’re being called to his office and he’ll force you to talk.”
Cara laughed and said, “That actually sounds like fun. Kinky, but fun.”
Branden smiled. This woman either had him completely fooled or had absolutely nothing to hide.
And he figured it was the latter.
“How about Inatesso in about an hour?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”
“Great. I hate to eat pizza alone.”
Chapter 17
“So it seems pizza was a good idea,” Branden said.
Cara felt her face go hot. She looked down at the warm slice in her hand. They had been talking about the email Mike found and she hadn’t even noticed that she’d just picked up her third piece. She put it down and glanced around Inatesso, wondering if the other people enjoying gourmet pizza had noticed her shoveling food in her face. But none of the other well-dressed men and women seemed to be paying her any attention. “It’s stress eating. Pizza’s my comfort food. That and Ben & Jerry’s.”
Branden grinned. “From what I’ve seen, a few pieces of pizza aren’t going to hurt you one bit. Go ahead and eat. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“I’m not even hungry. I really am just stressed about this email business.”
“I understand. But you know you didn’t send that email, and I know you didn’t, so case closed.”
“Not really,” she said. “Why are you so sure I’m telling the truth?”
“Because I have a gift for judging people, Cara. You work too hard to color outside the lines.”
“Well, someone sent the email and now Deena and Mike both know about it, and I don’t think either of them are going to just let it go.”
“I’ll tell them to stop. No need for them to waste their time investigating you,” he said. “They need to move on and find the real culprit.”
She frowned. “Branden, it’s not that I don’t appreciate your faith in me, but why aren’t you more concerned? Someone who now works for you sent that email to Mahoney, and that someone and Mahoney both committed a crime. In fact, more than one crime, since it was sent from my email address. And let me emphasize again—that someone almost positively works for you. I mean, I know email can be hacked, but an outsider wouldn’t be as likely to know who to hack in this company to get that specific information, right?”
When Branden nodded, she went on. “I know you want to protect me, and I do appreciate that, but you can’t just sweep it under the rug. I don’t want it to look like we are doing anything inappropriate.” Her mouth twisted. “Any more inappropriate than what we actually are doing.”
“I didn’t say I’m going to sweep it under the rug. Believe me, I take this seriously, and the person responsible will be caught. But that’s my job, not yours. Promise me that you’ll leave it alone for now.”
Cara had a sneaking feeling that there was something Branden wasn’t telling her. “I don’t know if I can do that. This is my reputation. Someone wants to shred it by suggesting I slept with the boss. That’s one thing. But framing me for a crime I didn’t commit…”
“I will find that person, Cara. I promise. You trust me in bed. Trust me in this.”
An odd feeling, something like panic, worked its way under her skin. Her father had said nearly the same words to her and her mother after he’d been indicted. Trust me—I’m not guilty. I’ll fix this. Her father’s voice echoed in her mind and she shuddered, as if shaking off the ghosts of the past, then quietly said, “I don’t know if I can. Not because you aren’t trustworthy, but because I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. And truth be told, the fact that we have been sleeping together, well…”
“What?” Branden frowned.
The waiter interrupted them then, asking Branden if he wanted lunch added to his account. Cara took the time to check her phone for emails or texts—nothing. She knew Iris was busy job hunting, but God, Cara could use her advice right about now.
Because she had to break things off with Branden. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t keep hiding behind him. Couldn’t allow herself to accept his protection, especially from whatever was coming her way.
But as the thoughts entered her mind, tension entered her body. And a sense of longing, of missing, swept over her.
They exited the restaurant, and instead of heading to the busy street to walk back to D&M, Branden cupped her elbow in his hand and guided her to the alley out back.
“What are we doing?” she ask
ed, her heel catching on the uneven ground.
“Hashing a few things out.”
“In an alleyway?”
He slid his hand down her arm and entwined his fingers with hers. “No view from above, and we can see if anyone comes around the corner. Little chance of anyone photographing what I’m about to do to you.”
“And that is?”
He halted then, and with swift movements, backed her up against the brick wall and slid a hand up the back of her neck. Gripping her hair in his hand and holding her face motionless, he kissed the hell out of her.
She melted. God, no. this wasn’t what she wanted. What she needed. She’d been considering ending things with him and now he was kissing her senseless.
On purpose?
She twisted under his hold and he relaxed his grip on her hair. Pulling her mouth from his, she sucked in a breath before speaking. “I’m not sure this is such a good thing—”
“You’re not talking about making out in a Manhattan alleyway, are you?”
She bit her lip. “Branden, I just think that until we figure out who is behind the rumors and photographs and who’s setting me up, I should—”
He nudged a knee between her thighs and pressed her firmly against the wall with his hips. His erection ground against her belly, and his breath blew wisps of hair off her forehead. “I won’t accept you walking out of my life, Cara. Not because of some external threat that has no basis in fact. You want me. I want you. We’re together. End of story.”
She struggled to think. “You think it’s as easy as that, do you? You notify me how things are going to be and I’m just going to go along with it?”
“Yes. Because how I want things to be is how you want them to be, too. You’re just freaking out. Rightfully so, given what’s happening, but if you’d just listen to me and trust me—”
“You can’t control everything, Branden. Can’t have everything go your way just because of who you are and how much money you have.”
“You’re wrong. But even if you aren’t, I’m not asking for everything. You’re all I want right now, Cara. Unless you can look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want me, don’t want to explore more of what we’ve had, you’re not walking away.”
