"A new product has just been announced; the patent is officially in the works as of yesterday. It bears a remarkable resemblance to our software but not enough to be able to pursue action," my father said.
"Who? Who released the software?"
"Our competitor. Do you remember Lawrence Anton?" my father asked.
"The one mother says looks like Robert Redford?" I asked. "He stole the software?"
My father's hands clenched into fists again. "He claims his engineers have been working on it for some time. There's no way to prove otherwise."
Without proof, Lawrence Anton's company would start selling the software and completely crush the Lauren Corporation.
"Then there's only one thing to do." I stood up. "We have to find the spy."
Chapter 12
Dayton
I lingered in the back of the lobby for some time, not wanting to face the lines of disgruntled crew members. Everyone was bored of standing around, agitated at being questioned, and wondering if I was going to pay them time and a half when they had to work overtime.
And I wanted to let my surprise interlude with Jessa linger just a while longer.
Her body had softened beneath mine so willingly. I had been sure the way I handled the three men in the stairwell would have been enough for Jessa to run off in fright or disgust. She had stayed to make sure I was okay despite being frightened enough to faint.
The heady idea that Jessa cared for me that much made me pace up and down the back hallway of the lobby once again.
I couldn't daydream over that. Jessa's family had suffered a serious blow, and that didn't seem like the only danger. I had a good idea of who sent those paid fists after me in the stairwell, and I was concerned that his jealous rage might extend past me to Jessa herself. I hoped I would see her going home on her father's arm before I was found lurking in the lobby.
I just wanted to make sure she was safe.
"So this is where you've been hiding," Mike said. He shouldered the dismantled fire exit closed and studied my face. "And what exactly did I miss? You look like a million bucks."
I scowled down at my, albeit nicer and pressed, work clothes. "Aren't we over this whole new wardrobe thing yet?"
Mike crossed his arms over his wide chest. "That's not what I'm talking about. You look like you've either had the most relaxingly long soak in a hot tub or you recently got lucky."
"Don't be crude," I said.
"And, there it is. You always sound so proper when you've been caught." Mike laughed. "So you've been comforting the Lauren Corp heir, eh?"
I shoved past him and headed for the front steps. "We're not having this conversation."
Mike grabbed my arm and yanked me back. "I wouldn't go out that way if I were you. Those suits have been trying to line everybody up for the last hour. The guys aren't feeling so cooperative."
"I know." I sighed and faced my friend. "What's the story with questioning all of us?"
"It's like a witch hunt, Dayton. I don't know what to tell you. They are searching for someone with means and motive," Mike said.
I clapped him on the shoulder and headed for the front door again. "You've been watching too many police procedurals on television," I called over my shoulder.
"So you're going to let them get you? I think your name's high on the list of interesting people," Mike called.
"Next to yours," I replied.
Mike caught up with me on the front steps. "Nope. Not seeing as I lack your, ah, what's the word? Pedigree?"
I swore under my breath. "Speaking of pedigree we've got another problem heading towards us."
“That wimp?" Mike jerked his thumb towards Robert.
"Remind me to tell you about the stairwell," I said. I braced myself to walk past Robert.
I wasn't about to make things any more complicated for Jessa; not after our 'meeting.' I was sure my existence would soon become a roaring topic around her family dinner table.
Then Robert's bony shoulder knocked into mine. Mike caught my shoulder and tried to keep me from walking, but we both heard: "That's right; keep walking, worthless dirty worker." Robert chuckled to the large, silent man that must have been his personal bodyguard.
I whirled around. "You got something to say to me?"
Robert turned around with a pleased smile. "Just that you're lucky to be here. Remember that we're the ones paying for you to spend all day playing with your building blocks."
Mike laid an immovable hand in the center of my chest. "Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but we don't want to take up your precious time."
"Yeah. I just need a minute or two." I shoved past Mike and went toe to toe with the asshole.
Not surprisingly, he stepped back and made a frantic gesture up to the front door. Two reluctant building security guards came down the front steps.
"Remove this man from the property. He threatened my life," Robert declared.
"Hi, Marty. Dylan." I nodded to the security guards.
They turned reluctant looks back on Robert who went red in the face.
"I told you to remove him from the property. You heard him, right?" Robert smacked his bodyguard on the shoulder. "He threatened to beat me up."
The large man tightened his lips but gave a curt nod. He didn’t like his employer but he knew where his paycheck came from and that was all he cared about.
"Sorry, Dayton," Marty muttered under his breath and took a loose hold of my arm.
I shook him off and held up my hands. "I don't want to make a scene here, but there's no way this waste of space in a fancy suit is kicking me off my own renovation site."
The security guards stepped back. They knew who I was and also how much I liked to keep a low profile. I could see their stress, but I had to stand firm. Robert was a spoiled man, used to getting his way, and I wanted to make sure that he would never again get his way when it came to Jessa.
"I saw what was happening. I'm a witness." Jessa's father hurried down the front steps, waggling a finger at the security guards.
Maxwell Lauren was an imposing man. He was my height despite the weight of sixty some years. His face was striking and hawk-like and focused on me with a look of fury.
I took a deep breath and worried that he had seen his daughter shortly after I left her.
"Mr. Lauren, I mean no disrespect but Robert has a personal problem with me, and it has no place here at work," I said.
"It does when my father-in-law has hired a criminal. That's right, Dayton Miller. I found out you're a dirty thief. And you served time. A jail-hardened criminal is not what the Lauren Corp works with," Robert spat.
Mike's ham-sized hand balled into a fist. "What exactly are you saying?" he asked with a low growl.
It was my turn to step in between Robert and my friend. "I never hid the fact that I served time. That's the whole point. I served my time and have been working hard ever since. My reputation now speaks for itself."
Maxwell Lauren chewed on his cheek. "I'm not one to turn a man away for past mistakes, but we've gone past that point," he insisted.
"Can we all agree now that the convicted felon should leave the property?" Robert asked loudly.
"As long as those men you hired to rough me up are gone too," I retorted.
"What?" Mike seemed to swell in size. "Is that why you disappeared inside for so long? This chicken-shit hired someone else to do his dirty work?"
I caught Mike before he could string Robert up by his fancy tie. "Forget about it. I understand if you delay us on site until we can answer your silly questions, but I'm not going to be insulted on top of it. If you want me, I'll be in our office."
"Have you answered our silly questions?" Maxwell Lauren's voice carried with authority.
I stopped and weighed whether or not I could turn around without spitting on the ground. The icy command in Maxwell's voice was something I could not stand. It made me think of every time my father ripped into me with another lecture on privilege and res
ponsibility. It was just a lot of fancy talk from old men that still thought the world should be in the shape they decided.
"Ask away," I said.
Maxwell's eyes widened, shocked that I would assume he would do any of his own heavy lifting. "Robert, go find the officers in charge of questioning," he demanded.
Robert refused to move and gave the older man a petulant shrug. "Why not ask him yourself. He's only going to lie."
"Where were you last night?" Maxwell cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes at my face. "Do you have a reliable alibi?"
I froze. I'd walked right into an impossible situation, and there was no way out now. If I lied, then I would shoot to the top of the suspect list. If I told the truth, a heap of drama would come down on Jessa including a dangerously jealous former fiancé.
"What happened to the security footage on our office trailer? We have cameras that record when anyone comes in and out," I said.
Maxwell had the decency to look worried for a minute. "The police didn't say anything about that."
"Well, there's no way I would prepare to sneak into a fortified modern office building without stopping by my office for tools," I said.
Robert's face turned a deeper shade of red. "He's lying. He's avoiding the question. You can't seriously be listening to him."
The older man looked embarrassed by his younger peer, but he turned back to me. "Your alibi, Dayton?"
I swallowed hard. "I was at home. Alone."
Robert crowed with delight. "See? He doesn't have an alibi. It was him! I told you."
Maxwell held up a hand. "We're not rushing to any conclusions here, Dayton, but you have a few more questions you are going to have to answer."
The security guards shuffled forward a few steps, but I held up my hands. They stopped and looked miserably back at Mr. Lauren.
"So now you think I'm the spy?" I asked.
Mike bristled. "You can't be serious. Why would Dayton steal some of your software? We're the kind of guys with dirt under our fingernails, remember? That stuff doesn't mean anything to us."
"Except millions," Robert snorted. Money was clearly the only thing he truly cared about.
"All the spy had to do was steal it, and I'm sure the competition made it worth his while. They probably also helped him cover his tracks," Maxwell said.
"But forgot to supply me with a reliable alibi? Something's off; I know you know that." I told Jessa's father.
He scrubbed his clean-shaven chin but shook his head. "It doesn't look good."
"Fine." I threw both hands out at the nearest security guard. "Arrest me, then. The cops will prove I'm innocent in record time."
Robert scowled. "I wouldn't be too sure. The police aren't likely to jump right in to help a convicted felon."
Maxwell stepped between us and shoved Robert back. "Dayton, you should just go. Go home for the rest of the day."
"You're letting him go?" Robert shrieked.
"Yes," Jessa's father said. "I'm sure the police will be knocking on his door soon enough. Maybe a quiet afternoon will help him decide on what's the right thing to do."
"I would never steal from you, Mr. Lauren," I said.
He gave me a solemn nod. "I hope that's true. Though I'm sure, a lot of people will think you have motive once they find out about your family."
My breath stilled. So Mr. Lauren knew exactly who I was. Robert blinked in confusion, but that was no comfort. Sooner or later Jessa would find out the truth about me, and that was more important than any false accusations.
Chapter 13
Jessa
It felt like years since I walked up my parents' front steps. Though I had a beautiful, expansive apartment in the city, their bay-side mansion in Tiburon was home. I stayed there most weekends, and many of the nights we attended the same social events. It wasn't strange for me to be absent for a night but seeing as I had spent it with Dayton, I felt a certain weight of guilt as I walked up the front steps.
"There you are, honey. You really shouldn't let your father drag you into this whole corporate mess." My mother met me at the door, shooing away our butler.
"I don't have a choice, remember? I'm on the board."
She stepped aside as I lugged myself inside and then my mother became a flurry of action. She ordered up a late supper, chose a bottle of wine, and tried to shepherd me up the stairs to take a bath.
"I really just want to go to sleep," I told her.
"Nonsense. You need to put all that bad business out of your head. Plus, when was the last time you ate something decent?"
I sighed. "Father ordered in Contelli's for the entire office staff."
My mother pinched her lips. "And here I thought it would be prudent to save money."
Estrella had always felt an ownership in Lauren Corp due to her inheritance's part in the business' lifeblood. The only problem was she and my father never saw eye to eye, and lately, she had jumped on every little decision he made.
"Is there something on your mind or can I go to sleep?" I asked.
My mother looped her arm through mine and drew me into the study which thankfully had a warm, comforting fire. The city was already blanketed with fog and December rains sprinkled outside. California's winter wasn't very harsh, but I was definitely feeling a chill in the air.
She waited until I was curled up next to her and then my mother said, "I'm so sorry to hear about that ugly scene between Robert and your construction worker friend."
"Dayton is a bit more than a construction worker," I replied, stiffening. What had I missed?
"Oh, so you know?" My mother caught my hand and studied my face. "No, I don't think you do. Oh, darling."
"Mother, what happened?" I pulled my hand back and knotted my fingers together to try to ward off any panicked fluttering. "Is Dayton all right?"
"Well, yes. Though he's not allowed back on the building premises. It seems he had a bit of a run-in with Robert."
What was supposed to be a dismissive laugh came out as a nervous bark. "What business do those two have together?" I asked.
My mother arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was jealousy. This Mr. Miller is a very attractive man. And we know that Robert has a bit of a problem controlling his emotions."
"Is that what we're calling it?" I asked.
We both laughed a little; Robert's tantrums being a regular topic of gossip in our social circle.
"But, Jessa, you know that a man's attractive demeanor is not enough to erase his criminal past." My mother sat up straight, ready for any backlash I might throw at her.
I stood up, not ready to face Dayton's incarceration or how little it affected my feelings for him. It was enough that I was falling for someone outside my social strata; I knew for a fact my family would never accept anyone with a jail sentence on his record.
"Don't you believe that past mistakes can be forgiven?" I asked.
Estrella folded her hands primly in her lap and shook her regal head. "I would like to, but, in my experience, a past full of mistakes makes a man take a different path."
"And there's no going back?" I asked.
She sighed. "I believe that once a moral line has been crossed, he'll step over it again and again."
I sank back down to the sofa, at a loss for words. Worse than her already final decision about Dayton was my mother's conviction. She was so certain, so solid in her experience, that I wondered who she was citing as an example. My stomach clenched into a knot.
"Not every man is the same," I told her.
A sudden sheen of tears in my mother's eyes surprised me. "That is very true, my dear. It's very rare to find a man that won't lie, one whose emotions are right there on the surface for everyone to see."
I drew back from her. "Are you talking about Robert? He's awful, Mother! He got rough with me, controlling, and now he's attacking men out of supposed jealousy."
My mother shook her head. "Just one man. The man that police now believe stole yo
ur father's software and sold it to the competition."
The room could have flipped over, and I still would have been clinging to the couch, so hard I dung my fingers into the soft linen. "What are you saying?" I asked in a tight whisper.
"Your Mr. Miller fits the profile they suspected: someone with total access to the building."
I shook my head, unable to breathe. "But Dayton doesn't have a motive."
"He also doesn't have an alibi," my mother said.
My breath came in shallow draws. Dayton hadn't given an alibi because I was the one he was with. I grabbed my mother's hands, prepared to tell her the worst, but she stopped me.
"Whatever happened was not your fault, Jessa. He probably pegged you as an opportunity the first moment you met. It didn't help that Robert had to fly off the handle; he practically pushed you into the criminal's net. Still, I believe your father and Robert were protecting you today."
My hands turned to jelly and tears blurred my eyes. "Pegged as an opportunity?"
My mother reached out and stroked my hair. "He seduced you, didn't he? Horrible man. No one can blame you; he is so handsome and charming and, I don't know, believable. But he used you to try to cover up his tracks."
"But, but you talked about true love."
My mother inched closer and hugged me tightly. "I am so sorry, honey. I should never have judged your taste in men."
"But Robert is so, so..."
"Honest," my mother said. "Robert is the kind of man that doesn't hide his feelings and is incapable of lying to those that know him best."
I shook my head. "He's cruel."
"Jealous," my mother said, firmly. "And completely in agony over the mistakes, he made with you. You know you're the only one that can help him get a handle on himself. You'll make him a better man."
My tears flowed freely. "You still think I can marry him?"
"I think you put Robert in his place when you dumped him, and now you'll be able to come back together on solid ground," my mother said.
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