An Executive Decision (13 page)

At one time, the question would have been salt to an open wound. But wounds heal, and Ellis wasn’t going to let his brother change the subject. ‘Who is it this time?’ he asked.

‘A dancer,’ Garrett said.

‘A dancer? Please, Garrett. Surely you can do better than that.’

Garrett forced a smile without looking away from the television. ‘Not that kind of dancer. Amy’s a ballerina. She works for the New York Ballet. That’s my ulterior motive for being here. She won’t see me, though, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?’ He cranked the volume again and flipped faster. The man always had a hard time settling when he was wounded by love.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ellis said.

‘I thought maybe the two of us could go to the ballet together. I’ve got an extra ticket. Afterwards we could knock back a couple brewskies, you know, for old times’ sake.’

‘Afraid I can’t tonight.’ Ellis nodded to the jumble of files on the desk next to the laptop. ‘I’ve been swamped since Beverly died.’

Garrett flinched, almost as though Ellis had slapped him. Ellis found himself wishing he hadn’t said anything.

The younger Thorne spoke above the raised volume of the television. ‘Of course. I should have remembered. I’m sorry I missed the funeral. I didn’t know until after.’

‘It’s all right. I didn’t expect you.’ Ellis grabbed the remote away and turned off the TV. He’d forgotten just how irritating his brother could be at times.

Without the remote in hand, Garrett fidgeted with the tassel of a throw pillow. ‘I’m sorry. I know how much she meant to you.’ The muscles in his throat tightened, then relaxed. ‘It couldn’t have been easy, losing her like that. She was there for you when …’ He clenched a fist into the soft body of the pillow.

Ellis studied his brother’s profile in the dim light. He knew it wasn’t Beverly he was thinking about. A broken heart always seemed to bring up past regrets. ‘Yes, she was, Garrett. She was there for me, and I’ll miss her.’

Thankfully, room service arrived. Ellis was relieved for the distraction, knowing the litany a morose Garrett would fall into involved a past he’d rather just forget about. He silently hoped that the two of them could get along for the duration of a short meal and not talk about the past. Surely that wasn’t too much to ask. At a table by the window, they settled to club sandwiches and beer.

Garrett raised his glass in salute. ‘To Beverly, a woman who made a difference.’

Ellis returned the toast.

A muffled rendition of the bar music from the original
Star Wars
erupted from Garrett’s jacket on the sofa. He jumped up from the table. ‘Sorry, Ellis, but it could be Amy.’ He grabbed the cell phone from his pocket and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Ellis alone with his thoughts.

For at least the millionth time, Ellis wondered how he could possibly run Pneuma Inc. without Beverly. As much potential as Dee had, she didn’t know what Beverly had known, and there were things she just couldn’t help with. These days it often felt as though he were stumbling around in the dark. Beverly had kept him on course when everything else in his life had been a disaster. He’d always been able to count on her for wise advice and a kick-in-the-ass reality check when he needed it. For 13 years she’d helped him guide Pneuma Inc. From his pocket, he pulled the pen she’d given him to celebrate the birth of the new company and ran his fingers along the slender barrel, remembering.

The morning he’d presented her with the proposal, he’d nearly worn a path across the Turkish carpet in front of her desk, pacing, waiting for her response. He’d come expecting her advice, but she’d given him so much more.

She came from old money, and didn’t really need her professorship for financial security. Her younger brother had inherited the family business in spite of the fact that Beverly had been more suited to the task, so she chose to use her gift for business to educate young entrepreneurs.

‘You’re right, Ellis. Wade Crittenden’s ideas for environmental clean-up are years ahead of their time, financially sound too.’ She glanced up at him. ‘And these designs work?’

‘Wade never designs anything that doesn’t.’ Wade was a grad student in environmental engineering back then, and he was Ellis’s good friend. He was also an inventor, and a damn good one. What he wasn’t, however, was a businessman. That’s where Ellis came in. He could see it all in his head; marketing, selling, manufacturing and servicing, and in three sleepless nights, he’d formulated a plan to make it all happen.

‘You serious about this?’ She spoke without looking up from the proposal.

He stopped pacing, stood at attention. ‘Yes, ma’am. It’ll work. I’m sure.’

‘You do understand the commitment you’ll have to put in to make it work?’

‘I understand, yes.’

‘And the observatory?’

He fought back panic. He hadn’t expected her to bring that up. He’d hoped she’d forgotten after all this time, but why would she? He hadn’t been able to. ‘Professor, I already told you when I made the transfer to the business department, it was a done deal.’

‘A done deal in the head and a done deal in the heart are two different things, Thorne.’ She took off her glasses and studied him across the desk. ‘You graduate in a few months, don’t you?’

She knew he did.

‘I had a very interesting conversation with Professor Morrison the other day. Gave me a fascinating tour of the observatory and the labs. Exciting news about the funding for the new telescope, Ellis, don’t you think?’

‘Exciting, yes.’

‘He wants you, you know?’

‘That’s not going to happen, Professor.’

For a long moment, she scrutinised him, waiting for him to break.

He didn’t.

She stood and moved around the desk next to him, glasses still in hand. ‘I can get you the capital, cut through all the crap you’d normally have to deal with starting a new business, and even show you a few ways to improve the basic plan – on one condition.’

‘What’s that?’ he asked.

‘That you let me in as an equal partner.’

‘Professor?’

‘I’m not getting any younger, Ellis.’ She stuck her glasses back on, and held him in her cast-iron gaze. ‘I’m tired of teaching, and if I wait any longer, I’ll be too old for the doing,’

‘Earth to Ellis.’ Garrett waved his hand in front of his brother.

Ellis blinked, surprised to find him sitting back at the table. ‘Sorry, just taking a stroll down memory lane. Was it Amy?’

Garrett shook his head. ‘Only my agent checking in. Never mind that.’ He scooted his chair closer. ‘Stacie tells me you’ve found someone to take over as your executive assistant.’

‘How does Stacie know about Pneuma Inc. business?’ Ellis asked.

‘She’s still friends with Wade.’ Garrett leaned over the table and offered the same smile that usually meant trouble when they were boys. ‘Stacie’s heard the woman doesn’t take any shit from you.’

‘Wade’s got a big mouth,’ Ellis grumbled.

‘As I remember, he calls ’em like he sees ’em, bro,’ Garrett said. ‘Dee Henning? Isn’t that her name? Stacie hears she’s hotter than hot.’

An understatement, Ellis thought. The memory of last night’s phone sex was more than a little distracting, as was the knowledge that Sunday night she’d be joining him here in New York. He planned to make sure she felt very welcome. He forced his attention back to his brother.

‘So, this Dee Henning, is she as much of a workaholic as you are?’ Garrett asked, leaning forward over the remains of his sandwich.

‘More so, I think. She definitely gets things done.’ The knowing look his brother flashed made Ellis regret his choice of words.

‘I know you’d never hire anybody who wasn’t the best, but I’m curious; Ms Henning’s job description doesn’t by any chance include the Executive Sex Clause, does it?’ The smile returned to Garrett’s face and Ellis felt that same tension he’d always experienced as a child just before Garrett came up with a another scheme guaranteed to get them both in trouble.

‘It did occur to you that the Executive Sex Clause is illegal, didn’t it?’

‘Of course it occurred to me. I may have been drunk the night we dreamed it up, but I wasn’t that drunk.’

‘You and Beverly dreamed it up, you mean. It was embarrassing the way you two went on and on about it.’

‘Still, it’s a great idea, you have to admit. Beverly really was ahead of her time.’ Garrett gave his brother a loose-fisted punch in the arm. ‘Come on, admit it. You implemented the Sex Clause, didn’t you? I sure as hell would have in your shoes.’

‘You’re delusional, Garrett. I hired Dee Henning to be my executive assistant. That’s that.’

‘Right.’ Garrett drew out the word until he’d reshaped its meaning to suit himself, then he rubbed his hands together with a shiver of delight. ‘I can hardly wait to see what happens. You know, there might just be a novel in this.’

Ellis gave him the finger, but he only smiled, gulped the rest of his beer, and grabbed his jacket. ‘I gotta go. I’ll be late for the ballet. Time to win back Amy’s heart. Wish me luck.’

Chapter Eighteen

It was very late Thursday afternoon when Tally knocked on the door to Wade Crittenden’s office. He never answered, so she stuck her head inside.

He sat behind a stack of loose-leaf binders cascading off the corner of his desk. ‘What do you want?’ he said without looking up from whatever it was he was doing. Her timing was bad, which was just exactly what she was hoping for.

‘I brought the financial projections on the Trouvères project for Marston for you to sign off on, Wade.’ She had deliberately waited until the end of the work day, knowing that if they were to go out to Marston tonight, Wade would have to Fed Ex them himself.

He did a fair equivalent of an angry bear growl. ‘Put ’em there, and I’ll get to ’em.’ He nodded to the desk. ‘Would make my life easier if the old fart would just let me email these and stop being such a damned Luddite.’

Tally gave a shrug. ‘Well, he does run paper mills, after all.’

Wade glared at her like he couldn’t believe she could say such a stupid thing. She changed the subject. ‘Are you going bowling?’

She knew Thursday was the day Wade worked on ideas and did his trouble-shooting down at the bowling alley, and, for some reason, his favourite bowling alley was way over Mount Hood way in Sandy. No one knew why he chose one so far away, but then Wade was Wade, so no one complained. Besides, he did own a third of the company, and time spent at the bowling alley of his choice had made him and the rest of the Pneuma Inc. triumvirate very rich.

‘If people would stop interrupting me with mindless drivel so I could actually get out of this place, I would.’ He nodded again to the projections. He had little patience for people who couldn’t or wouldn’t use technology. ‘Just leave the projections and go away. I’ll sign them and then Fed Ex them on my way out.’

‘Tell you what,’ she said with mock thoughtfulness, ‘if you give them your John Hancock, I’ll Fed Ex them for you. It’s the least I can do.’ Tally never wasted her womanly charms on Wade. She’d learned early on that it would take more than a bit of cleavage or a flutter of eyelashes to distract him. Her best bet was just to show up at the worst possible moment, when he was distracted. He’d never remember what he’d told her and what he didn’t. In fact, she was pretty sure that half the time he didn’t even remember she was there. Normally, she would find such behaviour highly offensive, but this was Wade.

When he was done signing the papers, he shoved them at her and grunted something that might have been “thanks” or might have been “fuck off” for all Tally could tell. ‘There,’ he said. ‘Now go away. I’m busy.’ He didn’t wait for her offered smile, but headed into the lab and shut the door behind him. Just like he always did.

She was about to leave when she had an idea. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Wade wasn’t watching, but she knew him well enough to know the building could collapse around him and he wouldn’t notice as long as the lab was still intact. Quickly, her heart pounding in her chest, she shoved into the chair at the computer desk. The computer there was always running, but as far as she could tell seldom used. She typed in Beverly’s password, keeping her fingers crossed that it still worked.

It did, and she was in. Another added bonus.

No one even realised she had the password, and it only worked from the terminals in the offices of the three executives, a system Wade had set up to keep his work secure from everyone but Beverly and Ellis. Tally figured the only reason Beverly’s account was still active was that Wade couldn’t bring himself to let go of that last personal connection. She knew it wouldn’t last for ever. It was a stroke of luck that she’d actually got hold of the password at all. She happened to see it over Beverly’s secretary’s shoulder the day after Beverly died. Tally had needed access to the Scribal files and Beverly’s secretary and Ellis were the only ones who knew Beverly’s password. The secretary, always overly cautious, was distraught that day, and it hadn’t been hard to see what keys she punched. Later that same day, Tally had found Wade’s terminal up, as it always was. And
voilà
! Tally had a secret way in.

A few more keystrokes and she pulled up Dee’s files on the Trouvères project. A few more and she had them downloaded on two memory sticks, one for Jamison and one for her. It only took her a few minutes, then she slipped the memory sticks into her bag along with the projections.

‘What are you still doing here?’

She jumped at the sound of Wade’s voice. He stood behind her, clipboard in one hand and a fist shoved into the pocket of his over-sized hoodie.

She stood, shouldered her bag, and offered him her best business as usual smile. ‘Just remembered something urgent from Rosa up in accounting. I didn’t think you’d mind if I sent her a quick email. I seem to have left my iPhone upstairs in my desk. I’m off now, back to the mines.’

He only glared at her over the top of his glasses, then turned on his heels and disappeared back into the lab. She heaved a sigh of relief, then quickly made sure everything was as she had found it, and left. In the elevator, she texted Jamison from the phone he had given her to use for their correspondence, then she got out in the main lobby. It wasn’t that much before quitting time and no one in accounting would know how long she was with Wade.

Outside the office, she waited only a few minutes for the limo that pulled up next to the kerb. She got in, and the vehicle pulled away.

‘Good afternoon, Tally. You’re a little earlier than I expected. Slow day in accounting?’ Terrance Jamison handed her a glass of champagne. In return, she gave over the bag with the papers in it. ‘Did you have any trouble getting them?’ he asked.

‘It was risky,’ she lied. ‘Fortunately for me I have a good relationship with Crittenden, so he didn’t suspect. I just told him I’d get these Fed Exed for him, just like you suggested.’

Jamison offered her a sideways glance from the paper he was already perusing. ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘You’re an amazing woman, Tally Barnes. This is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.’

‘Oh, and there is one more thing you might want to see.’ Digging in her bag, she pulled out one of the memory sticks.

‘What’s this?’ he asked. ‘Another surprise? Why Tally, this is almost like Christmas.’

She blushed. ‘It’s a copy of Dee’s presentation, in case you’re interested.’

Jamison flipped the memory stick over in his hand, eyeing it as though he could didn’t need a computer to read the data, then he offered her an arid chuckle. ‘I’ll be damned, you are handy, Ms Barnes, very handy indeed. How the hell did you get your hands on Dee Henning’s presentation? No, wait a minute. I don’t really want to know. It’s better that way.’

She lifted her champagne flute in salute. ‘Then it’ll be my little secret.’ When she got home, she’d take a peek at Dee’s presentation, then she planned to send Alan Marston an intriguing letter along with the projections, just a gentle reminder of who she was and what a valuable asset she was to Pneuma Inc.

‘You are stunning, Tally Barnes.’ Jamison offered her a smile that was all charm and goodwill. ‘Now that I know what I’m up against, I know what to offer to make sure this little alliance doesn’t happen. I get what I want, and you, my dear, are one giant step closer to getting what you want, as well.’

And then it was as though he’d completely forgotten she was in the limo with him as he scanned the papers. By the time Jamison dropped her in front of her house an hour later, Tally was more than a little tipsy after several more glasses of good champagne on an empty stomach. He had promised she’d have the papers back in time to Fed Ex them tomorrow. She had barely got the door to her flat unlocked and kicked off her shoes when a message on her phone reassured her that the last of her credit cards had been paid in full, and there was a nice little surprise waiting for her in her checking account. She smiled to herself. The alliance with Jamison was proving to be way more profitable than she had expected.

*               *               *

‘We’ve got problems.’

Dee had stepped out of her office only long enough to make an iced tea run. No one else was on the tenth floor except Sandra. After nearly a week of jerking her around, Marston was finally ready to meet her over Trouvères. For some unknown reason, he still had it in his head she was neglecting Scribal. Ellis was already in New York on another project and would meet her at the hotel Sunday evening. After their earlier phone sex, she could hardly wait for their reunion, but in the meantime, Marston had to be dealt with and there was no time to dwell on the heat of midweek. In order to be prepared for Monday’s round of meetings, Dee had opted to work Saturday and fly out Sunday afternoon. When the secretary chased her down in the break room, Dee knew something was up.

‘Alan Marston practically tore me a new one over the phone just now. I don’t know what the trouble is. He wouldn’t tell me.’

Back in her office, Dee gulped tea for courage, then called Marston. When he answered the phone with a snarl, she knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.

‘What in God’s name are you doing out there, because it sure as hell isn’t your job?’ Marston shouted into the phone.

Dee held the receiver at a safe distance to protect her eardrum. In a ten-minute tirade he informed her, with all the eloquence and panache of a drill sergeant, that he hadn’t received the packet with the Trouvères projections he’d been promised. He was on a roll by the time he got around to assigning blame, which he laid squarely at her feet. ‘This kind of negligence and incompetence had better cease, and quickly, or Scribal will take its business elsewhere. And believe you me, Jamison’s offer is looking better and better all the time.’ He continued to yell into her ear. ‘I don’t know what Thorne was drinking when he hired you, but even a rank amateur should know there’s nothing to meet about until you get me those goddamned projections!’

With the beginnings of a headache clawing at the base of her skull, Dee hung up the phone, promising to make sure everything was in order for Monday’s meeting. When she had calmed down enough to stop shaking, she called Sandra into her office and explained the situation.

‘I don’t understand. I sent everything down to accounting for a once-over. They were to deliver it all to Wade to double-check the numbers and technological facts, like you asked,’ Sandra said.

They met Wade at the Dungeon. He looked like he’d spent the night there, which he often did. He wore his usual ratty lab jacket over a pair of Levis and an untucked rugby shirt – a game he’d taken a liking to on his one and only trip abroad back before he started grad school. He looked at the two women and blinked as though he’d just come out of the dark.

‘Don’t you ever go home?’ he asked Dee.

‘Probably more often than you do,’ she said. In spite of his lack of people skills and his reclusive ways, both Ellis and Beverly considered him a friend and confidant. It hadn’t taken her long to realise why.

‘Early in the day for bowling, isn’t it?’ Sandra nodded to the bowling shoes on the man’s feet.

He looked down as though he were surprised. ‘I went yesterday. Brainstorming. I guess I forgot to take them off.’ He turned his attention back to Dee. ‘So that bastard, Marston, is giving you a hard time, is he?’

‘Apparently with good reason,’ Dee said

‘Marston doesn’t need a good reason. Beverly deserves sainthood for putting up with his crap. The two were close friends, though I can’t imagine why.’

Neither could Dee at this point. When they explained the situation, Wade ran a hand through his eternally messy hair. ‘That secretary, or whatever, you sent down Thursday night said she’d send it.’

‘What secretary?’ Sandra asked.

He blinked, and his brow wrinkled as though he were in deepest concentration. ‘Wait a minute. It might have been the woman who works in accounting, the irritating one. What’s her name?’

‘Tally Barnes,’ both Dee and Sandra said at the same time.

‘After Beverly died, no one knew quite what to do with Scribal,’ Sandra explained. ‘Ellis took over most of the work, but Tally Barnes volunteered to help out. The woman’s a great ass-kisser. But for some reason I can’t fathom, Marston thinks she’s better than chocolate. She developed quite a liking for Beverly’s office. Insisted she needed access to Beverly’s files if she was going to do Beverly’s job. Strutted around like she owned the place. Finally Ellis told her he wanted her back in accounting.’

‘I heard her bitching in the hall a couple of days ago that Dee was getting credit for all the hard work she’s done on the Scribal project,’ Wade added. ‘What?’ he said when they both looked at him. ‘The woman’s loud. Everyone heard her.’

‘But all she’s done is the projections, and she would have done those anyway.’ Dee massaged the nagging pain at the back of her neck that was now working its way around to her temples.

Sandra pulled a small bottle of aspirin from her pocket and handed it to her. ‘What now?’ she asked. ‘Should I call Ellis?’

A quick flash of Ellis reprimanding her after she’d overslept stiffened Dee’s resolve. ‘This is my problem. I’ll solve it without bothering Ellis.’ She looked down at her watch. ‘At 7.30 in a Saturday morning, if I were Tally, I’d be at home in bed. I hope she’s a light sleeper.’ She picked up the phone and punched in the number. There was no answer. Hanging up, she turned to Sandra. ‘I’m still hedging my bets that she’s home in bed. Do you know where she lives?’

‘I can find out.’

‘Do it, and get me Jeffries. Tell him we’ll need the limo.’ Dee knew that if a place was in either of the great States of Oregon or Washington, the driver could find it.

She tried the number one more time to be sure, and was just ready to hang up when a sleepy Tally answered. She listened in silence as Dee explained the situation.

‘I knew I should have called you, or given Marston or someone the heads up.’ Tally’s voice practically oozed sympathy through the phone. ‘Dee, I’m so sorry. Wade seemed distracted Thursday when I left the projections for him. I just had this feeling he hadn’t really noticed what it was or how important. So on Friday, before I left, I went back on a lark and, sure enough, though everything was signed off on, they hadn’t been sent. I just went ahead and Fed Exed the packet to Marston. I left Wade a note. I guess he didn’t find it. Honestly, whatever it was he was working on, he barely knew I was there, and I’m sure he didn’t know how late it was.’