Senior Advisor to the Boss: Billionaire Obsession Dark Romance (Managing the Bosses Series Book 9) (10 page)

He just stood there and watched her go. If he really wanted to stop her, he could go after her. Maybe she would stop and listen. Or maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe it would just make it worse.

In the end, he didn’t go.

He went to his sock drawer instead, pulling out the box that held the engagement ring he’d bought on a whim. He opened it, looking down at the sparkling stone in its graceful gold setting, and wondered if he was going to end up with a ring he couldn’t take back and regret spending money on it for a woman that he would never be able to give it to.

Or worse, regret not ever giving her the chance to say no.

The phones were ringing constantly. They wouldn’t stop. Jamie found herself grateful that Emelie had been cleared the day before, because there was no way she would’ve been able to answer all of them herself. Justin was picking them up, too, and they'd even recruited several of the more social employees of the company.

Another ring, Jamie reached down and picked up the phone. “Reid Enterprises. How can I help you?”

“Reid Enterprises? This is Daniel Montgomery, and I'd like to talk to Alex Reid.”

“I'm sorry, he's currently busy with a client. This is Jamie Reid. What can I do for you?”

“I want to talk about the fact that my investment portfolio changed overnight. I'm losing money instead of making it. What did you people do?” the man demanded, his voice rising as he went on.

“We didn't do anything, Mr. Montgomery,” Jamie said calmly. “I'm sorry that you're having problems with your investment portfolio. There seems to be a glitch in the computer system, and we're going to be correcting it as soon as possible for you. We have technicians working on it as we speak.” Jamie kept her voice understanding and professional, not matching his sharp tone with her own. It was the tenth call she'd answered with a very similar complaint, and it was getting harder and harder to continue sounding upbeat when all she wanted to do was go home with Alex until it was all over. Have someone else take care of the problem.

But of course they couldn't. They owned the company. So they were stuck here, dealing with the hacker-embezzler's newest scheme. She felt almost sorry for Justin and Emelie, who were answering the same calls for a much lower salary. When all of this was over, maybe she would try to persuade Alex to give them a bonus. A really nice bonus. And Alex was going to take a vacation with her and the twins, no matter what else decided to throw itself into their plans. A holiday to the island where they’d had their wedding ceremony. She smiled at the thought.

“A computer glitch? You're telling me that I'm losing ten grand on a computer glitch?”

That wasn't exactly what it was. It seemed to be a virus that their resident saboteur had installed, but they weren't going to tell their clients that they had a rogue employee they couldn't control. That would just start a panic, and they'd lose even more business than they were potentially losing this way.

“I assure you, Mr. Montgomery,” Jamie said, “we're going to get it all under control for you as soon as we possibly can, and we'll make sure that you don't take a loss, even if we have to pay the difference out of our own account.”

That seemed to pacify the angry man, although it made Jamie nervous. Enough of these, and even Alex's vast reserves would be significantly dented. What if this was how the hacker was going to ruin Reid Enterprises? Drain Alex of money trying to keep his clients happy, and then destroy the business?

She tried not to think about it any further. Whatever happened, they would have each other – she and Alex and the peanuts. That would be enough. Even if they were living in a homeless shelter.

Which wasn’t going to happen.

“So you'll have it fixed for me soon?”

“Within the next twenty-four hours we're hoping,” Jamie answered. “Your satisfaction is our highest priority.”

“If it's not fixed by then, you'll be hearing from me again,” Mr. Montgomery warned, and Jamie ground her teeth together.

“Of course, Mr. Montgomery. We hope it doesn't come to that.”

“So do I,” the client answered and then hung up.

Jamie set the phone down and dropped her face into her hands, taking a deep breath and letting it out again slowly. What a day.

They'd walked in that morning to find the phones already ringing, Justin trying to answer them all with a kind of frantic look on his face even as his voice stayed totally professional. Jamie had taken one look at him and picked up the next call. She hadn't been expecting what she heard.

The hacker had, somehow, in the time between close in the evening and open in the morning, run a virus through the system that had changed the clients’ investment portfolios, losing them money or putting their money into companies that went against their principles or were on their definite no lists.

Alex had been livid. He hadn't had a chance to say anything before he'd had to sequester himself in his office to deal with as many of the calls as he could while Jamie, Emelie, and Justin handled the rest, but Jamie had seen the look on his face. There was going to be hell to pay when the hacker was caught. If they managed to catch him. The chances were looking slimmer and slimmer.

Her phone was ringing again. Jamie took a deep breath. She really didn't want to answer.

She picked it up.

“Reid Enterprises,” she said, forcing polite cheer into her voice. “How can I help you?”

***

They rotated lunch breaks so that nobody had to handle the influx of calls alone while everyone else ate. Jamie ended up sharing a slot with Emelie, who looked as exhausted as she felt, slumped over the salad she'd brought from home.

“How is it going, Mrs. Reid?” Emelie asked as Jamie sat down.

Jamie huffed a laugh. “Honestly? About as bad as you'd think. And please call me Jamie. Seriously. We’re all in this together at this point. I think first names are acceptable.”

For a moment Emelie looked like she wasn’t sure about taking the offer, but then she smiled. “Alright. Jamie. I guess I can manage that, after everything that’s happened.”

“How are you doing?” Jamie asked. “I know that you had a bit of a rough week even before this happened.”

“If you call a paid suspension a rough week,” Emelie answered, one corner of her mouth quirking up into a smile. “Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. I mean, being suspected of being an evil genius embezzler isn’t really my idea of a good time, but it could have definitely been worse than it was. Turning out to be innocent helped.”

“I’m glad you turned out to be innocent, for the record,” Jamie said. “I didn’t believe it was you.”

“Who do you think it is?” Emelie asked. “Or, should I not ask that? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“It’s the question everyone wants to ask,” Jamie said. “I can’t really blame you for that. But I also can’t share any leads that we might have. I’m sure you understand.”

“Of course I do.” Emelie paused to take a bite of her salad. “I’m not usually so unprofessional. I’m a little run down from all of the calls, to be honest with you.”

“I think we’re all run down from the ridiculous number of calls,” Jamie said. “That’s really nothing to feel bad about.” She looked down at her own lunch for a moment, looking up again when Emelie didn’t reply. When she turned her attention to the other woman, the blonde was looking down at her phone, wearing an expression that didn’t promise good news. “Everything okay?”

Emelie shook her head. “It’s the press,” she said, looking up at Jamie. “They’ve gotten a hold of the story. They’re talking about the end of Reid Enterprises.”

Jamie stood up so fast she almost knocked her chair over, and Emelie turned the phone screen so that she could see it.

End of the Road for Reid Enterprises?

Hacker Virus Takes Down Investment’s Biggest Name

“Oh, you have got to be joking!”

Alex was going to be furious when he saw it. They were going to have to try to get something out ahead of it, before it completely ruined their reputation. That was what he’d been trying to do. Now it seemed too late. If the news spread too far, it wouldn’t matter how fast they got the investment portfolios back together, because the company would be done for either way.

“I’m sorry,” Jamie said. “I’m going to have to skip the rest of lunch. I hope that you enjoy yours.”

Emelie gave her a half smile. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Jamie picked up her own phone and headed for the door. “We’re going to need it.”

It was a short walk down the hall to Alex’s office, and Jamie knocked lightly on the door. After a pause, his voice told her to come in and she stepped inside, letting the door swing shut behind her.

“Alex,” she said as she walked in.

He looked up from the paperwork spread over his desk with a very tired smile. “Hey, baby, what’s going on?”

“Have you talked to the PR people yet?” Jamie asked, getting it over quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid, no matter how much she hated that she was going to erase even the small hint of a smile that he was currently wearing. “We’ve got a press problem.”

“What kind of press problem?”

“The kind that’s predicting the end of Reid Enterprises.”

Alex slammed a hand down on the desk. “Couldn’t even give us half a day to sort it out. Fucking vultures. Our ass-hat hacker probably sent the info to them.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’ll talk to PR. You and the others keep up the phone calls. I’ve already got the financial section and IT working on restoring everyone’s portfolios. I don’t know how much I’m going to have to pay out of pocket, but it’s going to take a lot to be a problem for us, so I’m not too worried about that.” He was already picking up the phone on his desk and dialing the number for the PR firm.

“I think you should give an interview yourself,” Jamie said as he lifted it to his ear. He turned to look at her. “People seem to accept personal appearances from you really well. If you went up and spoke, and said that we’re doing everything that we can to get the virus taken down and everyone’s portfolios fixed, and maybe said that we’re going to be reimbursing our clientele from our own account, it might change people’s minds about the company going under.”

“I’ll talk to the PR people about it,” Alex said, and then the person on the other line was picking up and Jamie left him to it.

When she walked out of his office, she was angry.

It had been one thing when the embezzler had been taking a little bit of money here and there under their noses. It wasn’t exactly something that she was happy about, but at least it was something that their business, and their clients, could survive. It had been worse when he’d started directing the blame onto employees, making them doubt every person who worked for them. But this was crossing a line that was beyond Jamie’s ability to simply sit quietly and accept.

Who hated them enough that they would want to completely ruin Reid Enterprises? All Alex had ever done was build his business through his own hard work. That someone had taken that and twisted it into something to hurt him with made Jamie furious. Bad enough to see the man she loved hurting and not be able to do anything about it. Worse to know that someone was harming him deliberately and she couldn’t find them or stop them.

There had to be something that they could do to find the person behind it. Some clue that they’d overlooked. She still needed to go back through the employee files, but that wasn’t going to happen with the phones going non-stop. But they had to end this before whatever the hacker’s next step was going to be, or it probably would actually be the end of Reid Enterprises, and there was no way Jamie was going to allow that to happen.

Just as she turned to step into her own office, Zander walked out of his, rubbing his temples with two fingers.

“You look like I feel, Jamie,” he said. “I don’t even know how many phone calls I’ve answered.”

She wasn’t really in the mood, but Jamie forced a chuckle. “If you feel as bad as I do, I must look terrible. At least half our client base has called in to tell us that we’ve completely failed them in every possible way, and there’s no quick way to fix it.”

“We’ll find a way to get through it.” Zander smiled at her. “If anyone can keep a business going past its seeming demise by main force, it’s Alex Reid.”

And wasn’t that true?

“Thank you, Zander. I hope you’re right.” Jamie laid her hand over the handle for her office door and stood for a moment, looking back at him over her shoulder as he went on his way.

He was whistling, she realized suddenly. An absent-minded, almost cheerful sound that followed him as he made his way through the foyer toward the elevator. Funny nervous habit to have.

The phone rang in her office, and she jumped for it, yanking it off the receiver before it could go to voice- mail and earn her a whole new kind of angry client tirade.

“Reid Enterprises,” she answered. “What can I do for you?”

Immediately, the angry voice started reeling off a list of problems the speaker was having with their investment portfolio. Jamie sighed internally, and dropped her chin to her hand for something to lean her weight on when she listened, not giving Zander or the papers any more thought.