Senior Advisor to the Boss: Billionaire Obsession Dark Romance (Managing the Bosses Series Book 9) (15 page)

She wasn't Erica, but that didn't mean that she wasn't hot. And she
was
hot.

He slumped down against her when the rush of orgasm was over. She didn't move except for the too-fast rise and fall of her chest. The only sound was their breathing. Until she spoke.

“Wow,” she said. “Hell that was hot.”

Mark rolled off her. Carefully, to avoid falling off the table. He stared up at the ceiling. “Wow,” he echoed, his heart not really in it.

“That was maybe the best sex that I've ever had,” Ginny said. “It's not fair that you're that gorgeous and also that amazing to fuck.”

A chuckle left Mark's throat. “Well, thank you. It’s nice to be appreciated.”

It wasn’t the best sex he’d ever had, but he didn’t say that. He wasn’t going to be cruel. And it wasn’t fair to compare lovemaking to a one-night stand.

Speaking of which, Ginny was already standing, and reaching for her clothes. Unlike with Erica, it didn’t hurt to watch her dress immediately after the fun was over. Mark had expected it.

“If you’re ever interested in a little fun,” she said. “Let me know. Because I would love to do that again.”

Mark, who was pulling his slacks back on, smiled a smile that he didn’t feel. “I will.”

She turned, and wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him down into one last kiss. “See you around, Mark,” she said as she stepped back.

“See you around, Ginny,” Mark said. “Enjoy the rest of your time golfing.”

The door shut behind her, and Mark leaned back against the edge of the table with a sigh. Apparently he wasn’t going to get over Erica any time soon.

Jamie felt a little sick as she stepped out of Alex’s car.

The thought of confronting Zander about the attacks on the company left her feeling sick to her stomach. It kept twisting around in her head, refusing to leave her alone. What if he was actually the one who’d conspired to bring the company down? The person Alex had trusted enough to give over partial leadership of his company. Would Alex be able to trust anyone to help run Reid Enterprises again?

Her husband walked quietly beside her, obviously focused as much as she was on Zander. They rode the elevator up to the office in silence, though Jamie did reach out to take his hand as they ascended. Alex squeezed her fingers gently, letting her know that he was at least there enough to offer affection, which was a good sign. He hadn’t focused so thoroughly on business that he was ignoring her.

A soft ding announced the arrival of the elevator at the right floor, and Jamie and Alex stepped out as the doors slid open, their hands dropping back to their own sides. They went to Alex’s office together; Jamie wasn’t going to let him do this alone. Alex sat down at his desk, and she stood just behind his chair, fingers curled over the back of it so that he could just feel them against his shoulder.

“Zander,” Alex said, leaning forward and hitting the button to speak into the intercom. “I’d like to speak to you in my office, please.”

He sat back again, and Jamie took a deep breath, trying to ignore the way that her stomach twisted. The seconds hung heavy in the air between them, and then the sound of footsteps announced Zander’s arrival.

Alex had asked the private investigator to look into Zander after he’d talked to Emelie. What the man had found hadn’t been much. Information about Zander’s family life was almost non-existent. His father was dead, and he’d been raised by his mother. Nothing relevant to them. But the investigator had also found a private bank account in the Caymans, which was a strange thing for someone like Zander to have. He was making a very nice salary as Alex’s lead advisor, but not so much that he should have had money to hide. Unless he was hiding something from them.

“Come in,” Alex called when Zander knocked.

The door opened. Zander stepped in, and looked at them both behind the desk. His eyebrows lifted, and he closed the door behind him. “Jamie,” he said softly and cleared his throat. “Alex. Anything going on that I should know about?”

Alex’s shoulders tightened, his body tensing. “We were wondering the same thing about you, Zander. Sit down, would you, please?”

Zander looked at him, and sat.

“We would like to know,” Alex said as he leaned forward, “why your employee number came up with a connection to the hacker.”

“I thought that was already investigated.” The look Zander gave them was confused, and for a moment Jamie wondered if they’d been wrong about him after all. If they hadn’t been, he was a better actor than she’d given him credit for. “The hackers been using different people’s numbers. Mine isn’t special.”

“But yours is the first one used.” Alex folded his hands on his desk and looked across at Zander. “And we’ve discovered that you’ve been accessing the system logs and deleting other connections your employee number has to the attacks.”

He reached out and pulled a folder from his briefcase, dropping it in front of Zander. “Including, by the way, being in contact with several of the employees who are also implicated in the hacking and embezzling. Rest assured that anyone we find to have actually been working for you will face consequences, too.”

“You think I masterminded this?” Zander asked. His eyes moved to the folder, and he flipped it open, paging through its contents. Jamie saw the color drain from his face. They’d been right after all. Her stomach had stopped fluttering; it felt heavy and tight as a rock. Zander was the one behind it all, and they’d just caught him.

He closed the file. “Do you think that’s enough evidence? That could be planted. Just like everything else.”

Jamie had to give it to him. He’d recovered his composure quickly. Faster than she would have in the same situation, whether she was guilty or not. But
he
was guilty. She was sure of it now.

“We know it’s not planted,” Alex said. “The only planted evidence was the “evidence” that you threw out to distract us from your trail. But it’s all over now, Zander. There are no more tricks to hide behind. We know it was you, and we know that you brought other people over to your side. My PIs have proof. Which my lawyers now have as well.” He shook his head. “What I want to know is why you did it. I trusted you enough to give you a hand in running Reid Enterprises. Was that not enough for you? Was your salary too small? You would have had a great career here. Why try to ruin it?”

Multiple emotions flicked across Zander’s face, there and gone again before Jamie really had a chance to decipher what they meant.

“A great career?” He shook his head. “No. I’ll tell you where I would have had a great career. Sunrise Applications. Now, of course, that’s never going to happen, but once I would have been running it.”

“Nicholas?” Alex stared at him. “You’re telling me that you think you would have somehow unseated Nicholas as head of Sunrise Applications? You started working here long before he drove that particular train completely off the track.”

“He,” Zander said, voice low and words clipped, “didn’t drive anything off any track. You were responsible for the destruction of Sunrise Applications.”

That had been the wrong thing to say. Alex’s hands, still on the desk, tightened around each other until his knuckles went white. Jamie almost laid a hand on his shoulder to try to settle him, but decided against it at the last second. Let Zander see how angry Alex was. How much he’d clearly misstepped.

“Are you blaming me for the fact that Nicholas’ vendetta against me and my company took up so much of his time that he forgot he had his own company to lead? Or for the hit and run where he
killed another person
and refused to admit it?”

“I’m blaming you for ruining his reputation,” Zander snapped. He didn’t seem at all bothered by Alex’s fury. “Sharing all of that with the press. He could have recovered from the rest of it, but you had to drag him down to nothing!”

Alex was on his feet in an instant. “I did what I had to do,” he growled, “to protect my family. If Nicholas hadn’t insisted on trying to harm them, I wouldn’t have had to take drastic measures to stop him.” He was leaning over the desk, looming over Zander, and the younger man shrank back a little in his chair. “You worked for me. You started here as an intern and I took the time to teach you everything about this company. The opportunity to grow, expand, and earn more was all because of me. You were senior advisor. You had everything at your feet. Power corrupts some people. It clearly had its way with you.”

“Had you not gone after Sunrise Applications. I wouldn’t have done this,” Zander pressed.

“I never went after Sunrise! Nicholas came after me!” Alex shook his head. “This is my company and I don’t need to defend myself to you!”

“Why is it so important to you?” Jamie asked. Both men turned toward her as she stepped around the corner of the desk to stand beside it, looking at Zander. “There’s obviously some kind of connection between you and Nicholas. What is it?”

The room was silent.

“What the hell is it?” Alex repeated, low and dangerous, and despite the seriousness of the situation Jamie shivered a little with want at the sound of that tone. Her husband was so sexy when he was bringing all the force of his personality to bear.

“He’s my uncle,” Zander said, voice flat. “He kept my mother and me going after my father died. We never wanted anything because of him. And now you’ve thrown him in jail.” By the time he finished speaking he was standing, fingers clenched against the wooden edge of the desk.

“I didn’t have a choice! Nicholas is responsible for his own actions. I couldn’t stand by and keep silent when he was threatening to hurt my family,” Alex said. “He got himself thrown in jail.” He paused, but held up a hand when Zander tried to speak again. “Why did you join Reid Enterprises if you could have worked at your uncle’s company?”

“Know your enemy,” Zander said simply. “Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.”

Alex obviously hadn’t been expecting that. He straightened up fast enough that Jamie could tell he was surprised. She was just as shocked. All this time, talking and laughing and working with them, Zander had considered them his enemies? For the years he’d been with Alex and known what kind of man he was? It was a painful prospect. And an infuriating one. Jamie had thought of him as a friend.

She took another step forward. “So you were playing us this entire time?”

Zander turned to look at her, a lazy smile curling across his mouth, and she suddenly saw, now that she was looking for it, the resemblance to Nicholas. “I was playing you this entire time,” he said.

“And you're responsible for the hacking?” Alex cut in.

“Well, you've got the proof right here,” Nicholas said. “What is it you want me to do? Admit to it out loud so that you can take your tape to the police?” He shook his head. “I'm not going to admit to anything. If you want to find out who’s trying to take down your precious company, you're going to have to look somewhere other than me.”

They had the proof. He'd seen it himself. Whether he admitted to the crime or not didn't matter to Alex, Jamie was sure. It didn't matter to her. Once the police had their records, Zander was going to be facing the same legal system his uncle had.

“We have the basics right here,” Alex said, “as you so cleverly pointed out. And the rest they'll be able to find easily when they look through the computers on the network. We'll be giving them full access. As for you—” He stepped around the desk as he spoke, and wrapped a hand around Zander's upper arm, guiding him toward the office door. “You’re fired. Effective immediately. I'll find other ways you've tried to undermine this company, and when I do I'll be sure to add those to the report. I’ll be taking your uncle and you down. Whatever it takes to get your family out of my company.”

Jamie followed as Alex opened the door and ushered Zander through it. In the main part of the foyer, Alex turned to Justin, who was standing at his desk, and Emilie, walking through with a report in her hand, stopped moving, both of them watching.

Alex nodded at Justin. “Have security escort Zander out. Strip him of all his passes and inform security he is not allowed to enter the building again.”

Justin hesitated.

“Now, Justin.” Alex’s voice clearly meant business and his administrative assistant jumped into action. Alex glared at Zander. “If you want things from your office, we'll have them collected for you. You already know, but I’m following protocol. You will not receive your company computer back. We'll need that for the investigation. Nor are you allowed anywhere in the building except the clearest route to the exit.” Alex shook his head. “If I see you here again after you've left today, we'll add trespassing to your list of charges.”

Zander lifted his chin, a muscle jumping in his jaw when his teeth clenched, and looked across at them. “I hope you're enjoying your little power trip, Reid. Because, trust me when I say, this will be the last one you get.”

Alex looked at Zander. Everyone in the room was looking at him. “What are you going to do about it?” Alex asked, eyes locked with Zander's. “You'll be enjoying some quality family time with your uncle in jail.”

Zander's cold expression faltered for a second before he could pull it back up, and for an instant Jamie saw the fear in his eyes. She thought she should have felt bad. And maybe she would have if he hadn't tried to hurt her husband and the business that he'd built from the ground up. If he hadn't also hurt her and the twins in his quest to get revenge against her husband for something that wasn't even Alex's fault. Standing there looking at him, she just felt pity. He'd ruined his life. For what?

“Get out,” Alex said.

Zander spun on his heel and stalked toward the elevator bay without another word, where security was waiting. They stood in the foyer and watched him go, wondering how they were going to deal with the fallout of his betrayal.