Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (70 page)

"Thank you, I
appreciate that," I said as I gave him an appropriately sad smile. "I
was wondering if your manager was in, and if so, could I have a few minutes
with him to clear up my father's account."

"Of course,
sir," the man said as he reached for the phone and dialed an extension. He
spoke to someone on the other end and then hung up. "If you'll have a
seat, Mr. Blake will be out shortly."

I sat down off to
one side of the room and watched the procession of club members moving through
the lobby. There were those who were obviously guests of members. They were the
ones who took in their surroundings as if they were committing it all to memory;
unsure whether they'd ever be invited in again. There were men in suits
carrying briefcases who walked briskly toward the bar without looking around.
They were here to serve the men who had real power. And then there were the men
who radiated confidence and belonging. They weren't ostentatious, they were
just certain of their place. They walked past the concierge without even
acknowledging him and headed off to wherever they belonged at that moment. I
remembered my father always greeting the staff with a friendly wave or a nod of
his head. Sometimes he'd stop and talk to people asking how their families were
doing, and I remembered the disapproving looks he'd get from the regular
members. It wasn't until I was a teenager, that I'd understood what was going
on, and then I'd bristled as I watched my father talk with strangers in a way
that he'd never talked with me.

Lost in my own
memories, I didn't notice a new group of men enter the lobby until I looked up
and saw Julian Baines standing in front of me.

"Ryan, what
are you doing here?" he asked as he held out his hand. I frowned as I took
it and shook.

"Just taking
care of business, sir," I said.

"I thought
the lawyers were doing that," he said smoothly as he let go of my hand.

"Yes, well,
there are some loose ends that need to be tied up," I said eyeing him
suspiciously. "And since the estate executor hasn't yet done it, I thought
I'd take care of it."

"Oh, come on,
Ryan," he said with a cold smile. "Certainly you know by now that
your father named me his executor."

"I was not
aware of that," I lied. "But that will make it easier to coordinate
the transfer of his estate to Eva and myself, won't it?"

"Why are you
lying to me?" he hissed as he leaned in close enough to grab my arm.
"I know you visited the lawyer, and I know he told you that I am the
executor."

"I have no
idea what you're talking about, sir," I said as I watched Baines go from
irritated to angry. His response to my lie told me a lot about his emotional
stake in my father's estate, and I wanted to see how far I could push him.
"I was told that an executor had been appointed, but Mr. Weller did not
tell me who it was."

"Don't
bullshit me, son," he warned. "I'm not someone you want as an
enemy."

"I have no
idea what you're talking about, sir," I repeated. Baines's face went from
pink to a deep shade of red as his grip on my arm became painful.

"Son, I have
spent my life building that business, and I'll be damned if I see your sorry
ass swoop in and make a mess of it at this stage of the game," he growled.
"I want you to sell me your father's shares of the company."

"Why would I
want to do that?" I asked as I watched Julian's face turn red. "How
do I know he doesn't want me to take over where he left off?"

 
"I'm going to tell you one last
time," Julian seethed.
 
"You
need to steer clear of TriCorp. I will not have some rogue soldier of fortune
trying to take control of my company."

"Yes,
sir," I said nodding as I felt grateful for every hard ass drill sergeant
who'd taught me to maintain a neutral expression under any circumstance.

"Lieutenant
Powell?" the concierge called from the desk. "Mr. Blake will see you
now."

I gave Julian a
smile that did not reach my eyes as I reached up and removed his hand from my
arm.

"Do not cross
me, Powell," he said in a low voice.

"Have a good
day, sir," I replied as I turned and walked toward the front desk.

My meeting with
Mr. Blake had revealed nothing other than my father's account was in good
standing and had been paid through to the end of the year. He informed me that
the membership dues were nonrefundable, and when I simply nodded, he offered to
issue me a limited membership card in my father's name.

I thanked him and
accepted it not sure if I would use it, but thinking it might come in handy
later.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Echo

Cece
and I hopped into a cab and rode over to the TriCorp offices, and on the way I
told her the plan. She would go up to human resources and tell them she was
there to apply for a position with the cleaning crew and Ruth would send her
down to the ground floor to talk with Butch. Once in the elevator she would get
out on the twelfth floor where she would pull the fire alarm and then disappear
into the crowd and work her way up to the sixteenth floor where she would wait
for me my former office.

I would wait for
the fire alarm to go off and then slip past Butch and his security team and
make my way up to where Cece would be waiting. It wasn't a foolproof plan by
any means, and I knew that it was incredibly risky and relied on everything
going right for us. One wrong move and we'd be discovered and probably arrested
for trespassing.

"You
understand what this means, don't you?" I asked Cece as she pulled on the
black hoodie I'd brought with me and wiped off her bright red lipstick.

"I get it,
chica," she said as she zipped the jacket up and looked to me for
approval. "This is some serious shit."

"Can you let
your hair down?" I asked as I tried to think about how to make her look a
little less conspicuous. It was difficult because Cece has striking looks, but
as we played with her hair I realized she could pull it off. "Don't look
up at anyone. No eye contact, and act like you're super shy. Hide behind your
hair."

"Don't worry,
I'll be a good little turtle," she laughed.

"What?"

"A good
little turtle, you know, pulling my head in and being afraid of
everything," she said as she stuck her hands in her hair and arranged it
so that her bangs hung in her eyes. Then she looked at me and in a serious
voice, said, “I’m a great actress. I promise."

"I hope this
works," I said as she saluted me and headed toward the building's
entrance. "Be careful, Cece."

As I waited in the
cafe across the street, I watched what was going on in front of the building as
I worked on finishing the code I'd been writing all week. I knew that we were
on borrowed time with the bug I'd left, so I wanted to install a program that
would allow me to bypass the TriCorp server altogether and download data into
my secondary account. It wasn't easy to write the program, but since Dr. Powell
had had me writing programs to help him collate his data, I'd learned a little
about the server he worked with and this helped me.

It was twenty
minutes before I heard the sound of sirens in the distance and realized that
Cece had done her job. I smiled as I snapped the laptop shut and stuffed it in
my bag. I dropped some money on the table and quickly headed out the door and
across the street. The fire trucks were pulling up in front of the building and
people were beginning to stream out the front door. I slipped into the side
entrance where one of Butch's security guards had propped open the door for the
fire department. I quickly made my way to the stairway and began climbing
knowing that the fire fighters were likely to be right behind me.

My heart pounded
from not only the effort of running up the stairs carrying the bag with the
laptop in it, but also the fear of being caught. If Julian found me in the
building, he'd probably be angry enough to call the police and have me arrested.
If he knew I had Dr. Powell's classified research on my laptop, there was no
telling what he'd do.
  

I made my way to
the sixteenth floor and heard fire fighters yelling that all was clear on
twelve and fourteen before I yanked open the door and slipped inside. The
entire floor was dark and the fire alarms were still shrieking loudly as I
headed straight for my former office and found the door locked.

"Shit,"
I muttered as I looked around wondering where Cece had hidden if she hadn't
been able to get inside the office. I didn't have time to look for her. I only
had minutes before the fire crew hit this floor and if I were found, it would
be disastrous.

"Psst,
chica!" Cece called from somewhere in the darkness. "I think I have a
way to get in the office. I found something..."

I felt Cece
pushing me out of the way as she bent down and slipped something into the lock
of the door. I heard something clicking before it engaged and the next thing I
knew, the door was swinging open and we rushed through it.

"Close it and
get down under the desk," I frantically whispered. Cece quietly closed the
door and turned the lock so that crews checking the floor wouldn't be able to
enter without breaking the door down. Then she crawled under the desk and waited.

"Found
something, eh?" I whispered.

"Hey, I come
prepared," she said and I heard the grin in her voice.

"Who taught
you how to do that?" I whispered.

"Chica, when
you date as wide a range of dudes as I do, you're bound to pick up stuff from
them," she said before laying her hand on my arm and saying, "Shhhh.
We don't want to blow it now."

Twenty minutes
passed and we heard nothing. I squeezed Cece's arm and wondered if the coast
was clear.

"Wait,"
she said as she crawled out from under the desk and slowly peeked around the
edge of it. She froze and then quickly moved back under the desk where she
whispered, "Someone's standing at the door, but they're not doing
anything."

"What the
hell?" I whispered just as someone rattled the door handle. I gripped
Cece's arm as we both held our breath. Ten minutes passed and there were no
other sounds in the hallway. Cece snuck out again, and signaled that the coast
looked clear.

I quickly fired up
the computer on the desk and hooked my laptop to it, whispering "C'mon, c'mon!"
as Cece watched the door.

"Are you sure
this is going to work?" she asked.

"Nope, not at
all, but it's better than what I left here two days ago when I got fired,"
I said as I tapped the keyboard and installed the program. "Besides, by
tonight, the IT department will probably find the bug and exterminate it. Now
we need to find the lab keys!"

"All of this
programing language is so violent," she said as she watched me.
 

In the fifteen
minutes it took to upload the program, Cece and I snuck into Dr. Powell's
office and combed the premises for the keys.

"Where
sentient beings display empathy," I whispered over and over as I scanned
the bookcases in his office and then rooted through the files in his cabinets.
Someone had gone through this office, but I couldn't tell what had been taken.
I signaled to Cece to check all of the anatomical models on Dr. Powell's
shelves thinking maybe he'd hidden the keys inside the heart or the brain. No
such luck.

"We're not
going to find it," I whispered. Cece rolled her eyes and kept looking. She
wasn't one to give up so easily.

I kept my eye on
the time. Once the program was loaded, I needed to run a check of the system. I
crawled back into the front office and started the test file I'd created, and
once I was sure that the information Dr. Powell was sending would be re-routed
to my new account, I closed the laptop and disconnected it.

"Cece!"
I called as quietly as I could. "We need to get out of here. Now!"

"Coming,"
she said as she quickly crawled out of Dr. Powell's office and joined me under
the desk.

"Now the hard
part," I said. "We have to get out of here without being seen."

"Oh, that's
simple," Cece said snapping her fingers. "I know exactly how we're going
to do that."

"Oh? Do
tell," I said. Cece gestured for me to follow her. She stuck her head out
into the hallway and looked both ways before leading me toward the utility
closet where she grabbed a large blue trash bin on wheels and a mop and broom.
She pointed to the bin and said, "Get in."

"What?"

"Chica, we
don't have time to discuss how you feel about sitting inside a trash bin,"
she scolded. "Those office workers are gonna be back up here any second!
Get in and sit still!"

I climbed into the
bin and clutched my bag to my chest as Cece looked down into the bin one more
time before closing the lid and tilting it up on its wheels. My stomach lurched
from the combination of the movement and knowing that I was sitting in a dirty
bin that had collected who knew what kind of trash. I heard the elevator ding
and then voices emerging from the cars as workers flooded the office.

"Eh? No hablo
ingles," Cece said as someone asked her why she was up here. I felt the
wheels bump as she loaded me into the elevator car and then the car began to
descend. Cece whispered, "Just keep quiet, and we'll get out of here
alive, chica."

I held my breath
and waited for Cece to guide me out of the darkness.

#

When
Cece and I
returned to Nemo's, Mando was waiting at the front door with a frown on his
face and his cell phone in his hand.

"Why didn't
you answer me when I texted you?" he demanded. Cece smiled and patted him
on the head, which only served to make him angrier.

"Big Brother,
do not get all protective on me," she scolded as she walked back to the
kitchen and dished up a couple of plates of food for each of us. My stomach
rumbled as I watched her slapping beans and rice with cheese and sour cream
into fresh corn tortillas and then topping them with salsa and lettuce.

"You are not
allowed to just disappear without telling me where you're going!" Mando
shouted. "I depend on you to set a good example for the wait staff and
this is not it!"

"Mando,
listen to me," I began.

"No, stop it,
Echo," Cece said holding up a hand as she stepped into her brother's
personal space. She lowered her voice to what I recognized as the danger zone
as she spoke to him, "Listen to me, brother. I am not your servant nor am
I your employee. We own this place together, and there are times I need to take
care of business that does not involve you. This was one of those times, and if
you know what is good for you, you will step down and let me eat some
lunch."

Mando stared at
her, but didn't say a word. I followed Cece out into the restaurant and sat
down across from her at a table in the corner. She grabbed the bottle of
Tabasco and began pouring it on her tacos as she silently fumed. I didn't know
what do say, so I picked up a taco off of my plate and bit into it.

"I'm
sorry," Mando said as he came to the table and set two cold beers down in
front of us. "It's just that after mom and pop, I worry. Can you
understand that?"

Cece's face
softened as she looked up at him and chewed. She nodded slightly and then took
another big bite of her taco. Mando nodded and then turned and walked back to
the kitchen.

"You guys
going to be okay?" I asked worried that our adventure had driven a wedge
between them.

"Oh yeah,
we're fine," she laughed. "He's just too bossy for his own good, so
every once in a while I have to put him in his place."

"Oh
good," I sighed.

"Chica,"
Cece said shaking her head. "If you're ever gonna land that Navy SEAL,
you're gonna have to learn to stand your ground and not back down!"

"What are you
talking about?" I asked trying to play innocent.

"Oh please,
do not bullshit me," she laughed as she scooped up what had fallen out of
her taco with her fingers and stuffed it in her mouth. "The two of you are
so head over heels in lust that it's painful to watch."

"Oh God, is
it that obvious?" I whispered mortified that I wasn't maintaining a poker
face where Ryan was concerned.

"More than
obvious," Cece said. "Look, there's nothing wrong with the two of you
hooking up. You're young and single, and holy moly, he's a hottie!"

"Well, I
thought we were going to hook up the other night," I confided. "But
then he's maintained a distance that makes me think he's not actually
interested."

"What do you
mean?" she asked.

I told her about
how I'd sat with his head in my lap until he fell asleep and how he'd spent the
night on the couch without taking things any further. I also told her about his
nightmares and the way he and the other SEALs pounded their Tridents into the
casket.

"So, he's got
issues," she shrugged. "Who doesn't? Give him time and space and let
him work it out. Oh, you're worried because he disappeared this morning, aren't
you?"

"Yeah, what
if he's not coming back?"

"His note
says he is, doesn't it?" she asked knowing that it did. "Give him
space, chica. He'll come back, believe me. They always do."

Once we finished
lunch, I hugged Cece tightly and thanked her before heading up to my apartment
to see if Dr. Powell had sent another email and to wait to see if Ryan
contacted me and let know what was going on.