Sweet Surrendering (41 page)

“Oh, I missed you. I also heard you are one assistant short. You want to tell me about that?” He pulled back and studied my face. I looked into his eyes, which were just like mine and . . .

I told him everything.

Not all the sexual details (oh hell no) but that Lucah and I had a relationship behind his back and that we’d been seeing each other. I waited for his reaction, and for him to tell me that he’d known all along about why Lucah was here.

Dad watched me and listened with a completely emotionless face. I knew I was blushing for some of the story, but once I finished, I was freaking out to know what was going on in his head.

“Are you completely ashamed of me?” I said in a voice that made me feel like I was a kid again and I had broken something important to him and had to ‘fess up.

“Rory Abigail. Do you think that I didn’t know that you were having a relationship with him? I think I knew what was happening before you knew. I saw how you looked at him and I saw how he looked at you. And I also caught him passing you notes in a meeting. I know you were trying to be discreet, but you didn’t do a very good job.”

Oh, I needed to sit down. I sunk into my chair.

“Does everyone know?” I said as he pulled my other chair around so he could sit across from me. I was having trouble breathing. I needed to open a window, but I couldn’t move.

“Oh, I think everyone else was too wrapped up in their own little lives to worry about you. I also deflected a few times for you. I’m not ashamed of you, Rory. You’re my daughter and you met a nice boy and he just happened to work with you. Yes, it is against the rules, but some rules are meant to be broken. What does your gut tell you about him?”

“That I love him.” There was no point in lying about that, even if I could get away with it.

“Then that’s all that matters.” He shrugged and acted like it was nothing. Who was this man? I had memories of him taking people’s asses and handing them back with a smile for much, much less. He’d been harder on his employees when he was younger, but still. My Dad made sure that everything was up to par and he didn’t accept anything less than perfection from his employees.

“Did you know about him?” I ask in a small voice.

“Yes. I did. I was the one who found him and hired him.”

“Who else knew?”

“Mrs. Andrews, Hal. A few more on the board. I’m not surprised he told you.” He shook his head back and forth and smiled at me.

“Well, I kind of forced it out of him.” He hadn’t really had a choice when I confronted him at the restaurant.

“That’s my girl.”

“Are you going to fire me?” I didn’t know if he could even do this, since we were family.

“Would you like me to fire you?” Okay, remember what I said about special treatment? Forget that.

“No!”

“Well, you did break the rules and you signed a Code of Conduct that stated you would be terminated if you violated it. So, what would you like me to do?” Have amnesia? Pretend he hadn’t seen anything? Set the building on fire? Build a time machine?

“I can see that mind of yours working. So, what’s the verdict, Rory girl?”

“I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to lose my job and I don’t want to lose him. I want to have it all. I want my flipping cake and I want to eat it.” Or have sex with it. Did that make Lucah the cake?

I wasn’t thinking about the important things at the moment.

“Then I guess that means that I have never seen any misconduct on your side or on his. Neither has Mrs. Andrews. And this is the last time we’ll talk about this particular issue, seeing as how he is no longer employed by this company, and technically wasn’t in the first place, since he was using an alias. If you were to start seeing him after his termination, then that wouldn’t violate any rules. So.”

“So,” I said, letting out a breath. “That’s it?”

He put his hands out.

“That’s it.”

That couldn’t be it. All that and no big deal? All the worrying and freaking out and all of it for nothing?

“I need to sit down,” I said, forgetting that I was, in fact, already sitting. Dad just laughed.

“I just remember the trials and tribulations I had to go through to get your mother. The hardships that you have to go through to be together make it worth it in the end. I only hope he can prove that he deserves you, Aurora.” He leaned forward and I hugged him again. There’s nothing like a hug from your Dad. I don’t care how old you are.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Anytime. You’re my only girl and I’d move the earth for you. But if you date someone else in this office, I’ll fire you. Got it?” I couldn’t tell if he was joking until he winked and kissed my forehead before leaving me alone in my office with a hell of a lot of thoughts.

I was still swimming in those thoughts that afternoon as I looked over another presentation, when there was a commotion in the lobby that carried through the entire floor. I got out of my desk and went to my door to peek out.

And then I saw the cops strolling past my office and a flustered Mrs. Andrews following after. She gave me a look when she went by my door and I got up from my desk. Damn, they’d called in the big guns. The cops looked like they spent half their time working out and the other half thinking about working out.

Everyone else was popping their heads out of their offices to see what was going on, but no one seemed to know. I shot a questioning look at Mr. Dunlap across the hall and he just made a shrugging motion.

This probably had something to do with Lucah’s investigation. Well, I was curious to see what was going to go down, so I left my office and started walking down the hall as they stopped in front of Mr. Craig’s door and knocked. His door was the only one that wasn’t open.

The cops weren’t messing around as they knocked again and then busted the door open. Dad was trying to take control of the situation, but the cops passed him a warrant, so his hands were tied, but he calmly sent Mrs. Andrews into his office to contact the company lawyers. People were starting to edge closer to get a better view as the cops smashed the door in and dragged Mr. Craig out.

He went quietly, not wanting to make a fuss and the drama was over as quick as it had begun.

Or that was how I thought it was going to go.

Mr. Craig did not go gently into that cop car. He went kicking and screaming and dragging his feet and begging for mercy and cursing and asking all of us to help him.

It was almost tragic, really. I’d never seen a grown man behave like that outside of a bar, or a sporting event. Dad came and found me and motioned for me to come into his office. I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say to me.

He closed the door behind me as Mrs. Andrews dashed past me to go back to her desk. Or maybe to do some damage control as everyone dropped whatever they were doing to gossip and chat about the insanity that had just gone down.

“That was ugly, but it had to be done. Mr. Craig and at least eight other people were using money from this company to funnel drugs over the border from Mexico,” he said, rubbing his eyes as if he just wanted to go to bed. I didn’t blame him.

Stealing money from the company AND drugs? How stupid could you be? I always wondered at criminals. They always seemed so stupid when they got caught.

“Do you want me to leave you alone?” I said after a few minutes. The voices chattering outside were distracting.

“No. Yes. I think I need to call a meeting.” He hit a button on his phone and Mrs. Andrews’ voice came through the speaker.

“Please let everyone know that we are having an emergency meeting right now. Mandatory for all Senior Management.” She agreed and then Dad put his arms out and I gave him a big hug. He needed it.

The meeting was nuts, with everyone talking and asking questions at once. I stayed in the back and kept my mouth shut and my eyes on the floor. Dad didn’t mention me, or Lucah or anything, just that there had been an internal investigation and if anyone had any questions they could ask him and that there would be no talking of the issue outside of the office, or else there would be severe consequences.

We’d never had a scandal like this before, so keeping the lid on it was going to be quite a job. We had a PR team, and they stood up with Dad and talked about how there would be a statement they would email around to all of us about what we could and could not say to anyone outside the office, including the press.

God, I didn’t even think about that. This was going to explode in the media. Lovely. That was going to be fun to deal with. Not to mention what would happen once this got out and our existing clients heard. Oh, fuck. Shit, fuck, crap, fuck.

I nearly passed out when I thought about that prospect. While we were still talking, I swore I could hear everyone’s phones ringing off the hook. Everyone downstairs was probably also freaking out.

What a fucking mess.

Any work for the rest of the day was shot to hell. I didn’t even leave my desk or put down the phone. I knew Lucah was waiting for me, but everyone was doing damage control, and that included me. I wasn’t going to bail on everyone so I could go have sex with my boyfriend.

Boyfriend. I could finally call him that, think of him like that. In all the suckage, that was the one bright little spot. I had a boyfriend to go home to whenever I could get the hell out of the office. If that ever happened.

I texted Lucah that I was going to be super late and as the night got later and later and still, I didn’t see an end.

At seven thirty, Dad came into my office and ordered me to go home. I tried to protest, but then he yelled at me and I got the hell out of there.

The cabbie couldn’t drive fast enough to get my exhausted ass to Lucah’s apartment.

This time when he opened the door, I was the one who pushed him up against the door and started ripping his clothes off. And by ripping, I wasn’t exaggerating. Buttons went flying and I nearly tore the zipper out of his jeans. He didn’t even have time to put a condom on as he lifted my hips up and I slid down on him.

“Fuck yes,” I said.

“Hello to you too,” he said as we started moving together, setting a pace that we both craved. It was quick and hard, and soon I was sliding off him and he was carrying me to the couch.

“Rough day?”

“Something like that. And it’s all your fault. Nine arrests. Fuck you very much, Mr. Blythe.” I smacked him in the chest and then went to the bathroom to clean myself up. I didn’t have to worry about much since I was on the pill and we’d both been tested, but I was still paranoid about pregnancy, even with my precautions.

I was a paranoid person in general, apparently.

Figuring I was going to spend the rest of the night naked, I stripped down the rest of way and left my clothes in his bedroom. Then I walked out into the living room wearing just my heels. That led to him getting all the way naked and me working out more of my frustrations with the awful, terrible day.