The Game (20 page)

“Ms. Decard.”

I jerked my gaze to the right to find Les standing next to the building.

“Les? What are you doing here?” I spun around, wondering if Riley was somehow close
by. Or hell, maybe he was inside and he’d watched me getting half-hammered all evening.

“Mr. Moreno sent me to pick you two up and take you home.” He nodded at Meagan. “Ma’am.”

“What? Why?”

Les cleared his throat. “He said you were drunk.”

I grabbed Meagan’s arm to steady myself. I was a little tipsy, but how the hell did
Riley know this? “Is he here?”

“No, ma’am. He’s in Charlotte.”

“Is he psychic?”

Meagan giggled.

Les chuckled too. I hadn’t seen him crack a smile before. “No. The manager called
him and said you were here. He remembered you from a few weeks ago.”

That was unnerving. Note to self: no more happy hours at Sky. I stared at Les, a slightly
blurry Les, and finally realized he was a godsend. Neither of us was sober enough
to drive. We’d have to leave our cars anyway. “Excellent.”

He led us to the Mercedes and opened the back door. “I’ll have someone bring your
cars to you in the morning.”

I nodded and handed him my keys and Meagan’s before I climbed in awkwardly and scooted
across so Meagan could do the same.

She whispered to me as soon as the door shut. “I could get used to this kind of rich.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed, but in this instance, it was a blessing.

Chapter Twenty-One

My head was pounding when I woke up early the next morning. My mouth was so dry, my
lips were stuck together.

And my cell phone was ringing on the night stand.

I slapped at it and dragged it toward my face without moving another muscle besides
my arm. With one eye partway open, I saw Riley’s name scrolled across the top.

I wasn’t ready for Riley yet. I needed aspirin and water and a shower first. He was
going to have to wait.

I dropped the phone next to me and smiled when the beep sounded, indicating he’d left
a message. It took me a full twenty more minutes to gather the energy to drag myself
out of bed. And when I did, I regretted it.

“Geez. It was only three apple martinis.”
And no food
…

Ten minutes later, I emerged from the bathroom in my soft cotton robe, having accomplished
all three tasks. Now I needed coffee. Fast.

The phone rang again as I left the room. I turned around and grabbed it, rolling my
eyes as I answered. “Riley.”

“Cheyenne, where have you been?”

“Right here in my apartment, in my bed, sleeping. I’m surprised you didn’t know.”

“How would I know that? You haven’t answered any of my texts or calls.”

I glanced at the phone to see there were indeed several texts from him last night,
two calls last night, and one call this morning. Oops.

“Sorry. I was at Sky with Meagan, which you already know. My phone was in my purse.
I never heard it ring.” I glanced out the window of my apartment. I was on the fifth
floor, so I don’t know what I thought I might see. But I half expected to find someone
rappelling down the side of the building, paused at my window, keeping tabs on my
location. “Are you having me followed?”

“Of course not. Why would I do that?”

“Well, let’s see, you sent Les to get me last night. That was beyond creepy.”

“I didn’t mean to weird you out. I just wanted you to be safe.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Are you mad?”

“I’m not mad. Just a little freaked out is all.” I tucked the phone between my ear
and my shoulder so I could get the coffee started. The instant the scent of beans
hit my nose, I felt better. “Is everything okay in Charlotte?”

“Working on it. But I’m not going to be able to come home until late tomorrow night.
I’m sorry our weekend got ruined.”

“It’s okay. I need to catch up on sleep and get ahead on my next project.”

“For work?”

“Yeah.”

“Cheyenne…”

“Don’t say it. Whatever you were going to say, keep it to yourself. I need to handle
this.” I didn’t have a clue how I was going to “handle it,” but I didn’t want Riley
to interfere.

He exhaled slow and loud enough for me to hear. “We’ll readdress this next week. Can
I see you Monday night?”

“Monday wasn’t in our agreement,” I teased as the coffee dripped into the pot too
slowly for my taste.

“Baby…”

“Kidding.”

“Good. I’m going to be super busy today. I’ll call you when I have a chance. Might
be tomorrow.”

“Okay. Later then.”

“Bye, Cheyenne.”

I set the phone on the counter and watched as the rest of the coffee emptied into
the pot. I could have made a quick single-serve cup, but I knew today was a pot of
coffee kind of day…

****

On Monday morning, I had barely dropped my purse in my desk drawer when my office
phone rang. I leaned across the desk and grabbed it without looking. “Ms. Decard.
Would you please come upstairs to my office?”

I sat up straighter, instantly on alert. The CEO wanted to see me?

Shit. This could not be good.

“Yes. Of course. I’ll be right there.”

My entire body shook as I stood, straightened my skirt, and headed for the elevator.
Christine was not in her office, but the lights were on. She was undoubtedly somewhere
in the building.

I took deep breaths as I rode to the next floor and stepped off the elevator. Mr.
Schultz’s assistant smiled widely as I approached. “Go on in, Cheyenne.” She pointed
at the conference room. There was no evidence from her expression that she had any
idea why I’d been summoned.

I pushed through the double doors and stepped into what had to be an ambush. There
were four people sitting around the large table. Mr. Schultz was just one of them.
Mr. Davis and Ms. Zumeski, two members of the board, were also there. And Christine.

I swallowed.

“Please, Ms. Decard, have a seat.” Mr. Schultz held his palm out to indicate an empty
chair.

I sat tentatively. What in the hell was about to happen here? Would they fire me?
And on what grounds? If Christine had set me up, telling the board I was incompetent…
I wouldn’t put it past her. In fact, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why
I had ever let it go this far.

“Since we’re aware you were the original employee working on this project, I thought
it only appropriate that you be present for Ms. Parson’s presentation. I understand
yours wasn’t quite up to par and she took over to polish it up.”

I stared at him, but made no move. What could I say? Was there any possibility Christine
had come up with something so much better than mine that she’d made me look like an
idiot? And had she even shared my findings with the others or simply pooh-poohed it
and told them it was awful?

“Is that accurate?” Mr. Schultz asked.

Shit. I glanced at Christine, who sat prim and perfectly coiffed on the edge of her
seat, smiling at me as though she’d done me a favor. “It’s okay, dear. You’re young.
We all made mistakes as we pave our way.”

I was so shocked by her demeanor I could barely breathe. I turned my gaze back to
Mr. Schultz and nodded consent.

“Okay then. Let’s get started.” He turned toward Christine and handed her the remote
so she could change the images on the projection on the far wall of the room.

“As I was saying,” Christine began, standing as she spoke and heading to the front
of the room, “this particular cell phone is believed to be the most innovative design
of this decade. Because of that, it’s imperative that Link have the perfect catchy
marketing designed to show off the benefits as well as convince the public they need
to run to the nearest store and trade in their old phones immediately.”

Mr. Davis and Ms. Zumeski chuckled as Christine flipped to the first projection.

Mr. Schultz did not. The man sat stoically, leaning back in his chair. His legs were
crossed casually, and he had one elbow on the arm of his seat, his fingers tapping
his lips.

Most importantly, his gaze was on me.

I shuddered as I blinked and glanced at the screen.

Holy mother of God.

I held my breath, not hearing a word of Christine’s presentation while I watched each
projection whip by on the screen. My head started ringing and my mouth got so dry
I couldn’t swallow. My face heated to ten shades of red.

The bitch stole my work and presented it as her own.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

Mr. Davis and Ms. Zumeski nodded and chuckled appropriately in the exact spots I had
intended—although I would have taken more time, been more dynamic and engaged them
more frequently than Christine.

I risked another glance at Mr. Schultz, who was still watching me out of the corner
of his narrowed eyes. The man looked fit to kill. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t
just fire me when I walked in. Why make me sit through this agonizing torture if that
was his intent?

Finally, Christine finished. She closed the last image and turned the lights in the
room back up.

Silence reigned for about two seconds.

And then Ms. Zumeski spoke. “Clever. Love it. Good job. I’m impressed with the amount
you’ve accomplished and how quickly. The client will salivate over this.”

Mr. Davis spoke next. “I agree.”

Mr. Schultz leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. “What do you think, Ms.
Decard?”

I swallowed hard and licked my lips. “It was very nice.” My words sounded foreign.

“I would love to see the presentation you put together. Do you have it available?
We should compare.”

“I—”

Christine interrupted me. “I asked Cheyenne to dispose of it. I didn’t want her to
embarrass herself in front of all of you.”

My eyes widened. How could this be happening?

Mr. Schultz reached to the center of the table and pushed the call button on the phone.
“Lauren, could you send Roland from security to the conference room, please.”

“Yes, sir.” His assistant’s voice sounded shaky, not at all like the chipper woman
I’d greeted half an hour ago.

Now I was certain I would be fired. And why not? Apparently, not only did I do a horrible
job wasting company time to put together a presentation that wasn’t worthy of being
seen, but I had also destroyed the evidence of my hard work. Incredible. I was so
tongue tied, I couldn’t even defend myself.

I glanced at Christine, who stood in the same spot, smiling smugly as though she’d
won a marathon and trampled everyone in her path to get there.

Technically, she had.

And on top of that, Riley was going to kill me when he found out. He had wanted to
intervene. Had insisted. And I’d turned him down repeatedly. When he found out his
ex-fiancée ruined me out of spite, there was no telling what he would do in retaliation.

Mr. Schultz stood. “Sit down, Christine.”

I flinched. He called her by her first name.

And he did not sound pleased.

He rounded to the head of the table and leaned against it, towering over all of us.
“See, the funny thing is, I’ve already seen that presentation.” He pointed to the
screen behind him as though it were physically there. “This project you claim to have
spent the entire weekend putting together was in my inbox on Friday morning with Ms.
Decard’s name on it.”

Christine gasped. “Did I say I worked on
this
project over the weekend?” She chuckled nervously. “I must have misspoken. This one
was ready last Thursday. I was working on the next project over the weekend.” She
waved a hand through the air as though brushing away the misunderstanding. “I used
the base Cheyenne started to spruce it up and make it much better. I must have forgotten
to change the name on it.”

“Uh-huh.” Mr. Schultz faced her head on. “And where did you send it from?”

She hesitated and glanced around, nervously licking her lips. “I don’t recall precisely,
sir.”

“I see.” He stood straighter and crossed his arms over his chest as the door opened
and Roland stepped inside. Mr. Schultz ignored him and continued, “Ms. Parson, I didn’t
want to hire you. You’re not qualified to do this job, your résumé is abysmal, and
frankly, you don’t have a single recommendation that gives anything you’ve done in
recent years any weight.”

Roland shuffled just inside the door.

Mr. Schultz dropped his arms to his sides and kept going. “I gave you this job as
a favor to your father. The man apparently either loves you unconditionally, or he
wanted to get you as far away from Virginia as possible. Either way, my friendship
does not extend this far. You’ve made a fool out of yourself. Gather your belongings
and vacate this building immediately.” He turned toward Roland. “Please escort this
woman out of our offices.”

Roland nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Christine jumped to her feet, stammering, “Mr. Schultz—”

He lifted a hand and stopped her. “Get out.”

Without a glance in my direction, she straightened her suit jacket and strutted from
the room with her head held high.

The door swung shut with a resounding thud, leaving me staring at the three board
members, two of whom were so shocked they hadn’t said a word.

Ms. Zumeski spoke first. “Is this true? Why didn’t you say anything?”

My knee bounced under the table, and I grabbed it with a hand to steady my nerves.
“I was trying to handle it. I had no idea she’d stolen my work until I came in here
this morning.”

“Why did you let her present the entire thing as if it were her own?” Mr. Schultz
asked.

I didn’t want him to know about my relationship with Riley or Christine’s history.
It wasn’t professional.

He shook his head and changed directions. “Who sent me this presentation, Ms. Decard?”

I hesitated.

“Whoever sent it has a very sophisticated system that was able to encrypt the sender
so I would have no idea where it came from. That was my first clue something was out
of whack. My second clue was when you didn’t come forward Friday to present it after
sending it to me. You never knew I had it.”

“True.”

“So, you gave it to someone else.”

My ears burned. I was so angry with Riley, I couldn’t think. Damn him. I didn’t care
that he’d just saved my ass and my job. I specifically told him not to interfere,
and he’d done so behind my back anyway. He’d copied my jump drive into his computer
and sent my work over Christine’s head early Friday morning after I’d left his bed.