Night After Night, page 14
part #2 of Reliance Group Series
Unaware that Jessica actually knew Noah, Benny focused on the business aspect of the auction: “We’ll get our PR person, Jackie, on the phone to make arrangements for your payment, and to get your personal information to pass on to Jessica so the two of you can set up a time and place for your date.”
“Sounds great,” Noah said.
The DJ switched Noah over to Jackie to handle the transaction while Benny wrapped up the interview portion of Jessica’s visit. Even though her mind was distracted by everything that had just transpired, she managed to answer the final questions, quickly mentioned her album and upcoming tour one more time, then stopped by Jackie’s cubicle to collect Noah’s contact information.
Jessica’s bodyguard, Simon, was waiting for her out in the reception area, and as soon as he saw her he stood and fell into step a few feet behind her as they left the radio station, then made their way out of the building to the Town Car waiting to take her back home.
Except parked at the curb, right behind her chauffeured vehicle, was a sporty black BMW with none other than Noah leaning casually against the passenger door, his arms folded over his broad chest and his jean-clad legs crossed at the ankles. A warm summer breeze ruffled his thick hair, and sunglasses shaded his eyes and kept most of his expression concealed.
She came to a sudden stop, unable to believe he’d been waiting right outside the radio station the entire time the auction had been going on. The man was bold and cocky and too damn persistent.
Simon halted beside her and narrowed his gaze at Noah. “Is there a problem?” Simon asked her in a low, gruff tone, ready and willing to take care of said problem with one word from her.
“No, it’s okay,” she assured her bodyguard, whose tense forearms immediately relaxed. “I’ll be fine. I know him, and he’s not a threat.”
Except, of course, to her emotions.
In that regard, Noah Young caused all kind of havoc—with his dominating presence, his too-confident attitude, and mostly his delicious, addicting kisses. Like the ones he’d planted on her Friday night after her impromptu concert at Taboo. Those kisses had started a slow burn inside of her that had made her feel restless ever since.
She glanced at Simon. “Give me a few minutes to talk to him.”
Simon gave her a nod and headed toward the Town Car, and Jessica started in Noah’s direction, annoyed by the fact that the dark pair of shades he wore blocked his eyes. But despite those sunglasses, she could still feel his gaze on her, most likely taking a slow, leisurely perusal over her dark purple gauze blouse, down her skinny black jeans, to her lace-up ankle boots—and all the way back up again. Maybe it was a good thing she couldn’t see his eyes and what, exactly, he was looking at.
Jessica stopped a few feet away from him and kept her expression neutral. “Was all that really necessary?” she asked. She wanted to sound irritated but didn’t quite pull it off.
To his credit, he didn’t pretend to not know what she was referring to. “Yes, it was very necessary,” he said, his voice smooth as silk. “I didn’t think you’d go out with me willingly, and I figured this was something you couldn’t back out of.”
Jerk. A clever jerk, she admitted begrudgingly, but a jerk nonetheless. “Why would you want to go out with me at all?” It wasn’t as though the last time they’d been together had been all romance and roses. In fact, there had been a ton of animosity between them, and she couldn’t imagine spending hours with Noah steeped with anger and resentment.
Now that sounded like a fun time together. Not.
“Why, Noah?” she persisted.
Shrugging, he finally slipped off his sunglasses, his gaze a direct and piercing shade of brown. “Because you and I have unfinished business to resolve.”
She stiffened, her defenses rising. “No, we don’t,” she said adamantly. The past was the past, and she wanted it to stay there. For her, that term was nonnegotiable.
He thought for a long moment, as if trying to come up with some kind of compromise. “Okay, what if I promise to be on my best behavior and we both make an effort to enjoy the date?”
God, with the history between them, was that even possible? Could they put the past aside and just go forward as friends? Honestly, it wasn’t as though she had a choice. The man had just spent an exorbitant amount of money for a date with her—how would it look if word got out that she’d backed out on a legitimate auction? Her publicist could no doubt handle the damage control, but Jessica had never reneged on a deal before and she wasn’t about to start now with Noah—no matter how bad of an idea this was.
“Fine.” She absently adjusted the strap of her purse over her shoulder, telling herself she could handle a few hours with Noah, especially since they’d both agreed to play nice. Once her obligation was fulfilled, they could go their separate ways. Thank God she was leaving in a few weeks to begin her concert tour, which would assure there would be plenty of distance between herself and Noah.
“What are you doing here, at the radio station?” she asked. She knew he’d handled the donation payment over the phone, so it wasn’t as though he needed to show up in person.
His smile encompassed a wealth of male arrogance, which only made him look hotter. Sexier. “I knew I was going to win the auction, so I wanted to be here when you left so we could discuss the details of our date.”
She bit her bottom lip to keep from grinning, because she didn’t want him to think she was amused by his gigantic ego, which she was. “You are so full of yourself. What if someone kept outbidding you?”
“Not possible.”
With those two words he told her that he’d been prepared to drop far more cash for a date with her, if necessary. As for the details of their date…“Well, your ten-grand donation bought yourself an evening in my company, so we need to decide on a day and time that works with your schedule.”
“How about right now?”
Was he serious? “It’s two in the afternoon on a Monday.”
He arched a dark brow. “I’d like to think that ten thousand dollars would buy me a few extra hours of your time.”
Oh, he was good. Or bad, as the case might be. “So, you want the afternoon and evening?”
“Sounds fair to me.” He pushed away from his BMW, straightening to his full height so that she had to tip her head back to look at his face. “Unless you have other plans today?”
“No plans. But don’t you have a nightclub to run?”
He shook his head, causing soft strands of his hair to brush across his forehead, giving him a boyish look when he was anything but. “Taboo is closed on Monday and Tuesday nights.”
How convenient was that? She hadn’t anticipated going out with Noah so soon and would have appreciated the extra time to mentally and emotionally prepare herself to spend so many hours with him. “I’m not exactly dressed for a date,” she said, the excuse sounding lame even to her own ears.
To her surprise, he reached out and grabbed her hand, the heat of his touch making her stomach do the kind of somersaults she hadn’t felt since their first face-to-face encounter in high school. “You’re dressed perfectly for what I have in mind for the first part of our date.”
“First part?” she asked curiously.
“Yep, it’s a two-part date.” His thumb caressed the back of her hand, and the gold in his brown eyes all but mesmerized her. “And you’re perfectly dressed for the second part, too.”
She released a soft sigh. When things were like this between them, friendly and civilized, the lack of hostility made it so easy for her to do anything he asked. As long as he kept his promise to leave their history where it belonged—in the past—and she was trusting him to do just that.
Deciding to make the best of the situation, she gave Noah a genuine smile. “Okay, I’m all yours.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how brazen her reply sounded.
And, of course, being a guy, Noah immediately jumped on the chance to acknowledge the double entendre. “I like the way that sounds.”
His deep, wicked chuckle made her shiver and her cheeks grow warm.
He tugged her closer and lowered his head to speak into her ear. “One more request. Can we ditch your bodyguard?” Noah asked hopefully, nodding his head toward where Simon was waiting patiently for her by the Town Car. “I promise to keep you safe and protected the entire time you’re with me.” He gave the hand he was still holding a gentle squeeze.
Oddly enough, she believed him and trusted him. There was a time when he’d been her knight in shining armor, her defender against the unpleasant memories shadowing her youth, and her sanctuary when her own mother had treated her only daughter like she wished Jessica had never been born. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been around to save her from what happened on the worst day of her life.
She didn’t blame him for that, but those events had forever changed the course of her future…one in which Noah Young no longer had a place.
“Yeah, we can ditch Simon,” she told Noah.
And for tonight she, too, was going to put the past aside and enjoy her time with the only man she’d ever loved.
Chapter Eleven
By four o’clock Monday afternoon, Zoe was ready to call it a day—at least at the office. She still had plenty of work to do relating to the boutique and getting her flagship store ready to open within the next month, but most of the remaining tasks she could handle from home on her computer or by phone. Between her and Brittany—Zoe’s trusted assistant who’d been with ZR Designs for the past year—they’d accomplished everything on Zoe’s to-do list for that day and more.
They’d placed orders for inventory, found a commercial builder to install the shelves and racks and cases she wanted in the boutique, and even interviewed three potential managers for the store earlier that day. Since there was something else Zoe needed to handle outside of the office, Brittany was staying behind to call references on the applications to see which candidate received the best recommendation from past employers. Then came background checks, drug tests, and Zoe hoped by the end of the week she would be able to hire one of the women as a boutique manager and could put her to work as well.
“Thanks for taking care of the dirty work, Britt,” Zoe said, as she gathered up her purse and laptop case, to her assistant handling the rest of the application process. “If you need me for anything, just give me a call. Otherwise, I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, boss.” Ever the efficient, multi-tasking assistant, Brittany didn’t even glance up from whatever she was typing into her computer as Zoe passed by the petite blonde’s desk. “Have a good evening.”
“You, too. And don’t stay too late,” Zoe said over her shoulder, knowing that Brittany had a bad habit of getting so engrossed in what she was doing that she worked well past quitting time. It was a quality Zoe appreciated but didn’t want to take advantage of. “Tomorrow’s another long day.”
Abruptly Brittany stopped typing and glanced up at Zoe, her gaze soft with understanding. “Hey, good luck at your father’s office.”
“Thanks.” Brittany was one of the few people Zoe had told about her attempts to contact her father and how worried she’d been because he hadn’t been in touch, but she’d kept the darker accusations against her dad to herself. Until she had any kind of solid evidence to prove The Reliance Group’s claim against her father, she wasn’t about to add fuel to the rumors.
Twenty minutes later she stopped her car in front of her father’s office, immediately noting the lack of vehicles parked in the lot. Counting her Lexus, there were three cars total, which she found odd. Her father’s development company employed over a dozen people, from site and project managers to estimators, an accounting and payroll department, and a few secretaries to handle overflow work for the Meridian project.
As she’d witnessed in the past, usually in the late afternoon the office was a hub of activity, but today the place looked and felt like a ghost town. Unease twisted through her as she entered the building, and things only got worse from there.
The phone lines at the front desk were ringing persistently, but the receptionist was nowhere to be seen. In fact, as Zoe walked past the reception area to where workstations and smaller offices were located, she found the place abandoned.
Including Sheila’s cubicle and Zoe’s father’s office.
Then she heard voices coming from a corner office and headed in that direction, hoping to find a familiar face who could tell her what the heck was going on, because she didn’t like the sense of foreboding settling over her like a dark, brewing storm.
She reached the far office and recognized both men inside—Jeremy, one of the site managers for the Meridian project, and an older gentleman, George, her father’s controller, who’d been with the company for the past five years. They were arguing about a check that had bounced to one of their sub-contractors—and it was just what Zoe didn’t want to hear.
She knocked on the wooden door, startling both men out of their heated conversation. “Hi, guys,” she said when both pairs of eyes turned to her. “Where is everyone? This place is practically deserted.”
The two men exchanged a not-so-discreet look that only added to Zoe’s suspicion that something was very, very wrong. When neither of them spoke, she directed her gaze to the man she knew best. “George, what’s going on around here?” She couldn’t keep the wariness from her voice or prevent the nausea that was beginning a slow roll through her stomach.
Jeremy shook his head, looking both frustrated and angry. “I have somewhere else I need to be, so I’ll let George be the bearer of bad news.”
Jeremy brushed past her and out the door, leaving Zoe alone with the older man, who appeared worn-out and weary. George ran his fingers through his receding hair, then sank down into the leather chair behind his desk while Zoe waited not so patiently for him to speak.
“Things aren’t going too well around here,” he finally admitted as he tugged on the knot of his navy blue tie as if to loosen the fabric so he could breathe easier. “Quite honestly, we’re having a bit of a cash flow problem, and I’m having a helluva hard time trying to locate your father.”
Confusion, and something more oppressive, enveloped her. “He’s supposed to be on a business trip in Chicago.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” George said. “Do you know where in Chicago he’s staying?”
“No.” It wasn’t a good sign that one of her father’s trusted employees was hoping that she had some insight to her father’s whereabouts. “Wouldn’t Sheila have that information?”
The older man laughed, but the sound lacked any real humor. “Yeah, that’s her job as your father’s secretary. She sets up your father’s business trips and keeps his itinerary. All last week she gave me the runaround about getting ahold of your father, along with a bunch of bogus excuses, until I finally confronted her on Friday evening and demanded she give me the information. Which she did right before she left for the day, except the hotel whose name and number she gave me doesn’t have anyone under the name of Grant Russo registered.”
Zoe walked farther into the office, each step feeling as though her shoes were weighed down with lead. “What did you say to Sheila when she came in today?”
George’s mouth twisted grimly. “She didn’t come in today. No call, no show. No answer on her house phone or her cell phone.”
Nope. Not good at all. “Where’s the rest of the office staff?”
He met her gaze, his expression turning harsh. “They haven’t gotten a paycheck in two weeks, so most of them have walked out until they get paid or they’ve just flat-out quit.”
Oh, God. Feeling as though the rug was being pulled out right from under her feet, Zoe sat down in one of the chairs in front of George’s desk. “That’s not all, is it?” She instinctively knew there was more and it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
The man shook his head. “Not only are checks bouncing, but big money is missing from accounts that normally hold money in reserve. The Meridian project has shut down, without a legitimate reason that I can find, and we’ve been inundated with calls from angry sub-contractors who did work but haven’t been paid and now I can’t locate your father to get answers. All I know is that whatever is going on, it’s bad, and I have a feeling it’s going to get worse.”
She thought about the man who’d confronted her a week ago and how bitter and angry he’d been because he hadn’t been paid. There was also that Davenport man who’d made a scene at the casino Friday night. That was two people out of a dozen or more who were probably furious with her father, and the company, for withholding their money. What if someone had gone so far as to hurt her father, or worse, in their attempt to exact retribution?
She forcibly swallowed the huge lump of dread that had gathered in her throat. “Do you think something bad happened to my father?”
“I don’t know,” George said, his features suddenly softening with an emotion that looked like empathy. “But I have to be honest with you about something, Zoe, because you have the right to know. I’ve been doing my damnedest to figure out what went wrong with the finances, and all signs are pointing to your father having embezzled millions of dollars from the investment accounts. I’ve found discrepancies in financial records and bank statements, and possible evidence of wire fraud, and it just doesn’t look good that nobody seems to be able to locate your dad.”
An instant denial sprang to her lips to defend her father, but she could no longer ignore the very real possibility that her father was guilty of fraud and had gone rogue. She didn’t want to believe it, but it was as though everything she’d been denying for the past week was slowly unraveling and becoming her worst nightmare.
“I’m sorry, Zoe,” George said, his tone compassionate. “If your father doesn’t show up, and soon, there is no doubt in my mind that the Feds are going to get involved and things are going to get very, very messy.”
