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“Sounds good,” I smile, trying to relax. “Thanks.”
As soon as Penelope’s gone, Lacey beams and swivels on her chair so she’s facing me. “I’ll fill you in on everything you really need to know about Invested Enterprises,” she winks conspiratorially. It’s not hard to read that she’s the office gossip. She blinks long silk eyelashes at me. “So, have you heard about the insider trading fiasco?”
15
“Insider trading?”
Please don’t let my too-good-too-be-true new job be over before it’s even started. Please don’t let my too-good-too-be-true new job be over before it’s even started.
Lacey glances around, like she doesn’t want to be overheard. “They’re doing major damage control right now. Rumors are that someone leaked some info illegally, but no one knows who it was.”
“Is it true?” If it is, it’s a huge deal. Insider trading can be disastrous for any company and especially for an investment company.
“The SEC is still considering an investigation.” Lacey’s voice is low. So far, Patel hasn’t joined in as we chat, but now he puts his ear pods in his ears and lightly scowls in Lacey’s direction. But Lacey is undeterred. “I’m surprised they hired you, to be honest, with all the heat that’s on the company right now.”
Lacey seems nice but she clearly thrives on drama. So much so that it’s hard to tell if her revelations are something I should worry about or not.
I’ve just moved across the country for this job. If the company is in trouble, I’ll be homeless and jobless. And possibly penniless. Is it possible they could ask for their sign-on bonus back because they’re in financial difficulty?
I’ve already given half of it away.
Within less than a minute of talking to Lacey, I know two things. One, she’s fun and will tell me all her deepest secrets. Two, she can’t be trusted with anything confidential.
“Cash, Noah and Colton are desperately trying to reassure everyone,” she continues. “I guess we’ll see soon enough if it’s just some kind of error or if someone really did leak the info.”
If it’s common gossip in the office, then there’s probably some basis to it. What the hell have I walked into?
“Nobody’s sure if it’s even true or not,” Lacey continues. “I mean, no one has come out and admitted it, which makes me think someone either is so totally clueless they don’t realize what counts as insider trading, or they did it with complete knowledge on the sly for some quick cash and are trying not to get caught.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Right? I mean, to be honest, I thought Cash would have a handle on things by now. This company is his baby. He’s usually all over any shit that goes down. But he wasn’t even the one to tell us. He was out of town when the news broke. And now we’ve got the visit from the SEC hanging over our heads while Cash is meanwhile walking around here with a spaced-out look on his face, like he’s mentally on a beach somewhere. I haven’t seen him so much as smile in weeks.”
“He keeps a low profile,” I comment. When I researched the company before my application and interview, it almost seemed strange that a CEO would be so discrete. I couldn’t find a single picture of him, and there were only a handful of interviews. It’s unusual. Most of the time when hotshot entrepreneurs make it big like this, they’re hungry for adoration.
“He likes privacy,” Lacey confirms. “Being a Maddox, he doesn’t need visibility to make money. He already has the name, the legacy and the money-making genes. I heard he knows someone at Google and they wipe his online profile whenever anything comes up. It’s a new thing, apparently. To make yourself invisible on the internet. It’s supposed to give you a mysterious, powerful aura, like a professional superpower or something.” She almost scoffs, like wanting to be invisible is a foreign concept to her.
I kind of like the idea.
Lacey takes a sip of coffee. “Cash is a good boss—well, boss’s boss, more accurately. But whatever’s going on at the moment seems to have totally thrown him. I get it, but now’s not the time for him to lose concentration.” She lowers her voice. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s his ex that’s distracting him. She still works here but he broke it off with her a few months ago and now he won’t even give her the time of day.”
“Oh.”
“She wasn’t an employee when they started seeing each other, but still. Apparently Noah hired her and didn’t know they were fuck buddies at the time.”
It’s interesting information, I guess, but I sort of wish she’d stop telling me all this. It feels personal. “Yikes.”
“All the Maddox brothers are ridiculously gorgeous, of course, and single, which is seriously unfair considering we have to look at them all day. Plus of course they’re smart and loaded. Which is why Rylee didn’t want to let Cash go.”
“Rylee?”
“Yeah. Rylee Winters. She was seriously in love with him, but he dumped her after only a few weeks and now it’s really awkward because she’s obviously still pining for him. And she’s got claws, that one. Trust me, you’ll definitely want to steer clear.”
I make a mental note to avoid Rylee Winters wherever possible. The last thing I need is to make enemies before I’ve even logged in.
“So none of the brothers are in relationships?”
“If you count out being married to their jobs, no. Cash has sworn off women after Rylee, as far as I know. I don’t know this for sure but I’ve heard he’d like to have her fired. But the company has a two-month trial period, and after that, it’s hard to fire someone without a legal reason for it. Anyway, Noah seems too busy to date. And Colton…well, he’s Colton. A total fuck-boy. But he never dips his quill in the company ink, if you get my meaning. Even though everyone in the office spends every Friday afternoon trying to change his mind.”
