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She shrugged. “I don’t know. Since six o’clock?”
“And it’s now way past seven. What’s on your mind?” He went over to sit beside her.
“Uhm, nothing important. I was just thinking.”
“Yes, about something very important, or else you wouldn’t be sitting here in a dark room staring off into space.”
“Yeah, but it’s not about anything you’d want to hear about.”
“Melanie, I’m your husband.” Sloane’s voice was brutally stern. “If there’s something worrying you I need to know about it. Now talk.”
“But it doesn’t have anything to do with us,” she said, obviously determined to hold her ground. “It has to do with business. My business.”
“And your business is my business. Don’t let me have to ask again.”
It was only when he said those words that Melanie began to look like she was considering talking, and it was a good thing because he was not going to move until she opened up to him.
“I…it’s nothing.” She breathed in, then let it out slowly. “Well, actually, it’s something but it’s sort of embarrassing.”
“I’m listening.”
She looked down at her hands and when she spoke her voice was quiet and low. “I made a bad business move a few months ago and now it’s coming back to bite me. I needed an infusion of new technology so I gobbled up a film company, hoping that would bring in some new investors. Instead, it’s been nothing but a big hole in my film division's already leaky bucket.” She sighed. “I thought I was rescuing the company but it was the worst business decision of my life.”
Sloane frowned. “But you have deputies who should have been advising you on the transaction. I know the final decision is yours but what about the analysis? Didn’t your team assess the potential of this acquisition before you put money on the table?”
She looked up at him then, her eyes cloudy with confusion. “That’s the really puzzling thing. It was my COO who first identified this company as an opportunity. I hadn’t even heard of them. Then my VP of finance checked it out and they both gave me the all clear.” Then she shook her head. “It wasn’t until after the deal was done that all the rotten details started coming out. It was the financial controller who first brought it to my attention but by that point it was too late.”
Sloane shook his head. “This sounds fishy to me. You had your top guns review this business and come back with positive feedback, and it took a subordinate of theirs to figure out that this was a mistake? Bull.”
She gave him a quizzical look. “You think this was deliberate?”
“Any possibility they’re trying to sabotage your company?”
The question made her look away, obviously deep in thought. “I…really don’t know.”
“I suggest you look into it. Your greatest enemy may be right there on your team.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Son of a bitch.” Sloane slammed his fist down on the desk and scowled at the private investigator. “She trusted him.”
Mark Danvers, looking more like a bouncer than a P.I., shrugged as he lounged in the chair across from Sloane. “And that was what made it so easy for him. He manipulated her trust.”
“But what about the VP of finance? He was in on it, too?”
“Doesn’t look like it. Looks like he was intimidated by the COO who’s his superior. The operations boss probably told him to leave the decision to him.”
“Goddamn wimp.” Sloane snorted in disgust. “I should have both of them thrown in jail.”
“Now hold on a minute.” Danvers put up his beefy hand. “Let’s not jump the gun. I want to dig into this some more. I still haven’t figured out how all of this would benefit the perp. All he’s succeeded in doing is making your wife’s life miserable.” He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “There’s got to be more to it than that. What does he get out of this?”
“He probably owns shares in Rapid Films, saw it was sinking and wanted to dump it,” Sloane snarled. “And he dumped it on Melanie. I’ll kill the bastard.”
“Not until I do what you’ve paid me for,” Danvers drawled, looking unimpressed by Sloane’s tirade. “You can commit all the murders you want after I’m done my job.”
“Well, get on with it then.” Sloane's fingers itched to throttle somebody and if the P.I. didn’t hurry up and bring the guilty party down, he was of a mind to handle the whole situation himself. And it would not be pretty.
“All right,” Danvers said, pushing his hulking frame up and out of the chair, “I’m going. But don’t do anything or breathe a word to anybody until I say so.”
“Got it.” Sloane got up to walk the man to the door.
There, Danvers paused, turned, and gave him a piercing look. “Quest,” he said, his voice cool, “not a word. Not even to your wife.”
Sloane knew Danvers and how he worked and he trusted him completely. If there was one man who could get to the bottom of this, it was the one standing right in front of him. Without a word, he nodded.
***
As expected, Mark Danvers was true to his word. Within a week of their meeting he was back at Sloane’s office with information and, more importantly, enough evidence to throw Trent Palmer, soon-to-be ex-COO in jail.
“Have you ever heard of a film actress called Zena Paloma?” Danvers asked.
Sloane’s heart jerked in his chest. “I have. Why?”
“She was the brain behind the scam sale of that Rapid Films company.” Danvers leaned forward, his eyes intense. “For some reason this woman seemed intent on sinking Parker Broadcasting, or at least leaving a huge dent when she was done. She made contact with Palmer. Told him she’d pay him two hundred grand if he’d convince the owner to buy the company. He folded like a leaf on a hot pavement.”
“Greedy SOB.” Sloane clenched his fists as the anger rose inside him.
“And desperate,” Danvers inserted. “Somehow she found out that he was up to his ears in debts from a real estate investment gone bad. He was about to lose his house.” The big man chuckled. “That gal did her homework, I tell you. She found the perfect pigeon, high enough in the company for his decision to be accepted with minimal questions, and desperate enough to grab what she had to offer.”
“My God, would she go to such lengths…” Sloane’s voice trailed off as his thoughts ran wild. Just how long had Zena been planning this coup?
“Hey, you know her?” Danvers regarded him through narrowed eyes. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Quest?”
“Yeah, but I’m just realizing the connection.” He paused again and did a quick rewind of his conversation with Zena. She’d said Melanie was her target, that the deed was already done, so all that was happening at Parker Broadcasting was her doing.
His eyes snapped back to the P.I. “When did she first make contact with Palmer?”
“Five months ago. May twenty-eight, to be exact.”
Sloane sucked in his breath. “Two weeks after news of the engagement appeared in the papers. She moved damn fast.” He looked at Danvers, who was regarding him with a puzzled expression. “I was in a relationship with Zena and it ended badly. But that was over ten years ago. Looks like she’s the kind who can hold a grudge for a very long time.”
The P.I. grunted. “You must have hurt her real bad.”
“That’s the crazy thing,” Sloane said, still bemused. “The whole break-up was her fault.”
Danvers lifted his eyebrows then he chuckled, obviously amused. “Isn’t that what they all say?”
“This time it’s true and that’s what makes the situation so insane.” Sloane shook his head. “I’m done trying to figure her out. The fact is, she saw announcements of my engagement, came up with a plan of revenge, and moved on it immediately. She attacked Melanie months before she even became my wife. How evil is that?”
In response, Danvers snorted. “The woman is a pro. Now let’s teach her not to mess with the big boys.”
By the time the private investigator left that afternoon they had a solid plan of action, one that would require that they now involve Melanie. So far Sloane had been shielding her from the investigation, not wanting her reaction to Palmer to tip him off in any way. Now that they had solid information she would have to be involved.
He picked up the phone and dialed her number.
***
As Sloane’s executive assistant led her down the hallway toward his private suite, Melanie looked around and the memories came rushing back. Only five and a half months earlier she had walked down this hallway, intent on one thing – to secure Sloane’s promise to give her a baby. It had been an audacious plan, a shocking one, but she was the one who had ended up with the greater shock when the notorious bad boy had presented her with an outrageous proposal of his own – marriage in three months.
