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“What if Tina decides to tell the truth?”
“She won’t. That would mean she’d forfeit her payout, because that would violate her nondisclosure clause. Even if she were willing to give up all that money, she’d be admitting to fraud. That would be the end of her career, and maybe mean jail time. The worst thing that could come of it would be invalidating the contract, and that would take time. What Lissa Edwards doesn’t have is a lot of time.”
Moving with great deliberation, Tom carefully coiled the rope he’d tied Willa with. The look in his eyes made her wonder what was going on in his mind.
“You played these games with Tina,” she said.
“She’s weak,” he said. “She gives up far too easily. That’s why I don’t think she’ll be any trouble at all. You resist.”
“So does Julio. He’ll be submitting his suggestions soon, and we haven’t even studied the requirements.”
“I’ve read them. There’s nothing special in them. Besides, if they are about to change them, spending any effort in that direction would be a waste. It’s better to conserve your strength for the really tough part.”
The tone of his voice told her he wasn’t finished playing. He tossed the rope on the bed and sat down to put a hand on her warm ass. “How did your little trick with the hooker work out? If you got some photos of him with his pseudo-Lissa, I could drop off photos at the same time?”
“He saw through it.” Telling him a partial truth let her hold a few small cards.
“Shame.”
She agreed. Even if Tom had a pretty nice lever to wield over Lissa, it would have been nice to have pictures of Julio getting his rocks off with a woman who looked a lot like her. It would remind her how shallow and insatiable men were. It had been worth the gamble, though.
Tom slapped her ass. “I’ll tell you what. Give that girl a call and tell her to get that cute brown ass over here. I can think of some fun things the three of us can do this afternoon. Then tomorrow I’ll drop by and see Lissa. When she hears the news, I can watch her face and think about fucking the two of you.” He slapped her ass.
She looked at him. He thought that using women made him a big man, but it was his weakness. For the moment she fully intended to play to it. “She is a delicious piece.”
“I’m glad you think so, because I am going to enjoy watching you with her.”
Well, that was okay too. Sex was sex.
And Tom did like his games.
Suddenly, as she picked up the cell phone to call the girl, she saw the look in Tom’s eyes. She licked her lips. “You’re the one who wants the pseudo-Lissa,” she said.
“Actually, I want the real thing. Does that bother you?”
“Not particularly.”
It did, though.
# # #
Lissa was sorting the pile of recovered emails from Julio, looking at them with a mixture of disbelief and happiness, when Tom Acker walked in her office and stared at her. “You can’t work for Julio Torres,” he said. “I thought I’d drop by and remind you.”
That he’d come to her office unannounced was a surprise. Tom preferred to make people come to him. It gave him an edge, and Acker was all about gaining and keeping the edge in any situation. She never liked that about him.
In fact, she’d never particularly liked him, and now the dictatorial tone he was taking pissed her off.
She folded her hands on her desk and looked at him, noting the odd way he looked at her, as if he was seeing something else. “Of course I can, Tom. I can work for whoever I want.”
“Not for the Milan project.”
“Maybe especially that one. What makes you think you have anything to say about who I work with?”
“Because we have a contract. Naturally, it includes both nondisclosure and noncompete clauses. If you work with him, or anyone else, on the Milan project, I’ll sue your ass and take everything you’ve got.”
“What makes you think we have a contract?”
“We do.” He picked up his briefcase and put it on the desk. When he opened it, he took out a document and put it on the desk in front of her. “Here is your copy.”
When she looked at it, her heart sank. It was a standard consulting contract. “This is crap, Tom. I’ve never seen this in my life.”
He shrugged. “I suppose that’s because you were in the hospital at the time. It can take a while to catch up with things after you’ve been away.”
Flipping to the back, she saw Tina Peters’s signature, dated before the triplets were born. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Tom, but this is worthless. Tina has never been authorized to sign contracts.”
“You sent her to my office to negotiate. You called me yourself.”
“I asked her to find out what you might want or need, and to explore the possibility of us working together, but she never had the authority to obligate me or my company to anything.”
Tom smiled. “That’s a shame, because my lawyers tell me that because you allowed her to represent you, to discuss contract terms, makes it totally reasonable for me to assume she was authorized to sign off on the deal. If she exceeded her responsibilities and authority, you would have grounds for action against her. That doesn’t have anything to do with me, though. It doesn’t invalidate my contract.”
“Tom, if that were the case, I could pay one of your staff to sign a document saying that you were giving me your company and it would be legal. It’s totally bogus.”
He smiled. “That’s your opinion, and I’m not a lawyer. For all I know, you’re absolutely right. I mean, it sounds like a stretch to me too, but the lawyers need to earn their pay, so if you start working with anyone else on this bid, then I will get an injunction to stop you while the court decides if the contract is legit. I understand that the docket is quite full, and that could take some time.”
“Blackmail, Tom? I thought that was beneath you.”
“Blackmail? No, this is business, Lissa. I have a contract with you, and it’s in my best interest to enforce its provisions. You say it isn’t valid, but I say it is, and that is a disagreement. And while I can’t force you to work for me, I can take legal action to hold you to the terms otherwise, and withhold payment for nonperformance.”
“This is a pretty elaborate game.” She thought for a moment. “You gave Tina a contract for the same work, didn’t you?”
He smiled. “If I did, that’s between her and me.”
“How is it that you have contracts with two different firms for the same work?”
“I often work with multiple subcontractors as a form of assurance that I’ll get what I want from one or another of them.”
“So, if I decided to do the work for you, you’d have to pay me?”
He smiled. “That would be a perfect outcome. I’d gladly pay you, assuming the work was any good.”
“What if I objected to working with Tina?”
“Who could blame you? The woman is useless for the project. If you say the word, I’ll get rid of her.”
“I thought she had a contract. They cut two ways.”
“That wouldn’t be a problem at all. I can restructure my business and make her role obsolete. I might have to pay a fee, a small penalty.”
“She was the one who gave you this contract?”
He smiled. “She gave me much more than that. But with this restructuring coming up, I’ll have to tell her the bad news. That makes way for you.” He closed his briefcase and stood up. “If you decide to honor your obligations, please let my new project coordinator know. You two should get to know each other.”
“Who is that?”
“Willa Gruber.” She saw him watching her face and she imagined he was hoping for a sign that she was shocked. At the moment, being shocked would have taken more energy than she could summon.
“Julio’s PA is now your project coordinator?”
“Of course, I could be persuaded to make more changes. Perhaps that would be a better role for you. I like the
idea of you working directly under me.”
“And Willa?”
“I’m sure I can find another role for her. I promised I’d give her the job, not that she could necessarily keep it.”
“I’m glad to know how you regard loyalty.”
“Other people’s loyalty to me is quite useful. At any rate, let me know what you decide, if you decide anything at all. At times, inaction is the best course.” She sat still as Acker picked up his briefcase and left her office.
Now what?
She sat for a moment before getting up and walking into Abby’s office. “It was weird seeing him here,” Abby said.
Lissa held out the contract. “Apparently one of the things Tina did before she left was get us some new business that she never bothered to mention.”
Abby looked at it. “The bitch. And it isn’t even a good deal for us. Talk about salt in a wound.” She looked at Lissa. “So what do we do now?”
“Did you find a copy of anything like this document on the server?”
“No. I might have missed it, though.”
“I don’t think you would have. And it’s probably boilerplate from Acker’s files, not one of ours.”
“I’ll check for it specifically.”
“If you do find it, I need to know the origination date of the first draft.”
“If it’s there, that’s easy.”
“While you do that, I need to talk to Tina.”
