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Taking a shower, she dressed after drying off and putting lotion on. Calling down to the front, she asked them to get her bags and let them know she was leaving in two hours. Once that had been taken care of, she headed back to the dragon’s lair.
She nodded at Monica, who gave her a smile.
“Is he in?”
“He hasn’t come back since you took him out of the office.”
The elevator slid open and there he was. Tall, commanding, and not the least bit sympathetic to how he affected her ovaries. His slate gaze sliced to her and he lifted an eyebrow.
“Something you need, Ms. Wentz?”
“I have the update I promised you.” She lifted her briefcase.
His gaze hardened but he waved a hand to his office. “See we’re not disturbed, Monica.”
“Of course, sir.” She grinned at Daisy, who just went to the door and walked in, aware of the brooding man behind her.
The moment it was shut behind him, he struck out for her. Daisy held up her hand.
“I’ve figured it out.”
That froze him in place. “Who did it?”
This wasn’t the man who’d teased her to orgasm, this was the cold, ruthless businessman.
“May I use your desk?”
He grunted and she took that to be his approval. Withdrawing her laptop, she powered it up and brought up the sheets and files she needed.
Livingston didn’t sit and she cut her gaze over one shoulder. He watched her, hands fisted at his sides.
Something else was going on. Damn her conscience. Straightening, she tipped her head to the left. “Are you okay, Mr. Rhodes?”
The look in his eyes was similar to the one she’d seen in the back of the town car. “I will be. What do you have?”
There it was, the businesslike tone she had been expecting.
Daisy pointed to the chair. “Care to have a seat?”
He strode around the sprawling desk, dragging a hand along her hip almost like he did it without conscious thought before he claimed a seat. She bit back the groan that dangled on the tip of her tongue at the tender caress.
“What am I looking at?” He rolled his chair closer to the desk.
Daisy thought about sitting on the corner but remained standing.
“The intricate path that was laid to frame your brother.”
He tensed.
She couldn’t refrain from asking again, “Are you okay?”
“My brother’s plane went down and I’ve not been able to locate him.”
Oh shit! She sat on the desk and placed a hand on his forearm. “I’m so sorry. Do you want to do this later?”
His eyes were cold when they met hers. “No. I’ll handle that afterward. Who do I need to fire?”
Daisy slid off the desk, faced the computer and clicked on the file that would tell him the who.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He jabbed a finger at the screen. “Are you telling me that my secretary set all of this in motion?”
She nodded. “That’s what I’m saying.”
He jumped to his feet. “I thought you were good at your job. I brought you in because I was told you were the best.”
It wasn’t like she’d not been faced with people who didn’t like the news she gave them, but somehow, that same disbelief from this man hurt more than she wanted to admit. In some part of her mind, she knew he was also dealing with the fact his brother wasn’t able to be found.
“What fucking point could she have for that?”
“Not within my purview, Mr. Rhodes. I was hired to break it all down and let you know who was truly behind the embezzlement. Not to give you the why. That is for you and your people to figure out.”
“Tell me what you found.”
He brought over another chair and she took it, doing her best not to think about how their knees pressed against each other. After a stern mental correction, she put herself into work mode and snuffed out the woman who had fallen for this man that night in Seattle.
She didn’t dumb it down, she just walked him through what she’d found. The carefully laid tracks, each tiny bread crumb she had followed back to the beginning.
“Let’s face it,” she said. “Like I said at the beginning, it would be foolish for your brother to do what he was accused of doing and leave such an obvious trail. I haven’t met your brother, but this embezzling goes back six years.”
He went rigid like a steel pike. “Six?”
God, his voice was sexy.
“Yes.” She clicked on another file. “Once I figured that out, I compared the timeline to the one I was provided and started working the discrepancy from there.” Daisy settled back in the chair and watched him skim the file.
He held up his left hand, index finger extended. “Wait a minute, did I hear that right? The report you were given was different than what you found from the beginning?”
