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She was going to be the death of me. “I don’t have time this morning. I have a conference call in just a bit. I’ll take you in to work when it’s over, if that’s okay.” I poured syrup on my pancakes.
She fixed a pout on her face. “You’re no fun.”
I took a moment to finish chewing. “Tempt me again, young lady, and I’ll bend you over this table and fuck you so hard you can’t walk straight.”
She smiled. “Promises, promises.”
I took a sip of my smoothie and followed the wretched green gunk with some orange juice. “Careful what you wish for, you little hussy. And what’s got you so full of spunk this morning, anyway?”
She straightened up. “I want my boyfriend to remember what he’s coming home to, so he doesn’t stay too late at work.”
I nearly choked on my food laughing. “Awfully demanding, aren’t we? I’ll make sure Veronica pushes me out the door earlier, okay?”
Her smile disappeared. She pushed her food around on her plate with her fork. “What’s her story, anyway? I don’t think she likes me.”
“It’s not you. She’s just not terribly sociable in her protect-the-boss mode. But she’s extremely organized, and that’s what I need. I hired her when my previous assistant was hit by a car.”
Amy gasped. “That’s terrible. Is she okay?”
“Banged up pretty good. She’s fine now, but she decided she didn’t want to come in to work in the city anymore. So we changed her job so she could work for us from home.”
“That’s much nicer…” Amy stuffed a piece of pancake in her mouth and didn’t finish her sentence. “We should have Josh and his girlfriend over for dinner. What’s her name?” she mumbled.
“Brinna,” I told her. “You try to get him to bring her to dinner. I’ve tried twice. I’ll bet you a thousand bucks she doesn’t exist.”
She put her glass down after a sip. “That’s not a nice thing to say about your friend.”
“Either that or he’s ashamed because she’s not as beautiful as you.”
She threw a blueberry in my direction and missed. “Stop that. You’re just trying to make me blush.”
It worked; she was turning a warm pink.
“Don’t think I didn’t catch that you just changed the topic,” I said. “What did you mean? Nicer than what?”
She fiddled with her food for a moment. “It’s just that those online articles painted your company as such a bad place to work.”
I nodded. I’d seen them too. Some woman named Merry Poppins, obviously an alias, had posted three online hit pieces about us recently on various blogs. I couldn’t figure out why. Nobody even admitted to knowing her real name.
I put my fork down. “You shouldn’t believe a word of it. That blogger has some agenda, and we can’t even figure out who she is or what her problem is.”
“That’s not fair.”
“You got that right.” I stood, checked my watch, and took a last sip of juice. I didn’t finish all of the green smoothie, but I’d put a decent dent in it. “I’ve got to take this call now… Oh, before I forget, is it okay if I call Schmulian and re-invite them over for dinner?”
“Absutively.” She blew me a kiss as I walked to my office and closed the door before dialing Josh.
This morning’s call was important, and that made me skittish about our potential bugging situation. I hadn’t had a chance to arrange the sweep yet. At least calling from my house line to Josh’s house bypassed the office phones. We needed to settle some nervousness on the part of the Sanders family before we could close their transaction and add shoes to our assortment of companies.
Josh picked up right away. “Liam, I got a text that the call is off, and I can’t reach them. This doesn’t seem like them. Something is wrong.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face.
“I hope it’s not Winterbourne again,” he said, putting words to my fear.
Chapter 22
(One week later)
