AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Daniel couldn’t believe what he was seeing. One name kept cropping up over and over again. Brenda Renyolds.
Not wanting to wait for Peter to do more digging, Daniel did a quick internet search. Her picture came up, much as it had for Jacobson.
He followed the links to her work history, and sure enough, her list of employers mirrored Jacobson’s for the last eleven years. And when he looked at the dates, Jacobson always started first, then three to six months later, she would start at the company as well.
Although he didn’t know the connection between the two, he now understood what was going on. Grant Jacobson was trying to get Ali to quit. And while he wasn’t averse to that plan given the situation, he wasn’t all for Jacobson continuing whatever this was he was doing. Ali was able to leave. He'd take care of her. But what about the next person he did this to?
With that in mind, he found the names of the people who’d been in the positions Brenda Renyolds had filled prior to her arrival at the companies. The first, a Kylie Brant, had been twenty-three and fresh out of college. She was currently working for an insurance company in Chicago.
The second, Mary Ortega, was a paralegal working at a small law firm across town.
But it was when the search came back on the third woman that his heart sank into his stomach. He clicked on Michelle Olson’s obituary.
As he read over the post, short as it was, he wanted to see Grant Jacobson pay. The date of her death was less than three months from the date Brenda Renyolds started working in Michelle Olson’s previous position.
He dug a little more and found some old social media posts that were still up. As he scrolled through, the need to do something grew. She’d been a single mom and as he read the comments on her last post, one about her kid’s dad taking her daughter away from her because she didn’t have a job, he realized her death hadn’t been an accident. Michelle Olson had committed suicide.
Daniel wanted to punch something. Preferably Ali’s boss, but he wasn’t sixteen anymore. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Her job loss had led to her losing custody of her child and that all led back to Grant Jacobson.
Out of curiosity, he read over Michelle Olson’s performance review and felt as if he were having déjà vu. Unable to complete tasks on time. Refusal to follow through on instructions. Unavailable to meet the requirements of her position.
Given what Ali had told him and what he now knew of Michelle Olson’s situation, he could see the pattern. Ali was killing herself trying to meet Jacobson’s demands. He made her nervous. And as a single mom, Michelle Olson wouldn’t have been able to drop everything at a moment’s notice and attend functions outside of office hours.
Daniel switched gears, wanting to look more at the first company where Jacobson and Brenda Renyolds worked together. Upon closer inspection, he realized Brenda had started as a clerk according to her online résumé. Her previous job had been along the same lines. Then, two months after starting, she’d been promoted to an administrative assistant for Jacobson. And surprise, surprise, her performance reviews while she worked under Jacobson were glowing.
But what he found even more interesting were the huge gaps in her work history. She’d quit when Jacobson left each company, then she didn’t work again until he hired her.
Sitting back in his chair, Daniel tried to put the pieces together. Brenda Renyolds was beautiful. She had long blond hair in the picture, looked to be in her thirties, and had, what looked to be, deep brown eyes.
Was she a long-lost sister or something? They didn’t look alike in any way, so he didn’t think that was the connection. He needed more information.
Shooting Peter a text, he waited for the man to respond.
Daniel – Do you have any additional information on Brenda Renyolds? A connection between her and Jacobson?
It took less than a minute for Peter’s response to come through.
Peter – Pictures 10 and 17.
Snatching up the eight by ten photos Peter had included in the file, Daniel found number ten and number seventeen. The first was of Jacobson sitting in a restaurant with a woman. The second was of the two of them going into a building together. He hadn’t thought much of either of them before, but he now realized the woman was Brenda Renyolds.
As he studied the pictures, he began to pick up on the little things. They were sitting a little too close at the restaurant. The flirty smile on her face as she looked at him. And the way the tips of his fingers touched her back as they were going into the building. These two were lovers.
The pieces began to fall into place. Grant Jacobson was inserting his lover into a position where he always had full access to her...and on the company's dime.
He had no idea if Brenda Renyolds was a good administrative assistant, but he was now realizing that wasn’t the biggest qualification required to work for Jacobson. Ali had assured him Jacobson hadn’t made any sexual advances toward her, so in some twisted way her boss must have some sense of loyalty to the woman he was sleeping with. That didn’t, however, solve Daniel’s problem.
A quick look at his clock told him it was almost noon. Grabbing his suit jacket, he slid it on and headed out the door. He hadn’t seen Jacobson in seven years, and he was thinking a second meeting was long overdue.
* * *
Ali was sitting at her desk, trying to work on the list her boss had sent her when she heard the elevator ding. The footsteps grew louder at the person’s approach, and she looked up, expecting to see one of the other executives or their admins. Her heart rate kicked up a notch when she saw Daniel. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to take you to lunch.”
She glanced at her boss’s door, then back at Daniel. “I don’t usually take lunch until one.”
“Is that a rule?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
