Chapter One #2
“But her paperwork doesn’t wash. We didn’t pick it up when we hired her or she never would have gotten the job, but the security review caught something off with her last name. We’ve been watching her. She’s been looking at files that have nothing to do with her division. Trying to hack email.”
“Do you know who sent her in?” Gage asked.
“I think she’s working for herself.”
“What does she want?”
“That’s the interesting thing,” I said. “So far she seems to want me. She’s poking into my emails. My files. I decided the best way to deal with her was to give her exactly what she wants.”
Gage leaned forward. “I don’t like this, Aiden. If she lied on her application, fire her. If she’s digging around where she shouldn’t be, fire her. Don’t bring her into your inner circle.”
“I have a plan,” I said, trying to deflect.
Gage ignored me. “I saw the way you were looking at her. I’ve never known you to get involved with an employee. It’s asking for trouble, and you know it. We have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment here. You know that, you set the fucking policy.”
“I set the fucking policy because we are not that kind of company. But Violet Hartwell is not a regular employee. She’s a spy, here under false pretenses, and whatever she wants, it has to do with me.
You should have seen her face when I offered her the job.
I thought she was going to bolt from the room.
She was happy, buried in Carlisle’s division digging away for whatever it is she wants to find. Now she has to deal with me.”
“I don’t like this,” Gage said again. “Why don’t you just put the Sinclairs on her, find out what she’s up to, and then fire her. I can’t emphasize enough the part about firing her.”
“Oh, I put the Sinclairs on her. Cooper hasn’t uncovered her real name yet, but the condo she’s living in is owned by a shell company, and the real owner is unknown. We’ll find out.”
“You’re not firing her because you want to investigate her? Or because you want to fuck her?” Gage asked, studying me with curiosity.
I couldn’t blame him. I was all business. Outside of my family, this company was my life. I would destroy anyone who threatened it. But Gage knew me better than anyone, and he’d already figured me out.
“Both,” I admitted. “She’s not off the table because she’s not a real employee. At best she’s a spy. At worst she’s a criminal. Either way, she’s fair game.”
“You have women lined up to date you. Why don’t you go fuck one of them?”
“I have,” I said. “I’m bored.”
Gage gave me the smug smile of a man who went home every night to the warm bed of the woman he loved.
Gage and Sophie were newly married, and so far it looked like the honeymoon would never end.
They lived with me in Winters House, our family home.
The place was huge, and still I managed to walk in on them at least once a day.
They couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
On top of that, I’d been watching my cousin Annalise falling head over heels for her first love, had watched every other member of my sprawling family pair up, and if I was being totally honest, all that love and devotion had left me feeling restless.
I was happy for them. No, I wasn’t happy. I was fucking ecstatic. Our family had been through more than its share of rough times. All the money and power in the world can’t fight death. It can’t undo murder.
We’d lost Gage’s parents when we were children, and then my own when we were teenagers.
The Winters family had been plagued by scandal and loss and grief for too many years. The only thing that made it better was seeing the people I loved find their own happiness, one by one.
Gage was right, I never had any trouble finding a date. I was adept at fending off the fortune hunters, and when I wanted a woman, I had one. Lately, the idea of taking out one of my regular companions had lost its luster.
Maybe it was all that true love in the air, but I wanted something different. Not what my family had. Not what Gage had.
Winters, Inc. was wife, mistress, and child all in one. After my family, the company had been my sole focus since my father had died. I had no plans to change that. I didn’t want to fall in love. I didn’t need a relationship. I just wanted something…different.
“What do you mean, you’re bored?” Gage asked. I should have known he wasn’t going to let me off the hook.
I shrugged a shoulder and tried not to think of that peek of Violet’s cleavage.
Getting her into bed would be tricky. She was smart, and she was on her guard.
She hadn’t given me a single sign that she was attracted to me, but that shell of hers was so well practiced, I already knew I’d have to work for it.
Good.
I liked a challenge.
Knowing Gage wouldn’t give up, I went on, “I’m intrigued, okay?
She’s not a corporate spy, but she’s up to something.
She’s looking for information on me, but when I offered her the chance to work by my side, she balked.
I want to know why. If I can talk her into bed while I’m figuring it out, all the better. ”
Gage let out a sigh of defeat. “She’s your type, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t have a type,” I said.
“Really? So she’s not a carbon copy of Elizabeth?”
No one in my family had liked my first wife. If I tried to look at Violet objectively, I could see why Gage would say that. She had the same cool composure as Elizabeth, the same icy blonde hair, even the same elegant sense of style.
But Elizabeth had been cold to her core, something I wished I’d found out before I married her. Violet was an entirely different creature. I’d seen that hint of defiance, the way she’d raised her chin when she strode out of my office.
She was scared and against the ropes, but she wouldn’t give in.
Elizabeth was a stone sculpture, hard and frigid all the way through.
Not Violet.
I’d glimpsed the woman hiding behind the mask.
There was passion beneath that perfect exterior.
I was going to expose it.
And I wasn’t going to justify myself to anyone.
“She’s not Elizabeth, Gage,” I said with finality. “I’ve got this under control.”
“That’s what you say now.” He stood. “I’m keeping an eye out for complaints to HR. If this ends up in a lawsuit, I’m letting you swing.”
“It won’t,” I promised. “I’m giving her exactly what she wants. Me.”