Chapter 25 Collette
Morning arrived again like clockwork. If someone could invent a way to escape mornings, then they would make a killing.
Nothing changed even though I’d tried to up the amount of sexiness I was putting into the atmosphere.
While I was irritated with his non-sexual tactics in the office, he was a complete gentleman.
“Collette, I need you to be aware that you’ll be in a business setting and there will be no mention of our arrangement. Also, be aware that while you are allowed to talk to other employees, you will be violating your agreements if you mention anything that isn’t within the guidelines of work or normal conversational topics,”
he’d warned as if I would just start blabbing to the first person that I saw that he was holding me in his basement.
“Yes, sir. I appreciate the trust you’re showing me.”
He started the business day by having me follow him to and from meetings, taking notes, and looking up items that needed to be researched further.
It was a sign that he was starting to trust me a little more. Although I knew it was more about having a thorough understanding of what he needed without having to repeat it. There was a sense of hope that he might eventually allow me more freedom. Maybe I will get to wander the building unescorted.
The meetings weren’t really that different than the dozen of meetings I’d attended over the years in my other jobs.
Ian took the lead and made sure that everyone stayed on track to make sure his new products were all meeting his specifications.
The new prototypes had come out and the reviews weren’t good at the moment. Not what Ian had wanted, so we were in a discussion with his top three researchers about improving on their feedback.
“These have been tested hundreds of times. I don’t think there’s any room for improvement.”
Thomas rubbed at his temples as if it were more than his brain could handle to think outside the box.
Unable to keep quiet any longer, I raised my hand. If there were consequences later, then I’d have to deal with them at that point.
“Yes? Collette?”
Ian’s surprise was evident.
“What if it wasn’t about the technical aspects, but the physical aspects instead?”
When no one said anything, I continued.
“You made these as a one size fits all, but what if that’s part of the problem. They need to have a way to be individualized. These won’t work on both a five foot woman and a six five man. The differences are too great. Sure, they can try, but making it work and being comfortable are two different things.”
All five men in the room just stared at me. I fought the urge to bite my lip. I should’ve kept my mouth shut.
“Ian, I think you need to give her a raise,”
Mr. Acosta from the government purchasing department commented. “She just put her finger on the problem in less than an hour. All of your researchers weren’t able to figure this out and they’ve had over a year.”
He stood. “Run this through with the new specs needing to be adjustable. If that means more sizes, then that’s what we’ll want. Some more than others, but make it happen.”
“Oh,”
he stopped at the door, “make sure that she approves it before you send us the new prototypes for trial.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ian stood and waited until the door clicked behind Mr. Acosta.
“Can we do this and how long will it take us?”
He looked at the researchers. “Well?”
The three of them simply sputtered, unsure of how to get an answer.
“Mr. Holdt, it will take us an extra week to make the modifications. According to my projections it will allow more use and protection of the wearer. If you’ll give me half an hour, I’ll be able to get you the details on cost versus profit.”
I offered, after the other men didn’t say anything, and I could see Ian was getting irritated.
“Thank you, Collette.”
He smiled at me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. If he was publicly thanking me, then he couldn’t be too mad at me.
“Return to your work, gentlemen, and let’s see if we can get this thing fixed and into production within just a few days or week at most.”
When they’d left the room, he turned to me.
“I’m not sure what to say. That was quite a brilliant save. It might have taken us months to figure out why we weren’t getting as many orders as we’d projected.”
He tapped the table as I couldn’t hold back my smile from his praise. “That brings me to something I’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t had the opportunity yet.”
Rossi knocked and entered.
“Here you are, sir.”
He placed a tablet in front of me with a sheet of paper.
“Those are the different login passwords that you’ll need to access the financial and detailed specification on the project. The tablet is only able to work within our network. Everything that you do will be traceable, so trying to contact anyone will only bring trouble to you.”
Ian smiled, “You saved me a lot of time and money today, so don’t misuse the trust that I’m giving you.”
“No, sir.”
I shook my head. “This is part of what you brought me here to do for you. I’m just glad I could be of service.”
“Good girl.”
He stood and they both left the room.
Why did I just feel like he’d patted me on the head for good behavior?
***
The doubts I’d had before the weekend about his personality continued to grow as I followed him around for the next two days.
Jotting down different things he’d done for his company and others. Things that literally made no sense when combined with the idea that he was a killer.
When he thought no one was looking, he’d stopped in the company break room and put a couple of hundred dollar bills into the collection jar for one of the workers whose house had burned down.
One of my jobs as a personal assistant was to process the receipts for the week. It was then I discovered that he personally catered a high end lunch for all the employees every Friday.
There were hundreds of employees in his company. He had it brought in and then everyone was able to eat during their lunch breaks.
I knew there were perks to having billions, but that act in and of itself was something that a nice guy would do. Granted he had tons of money. I’d seen a few of the profit columns and it was impressive.
Each year he would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars just providing lunch for the employees.
He began giving me more and more leeway as the week went on to be around some of the employees. I started to ask them questions about him.
I would use the starting sentence, “I’m new here. Can you tell me more about the company?”
Then would follow with the other questions.
How did they like their boss? What did they think of the company? What were some good benefits for working for Holdt technologies?
Once I had asked the question, several of the employees began to tell me about the scholarships he provided for their children if they were going into scientific or technology based fields; most of those came through his foundation, which was a nonprofit organization.
All of these little things were adding up.
Either he was only doing good in public, to show others how wonderful he was, or he was doing good to hide all of his nefarious activities.
It didn’t mesh with the idea of a guy who took pleasure in breaking women, but what other answers could there be for this kind of generosity? He might actually be human instead of evil.
***
He hadn’t touched me again. Not by accident or on purpose. I wasn’t sure what was going on.
During the day, he was full of praise and smiles. Then when we got back to the basement, nothing. It was like I was watching Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holdt.
One minute, I’d feel like I was seeing the real man underneath and then next he would quietly order someone to do something that sounded ominous.
A step forward and then another couple steps backward. It was as if I could see the top of the cliff, but I was afraid to find out what was just over the edge.
He had to be a villain. I’d found some evidence as I was working that seemed to point to the fact there were some extra accounts. Mysterious money that had no designated place or name on the account.
After being given the tablet, I’d tried to trace the money and accounts, but had continued to come up dry.
Rossi was always hanging around, looking over my shoulder. It made things difficult to do any real digging when he was there all the time. Plus, there was the fact that he’d said they would monitor my actions.
I listened to all of the office chatter. Snippets that weren’t meant to be heard by the boss’ assistant of course.
Blending in had never been hard for me, but Rossi hovering around made that really difficult.
When I headed back to my small office off of Ian’s, I confronted him.
“Seriously, buddy. Don’t you have anything else to do but calculate how many times I’ve gone to the restroom?”
Rossi’s mouth lifted in a smirk.
Ha, I’d gotten to him, I thought triumphantly.
“What happened to being Ian’s bodyguard? How are you protecting him if you’re here with me?”
“That is none of your business. I will tell you that he’s safe. I always make sure his safety is assured. Right now, I’m going to make sure that you are in the office and not out snooping around or making contact with people that don’t need to know our intimate details.”
He crossed his arms and the look on his face dared me to try to leave the room.
“All right.”
I let out a huge dramatic sigh. “I’ll behave.”
Unable to resist, I stuck my tongue out at him just because I could.
“You continue to taunt me while knowing that I’m unable to respond, I’ll be sure to report your behavior to Mr. Holdt. He can then decide if you need to be punished.”
Rossi smiled, knowing which side Ian would agree with.
I couldn’t resist, and had to add a little dramatic flair.
“I’m sorry. Oh protector, for offending you. Please accept my sincerest regrets for having hurt your precious sensitive nature.”
This was the most fun I’d had for days, no make that weeks.
Maybe I’d been focused on the wrong person. Rossi could bear some looking into as well.
What if he was the murderer and not Ian?
It was an awkward ride home in the limo because I wasn’t sure if he was going to tattle on me or not.
I had an entire response to it. When we pulled up at the cabin and nothing had been said, I was almost disappointed.
So Rossi was all bluff and no follow through. That would be good to know in the future.
Dinner was the same. Almost habitual in nature. It was like he wasn’t even trying to check in or pay attention to me anymore.
He had been attentive at work, but things had been reduced to a chill. Not the room itself, but the tone of his attitude was almost frozen.
When he left for the night without a fantasy session, I curled up on the couch with my thoughts. Lonely.
Was it really so bad that I was relying on him for food and shelter?
It was only demeaning if I allowed it to be. The way he presented it was different than most men, but it was the same type of protector crap that most of them espoused.
The idea of the man must take care of the woman. The provider was responsible for the physical well-being of the woman in his care.
Wouldn’t Andy have done something similar. He had for most of our younger lives. Even in the years when we were apart, he’d never let my needs go untaken care of.
Food would be delivered from one of the local places when he couldn’t come himself. If he thought I was short on cash, I’d open the mail and find a card with a check in it.
Andy had done everything for me. He would have done anything to make sure that I was taken care of. Would he have been upset that I was allowing his killer to do those same types of things for me?
Vowing to try harder to ingratiate myself to Ian, it was the least that I owed to Andy for all his care and protection over the years.
Ian needed to open up to me and let his guard down.
There I go again thinking of him as Ian instead of Mr. Holdt.