Streak

Chapter 16

Daniel

“Hey, Danny, change your mind about Davis?”

“No. I need you to look into Brad Owens, Becca’s PA.”

“Holy shit. What happened?”

“He might have sold her out to Condukt.”

“Fucker!”

“Yeah. We need to be sure. Check financial statements, see if he got any money recently. I’ll get you access to all his accounts at Vale, but he probably used personal accounts for this type of shit.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Do this one yourself. No one else touches this, Ter.”

“Of course, I-”

“MOTHERFUCKER!”

I winced at Rebecca’s voice and the sound of glass smashing against the wall.

“Yeah she’s just finding out. I gotta go.”

I hung up and ran to the living room, hoping my sister didn’t scare Lydia to shit with her outburst. I was surprised to see Becca fuming and Lydia, calm as ever, getting up from the couch and handing my sister her glass of whiskey, which Becca downed in one gulp.

Becca was five-nine, which made her tower over Lydia when she was standing close to her. I stood between them and put my hand on my sister’s shoulder.

“Come on, sit down. You’re scaring her.”

“No, she’s not,” Lydia said as she sat back down on the couch. “He is indeed a motherfucker, and she is justifiably angry.”

This woman had a knack for leaving me speechless. I stared at her for a few seconds, and then she added, “sorry for the language, Mr. Mason.”

I shook my head and pushed my sister down on the couch next to Lydia.

“I just talked to Terry. He’s going to look into Brad’s activities, see if we can confirm it.”

Rebecca looked up at me, eyes shining with tears. I sat on the table in front of her and held her hand. “Come on, we’ll figure this out.”

“He did this, Danny. No one knew about the shipping company. We talked about it a few weeks ago and decided that we’ll only let them know a couple of months before we needed it, to keep it quiet. No one knew but me and him.”

“Then Ter will find proof, and we’ll have more information to use against him. There’s still a chance it’s not him.”

Lydia put her hand on Becca’s arm. “Tell Brad you picked another company. See if Howard pulls his offer.”

I nodded. “If we’re monitoring him, we can see who he talks to about it. It’ll give us the confirmation we need.”

“And in the meantime?” Rebecca absentmindedly held Lydia’s hand. “Danny, he has access to everything. My phone, emails, schedule… I trusted him. He’s been there since I started the company.”

“I know, but you need to keep him on. What Lydia found, it could all be true or it could be something else. It’s not enough to know if Brad sold you out. We need to know what Condukt was planning and why.”

Becca sniffed. “I know why. And I know Howard.”

Lydia visibly stiffened. What was she seeing that I wasn’t? She tightened her grip on Becca’s hand. I could see the muscles tense on her forearm.

“Is that why you left?” Lydia’s voice was softer than usual. I’d never heard her sound anything other than cold, except for the one time she was panicked.

Becca nodded and looked at her. “I signed a confidentiality agreement. I was scared, thought it was behind me.”

“Someone tell me what’s going on.” I leaned back on the table, hoping distance would make them both more comfortable, because something was happening that was making my throat dry and my heart pound.

Rebecca took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, letting go of Lydia’s hand and leaning back on the couch.

“I loved working at Condukt. Mark, the CEO, gave me a lot of freedom in the R&D department and I helped improve their designs. I was young, just starting as an engineer… it was perfect. And then Howard visited. He was given a tour of the building. Mark was laying it on thick, trying to convince him to invest. I stayed late and Howard surprised me in our department. He was alone, I don’t know where Mark was, and he hit on me.

I didn’t want to fuck things up for the company, so I kept it polite, but I turned him down. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Becca…” My heart dropped to my stomach.

“He didn’t,” she said quickly, answering my unasked question.

“I fought him off and ran out. I called Mark and thought he was my friend, that he would help me get the footage and file a report, but he screamed at me. The next day, I handed in my resignation. He wouldn’t accept it, said I was in breach of contract and that I couldn’t work anywhere else or develop anything of my own that wouldn’t belong to Condukt for another ten years.

I threatened him back that I’d go to the press and use our family’s connections to fuck up his reputation and Howard's, so we agreed to let it all go quietly. I signed a confidentiality agreement that I’d say nothing about why I left the company, and in return, he let me out of the contract.

When I started Vale a few years later, he was pissed and called me a few times, but I reminded him about Howard and his reputation.

I thought he let it go.” She shook her head.

“Danny, I worked so hard designing our technology, even harder to get the company off the ground without our family’s money, and now we’re finally hitting the big leagues and he’s there.

Mark and Howard are there to fuck it all up. ”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Becca shrugged and looked down at her hands. “You were just discharged. And honestly, I was scared you’d show up with your buddies and kill them both.”

I grunted. She was probably right. I still wanted to call Jake and Cole to hunt down Howard. Lydia was right about him from the start. She may not have known what she was seeing, but her instincts were spot on.

Becca turned to Lydia and hugged her. “Thank you for looking out for me. Again.”

Lydia tapped her shoulder softly, clearly uncomfortable with the hug, but she didn’t pull away until Becca did.

“So what now?” Becca sniffed and straightened her shoulders.

“Terry’s looking into Brad, and you still have a long way before you need to ship.

Keep Brad busy and out of the design and manufacturing stages as much as possible.

And lie to him about any decision you can.

Lydia’s right, start with the shipping company.

Pick another one at random and tell him that’s what you’re going with.

And use your personal phone to talk to me about this—no texts. ”

“What about Howard?”

“We accepted his LOI today, so we’re starting the due diligence process with the lawyers. He has more than enough time to pull the offer without suspecting we’re on to anything.”

“I need to get back to the office. I don’t know how to face him. I just want to punch his teeth in.”

I took her hands and squeezed gently. “You will, just not yet. Focus on Vale and your dreams. Fuck Brad, fuck Conduckt, and fuck Howard to goddamn hell.”

Becca nodded and hugged Lydia and me before leaving. I suddenly felt very aware that I was alone with Lydia in my apartment.

“Do you need help with that?” She got up and pointed to the scattered glass on the floor.

“No, I’ll take care of it. Do you want another drink?”

“No, thank you. What did you tell Chris?” She held up her phone. “He texted me, asking if I was okay and apologized for giving me too much work.”

“Oh. When we left, I told Dianne that I saw you going out of the restroom on our floor and you didn’t look good so I sent you home. I think Chris also noticed that you seemed a bit off during our meeting with Howard when you got up.”

“I didn’t think Chris did anything wrong, you know. When I asked to speak with you privately, I was just worried because Brad is her PA and Chris is yours. I didn’t want to bring it up in your office in front of him in case I was wrong or overstepping.”

“You did good. I don’t suspect Chris of anything. I trust him and I’ll fill him in once we’re in the clear. I don’t want to take chances that I don’t need to right now.”

“Okay.”

I took a few steps toward her, stopping when she took a step back.

“Lydia, what you did… I can’t tell you what it means to me and Becca.”

“I didn’t do anything, Mr. Mason. I just shared a suspicion.”

“Twice. You were right about that delivery guy and I’m sure you’re right now, about everything. And it’s not just sharing your suspicion, which is already admirable. It’s the fact that you noticed, that you put all those dots together into something that made sense.”

“Oh. Okay.”

I wanted to offer her a drink, maybe at Mel’s instead of my apartment, so she’d be more comfortable, but I was still her boss. So far, we hadn’t crossed any lines.

She never crossed anything—I definitely did.

Shit.

“Can I drive you home?”

“On the bike?”

I smiled. “We can use a car.”

“The bike is fine, too.”

I turned around so she wouldn’t see how big my smile was.

Everything about her kept surprising me.

I wanted to ask her out, ask her questions, and get to know everything about her.

I wanted to know how her brain worked, what she was thinking when her eyes looked busy with thoughts and her voice and body stayed cool and collected.

I wanted to know what the fuck someone like her was doing as an HR office assistant and how no one noticed her potential for nearly a year there.

Even Madelyne didn’t, not really. She just liked her.

So do I. Too much.

The ride to her building was blissful. I heard her sigh once, which had me clenching the handles to stop myself from putting my hands on her thighs.

We didn’t say anything except once when I had to brake abruptly and asked if she was okay.

I expected to feel her body hit mine or her helmet to crash into me, but she stayed put, using the tank to brace herself before answering, ‘Yes, Mr. Mason.’

When we got off the bike, she handed me the gear. She had strands of dark brown and white hair flying out of her bun, and it took every ounce of self-control not to fix it for her.

“Can I walk you to your door? It’s late.”

“It’s a safe neighborhood.”

“I know. Peace of mind, please?”

“Okay.”

I walked her into the building and up the steps to the second floor, the last door in the hallway. She opened the door and hesitated for a second before taking a step in.

“Would you like something to drink, Mr. Mason?”

Yes!

Fuck. Was she being polite, or did she want me to come in? Her tone didn’t give anything away.

Wishful thinking, buddy. Leave.