A Bargain with the Boss (3 page)

“Maybe.” Tuck wasn't crazy about the idea of snooping into Dixon's business, but things were getting desperate.

“Check his office computer,” said Jackson. “And check his laptop, his tablet, anything he didn't take with him. It looks to me as though he's traveling light.”

Tuck had to agree with that. “What's he up to, switching transportation in two different cities?”

“He's up to not being found. And he's doing a damn good job of it. Any chance he's got a secret life?”

“A secret life?”

“Doing things that he can't tell anyone about. He does travel a lot. And he runs in some pretty influential circles.”

“Are you asking if my brother is a spy?”

Jackson's shrug said it was possible.

“If there's one thing I've learned in the past week, it's that Dixon couldn't have had time for anything but Tucker Transportation. You wouldn't believe the amount of work that crosses his desk.”

“Don't forget you're doing your dad's job, as well,” Jackson pointed out.

“Even accounting for that. I'm starting to wonder...”

Tuck wasn't crazy about saying it out loud. But he had to wonder why they hadn't asked for his help before now. Was he truly that inept?

“You're a smart guy, too.” Jackson seemed to have guessed the direction of Tuck's thoughts.

“I don't know about that.”

“Well, I do. Your dad and Dixon, they probably got into a rhythm together early on. And you never seemed that interested in working at the company.”

“I tried.” Tuck couldn't keep the defensiveness from his voice. “In the beginning, I tried. But I always seemed to be in the way. Dad definitely didn't want me around. Dixon was his golden boy. After a while you get tired of always barging your way in.”

“So you're in it now.”

“I am. And it's scaring me half to death.”

Jackson grinned. “I've been in the thick of it with you before. I can't picture you being afraid of anything.”

“This isn't the same as a physical threat.”

“I'm not just talking about a barroom brawl. Remember, I'm running a company of my own.”

“That's right.” Tuck perked up at the thought of getting some free advice. “You are. How big is it now?”

“Four offices, here in Chicago, New York, Boston and Philly.”

“How many employees?”

“About two hundred.”

“So you could give me a few tips?”

“Tucker Transportation is on a whole different scale than I am. You're better off talking to your friend Shane Colborn.”

“I'm better off finding Dixon.”

“I'll fly to Charlotte in the morning.”

“You need a jet?”

Jackson cracked a grin. “I'm not going to say no to that offer. Sure, hook me up with a jet. In the meantime, check out his computer.”

“I'll get Amber to help.”

“Amber?”

“Dixon's trusty assistant.”

An image of Amber's pretty face came up in his mind. He wasn't normally a fan of tailored clothes and no-nonsense hairstyles. But she seemed to look good in anything.

And then there were those shoes. She wore a different pair every day, each one sexier than the last. Something was definitely going on beneath the surface there. And the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to figure out what really made her tick.

* * *

When Tuck strode into the office Monday morning, Amber's hormones jumped to attention. He was dressed in a pair of faded jeans, a green cotton shirt and a navy blazer. His dark brown hair had a rakish swoop across the top, and his face had a sexy, cavalier day's growth of beard.

He definitely wasn't Dixon. Dixon's confidence was never cocky. And Dixon had never made her heart pump faster and heat rise up her neck.

“I need your help,” he stated without preamble.

Amber immediately came to her feet. “Is something wrong?”

“Come with me.” His walk was decisive and his voice definitive.

She experienced a new and completely inappropriate shiver of reaction.

This was a place of business, she told herself. He wasn't thinking about her as a woman. He sure wasn't thinking the same things she was thinking—that his commanding voice meant he might haul her into his office, pin her up against a wall and kiss her senseless.

What was wrong with her?

Tuck headed into Dixon's office and she forcibly shook off her silly fantasy.

“Do you know his password?” Tuck asked, crossing the big room and rounding the mahogany desk.

“His password to what?” she asked.

“To log on to the system.” Tuck leaned down and moved the mouse to bring the screen to life.

She didn't answer. Dixon had given her his password a couple of months back on a day when he was in Europe and needed her to send him some files. She still remembered it, but she knew he'd never intended for her to use it again. What she technically knew, and what she ought to use, were two different things.

Tuck glanced up sharply. “Tell me the password, Amber.”

“I...”

“If you don't, I'll only have the systems group reset it.”

He made a valid point. As the acting head of Tucker Transportation, he could do whatever he wanted with the company computer system.

“Fine. It's ClownSchool, capital C and S, dollar sign, one, eight, zero.”

Tuck typed. “You might want to think about whose side you're on here.”

“I'm not taking sides.” Though she was committed to keeping her promise to Dixon. “I'm trying to be professional.”

“And I'm trying to save Tucker Transportation.”

“Save it from what?” Had something happened?

“From ruin without my father or Dixon here to run it.”

“What are you looking for?” she asked, realizing that he was exaggerating for effect and deciding to move past the hyperbole.

Tucker Transportation was a solid company with a team of long-term, capable executives running the departments. Even from the top, there was a limited amount of damage anyone could do in a month.

“Clues to where he went,” said Tuck.

Then Tuck seemed to have an inspiration. He lifted the desk phone and dialed.

A moment later, a ring chimed inside Dixon's top drawer.

Tuck drew it open and removed Dixon's cell phone, holding it while it rang.

“How does it still have battery power?” he asked, more to himself than anything.

“I've been charging it,” said Amber.

His attention switched to her, his face crinkling in obvious annoyance. “You didn't think to
tell me
his cell phone was in his desk drawer?”

Amber wasn't sure how to answer that.

“And how did you know it was there anyway? Were you snooping through his drawers?”

“No.” She quickly shook her head. She was intensely respectful of Dixon's privacy. “He told me he was leaving it behind.”

Tuck's piercing gray eyes narrowed, his brows slanting together in a way that wrinkled his forehead. “So he told you he was leaving? Before he left, you
knew
he was going?”

Amber realized she'd spoken too fast. But now she had no choice but to give a reluctant nod.

Tuck straightened and came to the end of the desk, his voice gravelly and ominous. “Before you answer this, remember I'm the acting president of this company. This is a direct order, and I don't look kindly on insubordination. Did he tell you where he was going?”

Dixon had given her an emergency number. And she'd recognized the area code. But he hadn't flat-out told her where he was going.

“No,” she said, promising herself it wasn't technically a lie. “He needs the time, Tuck. He's been overworked for months, and Kassandra's betrayal hit him hard.”

“That's not for you to decide.”

She knew that was true. But it wasn't for Tuck to decide, either.

“He doesn't even know about our father,” said Tuck.

“If he knew, he'd come home.”

Tuck's voice rose. “Of
course
he'd come home.”

“And then he'd be back to square one, worse off than he was before. I know it must be hard for you without him.”

“You
know
? You don't know anything.”

“I've worked here for five years.” It was on the tip of her tongue to say that it was a whole lot longer than Tuck had worked here, but she checked herself in time.

“As an
assistant
.”

“Yes.”

“You don't have the full picture. You don't know the risks, the critical decisions.”

“I know Dixon.”

Tuck's tone turned incredulous. “You're saying I don't?”

Amber's voice rose. “I'm saying I've been here. I watched how hard he's worked. I saw how much your father slowed down these past months. I watched what Kassandra's infidelity did to him. He was losing it, Tuck. He took a break because he had no other choice.”

Tuck gripped the side of the desk, his jaw going tight.

Amber mentally braced herself for an onslaught.

But his voice stayed steady, his words measured. “My father was slowing down?”

“Yes. A lot. Margaret was funneling more and more work to Dixon. Dixon was scrambling. He was staying late, coming in early, traveling all over the world.”

“He likes traveling.”

“You can't constantly travel and still run a company. And then Kassandra.”

“Her behavior was despicable.”

“It hurt him, Tuck. Yes, he was disgusted and angry. But he was also very badly hurt.”

Tuck rocked back on his heels, his expression going pensive. “He didn't let on.”

Amber hesitated but decided to share some more information. If it would help Tuck understand the gravity of the situation, it would do more good than harm.

“There were times when I heard more than I should,” she said. “I know Dixon was ready to be a father. He thought they were trying to get pregnant. Instead, she was taking birth control pills and sleeping with another man.”

It was clear from Tuck's expression that Dixon hadn't shared that information with him. He sat down, and his gaze went to the computer screen. “He still needs to know about our father.”

She knew it wasn't her place to stop Tuck. “Do what you need to do.”

He glanced up. “But you're not going to help me?”

“There's nothing more I can do to help you find Dixon. But I'll help you run Tucker Transportation.”

“Finding Dixon is the best thing we can do to run Tucker Transportation.”

“I disagree,” she said.

“Bully for you.”

“The best thing you can do to run Tucker Transportation
is to
run
Tucker Transportation.”

Tuck was silent while he moved the mouse and typed a few keys. “You should have told me.”

“Told you what?” She found herself moving around the desk, curious to see what he would find on the computer.

“What he was planning,” said Tuck as he scrolled through Dixon's email. “That he was secretly leaving.”

She recognized the headers on the email messages, since they automatically copied to her account. “I'm Dixon's confidential assistant. I don't share his personal information with anyone else.”

“There's nothing here but corporate business,” said Tuck.

Amber knew that would be the case. Dixon was always careful to keep his personal email out of the corporate system. And he'd been doubly careful with the details of his secret vacation.

Tuck swiveled the chair to face her. “What would you do if you were mine?”

The question caught her off guard while her brain zipped off on a disorienting, romantic tangent. To be Tuck's. In his arms. In his life. In his bed.

He rose in front of her. “Amber?”

“Sorry?” She scrambled to bring her thoughts back to the real world.

His voice was rich and deep, laced with an intimacy she knew she had to be imagining. “If you were
my
confidential assistant, what would you do?”

“I'm not.” She wasn't his anything, and she had to remember that.

“But if you were?”

If she was Tuck's assistant, she'd be in the middle of making one colossal mistake. Because that would mean she was sexually attracted to her boss. She'd want to kiss her boss. Eventually, she
would
kiss her boss. She was thinking about it right now. And if the dusky smoke in his eyes was anything to go by, he was thinking about it, too.

She plunged right in with the truth. “I would probably make a huge and horrible mistake.”

The lift of his brows told her he understood her meaning. And he slowly raised his hand to brush his fingertips across her cheek. “Would it be so horrible?”

“We can't,” she managed to respond.

He gave a very small smile. “We won't.”

But he was easing closer, leaning in.

“Tuck,” she warned.

He used his other hand to take hold of hers, twining their fingers together. “Professionally. On a professional level, given the current circumstances, what would you do if your loyalty was to me?”

She called on every single ounce of her fortitude to focus. “I'd tell you to go to the New York trade show. It's the smart thing to do and the best thing to do for the company.”

“Okay.”

His easy answer took her aback.

She wasn't sure she'd understood correctly. “You'll go?”

“We'll both go. I'm still going to find Dixon. But until I do, I'm the only owner this company has got. You're right to tell me to step up.”

Amber moved a pace back and he released her hand.

New York? Together? With Tuck?

She struggled for a way to state her position. “I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I'm definitely not going to—”