Hypnotic Seduction (The Seduction Series) (34 page)

“I doubt it. It’s on extremely high quality paper with embossed gold lettering.”

Okay, so it was definitely from Hannah’s stock.

“That date has not been cancelled, Mrs. Baker. I was calling to give you a final count.”

“I’m sorry, but as soon as we received your letter, we booked a last minute wedding. We’ve got engaged couples camped out in our lobby, waiting for cancellations in June.”

Hannah mentally ticked off the ramifications, and her heart hammered in her chest. “Well, what are we supposed to do now? The symposium is in less than two weeks.”

“I don’t know. The hotel can still accommodate your party for breakfast, but the ballroom is booked after noon. And it appears some of the conference rooms have also been reallocated.”

Fabulous. Jordan was going to blow a gasket.

“Okay. Reinstate our reservation for breakfast, please.” Hannah slammed down the phone and held her head between her hands for several seconds. There was no time like the present to deliver the bad news.

She strode into Jordan’s office, the bitter taste of dread rising in her throat.

He listened to her repeat her conversation with the hotel manager, and his eyes narrowed. Leaning back in his chair, he crossed his arms over his chest. “How could they have a letter from you if you didn’t send one? If they received it on Tuesday, it was probably mailed on Friday or Saturday.”

In other words, the morning after she’d turned down his proposition for her to become his mistress.

“You think
I
did this?”

The suspicion burning in his cynical gaze seared her as thoroughly as if he’d physically burned her. The pain was just as intense. His prolonged silence testified to his doubt, doubling her suffering. “Well, thank you very much, Mr. Calder. If you believe I’d do something this petty, you need serious help. Maybe
you
should go for hypnotherapy to cure your paranoia.”

“I never said I believed it.”

“No, but you don’t
disbelieve
it, either.”

Obviously, too many people had disappointed him in his lifetime for him to trust anyone.

“Hannah, I’m just looking for an explanation.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Okay. So how do you suggest we fix this? Every hotel banquet hall in the state was probably booked months ago.”

“I don’t have an answer for that, either. When I do, you’ll be the first to know.” She spun on her heels and stormed back to her office.

If the hotel had received correspondence on her letterhead, someone must have deliberately done this to discredit her.

Except who? Not a single soul would benefit from her
being fired
, so it had to be purely an act of spite or vengeance.

She knew her transformation had upset a number of the other female employees at Calder. Could one of the women hate her that much? Letting the air out of two of her tires was one thing, but this was pure evil.

She recalled the loathing in Renee’s eyes while she’d issued her threats after the charity auction, and shivers ran up Hannah’s back. As one of the few people who knew anything about the specific arrangements for the conference, she was the most likely suspect. Except Jordan had given security strict instructions not to admit his ex-assistant to the building.

And if one of the other women wanted to hurt Hannah, she would’ve needed the details about the conference in order to sabotage it, so that drastically narrowed down the field of suspects to a few select people within the company.

So how had someone gotten a piece of her stationary? She hadn’t had the personal letterhead before the handwritten draft of the quarterly report
was tampered
with two weeks ago. Since then, she’d been extra vigilant about locking the doors whenever she left her office, and Jordan had been just as careful. She couldn’t think of a single time she’d left the office unattended for more than a few minutes.

Gasping, she clapped her hand over her mouth. Friday evening. That
click-clacking
she’d heard could’ve been the sound of one of her file drawers opening.

Except....Jordan had locked the door to the suite. Not to
mention,
it had been almost six o’clock—well after normal work hours—so the building had been closed to the public. There was no way it could’ve been Renee.

The guilty look on Callie’s face on Monday flashed through Hannah’s memory. When she’d pulled her last minute switch at lunch, Hannah had thought her friend had simply felt crummy about assuming the worst of her. Was it possible there had been more to Callie’s remorseful expression?

Maybe before Bryce had left for the night on Friday he’d said something to Callie about his lunch date with Hannah on Monday.

No. She shook her head. She was getting as paranoid as Jordan. Her friend would never do something that malicious.

Then again, Hannah had never believed her roommate would screw her fiancé, either. Her grandmother had always said she was too trusting. And she had talked about the symposium to Callie quite a bit during their lunches.

Either way, solving the answer to this puzzle would have to wait until she cleared up this catastrophe. The conference was only two weeks away. She didn’t have the vaguest idea where to start. But somehow she’d find a way to fix this. She refused to give the creep who’d tried to discredit
her the
satisfaction of seeing her fail.

After logging off her computer, Hannah locked her desk and the filing cabinets and grabbed her tote. She poked her head into Jordan’s office. “You’ll have to get your own lunch today, Mr. Calder, because I’m leaving.”

~*~

Damn. He’d really blown it. Jordan stared out the window, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. Hannah was right about him being paranoid.

She’d never done anything to give him cause to mistrust her, and his first instinct had been to suspect she’d betrayed him. She had every reason to be furious—and hurt. In fact, he wouldn’t blame her if she never came back.

But she would. She was the most conscientious employee he’d ever had. He should be shot for even entertaining the idea she would sabotage the conference. If anyone deserved to have this entire disaster dumped in his lap, he did.

He spun around to his computer and accessed the hotel’s phone number from the file Hannah kept updated on the network drive. The first order of business was to get a copy of that so-called cancellation letter.

While he waited for the banquet manager to fax him a duplicate, he poured himself a mug of coffee and shoved a butter cookie into his mouth. After the way he’d hurt her, it tasted like dust.

A tapping on his doorjamb drew his attention to the office threshold.

“Where was Hannah racing off to?” Bryce asked. “I saw her doing the hundred yard dash out of the building. She looked like someone had kicked her in the gut.”

“
Thanks,
make me feel like an even bigger heel.” Jordan poured another mug of coffee and handed it to Bryce.

“What’d you
do
?” His friend asked in an accusing tone, studying Jordan’s face. Bryce’s gaze narrowed just before he closed his eyes completely. “Oh, shit. You finally screwed her, didn’t you?”

“That’s not what happened. At least, not today.”

“But you are sleeping with her?”

“That depends on how you define sleeping. We got involved when I took her to Washington with me.”

“Like you had no idea that would happen, right?”

“No. I didn’t consciously plan on it.” Jordan sauntered back to his desk and flopped in his chair. “Okay, so I guess deep down I did. I couldn’t help it. All I could think about was being with her.”

“So what happened today?”

“I made her feel like crap.” Jordan told Bryce about the cancelled reservation and his reaction. When he finished, he tossed his hands up and let them drop. “Now I guess I’ll start calling other hotels and pray for a miracle.”

The fax/copier outside his door beeped. He dashed to the outer office and waited while the machine finished spitting out the copy of the letter. Scanning the page, he muttered a string of four letter words. It was Hannah’s letterhead all right.

“This isn’t her signature.” He tapped the paper, wandering back to his office. “Hannah’s capital H’s have a big loop. And it’s definitely not Renee’s handwriting. I could barely read her hen-scratching.”

Setting his coffee on the desk, Bryce rose and peered over Jordan’s shoulder at the bold handwriting. “That H is pretty distinctive, though. You’d think the forger would’ve at least been smart enough to try to copy the style of Hannah’s writing.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? So I’m looking for an imbecile who makes unique H’s.”

“It has to be someone who works here.” Bryce picked up his coffee and sipped it. “How else would the person have gotten a piece of Hannah’s stationary?”

“Exactly. What’s weird is I’ve seen this particular style of H before, but for the life of me, I can’t place where.”

“It looks familiar to me, too. Why don’t you just have all the employees give you a handwriting sample?”

“Yeah, right.” Jordan sputtered. “I’ll line them up right after lunch. Do me a favor,” he said, sinking into the chair behind his desk. “Let me borrow Callie for the rest of the afternoon to cover my phone. I have to get started on finding a solution to this conference fiasco.”

“Sure.” Bryce turned toward the door. “I’ll send her right over.”

“And, Bryce? Your assistant doesn’t need to know why Hannah isn’t here. Right now, no one is above suspicion.”

“You dumbass, Callie and Hannah are friends.”

“Right. And your point is?”

“My secretary isn’t involved in this plot against your assistant.” Bryce strolled back over to the desk and jerked his thumb toward the letter in Jordan’s hand. “Friends don’t do things like that to each other.”

“Friends also don’t chase the person their pal is crazy about.”

Bryce shoved his shoulder. “I’ve only been flirting with Hannah to try to wake you up.”

“Come on, you don’t think I was on to your game?” Jordan twisted his mouth in a wry smile. “I may not be the most trusting soul, pal, but I don’t need a seeing-eye dog like some people. I wasn’t referring to any rivalry between us, you idiot.”

“Then who the hell were—” Realization dawned on Bryce’s face. “You’re saying Callie is jealous of Hannah and me?”

“
Bingo
.”

“No way.” He waved his hands as if erasing the idea. “And even if she is into me, Callie would never do something like this. I’ve known her since she was five.” Bryce shuddered as if the thought of a romantic relationship with Callie repulsed him. “Getting involved with her would be like sleeping with my sister.”

“Who, I guarantee, doesn’t see you as a brother. Take my word for it, she’s into you. And don’t tell me you don’t find her sexy. I’ve seen the way you look at her when you think no one is watching.”

“Even if I gave in to my attraction, I’d just hurt her—and lose a great assistant.”

“Join the club.”

~*~

Where on earth was she? Jordan paced the length of his office Friday morning, glancing at the clock every few minutes. He hadn’t been concerned when he’d arrived at work and discovered Hannah wasn’t there yet. But, by nine o’clock, he’d begun to worry.

He’d been calling her house and cell phone every hour since yesterday afternoon. Now, at ten, the sour taste of fear bubbled up from his stomach. Had she really quit?

The door opening in the outer office made him turn around. The sight of Hannah’s face forced a rush of relief from his lungs. He stomped out to her desk. “Where have you been? And why haven’t you answered your phone?”

“Well, good morning to you, too.” She dropped her tote bag on the floor next to her chair. She looked nearly as exhausted as he felt. “I didn’t answer, because I really didn’t feel like talking to you.”

In other words, she wanted him to sweat for a while.

“Please believe me. I really am sorry. I hate to do it, but we need to get busy canceling the conference,” he told her. “We’ll have to refund everyone their
regis
—”

“No, we don’t.”

“I don’t see any other option,” he continued. “I called every hotel.”

“We don’t have to cancel.”

“What do you mean? Without a venue—”

“Jordan, would you shut your yap for thirty seconds and let me talk?”

He loved her no-punches-pulled attitude. Very few people felt comfortable enough with him to tell him to shut up. He spread his hands and nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Thank you. I got an idea yesterday for a way to fix this. How about we conduct Saturday’s conference here? Calder isn’t that far from the hotel. I checked with the local bus company, and they can provide shuttle service to bring the attendees back and forth. We can give a tour of the facility while we’re at it.”

“But Calder doesn’t have an auditorium large enough to accommodate close to five hundred people at once. The main cafeteria only seats about three hundred at a time.”

“I know. So I arranged for a huge tent along with tables and chairs and an AV company to provide the video and sound system with a technician. That’s where I was this morning. It’ll give the symposium sort of a country fair atmosphere. I put together a list of food vendors and caterers who might be interested in supplying lunch for the function. There’s no reason we can’t still make this work.”

He stared at her for several heartbeats, trying to find some flaw in her plan—except he couldn’t. It was a great idea. One he should have thought of himself.

“I don’t know why I stayed up all night worrying.” He took her hand and gazed into her glistening eyes. “Hannah, I’m sorry about yesterday. I really didn’t believe you had anything to do with this mess.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She pulled her hand back and sat behind her desk. “As soon as the conference is over, I’ll be leaving. You can consider this my two-week notice.”

Dear God, no. “Why? Because of the stupid way I overreacted? Or is it because of what happened between us on Friday night?”

“It’s a lot of things. Mostly, it’s because I’m in love with you.”