Authors: Lexy Timms
Senior Advisor to the Boss: Billionaire Obsession Dark Romance (Managing the Bosses Series Book 9) (2 page)
The call ended, and Jamie sat back in her chair, hanging up the phone and setting it on the desk. She rubbed a hand over eyes that weren't used to staring for so long at a computer screen after the months away.
She was glad to be back at work. Most of the time. It was nice to be a part of her husband's business again, exciting to spend time around adults after months spending most of her days with the twins. But she missed them, too. Missed being able to pick them up and snuggle them whenever she wanted. Missed watching them play on the floor beside her while she checked her email in the little time that she didn't spend down there on the floor playing with them. But bringing them to the office wasn't really something that she could swing, even as the boss' wife.
Maybe they could implement a 'bring your children to work’ day.
While she was out things had changed, too. Not so much the day to day workings of Reid Enterprises, but other aspects. There was always another new app for business. Another development she'd missed while she was staying at home. Even now, working four days a week in the office, she sometimes felt like she was missing things in the three days that she was gone. She kept up with her email, and Emelie gave her updates, but somehow she was still coming in on Tuesday to rumors that she didn't recognize.
Maybe the stress had to do with the money issue that they still hadn't managed to solve. Six months ago, when Alex had first discovered it, he'd called Zander into his office, but the senior advisor had denied all connection, and upon further exploration they'd discovered that whoever was using his authorization had been going through some kind of proxy. Jamie didn't quite understand the technical aspects. All she knew was that it meant Zander wasn't actually the one responsible for the skimming.
That meant, though, that someone was still at large. They'd shut down the channels he'd been using, and he'd popped up elsewhere. It felt like he was always one step ahead of them, and Jamie could tell the stress was wearing on Alex. He'd called in tech experts, business gurus, even a private investigator. But every time they thought they had their embezzler, he'd change tactics or pick a new way to move against the company. He—or she, Jamie supposed—changed the employee number he was using. Requests came from different computers. Sometimes the activity stopped for long enough to give them hope that it was over after all, only to appear again in the now-weekly audits Alex was demanding of the financials. Alex was frayed so thin over it that Jamie wasn't sure he wouldn't just shut down the company and call it done with.
Except that Reid Enterprises was his, and he'd built it from the ground up, and she knew that he wasn't going to let it go without a fight.
Firing every employee one by one to see when the theft stopped, however, she wouldn't quite put past him at this juncture.
All of the problems with the business meant that he couldn’t manage to start coming home early like he promised either. It was part of why Jamie had decided to bring the nanny in for longer hours and go back to the office. That way, she at least got to see her husband sometimes, and she could be there when he needed her. Even if she couldn't catch the culprit, she could help in other ways. It had taken some of the permanent tension out of Alex's shoulders, and that was enough to keep her coming back, no matter how much she was starting to miss the twins.
It wasn't like she didn't have them four days a week. Jamie kept telling herself that when she felt like she wasn't going to make it through the rest of the day at her desk. At least she had them four days a week.
There was a light knock on the door, and Jamie raised her head, dropping her hand back to the keyboard. “Come in,” she called.
The door swung silently open and Emelie stuck her head around the frame. “Mrs. Reid? I have that file that you requested.”
“Oh. Thank you, Emilie.” Jamie smiled at the other woman, and said, as she did about three times a week, “You know that you can call me Jamie, right?”
Emilie smiled back at her. “Yes, Mrs. Reid. I've been informed.”
Jamie laughed. “Okay, then. If you insist. Thank you for the file.”
The other woman set the folder down on Jamie's desk and turned, disappearing out into the hallway. Alex had offered to let her go, or cut her hours down to the three days a week that Jamie wasn't in the office, but Jamie had deterred him. Emelie Eriksson knew the inner workings of Reid Enterprises almost as well as she did at this point. Maybe better, considering that Jamie hadn't worked in nearly a year. And Jamie didn't want her to lose part of her income. Even on days that Jamie was in, she could run things for them, and do Zander's PA work; he was nearly as busy as Alex these days, and he could use a dedicated assistant.
Jamie pulled up the file matching the one that she’d had Emelie bring up for her, and went over them both section by section, glancing between them as she went. There weren’t any discrepancies between the file on record and the one currently in the system, and Jamie breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that Alex had thought to keep archived versions of the files off the server, where they could be checked against new ones. So far they’d been able to keep the issues they were having from the clients, but that would only last so long if the embezzler started skimming off client investments or altering portfolios. They had to keep it under wraps or the whole business could fall apart. Sighing, Jamie marked the file as checked, and archived a copy of the current version. It wasn’t all she spent her time doing, but it was enough of her day that she was thoroughly tired of it, and it meant that she was constantly rushing to get portfolio checks done around all of her other duties. When they caught whoever was causing the trouble, she was going to ask the judge to make checking and rechecking files every day for a year a part of the sentence somehow. He would deserve it.
Her phone buzzed against the desktop, and Jamie glanced down at it to find an alert reminding her that she was supposed to meet the CEO of Zephyr Technologies in half an hour for lunch. They were going to discuss bringing her company into their fold of investors, and Jamie found herself looking forward to the meeting with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. It was rare that she got to work with female heads of companies.
Rising from her chair, Jamie stretched, pressing her hands to her lower back and arching her spine. She hardly ever had time to work out these days between Reid Enterprises and the twins, and she felt like her body was paying for it.
She stuffed her laptop into its bag, and threw the bag over her shoulder, grabbing her purse on the way out of the room. She went through the door that led to Alex's office instead of the one that led out of the foyer, wanting to say goodbye to him before he left.
Alex looked up when she entered, and he smiled. It was a tired expression, one that didn't quite reach the evidence of strain around his eyes, and it made Jamie want to take him out of the office. Take him somewhere that he could relax, just for a little while. It had been far too long since they'd had a vacation. One day soon she was going to have to fix that.
“Hey, baby,” she said. “You doing okay?”
He stood as she crossed the room, and she wrapped her arms around him as soon as he was within reach, leaning her head against his chest. Alex's arms automatically wrapped around her in return and he pulled her close.
“I'm better now that you're here,” he answered. “Where are you going?”
“To lunch with Marla Whitehall. Zephyr Technologies. She's on the list of potential new investment targets.”
Alex nodded, his chin moving against the top of her head. “That's right,” he said. “I'd forgotten about that. I'm glad you're the one doing it and not me, honestly; I've got too much going on here to deal with business lunches on top of everything else.”
Jamie knew that he did. It was another of the reasons that she'd come back to work. He'd never enjoyed the socializing aspect as much as she had. “I'm looking forward to it, actually.” She pulled back enough that she could look up at him, a smile on her lips. “It might be nice to spend some time with another woman for a change.”
Alex laughed. “You see women every day. Ms. Eriksson. The nanny.”
“Talking to Brianna about how the twins are doing isn't exactly what I would call adult time. And Emelie and I don't really talk. She just drops files on my desk and struts out again.”
“Don't tell me you're still jealous of her.”
“No. Just not over how unfair it is that she looks like a runway model and still manages to be intelligent enough to make it as your PA. And, on top of that, she’s got a great personality. Some people have all the luck.”
“Whoa, now.” Alex tucked a finger under her chin, lifting it so that she looked him in the eyes. “You have nothing to be jealous of in any of those departments.”
“That's just because you're biased,” Jamie retorted.
“Are you telling me that you aren't?”
He was looking down at her with those blue eyes that never failed to reach into the deepest parts of her and turn up the heat. Even at times like this, when they were both so tired they fell into bed and slept like the dead more nights than not. Jamie shook her head, not quite trusting her voice to not give away just how much he turned her on. She was definitely biased.
“Good,” Alex said, leaning down to kiss her, long and slow.
When Jamie pulled back, her knees were a little wobbly, and she was thinking about how nice it would be to skip the business lunch and have her lunch hour right there with her husband. If only. “Later,” she said, “we’re going to revisit this topic.”
Alex smiled at her. “I’m more than willing to hold you to that, Mrs. Reid.”
His low, warm chuckle followed her out of the room as she practically fled before her body could get the better of her.
***
Marla Whitehall was younger than Jamie had expected her to be, with blue eyes behind stylish glasses and black hair cropped into a sleek bob. She smiled at Jamie as they shook hands and settled into seats across from each other.
“It's wonderful to finally meet you, Mrs. Reid. I have to admit, I've been waiting for this for a while,” she said.
“It's great to meet you, too, Ms. Whitehall.” Jamie smiled. It felt good to be back at work and interacting with adults. Really good. “We're always happy to have new companies interested in becoming part of Reid Enterprises, and I think Zephyr Technologies holds a lot of promise. Green energy is a big field these days, which I'm sure I don't have to tell you, and a lot of our investors are very eager to play a part in it.”
Marla laughed. “I'm sure that they are. And, please, call me Marla. I know this is a business lunch, but Ms. Whitehall just takes so long to say.” Her smile widened. “We could probably cut a whole five minutes off the discussion if you don't have to keep repeating that.”
“Then call me Jamie. I’d really prefer it as well.”
The waiter came up to the table just then, and they paused their conversation to order a glass of wine each and a plate of appetizers to share between them while they waited for their main courses.
“So, tell me,” Marla said when he'd gone, “what do you want to know about Zephyr Technologies?”
Jamie sat forward in her seat. “What we're really looking for are opportunities to get in on the ground floor of unique businesses. We want our clients to be the first to know about the best and brightest upcoming opportunities, especially the kind that they can feel good about supporting. From what I've seen, your company fulfills all of those requirements.”
“Oh, absolutely. We're all about innovation. As I'm sure you know, we're looking at some new ways to use wind technology. Better for the environment. Better for birds. All of that. What good is something that can help us collect renewable energy if we're still supporting mines and gasoline in the development of our products? We want to move away from those kinds of things entirely. Create a wind energy that's fully sustainable instead of just mostly.”
She went on and Jamie listened, nodding occasionally in the right places. She knew a lot of what Marla had to say already – she'd read the packet they sent and had done a lot of her own research before she'd agreed to the meeting, and she was already set on making Zephyr Technologies part of their portfolio options, but appearing too eager would mean that Marla might think she had leverage that she didn't over Reid Enterprises.
“So, that's what we're up to at Zephyr,” Marla said, finishing her speech. “Any questions?”
Jamie shook her head. “I don't think so. You've covered it all pretty well. I think what you're doing is fantastic. Do you have any questions for us?”
Marla hesitated, picking at the appetizer that had come shortly after she’d launched into her explanation of her company's virtues. Their meals would probably arrive soon. “Well,” she said finally, “I guess I do have a question for you and I'm not sure you're going to like it, but I can't tie ZT to a company that's anything less than totally rock-solid. I'm sure that you understand.”
“Of course,” Jamie said. “I wouldn't ever want you to feel like you were pressured into joining our company.”
“In that case, what I'd like to ask about are the rumors that something is going on at Reid Enterprises. Potentially driving down your company's worth.”