The Paris Assignment (9 page)

Kensington had run to Campbell’s house and picked up his clothes this morning, neither of them willing to leave her in the house by herself. Abby had thought the move silly at the time, yet despite her internal scoffing, she’d appreciated the company.

And she certainly couldn’t argue with the clothing Kenzi had selected and stuffed into a well-worn leather duffel.

With a sip of the rich latte to center herself, Abby passed him a few notes. “The second house hit is our best bet.”

“Etienne and Celine?”

“Yep. Former diplomat and wife number three. They travel a lot but make the Paris house their main residence.”

“Were they in town when the break-in happened?”

“Funny enough, they were on their first anniversary trip, in a private residence in Jean Cap Ferrat.”

“Convenient.”

“Too convenient, don’t you think?”

Campbell offered up a simple “Hmm” as he took a sip of his coffee.

His image wavered slightly before her eyes and Abby pinched the bridge of her nose. Even without the added concerns about security, safety and the company’s overall well-being, this was always a difficult week on her schedule.

“You okay?”

“Just tired.”

“It’s only ten and you’ve been here for four hours already. Let’s go out and get some fresh air.”

“Campbell, I can’t.”

The penetrating blue stare that greeted her protest brooked no arguments. “Half hour. You can spare a half hour.”

She’d gotten about halfway through Stef’s folder and lifted the remaining stack of papers. “This suggests otherwise.”

“It can wait, too. Come on.”

The urge to agree—to simply escape for a few moments—was too lovely to resist. “Half hour.”

“Scout’s honor.” He made some convoluted gesture with his fingers that didn’t look like any Boy Scout promise but she was up and around her desk, anyway, suddenly desperate for the break.

“You’ll need a coat.” He snagged the thin raincoat she’d left on her office couch and held it open for her. The brush of his fingertips across her shoulder blades had a delicious warmth drifting under her skin and her traitorous thoughts once again pushed the idea of a fling to the forefront of her mind.

Where her thoughts while doing paperwork had been hazy and full of a weariness she couldn’t get a handle on, two minutes in Campbell’s company had her waking up, her body humming to life. The sensation was as exhilarating as it was sexy and the same thought that had hit her several times over the last day punched up once more.

It was nice not to be alone.

A quick glance from the corner of her eye confirmed his gaze on her and Abby fought the urge to blush.

When was the last time she was so interested in a guy? And why did that scare her even as it invigorated?

They passed Stef in the outer area of the executive suite. Abby was struck once again by the woman’s slim shoulders as Stef bent over a mahogany credenza and she was glad she’d made the outreach to Human Resources to secure additional help. “We’re running out, Stef. No more than about a half hour.”

“Can we get you anything? Coffee or some breakfast?” Campbell’s words were warm and genuine and Abby was momentarily bemused by his thoughtfulness. Where many would have walked past her assistant without so much as a glance, Campbell had done the opposite.

“No, no. I’m good. Thanks.” Stef waved them off with a quick smile.

“I’ve got my phone.” Abby patted her coat pocket.

“Of course you do.” Her assistant gave her a quick wink before she slid back behind her desk. “Get out for a few minutes.”

Campbell waited until the elevator doors slid closed behind them before he spoke again. “How long has she been with you?”

“About three years.”

“She knows you.”

“Too well.” Abby smiled, the years they’d worked together floating through her mind on a loop. “Unfortunately, I realized this morning that it’s time to accept I’ve overworked the poor woman. I’m finally giving in and adding another assistant to the team. Between the business stuff and the personal details Stef keeps up with, it’s too much. And she’s about to get engaged so I’m going to lose about three-quarters of her brain to that, anyway.”

“So she knows you exceptionally well and knows all your comings and goings. Does that ever worry you?”

“Stef? Oh, goodness, no. She’s my right hand. And many days, my left as well as both my feet.”

“She has carte blanche to come and go as she pleases.”

Warning bells clanged like a fire alarm as his questions poked through the warm buzz she’d departed her office with. “What are you suggesting?”

“That she has unprecedented access to you. Does that frame up any thoughts about her that might make you reconsider her loyalty?”

The elevator came to a halt on the lobby floor and Abby laid a hand on his arm. “Let’s wait and talk about this outside.”

She was grateful for the brief silence as they moved through the lobby of the large building that bore her name. Steve, one of her key security managers, nodded his head as she came up level with the gleaming chrome doors that were the centerpiece of the lobby. He set the revolving panels rotating for her as she walked up. “Morning, Ms. McBane.”

“Morning, Steve. Thanks.” The insane urge to look him up and down and grill him about his loyalty, his computer skills and his satisfaction in working for the company lodged in her throat.

And damn Campbell for that.

She’d worked with these people for years and now she was looking at each of them as if they were criminals.

The moment they’d cleared the block, she whirled on Campbell. “How dare you do this to me?”

“What have I done?” His tone was calm but she saw sparks in the bright blue of his eyes along with a heavy dose of speculation.

“You’ve made me wonder about the people I work with. The people I care about.”

“You have to wonder, Abby. Whoever is doing this to you not only has some sort of motive you’re unaware of, but they’re close to you.”

A faceless sea of New Yorkers thronged around the two of them. Why was it easier to think of the threat being one of them—nameless, faceless strangers—instead of one of her own?

As soon as she asked herself the question, she knew the answer with a resounding certainty that couldn’t be denied.

Because if it was one of her own, it was yet another point in the betrayal column that was her life.

Her mother—while unintentional—had left her when she was far too young.

Her father had made the unfathomable mistake of taking a wife who was neither warm and caring nor all that interested in mothering another woman’s child.

And now this?

Work was the one place she was safe. The one place she could come and escape from the deeply unsatisfactory elements of her personal life.

And now she had to accept that even that cocoon had holes. Rather sizeable ones, in fact.

“Let’s go in here.” Campbell pulled her into a thronging diner that would guarantee even further anonymity as they talked.

“This is going to take longer than a half hour.”

“Nonsense.” Campbell held up two fingers to the waitress. “These places know how to get people in and out. And it’s fairly empty and the griddle is no doubt hot.”

“Fruit doesn’t take that long.” She shrugged as the hostess walked them toward the back of the diner.

Campbell waited until she was settled, her menu folded in front of her. “You need pancakes or French toast. I’d go with the French toast. It feels oddly appropriate based on tonight’s trip.”

“Fruit’s fine.”

The calm facade he’d carried since they were in her office faded and in its place was the distinct hum of a steady burn of anger. “You’re killing yourself slowly. You barely had anything at the benefit. I forced that half a sandwich on you last night. You’ve had nothing but coffee this morning. Eat something and make it stick.”

“I’m a healthy eater.”

“No, you’re a noneater. There’s a difference.”

“I’m photographed everywhere I go. There’s nothing wrong with staying trim.”

“No, there isn’t. But there is something wrong with starving yourself.”

“I’m busy, Campbell. I do eat.” She played with the edge of her menu, the image of a heaping plate of warm egg-battered bread taking root. “Really, I do. It’s just a stressful few days and I’m not a good eater when I’m stressed.”

The anger banked in his eyes as their waitress stepped up to the table, a pot of coffee in hand. “Then I’m glad I dragged you here.”

“What can I get you?” The woman multitasked, pouring their coffees while she nodded through the order.

Campbell selected that heaping plate Abby had imagined—the French toast special with a side of bacon and hash browns.

“I’ll have the same.” Abby handed over her menu and watched the woman hustle off. “Happy?”

“I’ll reserve judgment until you’ve finished eating it.”

He poured a generous shot of sugar in his coffee. “You’re as bad as my sister. I swear, if given the chance she’d live on tea and gum.”

“Kenzi’s not that bad.”

“She’s damn close.”

“Why are you so upset about this?”

“There’s nothing wrong with a little meat on your bones. In fact, it’s rather attractive.”

“Oh.” Abby snapped her mouth closed, whatever she’d expected him to say clearly not in evidence.

“Add on you’re working too hard.”

“Not going there since you’ve not slept since I met you.”

“Aren’t we a pair?” He grinned over the rim of his cup. “I can’t exactly fault you for that one.”

“So why’d you ask me about Stef?”

“No reason.”

“Nope. Not buying that. Something set your antenna quivering. Deny it and you’re only going to take the mad I’ve already got simmering and make it worse.”

“I just observed how close she is to you. I saw it yesterday and the thought registered then, but it went off a bit louder this morning. She’s always there.”

“She’s my assistant. That’s what I pay her for. To always be there.”

“Which means she’s got a lot of access, both to you and to McBane. She can go anywhere in the company and there’s no one who’d think twice about it.”

A small quiver of awareness settled along her shoulder blades. “Are you trying to scare me?”

“No, I’m asking you to look at all the angles and think through the possibilities.”

“She’s been at the company for years and has never given me any reason to think she’s anything but loyal.”

“Loyalties can change.”

“I’m not going to argue with you about this. Stef is my inner, inner circle. I’ve known her for a long time and I’m not worried. So why don’t you tell me what you’ve been working on?”

She saw the fight leap up before he tamped it down. “I’m not giving up on this.”

“Neither am I.”

Campbell was prevented from saying anything by the arrival of their waitress and a tray heaping with breakfast. He waited until their waitress was out of earshot before he gave a rundown of his morning.

“T-Bone’s helping me run through the programs I set up. Reading lines of code, that sort of thing.”

“Any more hits to your honeypot?”

The hard line of his jaw firmed before he nodded. “Several, as a matter of fact.”

A wave of panic washed through her system, turning the bit of hash browns into ash in her mouth. “What are we doing here, then? We need to get back. Every minute away is another minute lost.”

“The damage has been done, Abby. T-Bone’s got a few programs running to see if we can get any clues but he still thinks we need to get into your neighbors’ homes and I agree with him.”

“We’ll do that first thing after we get to Paris.”

“He and I feel strongly about something else.”

The sweet taste of syrup that sang on her tongue faded in the sober look he shot her across the table.

“I’d like you to reconsider canceling the meetings this week.”

* * *

Campbell had always thought of himself as a gambling man, but the stubborn, mulish look that settled itself over Abby’s features was far worse than he anticipated.

“Absolutely not.”

“Give me a good reason why you can’t postpone them.”

“You mean aside from the fact it’s been on the calendar for a year and several high-profile individuals have their travel in place. Most of them are already en route.”

“Meetings get canceled all the time.”

“Not meetings that require a vote of the board. And not meetings that will decide several major decisions around investment, infrastructure and key global relationships.”

Campbell understood the reticence to cancel instead of sticking to the plans, but he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the lack of information he’d discovered so far. He didn’t want to scare her, but he couldn’t in good conscience let her think the trip was still a good idea.

He knew he was good at his job and he’d known going into this that whoever was hacking into an enterprise as massive as McBane wasn’t some fly-by-night amateur.

But even he’d been surprised at the depths of skill the ghost had shown.

And the longer they went without answers, the more menacing this threat seemed. Add on the shooting at the bar and his gut wouldn’t let up that Paris was some sort of final showdown.

“What if you’re putting them in the line of fire, Abby? This isn’t just about you.”

“Of course it is.” She set her fork down and Campbell didn’t miss the subtle tightening of her lips as she marshaled her arguments. “Whatever all this is about, it’s very personal. No matter how sick or twisted my ghost may be, there’s nothing to be gained by targeting my board.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know I’m not running scared. We’ve already added security. I’m perfectly willing to add even more. But I’m not canceling.”

“Why won’t you listen to reason?”

“And why can’t you understand why I won’t change my mind. I fight enough prejudice as a woman in my position. You think I’m going to exacerbate it by possibly crying wolf to my global board?”

Campbell fought to keep his voice low. “You’ve been threatened and shot at. Your company’s technology has been infiltrated at several points. Your system was hacked into for seven minutes and you can’t find the breach. That’s not nothing, Abby.”