Catching the Bad Guy (Book Two) (Janet Maple Series) (24 page)

“That lying bitch,” Alex muttered,
groping for the phone. He was going to get to the bottom of this right away.
But before he could unleash his anger on Janet, the door of his office opened,
revealing Georgiana on its threshold. Alex slammed the phone receiver down.
“What is it?”

“Are you happy with the report that I
got for you earlier?” she asked. “I must say that that system is a real pain to
use.”

“Huh?”

“I said that that system is a real pain
to use, and you haven’t even said thank you,” Georgiana pouted.

Normally, Georgiana’s pout never failed
to elicit a smile from Alex, but right now it produced nothing but annoyance in
him. For all her time working as his “assistant” this was the only job-related
task he had asked of Georgiana, and the girl had the nerve to complain.
Meanwhile, he did not see her complaining about her fat salary.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Georgiana.
Perhaps you should try to become more proficient with the system, so that
future requests would take less time to complete.”

Georgiana’s eyelashes fluttered. “Future
requests?”

Suddenly, Alex felt very tired. A few
moments ago the world had been his oyster, but now he felt that he was in over
his head. The truth of the matter was that he had taken on a job that he had no
idea how to do; he was hated by the majority of his direct subordinates, with
maybe a handful being indifferent toward him; and with no one but a dumb hooker
to back him up. Alex rubbed his forehead: he had to get his act together, fast.

“Alex, what’s wrong?” Georgiana dashed
across the room and was now kneeling by his chair, her hands groping for his
fly, ready to do what she did best.

Alex pushed her away. “Not now,
Georgiana. This is an office; we could get caught.”

“That never stopped you before.”

“We’ll have to be more careful from now
on.”

But Georgiana was not easily deterred.
Her nimble hands undid Alex’s fly, sending a jolt of pleasure pulsating down
his legs. The tension oozed from his mind, replaced by a pleasurable sensation
that filled his limbs. Oh, what the hell, Alex thought. It was almost five
o’clock anyway. He would deal with Janet Maple in the morning, and after that
he would decide if the matter was worthy of Finnegan’s attention.

***

It was five thirty, and Janet had one
more task before leaving work for the day. The task involved visiting Alex’s
office, and she had been deliberately putting it off until after five in the
hope of not finding Alex in his office. Earlier in the day she had given Alex
another report on fictitious investigations that she and Dennis were supposed
to be working on, and Alex had requested that she bring over the case files.
Janet had spent several hours putting the files together (without any help from
Dennis Walker, who was off doing who knows what who knows where, but that was
another matter entirely), and now she hoped she would be able to leave the
files with Alex’s assistant without actually having to face the man himself.
She grabbed the heavy binders and headed for Alex’s office.

When Janet reached Alex’s office, she
saw that his assistant, who usually guarded the access to Alex’s office like a
sphinx, had already left for the day. The door to Alex’s office was closed.
Janet was about to leave when she noticed that there was light underneath the
door. Janet sighed: she had promised to give the files to Alex today, and the
last thing she wanted was for him to accuse her of not doing her job.

“Alex?” Janet knocked on the door. When
she didn’t hear a reply, Janet was about to walk away discreetly but the door
gave way under her knuckles, cracking halfway open.

What she saw next made Janet wish she
had imagined it. Georgiana was sitting on Alex’s lap with her arms around his
neck. At the sight of Janet, Alex pushed Georgiana off his lap, catapulting her
several feet across his office.

“That will be all, Georgiana,” said Alex
in a voice that sounded as though Georgiana had just been performing some kind
of benign clerical task for him, like taking shorthand.

“Yes, Mr. Kingsley.” As she sashayed out
of the office, Georgiana smiled at Janet.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Janet
stammered. “I can come back tomorrow.”

“Interrupt what?” Alex stared her down.
“You didn’t interrupt anything. As a matter of fact, it’s a good thing that you
stopped by. I have a few questions I’d like to ask you.”

“By all means,” Janet said, struggling
to keep the apprehension out of her voice. Questions from Alex at five thirty
in the afternoon signified only one possible outcome: trouble. “I hope that I
have the answers for you.”

“I hope so too,” said Alex, smiling.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but
Janet thought that Alex’s smile looked more like a scowl, as though he were
taking a cue from the animal world, baring his teeth in the gesture of a
threat. “What’s going on?” Janet eyed Alex with what she hoped was cool
nonchalance.

“What’s Dennis Walker been up to?”

Janet felt an inner tremor. She had been
feeding Alex with reports of fictitious investigations that Dennis and she were
supposedly working on while in reality both of them had been spending most of
their time gathering dirt on David Muller; or, to be more specific, trying to
gather dirt on Muller, but unsuccessfully so. “As far as I know Dennis’s
caseload has not changed since the update I gave you this morning,” Janet
replied coolly.

“Are you sure about that?”

Janet felt Alex’s dark eyes burrowing
into her. It was almost impossible to believe that there had been a time in her
life when she had found Alex’s gaze to be sexy. Now, it filled her with a
mixture of alarm and repulsion, akin to the sensation one felt when facing a
cunning and dangerous beast, for in the world of the corporate jungle, Alex was
the equivalent of a wolverine. Still, she could not very well give into her
fear. “What makes you think otherwise?” Janet made a conscious effort to look straight
into Alex’s eyes, keeping her hands calmly pressed together on her lap.

“Oh, I don’t know. It could be this.”
Alex flung a piece of paper across his desk.

“What is it?” Janet asked without
reaching for the paper.

“It’s a report on log-ins from the background
search software. I had Georgiana run it for me this morning.”

You mean to tell me that your assistant
is actually capable of performing other functions than wearing revealing
outfits and sitting on your lap? were the words on Janet’s tongue, but she knew
better than to voice them—she was in deep enough trouble already. Both Laskin
and she had specifically cautioned Dennis against doing background searches on
Muller. Instead, Laskin was to perform that part of the job, as Laskin was the
only employee in the department who was on Alex’s good side, if such a thing
was possible. Most likely, it was just that Laskin’s bland looks and boring
personality had fooled Alex into indifference. But now Dennis had jeopardized
the entire project with his pigheadedness.

“Why is Dennis Walker doing research on
board members of Rover Industries?”

“Rover Industries? The name does ring a
bell,” Janet improvised. “Let me just check here a moment.” Janet flipped open
the folder that kept her past reports to Alex. There was no information there
that she could use, but she made the gesture to give herself time to invent a
plausible lie. “Oh, yes, I have it in my notes here. This is a new case. Dennis
has just told me about it this afternoon. We received an anonymous complaint
accusing Rover Industries’ executives of tax evasion. Dennis is investigating
it.”

“An anonymous complaint? Are you telling
me that you’re squandering company resources on anonymous complaints?”

“The department policy has always been
that all complaints have to be investigated. It’s in the procedures manual.”

“That’s been changed effective
immediately. No complainant, no inquiry, which means no investigation.” Alex
rose from his chair. “I want to see the Rover file closed by tomorrow morning.
I trust you will take care of this, Janet.”

“Yes, Alex.”

“That’ll be all for now. And Janet,
going forward, I expect you to notify me of any new investigations
immediately.”

“Yes, Alex.”

Her heart beating like a sledgehammer,
Janet shot out of Alex’s office. At the moment her only desire was to get her
hands on Dennis Walker’s neck and squeeze really, really hard. In her enraged
state she stormed down the hallway, ready to storm the bastard’s office. Most
likely the bugger had gone home already, but she would give it a try anyway. A
few steps before Dennis’s office, Janet felt a male arm grip hers and almost
screamed from the shock.

“Easy there, Janet. It’s me, Dennis.”

“You!!!” There were several words Janet
would have liked to use to address Dennis but at the moment her mind went
blank, and all she could manage to say was, “What are you doing here?”

“I work here, remember?”

“Do you?” she fumed.

“Easy there. What’s eating you?”

“What’s eating me? I’ve just been reamed
by Alex and I had to stand there and come up with excuses for you.”

“Shhh, calm down.” Dennis grabbed her
arm and pulled her inside his office, closing the door behind them. “Lower your
voice. Now, what are you talking about?”

“What are you doing poking around Rover
executives’ backgrounds?” Janet hissed. “Didn’t Laskin and I tell you to keep
your hands off the background search system? Don’t you know that the log-ins
are traceable?”

“Actually, I didn’t. I wish you would
have told me that.”

“I told you not to use the software!”

Dennis patted his chin. “That means I’m
really on to something. Just wait till I tell you what I found—I bet you’ll
change your tune then.”

“Change my tune? Now you listen to me,
you …” Words failed Janet as she found herself powerless under the gaze of
Dennis’s triumphantly shining blue eyes.

“I’ll listen later. Come on, we’re going
to see Laskin.” Dennis grabbed her shoulders. “We don’t want anyone to see us
leaving together, so I’ll meet you on the corner two blocks over from the
office. Wait ten minutes before you leave.”

“Enough! I won’t go anywhere unless you
tell me what was it you were hoping to discover through that search, Dennis.
Laskin had already run the background search on Rover execs, and he did not
find anything. He is the guru on dealing with that software. Do you seriously
think that you could find something that Laskin did not?”

Janet might have been mistaken, but it
seemed to her that a look of hurt flashed in Dennis’s expression. For a moment
she thought she might have been too tough on Dennis, but only for a moment.
After the grilling Alex had just subjected her to, she deserved an answer.

“What were you looking for, Dennis?” she
demanded.

“You’ll find out soon enough, Janet. Now
meet me outside, as we agreed,” was all Dennis said and shut the door behind
him.

“He’d better be there,” Janet muttered
as she walked over to the spot where Dennis had told her to meet him. And why
was he calling the shots anyway? As if a ten-minute difference in their arrival
was a major decoy. This had better not be a ploy to get rid of me, Janet
thought, already regretting having let Dennis Walker out of her sight. The man
was an irresponsible, cocky know-it-all, and that was putting it mildly.
Whatever it was that Dennis had uncovered by running the background searches on
Rover executives was not worth the jeopardy he had subjected his colleagues to
by drawing Alex’s attention to them. And it certainly was not worth Janet
putting herself out on a limb to save Dennis’s inconsiderate behind.

Janet eyed the street but saw no sign of
Dennis. Typical, she thought, inconsiderate as always. Suddenly, a nasty
thought crept into her mind. What if Dennis had indeed stood her up? What if
the whole thing was a ploy for him to slip through her fingers so that he would
be free to pursue his plans for the night undisturbed? By now he was probably
at some bar, romancing the next soon-to-be ex-victim of his charms.

A cab pulled up next to the curb and the
passenger door opened. “Get in.”

“Dennis?”

“No, it’s Prince Charming. Get in
already!”

Janet climbed into the cab. “Don’t you
think we could have taken the train? Laskin is all the way down in Brooklyn.”

“There’s no time for the subway. The cab
fare is on me.”

“That’s the least you could do after
Alex chewed my butt out because of you.”

Dennis frowned. “Chewed your butt out?”

Janet blushed. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t. Did he make a pass at you
again?”

Janet resisted the impulse to roll her eyes.
For reasons unknown to her, Alex had been making passes at Janet since the day
he became her new boss. As much as it would have pleased Janet’s ego to think
that Alex had recognized the error of his ways and wanted her back, she knew
better. Besides, she would not take the two-timing bastard of a snake back if
he begged her on his knees, not that he did, incidentally. But at any rate,
Alex’s sudden lust for her was not the issue at hand; rather, it was the
motivation that drove Alex’s attention back to Janet. What did the man want?