Lip Lock (11 page)

“I don’t see why not.”

Molly regally rose from her chair and strolled to the elevator.
Pay raise. I’m getting a pay raise.
She caught Sara’s bemused look. Oops, had she been doing a little be-bop while she waited for the elevator?
I will continue the pay raise happy dance later.

She waited until she stepped into the empty elevator and the door closed. Molly thrust her arms out in victory. Yes! She made it! She survived!

She would never have to live in a truck again. Or sleep in one.

No more eating garnishes from the executive kitchen and calling it lunch. No more expired stuff from the vending machine for breakfast.

Getting an apartment…getting a bed!
Molly sighed contentedly at the thought.

My own bathroom.
She would celebrate by buying bubble bath. No more of this medicinal-smelling body wash from the showers at the fitness center.

That dream was so close. She could feel it. It warmed her up better than a state-of-the-art heating system. Which she would also get. She’d make sure of it.

Molly did a hop, skip, and a jump through the hallway to the human resources department. She couldn’t wait to get her grubby hands on that file. Maybe peek at it while she was at it, on her way back to the executive floor.

She walked in and saw the general assistant, who glanced up from her paperwork and smiled. “What’s up, Molly?”

“Sara asked me to pick up a job performance review.” Molly leaned her hip against the desk.

“Who’s it for?”

“Me,” Molly said proudly.
Hmm, take the good vibes down a notch
. She needed to pace her party mood or she’d be too exhausted to celebrate tonight.

“Really? I didn’t see that one. Let me check.” Crystal looked through the files. “Maybe it’s on my boss’s desk.”

Molly watched the assistant leave the room and started humming. She wondered what kind of raise she would get. She heard three percent was standard.

She also heard some employees received bonuses. Good bonuses. Not the take-the-family-to-a-nice-dinner bonuses, but the take-the-family-to-Disneyland kind.

“Uh, Molly?”

Molly realized she was humming “It’s a Small World” and stopped. Trust fund babies probably hummed symphonies. She needed to play it cool. “Yes?”

“Are you sure she doesn’t have it?”

“She just sent me down.” Foreboding pricked at her. “Why?”

The general assistant winced. “I can’t find it.”

“You
lost
it?”

“Wow,” Curtis Puckett said as he sat at the conference table, facing Kyle and his top executives. “Bringing out the big guns. I’m honored.”

No one else smiled. Kyle and his friends were going into this meeting as a united front. Facing and overcoming obstacles together. They’d done it before, but Kyle didn’t feel the same bloodthirsty aggression. He wasn’t going in for the kill.

Because for the first time on the corporate battleground, Kyle didn’t feel like anyone had his back.

The elite programmer gave another cursory look at the other occupants in the conference room and tsked. “But don’t you think this is inefficient?”

“We’re suing you,” Glenn said, his expression grim.

Curtis chuckled and leaned back in his chair, his legs sprawled in front of him. “No, you’re not.”

Glenn’s expression darkened. “Do you want to bet?”

“You want all of that as court evidence?” Curtis’s eyebrow rose. “I’m going to say…no.”

“By the time you get into court,” Annette said, “we will be making the upgraded version.”

Curtis slowly turned to face her. He gave a slow appraisal, but if it was meant to rattle Annette, he failed. “The case will never get that far,” the programmer finally said.

“Yes, it will,” she replied. “I will personally see to it.”

“Going to make an example out of me?” His expression was hopeful.

“You,” Annette emphasized, “and the person you’re working for.”

Curtis made an exaggerated pout. “What makes you think I’m not the ringleader?”

“You’re not smart enough,” Annette answered.

“Funny.”

“If you were smart,” Timothy said, easing into the interrogation, “you would have known that we would be conducting more security checks after the last attempt.”

Curtis shrugged as if he was bored.

“According to the log, you’re supposed to have the blueprint,” Glenn pointed out. “And you don’t. Where is it?”

“I lost it?” Curtis asked cheekily.

“The guy needs an attitude adjustment,” Annette said. “Give me five minutes with him, Kyle.”

“Are you supposed to be playing the bad cop?”

Annette glared at him. “Make it three minutes.”

“Where is the blueprint?”

He lifted his arms. “Search me.”

“No, thanks,” Kyle said. “Because we know that catching you is a detour. How does it feel knowing that you’re disposable to the plan?”

Curtis’s eyes flickered. “More like pivotal. Anything to distract you. For all you know, the person who has the blueprint could be in the mail room or”—he met Kyle’s steady gaze—“on the executive floor.”

He knows my weak spot.
Kyle masked his surprise and tapped down the grudging respect. His opponent did his homework, and he was going to go on the offensive. Curtis was going for breaking the united front. And he just might be successful.

“In fact,” Curtis continued, swiveling his chair from side to side. “My boss could be in this very room.”

“You’re grasping,” Kyle said, noting the programmer had confessed to having a boss. “That’s the first sign of loss of control.”

“Don’t talk to me about control,” Curtis said sharply. “You’ve lost it.”

Kyle said nothing, waiting for the guy to slip up. To reveal too much.

“You can’t even get your friends to do what you ask of them,” Curtis went on, his eyes taking on a sly gleam. “Everyone knows you told Glenn to knock off the office romances. But he hasn’t stopped and gets laid right at work.”

Kyle felt Glenn’s tension. He bet his friend was turning bright red.

“He also screwed your last girlfriend,” Curtis revealed. “Right in your office.”

“You—” Glenn leapt out of his seat. Timothy jumped up and pushed the chief financial officer back into his seat.

Kyle didn’t like the doubt flickering in his head. He cast it aside, knowing it would fester until he dealt with Glenn, but he had other priorities.

Kyle also noticed Curtis didn’t move out of the way or look at Glenn. He was determined to break the united team and knew he made a hit. “What’s your point?”

“How far can you trust these friends of yours?”

“Farther than I can trust you.”

“Really?” Curtis glanced at the head of security. “Can you trust Timothy even though he’s the source of that tell-all book?”

Kyle gave a show of impatience, although he would have liked to have seen Timothy’s reaction. “Where are you getting your information?”

“You hear things. Like Annette is about ready to break with the company and start her own.”

Annette jumped up. “What?”

“Sit down, Annette,” Kyle ordered harshly. He hadn’t heard that rumor, but he didn’t question it.

He returned his attention to the programmer. “None of these accusations point the finger at someone at the executive level. None of them prove that they are thieves or implicated in taking the blueprint.”

Curtis frowned and Kyle sensed the wavering confidence. The programmer’s trump card didn’t cause the desired effect.

“You are the only person I know who admitted to stealing something.” Kyle pointed at Curtis. “I want to know where the blueprint is and who you are working for.”

“What if I told you that it was someone at the executive level? Maybe in this very room?”

“I am in no mood for guessing games,” Kyle warned him.

“Someone who is not very technical,” Curtis continued as he swiveled on his chair, “or so you think.”

That would point to Glenn—if Curtis was telling the truth. Kyle refused to look at the chief financial officer.

“Someone who doesn’t have the access to all parts of the information…”

“That’s everyone in the executive office,” Timothy informed Curtis.

“Someone who doesn’t have a lot of power, but she will soon.”

“She?” He looked at Annette.

Annette turned to Curtis. “Don’t mess with me.”

“I never said it was you,” Curtis said smugly. Kyle wanted to rip the superior look off of the guy’s face. “I’m talking about Molly.”

The room went quiet. No one moved. Kyle knew that if he did, the pain would rip him in half.

“Molly?” Glenn parroted and looked at his coworkers for confirmation. “Who the hell is Molly?”

“Your receptionist,” Curtis informed him, his voice taking on an edge.

Annette started to laugh. “You want us to believe that the mastermind behind this million-dollar theft is the girl who answers the phone?”

“What do you know about her?” Curtis asked. “Huh? You give her access that you don’t even give me.”

“She poses no threat,” Timothy said.

“Because you think she’s not smart enough to understand the paperwork that crosses her desk. That she’s not going to be able to put the pieces together and get the full picture.” Curtis’s smile widened. “Because you think what she wants you to think.”

“Like what you’re doing now?” Kyle asked softly.

“Don’t you think it’s weird that she’s here at all hours?” Curtis asked. “Popping up in places she’s not supposed to be?”

“Circumstantial evidence.” Why had Curtis put the blame on Molly? Did the guy know how he felt about her? Was it obvious that Molly was becoming his weakness? “You have no proof.”

“And you have proof of her loyalty?” the programmer asked.

“I don’t need it,” Kyle lied.

Curtis chuckled. “Then you’re going down.”

Stay calm
. Molly silently repeated the mantra as she entered Sara’s office.
Under no circumstance will you lose your cool
. “Sara?”

Her boss looked up and frowned with concern. “What happened?”

And here she thought she was handling her panic quite well. “Human resources says they don’t have my job performance file. We have searched everywhere.”

“Well, we need it to make it official.”

Don’t tell me that!
“When I told them we were rescheduling the review for today, they said you must already have the file.”
And if you lost that file I will have to kill you
.

“I would?” Suddenly her eyes widened. “I do!”

“You have the file?”
And you couldn’t have remembered that before my mini nervous breakdown?

“Not here,” Sara clarified, gesturing at her cluttered desk, “but Kyle would have it. He needs to sign off.”

“Okay.”
I’m going to go back to my desk and expire
.

“Why don’t you go see if it’s on his desk?” Sara suggested. “And then come back here and we’ll start the review.”

“Sure.”
Why not? After all, it’s just the promise of more money
.

She briskly entered Kyle’s office and immediately noticed there weren’t a lot of papers on his desk. She quickly shuffled through one pile. What did a job review file look like? Shouldn’t it have her name?

“What are you doing?”

Molly jumped at the sound of Kyle’s voice and dropped the file. “You scared me.” She pressed her hand against her stuttering heart.

He walked into the office, his stride powerful and ground-eating. There was something about it that made Molly nervous. She kept her head down and started looking through the next stack.

“Why are you going through my papers?”

His accusatory tone was biting. “I’m looking for my job review file.”

“Look at me when you’re talking.”

Molly stopped, her senses on full alert, and slowly looked up. What was going on? Why was he all intense and everything?

“Do you have my job performance file?” She hated how her voice shook, but he was her last hope in finding the paperwork. “My review can’t start without it.”

He watched her. She felt cold. Bone-chilling cold as he stared at her as if she was an encrypted message.

“No.”

Molly closed her eyes and exhaled, her breath coming out shallow and choppy. “Have you seen it at all?”

“No, I haven’t.” Annoyance burred his words. “Will you look—”

“Kyle, I don’t have the time to make goo-goo eyes at you. If I don’t have my file, I don’t get my review. If I don’t get my review—” The phone lines lit up. “Argh!”