The CEO Gets Her Man (19 page)

Debra’s gaze flicked across the excited faces, a tight ball gathering in her stomach. Focused on their disliked boss, it obviously was not occurring to the employees the hotel might face closure.

Her discomfort grew. All these people might be put on notice as early as tomorrow. She might be issuing the order to terminate their employment. Bile shot up from her stomach. Harsh, deep breaths provided a lid but Debra feared that might not be enough. Not with her stomach churning like a whirlpool.

Struck with the realisation of the effect the power she exercised every day shocked Debra. These weren’t faceless numbers, but real people—people who had welcomed her into their circle and shown her kindness.

While she hadn’t had time to accept the invitations, she’d been invited into people’s homes, to meet families, to join a carload going into the city. She’d walked down the town’s main street and been kindly spoken to by complete strangers.

Here people didn’t have to know you to extend a friendly gesture. Used to the hurried lack of eye contact as people rushed along the busy streets of Wellington, Debra acknowledged such familiarity was still a little unnerving.

In the staff quarters people were around her twenty-four seven, talking to her, laughing with her, befriending her. Not something she was used to. Hiding her identity had shown her something extraordinary—people liked her.

Nobody liked her in Wellington. She was revered and respected, feared and tolerated. But nobody liked her.

Other than her brother and cousin, she couldn’t remember anyone ever liking her. Invitations to social gatherings had never ensued through friendship or expectation of enjoying her company.

She’d learned not to be bothered that people used her as a means to an end, a social stepping-stone to higher achievement in their business. She had done the same thing in return. A lump formed in her throat as she was transported to a time when she had cared—before a man had torn her heart to shreds.

Forcing herself to concentrate on those around her, she squirmed in her seat. Her mother was right. Riversleigh was different. She’d been welcomed into the staff social whirl without question.

Such open friendliness defied logic in Debra’s eyes. The whirlpool in her stomach clicked into top gear. She might be repaying that friendliness with across-the-board unemployment.

As unobtrusively as possible, Debra slipped away. Far from Wellington and the pressure of her existence there, Debra was tapping into unknown things about herself. Things she didn’t like. Things already making her take a critical look at her life.

Her mother’s suite was the obvious place to go to discount such pessimistic thoughts. Karin answered her knock and she slipped inside.

She needed to focus. “What’s happening downstairs? What’s Donaldson discovered?”

“You look tired, Deb.” Her mother was frowning.

“I’m not tired, Mother. What has he told you?”

“Did you enjoy Queenstown?”

Heat crept into her face as she remembered just how much she might have enjoyed Queenstown. “Mother!” she snapped, turning her back to pace across the room. “This is very frustrating for me.” She calmed her tone. “I need to know what he’s uncovered.”

Karin returned to her chair, crossing her legs, the magazine she’d been reading left on the floor. “You need to relax. You remind me of a cobra waiting to strike. For God’s sake, Debra, get a grip. Go and have a soak in my bath or something. Forget work for five minutes of your life.”

Karin’s acerbic words caused Debra to falter, just for a second, before she continued her journey across the carpet once more. “I’m not used to inactivity,” she justified. “I haven’t had a whole day away from work for years.”

“More fool you, then,” her mother snapped. “Lot of good it’s doing.”

Debra turned her back and bit her lip hard. For a second her vision blurred as her mother’s words joined her own censure.

She raised her chin and managed to stare her mother dead in the eye and reply without any quiver in her voice. “It’s increasing the size and stability of our holdings Mother. As well as making us all a lot of money. Money you don’t seem to mind spending with gay abandon, I might add.”

Karin snorted. “Why not spend it? Not that it makes me happy. You mark my words, Deb, you’ll realize one day. Money can’t keep you warm in bed on a cold night. Only a good man can do that.”

With a dignified swish of her head, Karin picked up her magazine and proceeded to flick through the pages. The tremor visible in her hands left Debra fuming, and feeling guilty as hell at the same time.

“I think I will take that bath,” she mumbled and made her way to the bathroom. Turning on the bath taps she shuffled through the toiletries until she found a bottle of bubble bath and lavishly tipped the whole lot under the spurting water.

Her hand clenched around the empty container. She didn’t want to argue with Karin. She didn’t want to be the person she’d become. Tears blurred her vision as the bubbling froth filled the bath. But what choice did she have?

Sinking under the water, Debra wished she could just stay there. Forget Riversleigh and the office, and the tension between her and Karin. Forget Jase McEwan. Forget how he’d made her existing life feel so dull and unsatisfying.

Exploding out of the water Debra gasped air into her lungs. Her life wasn’t unsatisfying. It was full and exciting and rewarding.

She forced herself to consider the last few weeks, then the last months, then the last years. Look at what she’d achieved. Look at what she and Paul had done since their father’s unexpected heart attack. They’d carried on his work and surpassed all of his expectations.

While Paul concentrated on overseas ventures, she’d taken control of their New Zealand holdings. Riversleigh was the only exception to their portfolio performing at an outstanding level. She had turned their head office into a most efficient, well-oiled machine any CEO would be proud of.

Slumping, her shoulders slid back into the water. The office—where her staff worked in fear of reprisals and only spoke in whispers. Where silence reigned whenever she was close by.

She frowned. Why was she questioning whether hers was a healthy working environment? Couldn’t she always count on getting the absolute best out of her staff?

That wasn’t how this hotel was run. In just a week she had seen a different approach to staffing. Workers here acted like friends—a family.

She argued, but that proves how wrong it is. It doesn’t work, does it? If it did, she wouldn’t be here pretending to be a damned waitress.

The cooling water temperature forced a reluctant Debra from her bath.

Her mother deserved an apology and one thing Debra had learned at her private school was impeccable manners. “I’m sorry if I upset you, Mother.”

Karin’s arched eyebrows acknowledged the apology.

Tightening the robe’s tie around her, Debra sank onto the closest bed, hoisting her legs up underneath her. “What’s happening? Please?”

“I talked to Terry after lunch. You were right. He’s found huge variations between our records and theirs.” She named a figure which dropped Debra’s mouth open. “He suspects Murphy and her assistant are the only ones involved—”

“Jase is not implicated?”

Karin gave a little I-told-you-so smile as she shook her head.

Debra slumped back against the pillows. Relief surged through her. In that second a tonne weight lifted from her shoulders. He wasn’t ripping them off. He wasn’t lying. He wasn’t...Roger Tanner.

She averted her head, hoisting a towel to her wet hair, not wanting Karin to see the relieved tears filling her eyes.

Karin sat forward. Debra could see her concerned expression out of the corner of her eye. “Debra?”

Rubbing her hair allowed Debra to avoid eye contact with her all-seeing mother.

“How much more time?” Debra hoped she’d kept the wobble out of her voice. Or that Karin would think the harsh rubbing with the towel had morphed the sound.

Karin shrugged. “Terry isn’t sure. Possibly another twenty-four hours.”

Finger-combing her hair, Debra mused. Twenty-four hours? Then she’d be finished here. She’d be able to return to Wellington and her real life.

Her empty life—a life without Jase.

“Terry thought he’d be ready to advise calling in the police by lunchtime tomorrow. If that’s what we want.”

“Of course that’s what we want. I swore I’d bury anyone stealing from us again.”

“Forget that slime-ball, Debra,” her mother advised for the millionth time. “You’ve let him colour your life too long.”

Debra flashed a weary smile. “Don’t worry, I’ve forgotten him.”

“Good.”

Something in her mother’s smile alerted Debra and she jumped up to return the towel to the bathroom. A check in the mirror showed her face as composed and blank as normal. But she suspected her mother had seen beyond her self-possessed expression.

The silence between them was relaxed for a change. Debra watched her mother flick through the magazine, marvelling over the lack of wrinkles on her face. Glancing at her own reflection in the mirror above the desk Debra cringed. People will soon think I’m my mother’s older sister if I’m not careful.

A light finger touched the corner of her eyes where worry lines were appearing. No-one who knew Debra would ever suggest they were laughter lines. Debra never laughed.

“What would you think of me staying down here for an extended time?” Debra was unprepared for the casual tone of Karin’s question. Mixed with the relief her mother might stay away from Wellington—and her office—was a deeper understanding of her mother’s needs.

“If you’d be happier living here, Mother, then—”

“I’m not talking about living here,” Karin scoffed. “I mean to help sort out this place.”

Oh. Debra bit her lip. Karin wanted to be deeply involved with the hotel. “We have to wait for Terry’s report, Mother,” she said gently. “It might turn out closing the hotel is the best option.”

Determination written all over her face, Karin leant forward. “We are not closing Riversleigh.” Something in Debra’s expression must have alerted Karin. “At least not until Jase and I have been given a chance to get it back onto its feet.”

She clasped Debra’s hands. “Deb, the place was profitable enough for that woman to get away with stealing so much.” She rushed on as the figures started rolling around inside Debra’s head. “We might not even need an influx of capital to help us trade our way back. The staff provided amazing service under very difficult constraints. Just imagine what we’ll be able to do with a healthier working budget.”

“You’ve been giving this more than a bit of thought,” Debra mused.

Karin’s body stiffened. “Don’t think you’re indulging an old woman, Debra.”

“Old? Where do you ever come off calling yourself old?” Debra had to smile. She stretched out a hand, but didn’t quite make physical contact. “I’m not indulging you, Mother, I promise.”

She sent her mother a half smile. “I admit I’m a little surprised at your fervour, but I’ll back you. I’ve been feeling sick about the possibility of firing all those people. I’m not sure I’ve liked getting close to those who work for us. They’ve all been so friendly.”

She shook her head and asked, “Tell me some of your ideas? I imagine you have lots...”

****

Jase was delighted with the response of the Japanese businessmen to his proposals. He was pleased when Karin offered to join him in escorting them to the airport. Having the hotel owner rubber stamp his ideas, and offer some of her own, had added weight to his overall presentation. Now it was a waiting game to see if their efforts would bear fruit.

It was only when they returned to the hotel that Karin’s two-edged actions dawned. She’d kept him busy and out of the way for another two hours. He caught her smirky little smile as she fluttered her fingers and disappeared into the conference room.

“What’s going on, boss?” the head of reception queried in a whisper.

“Who the hell knows?” he snapped back. He shot the man an apologetic grimace. “Who have they spoken to?”

He named the managerial staff members. “I can’t be sure but I think all of us. They grilled me about guest numbers and how our payment records are kept. They’re a closed-mouth lot, wouldn’t give away anything. No hint of why they’re here or what they want.”

“I’ve had about enough of this,” Jase strode toward the conference room. He knocked, but didn’t wait for a reply before thrusting the door open.

In a less serious situation Jase might have laughed at the contingent from Head Office huddled around one end of the table. Looking more like extras from a Matrix movie than accountants, Jase could visualise adding dark glasses to complete the parody.

“Ah, Jason. Terry was just about to call you.” Karin’s nod held none of the friendliness she’d been showing him. She introduced him to each of the three men. “I’m sure Jason will provide you with anything else you might need.”

With another cool nod the woman disappeared and he was invited—or was it ordered?—to sit.

“You’ll appreciate we had very little notice of your arrival—”

“We understand, Mr. McEwan.” The red-headed man in the centre was the man in charge. His offhand response annoyed Jase. With narrowed eyes Jase glared at him.