2. Sabrina

Could I handle that? I managed to keep it together while I nodded and stepped into the elevator. “It’ll be my pleasure.” Damn the huskiness in my voice.

He didn’t mean it sexually. Chase was my boss. The last thing he’d do was solicit me for sex during my interview. Right? Not that I’d say no when I wanted him this bad. What was wrong with me that I’d fall so easily into his bed at the slightest provocation? This was why Dad called me the family screwup. I didn’t think things through. Even my plan to come here and get a job to find out if Chase was stealing from Dad hadn’t been thought out. I’d applied for the job and let Miranda give my application a nudge. Now I was here, working under Chase. Starting tomorrow. He technically wasn’t my boss until I signed the paperwork.

I leaned into the cold wall and crossed my arms over my fluttering stomach. The interview had gone better than I hoped. I tugged my phone free from the tiny pocket at my ribs and thumbed off a text to Miranda.

My phone pinged her response as the doors opened back downstairs. I grinned at her rapid reply.

OMG! Congratulations. Meet me in the coffee lounge. You can’t miss it. Turn right once you leave the elevators and follow the signs around to the back corner. You’ll smell the coffee before you see it.

I had enough adrenaline in my veins to fuel half the city, but I wouldn’t dream of passing up a chance to sit and talk to Miranda. It would give me more time to scope out the building and the other employees. If anyone here was stealing tech from my dad’s company, I had to find them. Now that I’d talked to him, I didn’t think it was Chase like my brother suspected. He and Dad had been friends for years. He talked about Chase all the time. He obviously never mentioned me to Chase or today’s interview would have been very different.

I turned right and spotted a chrome wall plaque announcing the coffee bar around the corner. The smell hit me and my eyes sank closed for a brief second. I couldn’t stand there daydreaming. I had a mission.

Miranda spotted me and stood halfway, waving one hand back and forth. “I got you a coffee.”

I slid into the seat across from her and picked up the white cup. “Mocha espresso?”

“With an extra shot of espresso and whipped cream.” She toasted me with her own dainty cup. “Now tell me everything.”

“I’m going to be Chase’s administrative assistant.” I still couldn’t believe it. I’d applied for the job thinking it would be some menial position. I thought I’d work with one of his underlings.

Miranda stared at me, her large brown eyes wide. Light caught on her coppery skin and refracted off her gold hoop earrings when she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I think I just hallucinated. Who will you be working with?”

It was my turn to stare. “Chase. The position was for an administrative assistant. For him.” I rolled my lips together, tasting the whipped cream on my tongue.

Miranda made a noise somewhere between a cough and a snort. “I’ll be damned. You did it.” She flew around the table and wrapped her arms around my neck. “We’ll be work besties.” Her springy curls bounced around her face and she hugged me again. “I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone. Speaking of …” She spun around and grabbed a man and a woman by the arm. “Terrence, Laura, this is Sabrina, my best friend. She was just hired and starts work tomorrow.”

“Congratulations.” Terrence’s deep voice had substantial depth, as did his handshake.

Laura was a little slower to shake my hand, but her smile looked genuine enough. “I run the HR department. You’ll need to see me sometime tomorrow for your welcome packet.”

“Of course.” Nerves fluttered in my stomach, churning the espresso. “Can I come by anytime or do you have a preference?”

“Oh, anytime.” She flapped a hand. Her bright red lipstick popped against her porcelain skin. She wore a sixties hairstyle that somehow complemented her oval face. “Things are pretty relaxed around here, for the most part. Keep the bosses happy and things run smoothly.” She tittered like there was some inside joke.

Miranda rolled her eyes but didn’t clue me in. “Oh, you need to meet some more people.” She took me by the elbow and led me over to a group standing around a single man sitting on a stool at the bar area. Coffee cups lined the space in front of him, along with trays of coffee creamers, sugars, pretty much anything a person would need to make any kind of flavored coffee. It was a tiny slice of heaven in this cold, impersonal building.

I couldn’t really say that about the whole building. The conference room had personality. Did Chase choose the decorations up there or someone else? The thought of him conferring with a stylist burned through me in a sudden fit of jealousy.

Okay. I’d officially gone crazy.

“Mike, this is Sabrina.” Miranda tugged me close to her side. “Mike is the resident tech genius.”

Mike glanced up from whatever he’d been doing on the tablet sitting in front of him. He shot me a look, his gaze roaming over me, then he dismissed me with a twitch of his head.

The group around him didn’t even bother looking my way.

“I’m looking forward to working with all of you.” I attempted to break the ice. They would be my coworkers. I didn’t need their approval, but I was sure it would help the workday go better if I had some friends among my colleagues.

A thin woman with glasses and a pert nose glanced over. “You probably won’t be working with us. The departments stay pretty localized. So, unless you’re a tech geek”—her look implied she knew I was not—“then we won’t be spending time together.”

Ouch. I raised my eyebrows at Miranda in an are-you-shitting-me look.

She shrugged and led the way back to our table. “It’s like that at first. One big pissing contest to see if you’re going to shake the corporate ladder.” She finished her espresso, a look of concern tightening her eyes. “And since you strolled in here and grabbed one of the most coveted positions available, you might want to brace yourself for more than a few cold shoulders.”

“It’s not like I intended to step on anyone’s toes.” I grumbled into my cup and sighed. Great. I hadn’t even started work yet and already had people who wanted me gone.

Screwup Sabrina had struck again.

Damn it. I refused to let that mentality drag me down. I’d worked hard for this job.

I fixed my expression into one of careful neutrality. I couldn’t make these people like me, but I also didn’t have to let them know their instant dismissal hurt my feelings.

Miranda leaned toward me, her hands in her lap and her bright eyes earnest. “Look, Sabrina, I’m glad you’re here.”

I sensed a “but” and held my breath.

A commotion broke out on the far side of the room.

Chase strolled in, his hands in his pockets and his face not showing a care in the world. Two men walked on either side of him. I recognized them from my research. Russell Bennett on Chase’s right, and Garrett Smith on his left. Both had dark brown hair, but Russell sported a bit of a well-groomed beard and had a leaner physique than Garrett. All three men walked with purpose in every stride.

Quiet descended on the room, the employees watching with a sense of anticipation and awe. Did they not come down here often?

The three men took no notice of the disturbance they caused but continued to the coffee bar and commenced pouring and flavoring their own drinks. Okay, so I likely wouldn’t be bringing Chase coffee if he liked to make it himself. That made me feel better about the position I’d accepted. Maybe I would be doing something that would help me once I graduated with my MBA.

Chase turned toward the room and my face flamed hot when he looked my way. I couldn’t tell if he saw me. His gaze swept the room so fast that he might not have noticed that I sat ogling him. I wasn’t the only one. All the women I’d spoken to, and some of the men, stared at the three power players. I swore Laura had drool dripping off her chin before Chase, Russell, and Garrett continued their stroll.

“What are they doing down here?” Laura’s voice hissed out in a sharp whisper. She fluffed her hair and bit her bottom lip. “It’s too bad about the dating clauses in the work contracts. I’d be all over that.” She made a purring sound, and I slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the giggle.

Bit late for that. I scolded myself for the thought but grinned when I caught Miranda’s eye. She looked as awe-struck as the others. Okay, so I wasn’t the only one who had the hots for the CEOs.

Why did that piss me off? They were off-limits … for everyone. I shoved my raging hormones down. They were too old for me. I knew that. My body didn’t seem to care, and honestly, neither did my mind. What did matter was that they were my bosses, and Dad’s best friends. That placed them all firmly in the do-not-have-sex-with box.

I choked back my sigh. “I’m guessing you don’t see them often?” I crossed my ankles and tucked them beneath the chair. I could at least present an aura of sophistication.

Miranda blinked as though coming out of a daze. “No. No. They don’t come down to the lounge often.” Her eyes flashed over to me, then back to where they’d disappeared around the corner.

Conversations picked up again, and I twirled my espresso cup around in the saucer to distract myself. I’m sure my face would give me away if Miranda looked too long.

“There have been a few changes happening lately.” Miranda pursed her lips and stopped.

“Oh, don’t quit now. I’m an employee, you have to tell me all the juicy gossip.” She would do it anyway because she knew I loved hearing all about work drama. I had plenty in my personal life, but this didn’t apply to me, so I enjoyed the soap opera aspect of it all.

She looked left, then right, and leaned even closer, reminding me of a really bad spy trying not to get caught. “There have been rumors that the business is having problems.”

My heart stuttered. Dad hadn’t said anything about Grady folding. He might not know. If that was the case, it meant that Chase had probable cause for stealing from other companies. “You think they’re out of ideas for apps?” Seemed unlikely but stranger things had happened in the businesses I’d studied this year.

Miranda splayed her hands out with her palms up. “I don’t know. It’s all rumors at this point. But I know the last board meeting was a disaster.”

“Board meeting? Isn’t it just Chase, Russell, and Garrett?” I shouldn’t let on that I know so much about them, but Miranda is too busy gossiping to notice.

“They have regular board meetings. Like once a month. Just the three of them in the conference room on the tenth floor. No one else uses that floor, and their actual offices are higher up.” She was getting into her story now, her eyes lighting up the longer she talked.

I imagined the three of them holed up in that room. If those walls could talk, I’d pay a fortune to know what they’d said up there. Had one of them admitted to stealing from Dad and the others wanted to hush it up? My pulse rushed faster.

“No one else is allowed in?” Why would they bother holding meetings here when they could talk anytime?

Miranda shook her head, sending her curls bouncing again. “This last meeting, they were shouting so loud that I heard them on the ninth.”

“What did they say?” The question scraped up my throat with a desperate need to find answers.

Miranda’s frown created three creases on her forehead. “I couldn’t tell. Their voices were too muffled, but I’ve never heard them yell like that.” She smoothed her finger over the wrinkles, working them out. “I’ve been hearing rumors since then, though. I’ve heard there’s something big happening. Tech being stolen or something like that.”