Chapter 13

THIRTEEN

BASH

I stared out the window at the city skyline stretching out in front of me. Normally, the view from my office window was invigorating. New York was a place where anything could happen, where any dream could become reality if you worked hard enough, and the eight million souls that called this place home filled the air with a frantic energy that made it impossible not to try.

Today, though, there was only one person among the eight million that concerned me. One angelic liar who’d returned my many, many texts over the past four days with only one simple “ I’m safe, Bash. Thank you for everything. ” Sunday night.

The words rang with finality. It was clear Rowe meant them to be a period at the end of our story. Instead, they only made my longing for him that much deeper.

There was so much fucking potential there, and I hadn’t seen it for what it was until Landry opened my eyes. There was so much more I wanted with Rowe, for Rowe, but I’d held myself back until it was too late.

“Bash. Sebastian .”

“Hmm?” I startled, turning away from the window, and shot an apologetic glance at the man standing in front of my desk. “Sorry, Kenji. I was just… thinking over that last point you made. Very thought-provoking.”

He pursed his lips. “That shit doesn’t work on me, remember? You’re daydreaming again,” he accused. “This is becoming a problem.”

“It’s not a problem. I’m thinking. Thinking is an important part of my job.”

“Not when you’re thinking of ways to get me to run a deeper background on Rowe Prince. I told you yesterday, the answer is no. I will not be a party to stalking. Consent fucking matters, Sebastian. The information in that background report was meant to determine whether Rowe was a security risk to the company, not so you could stand outside his cousin’s place holding a boom box in the rain.”

I rolled my eyes. “As if I would. The initial report was sparse, that’s all I said. I wanted to learn more about the man.”

But Kenji was right. The things I wanted to know—more stories about his sister, his family, the way he’d grown up, his hopes for the future and whether they might include me—couldn’t be found in any background check. They were the sort of things I’d have to hear from Rowe himself…

If the man ever gave me the opportunity.

Kenji sighed and sank into a chair, giving me a look of concern. “You knew the man for two days. It’s been four days since you saw him, and you’re acting like you’ve just been through the worst breakup of your life. You’re being ghosted, Bash. It sucks, but it happens to the best of us. Some more than others,” he added under his breath. “Is it time to use the Fake Sterling Chase Escape Fund, do you think? Why not reschedule that Borneo trip? Change things up a little. Get your mind clear again.”

I shook my head. “Believe it or not, Kenji, I’m thinking more clearly than I have in a while.” At least about things that didn’t involve the sexy man who’d pulled a disappearing act on me. “I might be done with adventure trips for a while. In fact…” I squared my shoulders. “I think it’s time to take on a more active role at Sterling Chase.”

“Bash. You cannot possibly work more hours than you already do—” Kenji began.

“Not that. I mean, I think it’s time for me to start vetting projects again from the very beginning. At least the projects I’m going to be working on.”

The conversation with Rowe the other night had been enlightening in a lot of ways. So had the unexpected come-to-Jesus with Landry. When I’d shifted responsibility for vetting projects to Austin and Clarissa several years back, I’d told myself it made good business sense. Now, I was starting to see it was at least partially motivated by fear. Fear of being taken advantage of. Fear that all anyone saw when they looked at me was an opportunity or an open wallet. I was still worried about those things.

But giving up authority meant that I’d allowed other people to determine the guiding principles of the company I loved. Without any input from me, they’d naturally focused on profitability… and I’d let it happen. Instead of freeing me, stepping away had weighed me down. It was time for a reset.

I expected Kenji to frown in disapproval, to tell me all the reasons that would never work, but instead, his eyes widened, and a slow, delighted smile broke out on his face. “Thank fuck,” he breathed. “Look, I know you like Austin, and I’ll admit the man’s devoted to his job, but… he’s not you. When I started working for you, Sterling Chase was all about supporting advancements that weren’t necessarily commercial. Projects that were complex and had a global impact, like the one Clarissa’s been working on in Sierra Leone for the past year. Over time, they’ve become more… instant gratification, I guess? Like that HungerGamer device that integrates your gaming console with an air fryer. It’s cute, and it sells, but it’s not a thing you point to and say, ‘We made people’s lives better.’ Or the CaffApp…”

I snorted. “Yeah, I’ve heard people’s thoughts on the freaking CaffApp. But if you were feeling this way, why didn’t you say anything? God knows it’s not like you to hold back.”

“What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, Bash, so you know how you consciously stepped down from having a public role in the company? Well, I really feel like you need to put your own emotional well-being aside because Sterling Chase shouldn’t be making kitchen appliances.’ How could I possibly do that? You deserve to have more in your life than this company, Sebastian. I hoped stepping back would help you get it.”

I felt a surge of overwhelming fondness for Kenji. “I’m starting to see that I overcorrected,” I admitted. “I stepped back too far and forgot my purpose. I was trying to fill the void with travel…”

“But that didn’t work. And you came to this realization thanks to Rowe Prince?”

“Rowe was definitely a catalyst.”

Kenji looked thoughtful. “ Hmph . He might not be so bad after all.”

“You’d like him.” I found myself smiling. “He’s… hard not to like.”

“Sure.” Kenji’s voice had warmed a fraction, but he was clearly reserving judgment. “Remember that’s what you said about fucking Landry .”

It took an effort not to smile when Kenji sounded so put out. “Landry’s behaved this week, hasn’t he?”

Kenji grimaced. “If by behaved you mean propping his feet on the corner of my desk, chewing gummy bears so loudly my noise-canceling headphones are useless, and trying to inject himself into my personal phone calls until I’m ready to scream.”

I ran a hand over my mouth to hide my smile. “Better than having to negotiate bail, right?”

“Debatable. At least that Landry is a known quantity.” He shook himself slightly, like he was trying to clear all thought of my friend from his mind. “Anyway, Austin Purcell is coming by in an hour for that meeting you put off Monday. You wanna give him the news?”

I considered for a moment, then shook my head. “I might mention it, but I’m not presenting it like a done deal. First, I need to talk to Clarissa when she gets back. And since I’m technically just a member of the board, I think an official announcement needs to come from all of us. But there is one project I’d like to look at in the meantime.”

Kenji frowned, then rolled his eyes as understanding dawned. “Lemme guess… Rowe’s project?”

“Yes. I’m not saying I’m going to sign him to Sterling sight unseen,” I argued quickly. “I’m not going to give his project special treatment simply because I’m attracted to the man. But the other night…” I shook my head, frustrated with myself. “The other night, I turned down his project sight unseen simply because I was attracted to the man, and that’s just as bad. I essentially said, ‘I want to know everything about you, Rowe, except the thing you’re most passionate about,’ because I got stuck in my head about things. And that’s unfair. Worse, I didn’t even realize how unfair I was being until the man left. So, no.” I looked at Kenji seriously. “I’m not signing him to Sterling right now. But if I can help Rowe somehow, then I’m going to consider it. Not because I think he expects it but because I like him, and it feels good to help good people. Okay?”

“Yeah.” Kenji smiled slowly. “I think I’m going to enjoy this new and improved Bash.”

I rolled my eyes. “Step one, let’s pull whatever information Rowe submitted. He requested a meeting within the last couple of months, so we shouldn’t have to go back too far. Let’s also pull any notes that Austin or anyone on his team might have made about why we rejected it.”

“Easy enough,” Kenji agreed. “We document everything.”

But after searching the submissions log for an hour, both of us were frustrated to find that there was no record of any submission by Rowe at all, even as far as six months back.

“Bash,” Kenji began hesitantly. “Is it possible that Rowe wasn’t being truthful? Don’t give me that look, okay? He lied before.”

“Only because he thought he had to. I know when he was telling the truth,” I said with a confidence I rarely felt.

I remembered how his face looked when he talked about decorating a home, when he spoke of his sister, when he admitted he’d never had sex before. The precise texture of Rowe’s curls against my fingertips. The light in his eyes after I’d kissed him. The sound he made when he came. No, there were some things that couldn’t be faked.

“He definitely submitted his idea and requested a meeting,” I concluded. “He mentioned a ‘terse’ rejection letter from Austin, too.”

“Okay, so did he submit it under a different name? Maybe he’s put things under an LLC?”

“I don’t think he’s business savvy enough to open an LLC.” I pushed a hand through my hair. “Look, do me a favor? Get someone in IT to search the whole corporate file system for any mention of Project Daisy Chain. That’s Rowe’s name for the project.”

“Might as well,” Kenji agreed, getting to his feet. “That’s going to take at least half an hour to complete, though.”

“Fine. I’m not leaving town anytime soon.” And if I had anything to say about it, neither was Rowe.

“Or you could just ask Austin—” Kenji began.

“Hey, hey!” Austin’s familiar voice called, followed a second later by a knock on my open door. “Ask Austin what?”

Austin, who always dressed impeccably, had outdone himself today. He wore a charcoal three-piece suit and a smile brimming with excitement. Belatedly, I remembered that he was counting down to the big beta launch of his own project. It was nice that things were swimming along for someone around here.

“For an update on MRO,” I lied smoothly, deciding the man should be able to celebrate his victory for the day without distraction. “Come sit down and tell me how everything’s gone. Kenji, you can go get started on that… other thing.”

Kenji nodded and ducked out while Austin took the seat he’d vacated.

“Today’s the big day, right?” I prompted. “You got the approval from Legal? Beta’s about to launch?”

“Yup. Everything’s on track.” Austin relaxed back, propping his ankle on his knee and his elbows on the chair arms. “Lonnie had some interesting things to say, actually, about the prelaunch response from the testing sites…”

Austin updated me on the details of our next steps, and I quickly settled into the conversation, feeling my excitement build as I thought about the far-reaching implications of what we were doing. I knew in my bones that we were on the cusp of something amazing with this project, just like the brotherhood had been when we were developing our stoplight communication system, and when the clock on my wall chimed the hour, I was shocked to find that I’d spent thirty minutes talking without feeling the time pass.

This was precisely the kind of project I wanted to be working on. The kind that stretched me and challenged me in a way that felt right .

It was the same way I felt about Rowe.

“I’m continually impressed, Austin,” I told him. “Your team has managed this well, but the real brilliance was in the idea you had in the first place and the research you did on your own.”

Austin shrugged modestly. “It feels like this launch has been a long time coming, and I couldn’t have done it without Sterling Chase. I’m treating my team to a little celebration at lunchtime to thank them. You should come. It would mean a lot to everyone.”

“Sure. I’ll try to make it down if I’m free.”

“Great! Oh.” Austin snapped his fingers. “I forgot to mention there was one tiny, silly hiccup with Legal filing the provisional utility patents. Because the patents will be solely in my name, the company has an internal review. Normally, I just sign off on this stuff and that’s good enough for them, but they’re pushing back since the patent is in my name. Can’t sign off on my own patent.” He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Lawyers.”

I snorted. “Figures. What do they need?”

“Documentation from earlier in my development process. The initial brainstorming notes I made. Though why they want to see my chicken-scratch scribbles on notebook paper is anyone’s guess. If you want to do me a solid…” He gave me a shameless grin. “I’m thinking a quick email from someone on the board verifying the documentation exists would probably be good enough to settle their feathers. That would save me a bunch of time combing through my files so I can focus on all the other projects I’m supposed to be managing.”

I laughed. “I would if I could, friend, but Clarissa was the one you first brought the project to, so I never saw that documentation.” I hesitated for only a second before adding, “Speaking of your workload, though… I think I’m ready to step back into the fray. In the next few weeks, I’d like to start reviewing some proposals and being part of the selection team again. I’m not sure exactly what that process will look like, but you and I work well together, so I’m sure we’ll figure something out. And hopefully, that’ll free you up a bit.”

Austin’s smile dimmed a fraction. “Sure… assuming the rest of the board agrees and the owners don’t have an issue with it. But there’s a reason they wanted you to step back in the first place, isn’t there?” He raised an eyebrow. “Or is there something you’re not telling me?”

I bit my tongue against a snappy retort that Austin didn’t deserve. He had no idea that the decision to step back had been mine. And giving up the reins had been difficult for me , even when it had been my choice. I couldn’t expect him to be immediately enthusiastic about it.

“No, you’re right. We’ll see what they say,” I agreed. “Sorry that doesn’t save you from having to find the documentation for Legal, though. Is that going to present a problem for Sterling Chase moving the project forward?”

“Of course not.” He picked at an invisible piece of lint on his pant leg. “The testing might be delayed a day or two, but no more. I swear, I copied every piece of documentation to my work system after we signed our contract, but in one of my attempts to get my files organized, I must’ve deleted them, assuming no one would ever need them. Now I need to find the original scans on my personal system. The price of organization, right?” He grinned.

I chuckled lightly, though I wondered what Kenji would say about Austin admitting he’d deleted a file that way. Our attorneys required us to keep a meticulous paper trail in case our patents were ever challenged. Everything that had ever been created, from handwritten notes to product sketches to meeting minutes, was kept in the project folder on our server. As someone who dealt with these things all the time, Austin should have known better.

“Well, don’t forget the entire Sterling Chase system is backed up regularly. If you can’t find it on your home computer, we can talk to IT and see if they can restore the files for you,” I offered.

Austin’s eyes widened, and he smacked his forehead. “Right. Of course. God, I’d forgotten about the backups. Good idea. I should be able to get all of that sorted within the next day or two, then.”

“Perfect. Frustrating to face a setback when you’re so close to the finish line, though.” My thoughts immediately turned to Rowe—because of course they did since the man seemed determined to sit at the center of my brain this week. The way he’d spoken so passionately about his sister. The way his eyes had burned when he said, I couldn’t not try , Bash. “What’s kept you motivated with this?” I asked Austin suddenly.

He stared at me like I’d sprouted horns. “Motivated me? Aside from wanting to do a good job for Sterling Chase? That’s always my primary motivation.”

“Not that.” My cheeks felt warm, and I wondered if Rowe’s blushes were contagious. “You could have an amazing career at Sterling Chase without ever needing to invent your own project, to jump through these hoops. So I was curious what made you dream up the concept for MRO. What’s kept you pushing, even when you faced setbacks?”

“Oh. That.” His face cleared, and he shifted in his chair. “It’s… it’s actually a very personal story. I, uh… lost a friend when I was young.”

What a fucked-up coincidence. I blinked at him in surprise for a moment before I managed to get out, “God, I’m so sorry.”

He nodded stiffly. “Thank you. My friend died due to something called commotio cordis after being struck in the chest with a ball during a baseball game. She had this heart defect the EMTs didn’t know about. If they’d had access to her medical records, they might have responded differently. Instead, she died. It was really… tough.”

The blood in my veins went cold, and my scalp prickled. There was no way that was a coincidence. It couldn’t be. Could it?

“Yes, I bet it was,” I agreed softly. “And this was in New Hampshire? Where you grew up?”

He shrugged, almost but not quite agreeing. “It happened a while ago, but it’s still pretty painful. If you don’t mind, Bash, I’d really rather not talk about it.”

“No, of course. I don’t mean to pry.”

“I just thought,” Austin went on bleakly, “that if emergency response had been better coordinated with doctor communication and a real-time data collection and assessment tool… maybe things would have been different. And then when I started thinking about it, it seemed like a natural companion piece to the stoplight communication technology that launched Sterling Chase years ago.” Austin met my eyes with stark sincerity. “I realized just how many people we could help with something like this.”

“And I’m so glad you did,” I managed to choke out. I pushed to my feet. “Well. I won’t keep you any longer. I know you’ve got a celebration to get to.”

Austin stood and gave me a brave smile. “I do. And I’ll see you there later?”

“I have a few things to tie up here first,” I said vaguely.

The minute Austin cleared the doorway, I stood and paced the area in front of my desk. “Holy shit,” I muttered under my breath. “Holy shit.”

“What’s going on?” Kenji stood in the doorway, frowning at me. “Is everything okay?”

“Close the door,” I told him. Then, “Kenji, if two people told you the same exact story, and one of them was almost definitely lying, would you believe the man you’d worked with for years—someone you liked and admired and trusted —or would you believe a guy you’d known for two days, who’d lied to you repeatedly, and who… who had every reason to lie to you again?”

Kenji sucked in a breath and then pulled out a chair and sat down. “I’m going to need more details.”

I filled him in on everything Austin had said, along with the story Rowe had told me.

“That would be an incredible coincidence.” Kenji pulled at his lip. “It could simply be a coincidence, Bash. I mean, how many cases of that heart thing occur every year in the United States?”

“But both Rowe’s sister and Austin’s friend had a heart defect that medical records would have notified EMTs about? This was the motivation both of them had for coming up with their projects?”

“Okay, yes. That’s slightly more suspicious.” He nodded slowly. “You think Rowe’s lied to you again?”

It made the most sense. Maybe that was the logical conclusion here. After all, why in the world would a well-educated, experienced, successful businessman like Austin Purcell—with so much to lose—have stolen an idea from someone like Rowe Prince. But…

“No,” I whispered. “I really don’t. If you’d seen his face, Kenji…” I dropped heavily into my chair. “What do I do? How do I prove that Austin stole Rowe’s project?”

Kenji shook his head. “Bash, you’re three steps ahead of yourself. I’m not defending Austin, believe me , but you don’t even know for sure what Rowe’s project is—”

Except I did. I remembered, way too late, how excited he’d been last weekend when I talked about Sterling Chase working on a project that dovetailed with ETC. It had been on the tip of his tongue to tell me about his project then, and looking back, I knew it. But I’d let the moment go.

“Fine,” Kenji said, tapping on his tablet. “Step one, we go back to the initial documentation Austin submitted with this project. There are records of everything, and Clarissa must’ve reviewed it all. So, we’ll look through it and see if there are… clues .” He rolled his eyes. “And just like that, I’m Jessica Fletcher. Working for you people is never dull.”

I laughed and ran a hand over my eyes. “Christ. I think you’ll find there aren’t records. Not all of them, anyway. Austin was just telling me he’s misplaced several key pieces of documentation from his early research. Oops. ”

Kenji froze, his jaw hanging open. “He fucking knows better.”

“Yes, he does. Put that together with the fact that Rowe’s submission seems to have been misplaced—”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m serious, Bash. There are legal issues at play here, okay? Patent issues, Human Resources issues, not to mention your reputation, Austin’s reputation, and the reputation of the company. Contact Legal before you do anything.”

I swallowed. “No, you’re right. I know you are. Okay, why don’t you do that. Quietly. Ask them to slow-roll the patents and beta testing until we get this squared away. And we need a background check on Austin. Find out where he grew up and see if we can confirm that his story about his friend is true.” Kenji nodded. “While you’re at it, get a deeper background on Rowe—not for stalking purposes.”

“On it,” Kenji agreed, standing up.

“I’m going to start checking through the remaining files on MRO.” I turned to my laptop. “I really, really hope you’re right and there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this.”

“Same. I, uh… take it you’re skipping Austin’s celebration lunch, then? If you want, I can go snag you a burrito before the festivities begin. I think they’re setting up soon.”

My head shot up and whipped to Kenji. “Say that again?”

“I said, I can go grab you a burrito…?”

I pushed to my feet. “Austin ordered his team burritos.”

“Yes? That Burrito Bandito truck that sometimes parks over on West Forty-Seventh. Why? Bash? Where the hell are you going? Since when are you so passionate about burritos?”

“Since very recently,” I called over my shoulder. But as I made my way down two floors to the large conference room where Austin was scheduled to have lunch with his team, searching everywhere for a colorful, gaudy sombrero, I smiled to myself because the burritos were definitely not what I was feeling passionate about.