Chapter 10

CHAPTER10

“We’re gonna be late,” Andi pointed out as she placed the coffee that she’d picked up for Devyn on the nightstand before dropping down on his bed with a satisfied sigh and the extra bacon and egg sandwich that never failed to brighten her day.

“What are you doing here, Miss Dawson?” came the question from the bathroom as she pulled her iPad out of her bag and decided to see how things were going as she waited for the man that she really hoped was going to be done soon so that they could go over her new duties before they headed to the office.

“We talked about that,” Andi pointed out as she googled Hillshire Hotels to see how they were holding up after yesterday, only to swallow hard when she saw the first headline.

Hillshire Hotels was filing for bankruptcy.

“My apologies,” Devyn murmured as he plucked the iPad out of her hands and drew her attention to find him standing next to the bed, frowning down at the press release, while Andi found herself running her eyes over him, taking in his wet hair that looked like he’d combed it back with his fingers, to his freshly shaved jaw, and down to his muscular chest and well-defined abs that ended just above the unsnapped pants hanging loosely on his hips. “This went out last night,” he said, drawing her attention back to find him frowning.

“Makes sense,” Andi said, taking back her iPad so that she could read the article. “They were planning on selling the majority of their stock so that they didn’t go down with the hotel, which would have left them free to file bankruptcy without worry and-”

“Made the stock completely worthless,” Devyn finished for her, looking lost in thought as he grabbed his coffee off the nightstand and took a sip while she sat there, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought of something.

For a moment, she debated whether or not she should ask, but…

“Who would have benefitted from this deal?”

“Besides the Hillshire family and board members?” Devyn asked, reaching up to rub the back of his neck, the move doing interesting things to all those muscles in his chest. “I’ve been trying to figure that out.”

“Could it have been someone from Carta Hotels?” Andi asked, nibbling on her delicious sandwich.

“I have no fucking idea, but I plan on talking to Lucas to see what he thinks,” Devyn said, taking one last sip of his coffee before placing it back on his nightstand as she found herself wondering how someone who’d been working on a project for almost two years didn’t know that it was-

“It wasn’t him,” Devyn said, correctly reading her thoughts as he grabbed the egg sandwich that she picked up for him and took a bite. “He needed this deal to be perfect to get a spot on the board. Without it, he’s fucked.”

“So, my new job is to find out what went wrong?” Andi guessed since he still hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with details, which led her to believe that he was making this up as he went. Not that she was going to complain when it kept her out of the accounting department, because she definitely wasn’t. She just wanted to have some idea of what she was supposed to be doing.

“That’s part of it,” he said, finishing off his sandwich before shifting a questioning look at her. “How did you get in here?”

“I used my key,” Andi said, shifting her attention back to the article about Hillshire Hotels.

“You have a key?” Devyn asked as he made his way back to the bathroom.

“It makes my job easier,” she told him, wondering what was going to happen to Hillshire Hotels now that the news was out.

“And what job is that?” Devyn asked from the bathroom.

“I have no idea since you haven’t told me what I’m doing exactly. The only thing that you told me was that you needed help cleaning up this mess,” Andi reminded him as she turned off her iPad when she heard him walk back into the room.

“Then, I’ll explain on the way,” Devyn said, fixing his tie as he walked back into the room and grabbed his coffee.

“Will it involve the accounting department?” she asked, narrowing her eyes on him as she waited for an answer that wouldn’t end with her spending the next month looking for a new job.

Devyn sighed heavily as he reached over and helped her to her feet as he said, “So little trust.”

“That’s not really an answer,” Andi said as she carefully slipped her feet back into her shoes.

“It’s not in the accounting department,” Devyn said with a teasing smile as he led her into the living room and grabbed his bag before grabbing hers.

“You promise?” she asked when he opened the door for her.

“I promise,” Devyn said as they made their way to the elevator.

“So then, what is my job exactly,” Andi asked as she pressed the call button.

“Besides finding out who was behind this? I need to make sure that there aren’t any more surprises waiting for me so that the board doesn’t have any excuse not to renew my contract,” Devyn said as the elevator doors slid open and they stepped inside.

“How long do we have?” Andi asked as she hit the button for the lobby.

“Four months.”

Nodding slowly, she said, “That’s not really a lot of time.”

“No, it’s not,” Devyn murmured in agreement.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked, not really sure how they were going to pull this off.

“Pray for a miracle.”

* * *

“What’s going on?”Lucas asked, frowning in confusion as he glanced over his shoulder.

Devyn followed his gaze only to shrug when he spotted Andi sitting on the couch with a file opened on her lap and a large stack of them by her side. “She’s commandeered my office.”

“Was that the VP of marketing’s assistant I saw out there?”

“Yes,” Devyn said, shrugging it off since he hadn’t been left with much of a choice. He needed help and he didn’t have time to go through all the bullshit required to hire someone new, so he enticed Ben to come work for him with the promise of an insane raise.

“That explains why Jeff’s pissed,” Lucas said, chuckling as he sent Andi another curious look. “And what about her?”

“I fired her,” Devyn said, watching as Andi frowned down at whatever she was looking at before grabbing her iPad, swiping to another page and began worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked back down at the file in her lap.

“Doesn’t look like she got the message,” Lucas said, sounding amused.

“I gave her another job,” Devyn said, shifting his attention back to the email that he’d been reading when Lucas showed up.

“One that involves taking over your office?”

“Apparently,” Devyn said, reading through the board’s email response to the bullshit that went down yesterday. “I gave her the office next to this one, but apparently, it didn’t work for her.”

“What is she doing?” Lucas asked, sounding curious.

“I have no idea. She won’t tell me,” Devyn absently said as he finished reading the part where the board members wanted to express their gratitude to Andi for catching the mistake before it destroyed Carta Hotels and letting him know that they expected answers.

Soon.

“Did you ask?” Lucas asked as Devyn closed the email and moved to open the next email, only to realize that it was from Janet.

“Yes, but she didn’t seem to hear me,” Devyn said, deleting the email without bothering to read it, in no fucking mood to deal with her today. When Carta Hotels started interviewing him, she’d barely said a word to him other than a few politely murmured questions. That all changed after he was hired and she decided that his job duties should include fucking her on command. She wasn’t happy that he wasn’t interested in the job.

“The same work that you have no idea what she’s doing?” Lucas asked, throwing him a questioning look.

“The very same,” Devyn said, closing his email and sat back in his chair, wondering how they were going to fix this.

“And this seems normal to you?” Lucas asked, frowning as he glanced back at Andi again.

“I was asking myself that same question an hour ago only to decide that it was probably in my best interest to leave her alone when she dropped this on my desk,” Devyn said, picking up the legal pad that she’d left on his desk with a mumbled, “You should probably look at this,” before stealing his coffee and returning back to the couch where she immediately ignored him and set back to work.

“What’s this?” Lucas asked as Devyn tossed it to him.

“The email that sent the original digital file,” Devyn said, watching Lucas’s reaction as he read the email address written across the legal pad in red pen.

“It’s the same email that I’ve been corresponding with for the past two years. What am I missing?” Lucas asked, looking up as he moved to toss the legal pad back on the desk only to go still when Devyn said, “No, it’s not.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Take another look,” Devyn said, gesturing to the legal pad in Lucas’s hands.

“What am I looking for?”

“Look at the domain. Hillshire Hotels’ domain is HillshireHotels.com. This one is HillshirHotel.com,” Devyn explained, watching Lucas very closely.

A muscle in Lucas’s jaw clenched as he noticeably swallowed. “Shit,” he said, tossing the legal pad back on the desk as he rubbed the back of his neck. “How the hell did we miss that?”

“I have no idea,” Devyn said, wondering the same thing. Then again, he was wondering about a lot of things.

Lucas’s team had been handling this project from the start, managing every aspect of the deal and going over every detail to make sure that everything was perfect. There was no way in hell that they should have missed the fact that Hillshire Hotels was bankrupt, but somehow, they had and he wanted to know why. He also wanted to know why the IT department was able to trace the original email back to this building.

“But you plan on finding out,” Lucas said, nodding as he slowly exhaled. “Okay, what’s the plan?” he asked, reminding Devyn why he liked him so much.

“I’m working on it,” Devyn said, leaning back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

“Might want to work on it faster,” Lucas said, only to add, “The board is pissed,” at Devyn’s questioning look.

“How pissed?” Devyn asked, drumming his fingertips on the desk as his gaze flickered back to Andi to make sure that she was still absorbed in whatever it was that she was doing.

There was a telling pause, and then, Lucas was sighing heavily as he said, “They’ve already started looking for your replacement.”

“How long do I have?” Devyn asked, wondering how he was going to come back from a fuck-up this big.

“As long as you’re careful, I would say you have until your contract is up to turn this fucking mess around, which is really fucked-up since this wasn’t your mistake,” Lucas said, ramming his fingers through his hair. “I tried talking to my godfather, but-”

“It’s fine,” Devyn said, waving it off because he knew from the start that if anything went wrong with this deal that the blame would be laid at his feet.

“This isn’t your mess to clean,” Lucas pointed out.

“How many people worked on this deal?” Devyn asked, changing the subject because it was pointless to argue about this.

“Ten on my team, but every department had a hand in this deal,” Lucas said, slowly exhaling. “I just can’t see anyone on my team doing this. They had nothing to gain. They were counting on the deal to go through for their bonuses and of course, an invitation to the gala in May. Speaking of the gala,” Lucas said, gesturing absently in Andi’s direction, “the board wants to show their gratitude for what she did for Carta Hotels.”

“What did they have in mind?” Devyn asked, knowing the board well enough to know that whatever they had in mind for Andi, it was for their benefit.

“They want you to invite Andi to the gala,” Lucas said, throwing Andi another curious look to find her worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she read through her notes.

“I wasn’t planning on going,” Devyn said, knowing better than to waste any time on bullshit, not when he only had four months to clean this mess.

“You have to go, Devyn.”

“And why is that?” he asked, wondering how he was going to fix this only to realize something important.

He had no fucking idea where to start.

“Because you still need to play the game by their rules. Don’t give them a reason to look somewhere else. Show up when you’re supposed to, smile, and give them whatever they want to make them happy,” Lucas said, suddenly looking exhausted as he gestured to the small bandage on his forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Devyn said as his gaze flickered to the reason why to find Andi absently humming to herself as she finished going through the file on her lap and grabbed another one.

“They catch the guy?” Lucas asked.

Shaking his head, Devyn said, “Not yet,” not really expecting them to find the man that attacked him. The only thing that they knew was that it hadn’t been a random attack. The security cameras that Carta Hotels had in the parking lot managed to catch the perp waiting most of the night for him. As soon as the little prick saw him, he’d made his move.

“I actually came to see if you wanted to grab lunch,” Lucas said, getting to his feet with a heavy sigh, “but I’m guessing that you’re going to need a raincheck.”

“Yes, I am,” Devyn murmured absently, his gaze flickering to Andi as he thought about what she’d said this morning and found himself asking, “Do you have any idea who was behind this?”

“None,” Lucas said, sighing heavily as his gaze flickered to Andi before looking back at him as he added, “Whatever you’re planning, I would do it fast.”