Page 4 of Dangerous Temptation

Chapter Four

Harris

It wasn’t even seven o’clock in the morning yet when I made my way through the maze of corridors that lead to my office. Rounding the corner, I stopped and my eyes narrowed. Addilyn Clement was at her desk. She was slouching over something and I wasn’t sure if she were asleep or not. It was another notch in support of my theory that she had joined my company with some sort of clandestine plan to undermine it—and thus me—in some way.

Walking forward with a quiet step, I stopped while still a good ten feet away from her desk and cleared my throat. Her head snapped up and her already mussed hair flew everywhere. What I had not been expecting to see were bloodshot eyes.

“What are you doing here so early?” I asked, sure that the answer would have nothing to do with racing in early to impress the boss, and if it was, then she had failed. Seeing an employee clearly too tired to have a productive day in clothes that were wrinkled and disheveled was not high on my list of favorable attributes.

I frowned then, I studied her clothes further. “Is that the same dress you were wearing yesterday?”

“I can explain,” Addilyn said, standing up at the same time as she closed a large binder on her desk.

My felt my mouth literally gape open. “Is that the quarterly report and the departmental reports?” I asked, already knowing the answer as I closed the distance to her desk.

“Yes, sir. I—”

“You’re fired. Get out. Leave right now or be escorted by security.”

“But sir!” she exclaimed as he cheeks paled. The thing she didn’t do was turn around and start her trek out of the building.

I started to reach for my cell phone in the inside breast pocket of my suit jacket.

“Sir, I found the discrepancy!” Addilyn blurted, stilling my reaching hand. “I know why the quarterly report is off by more than eight and a half million dollars.”

My brain ground to a halt. I had not even realized that the discrepancy was that large. I had known it was significant, but eight and a half million? Our profits dropping so drastically would have been a difficult conversation to have with our shareholders.

“You found it?” I asked, needing to confirmation that this monumental problem had been solved. That it had been solved me having to roll the head of more than one department lead was a huge bonus.

“I have, sir,” Addilyn said, standing up a little taller and squaring her shoulders. Even with seemingly no sleep, she was still one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my life. She put me in mind of a wild horse that had never been tamed.

Nodding my head to give me a second to think, I reassessed how to proceed. “Bring those reports to my office. Be there in five minutes.”

“Yes, sir,” she said with open enthusiasm.

I made my way into my office, started a brew of coffee and did the other things and got me settled to start my day. By the time it was ready, Addilyn was tapping at my door.

She struggled with the weight of the large binders as she carried them the long distance to my desk, but I didn’t offer to help. I figured that if she’d managed to carry them out of my office all on her own—and without permission—then she could manage to carry them back in as well.

“Do you like your coffee with cream and sugar?” I asked as I retrieved a small pint of half-and-half from a recessed mini-fridge.

“Uh... yes, sir. Thank you,” she said as I handed her a cup of steaming joe.

I sat down behind my desk, picked up my office phone and dialed Samuel Druthers, our accountant. It was not lost on me that the man whom I had chewed up one side and down the other last night before leaving was not yet at work.

I hung up the phone, leaned back in my chair, and folded my hands in front of me. “Alright, Ms. Clement, why don’t you start with why you had these reports and how you got them.” It was possible that Pam had given them to her to review. I didn’t know why Pam would do such a thing, but it was possible.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your phone conversation yesterday,” Addilyn said after taking a sip of her coffee.

“You couldn’t help it?” I parroted her in a gentle challenge to her claim. Her cheeks turned pink.

“No, sir. I was waiting to give you the Sandburg report. Pam had told me not to interrupt you while you were on the phone but to wait until you were off before giving you the report. So, I had to... listen, sir, in order to know when it was okay to pass the report over to you.”

Grudgingly, I had to admit to myself that that made sense. I’d worked with Pam for years, and she knew my quirks. I did not like people walking in and out of my office while I was on the phone. But, that still didn’t explain how the quarterly report and the departmental reports ended up in her possession. “Go on.”

“I kept your door from closing after you left, and I went into your office so that I could get the reports.” Her head was held high, her shoulders were squared, and her gaze was unwavering as she looked me straight in the eye.

The sheer audacity of her confession kept me silent. She didn’t even have the good graces to be embarrassed by what she’d done. Of course, what she’d done was find a missing eight and a half million dollars. So, she’d said, anyhow. That alone had earned her a few minutes of my time for her to explain herself. “Go on.”

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