Page 95 of Falling for the Boss's Son

“One more thing.” Blake’s gaze softened. “If you get any more strange notes, I want to know about them.”

“Yes, sir.”

Back at her desk, Cassie struggled to focus on her work. Before meeting Jesse, her days were rather boring.

Not that she didn’t like her job. She did. She was treated well and respected. The pay wasn’t horrible either.

Her thoughts drifted to the missing file Jesse was trying to find. So much had happened since she’d met him, but that hadn’t been the start of the office drama. Not really.

It started with the former accounting manager, Zac Travers. She still remembered finding the error on the end of month sheets. The numbers didn’t add up. Or they did, kind of, but only if one didn’t go through everything line by line.

The numbers had been manipulated, adjusted by pennies to make them all add up at the bottom of the page. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. The amount of time it would take to make so many tweaks baffled her mind. She’d thought she had to be reading it wrong.

So, she’d checked, and checked again, rerunning the numbers a dozen times before bringing it to Blake’s attention. They’d spent an entire weekend in his office with papers spread out over the last year trying to make sense of it.

By the end of the weekend, they’d found more evidence of tampering with the numbers. It was subtle, but over time it had added up to a substantial amount.

She hadn’t been in on the meeting with Zac Travers, but she’d witnessed the aftermath. The meeting had lasted less than twenty minutes, and it had ended with security escorting him down to get his things, then out of the building.

The look on his face was one she’d never forget. It wasn’t remorseful or defiant. More shell-shocked.

Blake had also let Travers’s assistant, Crystal, go. Again, she hadn’t been privy to the details, but she got the impression Travers had blamed the errors on Crystal.

When everything was all said and done, Blake had wanted to make sure they had all the documents locked away. Not the originals, mind you, but duplicates in case Zac tried to sue or cause trouble. They’d stashed the documentation in a storage room on the sixth floor.

There wasn’t anything up there, really. Most of the space was ventilation and piping, but there were two decent-sized rooms where old promotional materials and signage were stored.

The more Cassie thought about it, the more she felt she needed to go upstairs. Jesse said he and Stephanie had combed through most of the archives already. What if the contract he was looking for had been one of the ones they’d made a copy of and put in storage?

It was worth a shot, right?

* * *

At four fifty-five, Jesse logged off his computer, made sure his office was locked, and said goodbye to his assistant before heading upstairs to get Cassie. On his way to the elevator, he passed by Christine’s cubicle. She was on the phone and didn’t notice him, but he heard her say something about someone getting what they deserved.

He stopped. “Ms. Johnson?”

Christine jumped. She fumbled with the phone, then mumbled she had to go into it. “Mr. Masters. Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s almost five o’clock. I’m sure you can wait five minutes before making a personal call.”

“Yes, sir.” She looked at her computer screen, then at him. “I was just.” She paused. “It won’t happen again.”

Jesse considered his options. He could let it go or he could push. With everything that had gone on today, he wasn’t in the mood to let it go. “I don’t approve of office gossip, Ms. Johnson. What you do on your own time is your business, but while you’re on company time, I expect you to do your job and be respectful of others.”

“I would never?—”

“I have ears, Ms. Johnson. Remember that.” He turned on his heel and continued toward the elevator. Cassie was waiting for him.

Only she wasn’t. Cassie wasn’t at her desk.

He went to the break room to see if she was there, but there was no sign of her. His dad’s office was empty as well, so he couldn’t ask him.

Figuring she must have gone to the ladies’ room, he decided to wait.

Ten minutes later, he was still waiting. He tried her phone on the off chance she might have it with her, but he wasn’t in luck. The sound of her phone ringing came from inside her desk.

He was about to start going from room to room when the door to the stairwell opened and Cassie appeared. She saw him and visibly took a breath as if she were relieved to see him.

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