Page 47 of Miles & Mistletoe

I nodded and stood. “I’m sure you were. Just as I’m sure you were trying to help when you called that reporter from the Financial Times to put the bug in his ear about the Collins deal.”

“I did no such thing. I—”

“Sure you did. He recognized your voice. I met with him via a video conference call and played him a sample of a previously recorded call between you and I. Just to make sure, I did the same with a recording I had of Stacia’s voice. Oddly, he wasn’t able to recognize hers. But yours? Dead ringer for the anonymous woman who called his office informing him of some inside information regarding Zerlinger Beer.”

I shook my head, feeling both disgusted with myself and with Jamie.

“I should’ve known better. You gave yourself away that night at my brother’s. And if I hadn’t of been so goddamned stupid I would’ve seen right through your lies.”

Jamie shook her head vigorously. “Ian, I didn’t lie. I—”

“The Collins deal. The one about my buying out their subsidy in Canada? Stacia had no idea about the details of the deal. I spoke with Nikola in private, and Andre Collins the next day over lunch while Stacia waited at the hotel. She was never privy to those conversations, nor did she inquire about them. Almost as if she didn’t care to know. Because she wasn’t trying to use information against me. But you were!” I seethed, finally letting out my anger.

“I was trying to help you!” Jamie screeched.

“Help me how? By trying to destroy my company from the inside out?”

“By keeping you from that woman! What the hell does she have that I don’t?”

I scowled at Jamie as I stood from my desk, taking a step backwards.

“My heart.”

Jamie’s eyes doubled in size at the truth behind my words.

A second later my door was opening as Richard, my head of security, and another female security guard entered.

“These two are here to help you clear out your office. Once that’s finished there are some FBI agents who would like to speak with you on the first floor.”

“FBI?” Jamie shouted.

I nodded without sympathy. “Calling a reporter and spilling insider information for a company your work for, in addition to bribing someone to lie, are all possible federal offenses. Corporate espionage is a serious crime. And you’ve crossed the line. You will likely be spending your New Year’s in an orange jumpsuit.” I looked over Jamie’s head at Richard and Lisa, the security guard. “Get her out of my sight,” I growled.

I turned my back on the entire scene of Jamie yelling and insisting that this was all wrong.

I shook my head. What was all wrong was the fact that it was two days before New Year’s Eve and I had no idea where the woman I planned on ringing in the New Year with was.

****

Stacia

“I can’t believe this,” I mumbled as I looked at the freaking surcharge I was being forced to pay for my Uber from the airport. I stood just outside of my apartment building, suitcases at either side of me, frowning down into my phone.

Yes, it was New Year’s Eve and everyone knew about the Uber surcharge on the holiday. And yes, I could’ve waited until after the New Year to return home from visiting my family in Connecticut, but still. Though my time with my mother, brother, and stepfather had been better than I could’ve ever thought possible, I needed to get back to my life.

I’d taken a few days off from work between Christmas and the New Year—a job, by the way, I was still surprised to learn I even had. The way Ian had responded to me on Christmas Eve, I was certain he would’ve called my company and had me fired. He had the power to do it. I wondered why that call had never come. And stupidly, I thought that maybe, just maybe he’d believed me and knew I would never do something like what he’d accused me of. But after a week of not hearing anything from Ian, that hope had begun to fade. He likely had all but forgotten about me. Discarding any memory of us the same callous way he’d discarded me at his brother’s house.

Brushing off those painful memories, I reminded myself that I still had a good job, my own place to sleep, and a seemingly growing relationship with my family. My mother and James had even talked of all four of us going on a family vacation the following summer. My mother had practically begged me to request the first week in June to spend it with them in their vacation home in the Caribbean.

Still, with all those things going for me, my heart felt heavy. I vowed that I wouldn’t even stay up to watch the clock strike midnight like the rest of the world. I was going to bed as soon as I unpacked and took a shower. Seeing as how it was just after ten at night, I was tired anyway. And I had to be up for a morning flight to Paris of all places. Who flies to Paris on the first day of the New Year? I guessed I’d find out in the morning.

“Home sweet home,” I mumbled as I pushed the door of my one-bedroom apartment open, only to stop less than a few feet inside of the door. In fact, I was pushed out of my stunned state when the door smacked me on the shoulder as it tried to close but was blocked by my body.

“Well don’t just stand there. Come in,” Ian urged, moving closer.

I looked around at the Christmas lights that hung from my apartment’s ceiling rafters, along with the candles that’d been set up throughout the apartment.

“H-how did you get in here?” I blurted out, unmoving.

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