Page 27 of Indecent Secrets

I also decided just to be overly cautious and have our I.T. guys back at the security firm run background checks on everyone, just in case. Yes, that included Leigh. I didn’t suspect her of being a black widow who married and then murdered rich men but it was better to be safe than sorry with everybody in these things.

Besides, something about her intrigued me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I’d learned to trust my gut long ago. The way she’d spoken about the environment and working with small businesses at the restaurant, for example. Sometimes she would say things and it would just sound… not off, that wasn’t quite the right word. A step to the left of what I expected from her.

It was in a way that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and it was driving me insane. This background check probably wouldn’t yield anything, honestly. I knew that. And when it did yield nothing, I’d get a hell of a ribbing from Vaughn for my paranoia.

But… still.

Anyway, I shouldn’t let her stay the night. I knew that. There were just too many opportunities for me to slip up and for her to realize that I wasn’t Jack. She was smart and observant, and I wouldn’t put it past her to figure it all out.

But I couldn’t resist her, either. I wanted to have this for myself. And if I had to put up with all the rest of this ridiculous charade with this mission, then I felt like I deserved a little enjoyment. I would just have to be careful. Besides, Leigh was way too exhausted at the end of the night for her to do anything, anyway.

I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and ran a bath, encouraging Leigh to use it to soak after everything I’d put her through. While she was in the tub, I had a hushed conversation with Jack.

“How are things going?” I asked in a low voice as I reached the kitchenette. “You feeling any more… stable? Confident?”

“Honestly, Bryce, I’m just wishing I didn’t have to do any of this,” Jack admitted.

I rolled my eyes. “I wish I didn’t have to do a lot of things, Jack, but unless you want to give up the company to the board…”

“You know I can’t do that. They’ll run it into the ground. The ideas you sent me that they had, this is bullshit. They think they’re going to actually be improving things and—yeah it’s change, but it’s not good change.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Then you have to come up here and assert your place at some point. People are going to get suspicious soon.”

“I know, I know,” he said on a sigh. “I just don’t know what the right thing to do is.”

“Aren’t you lucky then that I got you a consultant who can guide you?” I replied. “She’s great, you’ll like her. She’s also not interested in marrying you for your money like everyone else.”

Jack snorted. “Well that’s good, at least. I could use the help.”

“You need to seriously give me an end date though. We can’t keep shuttling papers back and forth and if I sign anything as you, it’ll be marked as a forgery. I can play your part physically as much as I can but you need to be the one making the actual decisions.”

“I know, I know,” he said again. “I’ll figure something out.”

“If you want to find someone who can be paid to be your imposter for the rest of your life, then you can do that,” I said, grabbing a chilled bottle of water from the mini-fridge. “But I’m not that guy for you. My job is to figure out if there was foul play involved in your uncle’s death and keep the jackals off your heels until we can wrestle this company under control. And until you get a girlfriend to keep the gold diggers at bay. I don’t suppose you could do that, could you?”

“Um. Not really,” he said awkwardly.

Jesus. The guy needed to get out of his small, nowhere town and into the city where he could actually meet people. “Right. Well, think long and hard about your actual plan, because the moment I wrap up my side of things, I’m not going to be sticking around, all right? Whatever you want to do with the company is up to you. That’s none of my business or concern. But you do have to make a decision at some point in the near future.”

“Right. I got it. Thank you, Bryce. I appreciate it.”

I hung up the phone and held in a groan. Philosophers. They thought they could just ponder the pros and cons forever instead of actually acting on anything. Hell, I didn’t give a damn if the guy wanted to break his company up and sell it for spare parts, just as long as he made some kind of decision.

“You seem tense,” Leigh noted, emerging from the bedroom in one of the hotel bathrobes. “Do you need me to take care of that?”

“It’s nothing.” I waved it off and took a long drink of the water, meeting up with her in the sitting area. “I guess when you’re in charge of a company there’s no such thing as normal office hours.”

“Sounds stressful. And probably not what you’re used to.”

I shook my head. “It’s not, no.”

Leigh sat down on the small sofa and tucked her legs beneath her. “Do you miss it? Being a professor? Do you ever want to go back?”

I tried to think of what Jack would say. Given our recent conversation, I had a strong feeling I knew what his answer would be. “Yeah. I want to go back to it all the time.”

Leigh frowned, looking surprised. “Then why don’t you? You don’t seem the type of guy to care about what other people think, or do something he doesn’t want to.”

“I have a responsibility to my uncle.”

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