Page 22 of Mr. Billionaire's Second Chance

“Right away, sir.”

I sauntered off to my office, catching a glimpse of Kat through the glass, but I decided not to bother her this early. There will be plenty of time for that later on. I thought, getting comfortable in my office chair, firing up my computer so I could sift through a few emails in the meantime. An hour or so passed and I heard a knock on my door. I glanced up to see a worried Elle standing there with her hands folded in front of her, like a child that had just been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

“You wanted to see me, Mr. Clarke?”

“Yes, I did. Have a seat, Elle.”

She nervously sat down in front of me, playing with the ring on her middle finger, unable to sit still. She could barely look me in the eye, and I hoped that meant that I’d be able to crack her. If there’s one thing I need right about now, it’s the damn truth.

“How do you like working here, Elle?” I asked.

She seemed confused by this question, furrowing her eyebrow at me like I caught her completely off guard.

“I like it a lot, sir. It’s easy work and it pays the bills. I really can’t complain,” she said.

“Is that why you’re funneling information to Ms. Hollis about an account that was closed by my father? I’m going to need to know who gave you the order to do such a thing because as far as I’m concerned, there was no such information in the building, and there hasn’t been for a very long time.”

I folded my hands across my chest, watching her squirm. Her eyes darted around my office, while she probably started thinking of a way out of this mess, but I wasn’t in the mood to play games where this was concerned.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”

“Really? Well, I know for a fact that you do know what I’m talking about, Elle. I need you to be straight with me right now because if you’re not, I’ll have no choice but to fire you.”

“Please, sir, I need this job. I-I was just delivering files given to me for Ms. Hollis. They were delivered, I -”

“Save it, Elle. I know that you were discussing the Laurier account, and you just lost your chance at saving your job. I hope whatever money you were paid to do this was enough because you won’t be getting any more from me,” I said.

Her eyes widened like she really didn’t expect me to fire her, and she bit her lip nervously, probably realizing what she’d just done. She still didn’t tell me the truth, and that made me think that she may not have been given some hush money to take care of this, but that she may have been threatened. If someone is going to all these lengths to take my company down, I wouldn’t be surprised that they’d do something like that. There goes my last lead.

After Elle left, I placed my head in my hands, running my palms along my face out of pure frustration just as I got a knock on my office door, and I looked up to see William standing there. I gestured for him to come in and he was beaming. It’d been a long time since I’d seen him that excited about anything, and that’s when he slammed the paper down in front of me. I stared at the front page, noticing that there wasn’t a story that had to do with me or the company, and I looked back at him wondering what this was all about.

“Am I missing something here?”

“There’s nothing. There is no word about the company or about either of us. We’ve weathered the storm, Preston,” he declared, happily.

“Now, how did you manage that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I may have done a little digging and found something I could use on dear ol’ Riley. Seems we’re not the only ones wanting our business to stay under wraps.”

“Thank you, William. At least that’s one less thing we need to worry about right now,” I said, with a sigh. Me and William had our disagreements, but I knew I could trust him.

“What’s going on?” he asked, studying my expression.

“Let’s just say we’re going to need a new receptionist for the lobby front desk. See if you can get that done for me. I have to go woo our forensic auditor.”

I got up from my office chair, fixing my tie before patting William on the shoulder and taking off to Katherine’s office. She was hard at work as usual, and I knocked, watching her wave, telling me to come inside.

“Preston.”

“Kat. I just wanted to stop in to see how you were doing. I heard things have been getting real busy in here,” I said.

“If that’s your way of asking if I’ve found anything condemning enough to further this investigation, the answer is no. Not yet at least,” she murmured, winking.

“Why do I get the impression that you’re just waiting for the right moment to take a hit at me?”

“Believe it or not, Preston I don’t let my personal life get in the way of my job. What I find or do not find here has nothing to do with what happened between us.”

“Well, you might find out a lot more if you just come out and ask. I know that seems unprofessional or like I’m just trying to lead you off the trail, but it isn’t. Look, I may not have always been a good guy, but I’m not out here trying to cheat people out of a few dollars,” I said.

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