Page 55 of My Cruel Billionaire

I meant what I said about her son, too. I liked Damon. I felt like maybe I could step in. I could be the step-dad, as in the dad who stepped up. I liked the sound of that.

We lay cuddling together on the lounger in my office when my phone rang. I’m not sure of the time, but it was still before dawn.

I picked it up and scowled at the name on it. My lawyer, Higgins. Why would he be calling me at that ungodly hour?

“It’s my attorney,” I grumbled.

“Your attorney? Did you get into trouble or something?”

“My tax attorney.”

“Oh.”

Before I could even speak, he started talking the moment the call connected.

“Boss, we’ve got huge problems.”

“I'm listening,” I said, trying to remain calm. If he said it was a huge problem then I was very worried indeed, because Higgins was not given to hyperbole.

“It’s the IRS. They’re raiding us.”

Chapter Nineteen

Jenna

“I don’t understand.” Joseph Joestar’s eyes were filled with equal parts doubt and concern. “I thought that the report said the IRS didn’t find anything amiss at either company involved in the merger.”

I listened intently along with everyone else in the meeting room. We were near the top floor in Michael’s building, inside of one of the conference rooms. I think Michael liked this one because we’d had sex in it quite a few times. Then again, it did have a pretty good view as well, looking out on the verdant brilliance of the park.

Polnaraff sat beside Joestar, scribbling notes on his pad. From time to time he would glance up and around the room as if checking to see if he missed anything during his rigorous note-taking sessions. Then he would dive back into scribbling on his paper. The scratch of his pen on paper almost made a soothing sound to me at that point of the meeting.

Becky sat to my immediate left, and she seemed to be brimming with energy. Or anxiety, it could be difficult to tell with her. There are two paths available to women who want to enter the business world, especially on as high of a level as the merger entailed.

Path number one, you try to do the best you can to navigate what is still perceived as a man’s world while maintaining your dignity and femininity, or number two, you give yourself a non-surgical lobotomy and become as stone-faced and indomitable as someone like Michael. Becky had chosen path number two a long time ago, and it was hard to blame her.

Across the table, the three little piggies as I had come to think of them just glared daggers at us. They thought it was all my fault that they’d had to endure so much questioning and probing from Michael. You know that old saying if looks could kill? Let’s just say that I would have been dead and buried about a thousand times before the meeting even started.

Michael himself remained at the head of the table, trying to use that little bit of extraterritoriality to show he was in control. His eyes bored into Joestar as if trying to figure out if he were being that wrong on purpose or as some part of a sinister plot.

I could see that Michael had not given up on the notion that the saboteur had to come from my side of the merger team. That disappointed me somewhat, especially after we’d seemed to turn a page the other day.

Then again, I was feeling guilty about not telling Michael about Damon being his son when I had the perfect opportunity. I guess that some part of my mind had determined that as soon as the merger was over there would be plenty of time to pick apart the tangled web that was my relationship with Michael Wallace.

“The problem isn’t how much damage the false tip to the IRS may or may not have caused,” Michael said, cutting off the next thing Joestar had been about to say. “The problem is that someone is giving tips to the IRS in the first place.

“The IRS doesn’t even know the identity of their whistleblower.”

“Yeah, that’s what they say,” Blake muttered, "but we all know the truth.”

I gave him a glare but Blake didn’t play along. He kept his gaze on his master like any dutiful hound dog.

“I know exactly where the whistleblower comes from,” Michael said bluntly. “He comes from someone on your team, and you can’t handle it.”

I stood up and planted my hands on the table, fixing him with my baleful glare. He didn’t back down an inch but then again I hadn’t expected him to. I only knew that I was furious.

“This again. Why can’t you let this go, Michael?” I heaved a long sigh. “I assume you have some proof of your claims?”

He grew tight-lipped, and I pressed my advantage.

---