Page 58 of The Cowboy and the Bombshell
“Yes, Moira. As soon as she returns to her desk, I’d like to leave, so if you would find us a place, that would be great,” I finished, turning to go to my office.
“But, sir,” Moira was practically shouting how, her eyes wide and, maybe a little afraid. “Miss Lund. She’s gone, sir.”
I stopped and turned, narrowing my eyes, not quite sure I’d heard her correctly. “Gone? Gone where?”
“New York, sir. I booked her flight this afternoon. She’ll have left by now.”
“She did what?” There was no way she’d have left. Even if she was that pissed at me, the Penelope that I knew,myPenelope, wouldn’t just leave town. She’d confront me. She’d sass me, tell me all the reasons I was wrong.
She wouldn’t just leave…would she?
Was it possible she had headed for New York and left me, the same way my father had all those years ago?
There was a strange sensation building in my stomach, churning and boiling, and emotion I didn’t have a name for, because anger was too damn tame.
Moira opened her mouth to continue, but the elevator dinged open at that moment, spilling a frantic-looking Silas on to the third floor, his eyes widening when he saw me.
“Stone! I’m glad I caught you,” he said, holding up his phone and waving the screen in my direction. “We need to talk, man.”
“Not right now, Si. I have a problem I need to handle.” I turned back to Moira, ready to demand more information, but Silas grabbed my arm, spinning me around.
“Seriously, man. We have to talk. Now.”
“Silas, I mean it. I don’t have time so whatever it is will have to-” I cut off as my own phone began to ring. I glanced at the screen, my heart jumping with hope it was going to be Penelope, even though I’d seen her phone on her desk not two minutes ago. Instead I saw Harold’s name lighting up my screen. I felt bad just sending him to voice mail these days - damn Penelope, making me feel all sorts of things lately - so I answered the call.
“Harold, listen, I can’t-”
“Stone, do you want to tell me why I received Penelope Lund’s resignation letter in my inbox this afternoon?”
Suddenly, I was paying all kinds of attention.
“She did what?”
“You heard me. She emailed in her letter of resignation this afternoon. What the hell is going on out there, Stone? I thought you had this project under control. Do I need to head out there again?”
“It’s not the project, at least, I don’t think it is.” I watched as Silas began shaking his head, gesturing again to his phone. “Listen, I have to look into this. Don’t do anything until I call you back, alright?”
“Alright, son. If you’re sure. But, call me if you need anything. I want this resolved as much as you do, I suspect.”
“Of course. I’ll call you back. Thanks, Dad.”
I had hung up the phone before it even registered to me that I’d called him dad. Silas looked at me, one eyebrow raised, but I just shook my head.
“Penelope quit her job today. She’s headed back to New York.”
“I know, man,” Silas said, turning his phone so we could both see the screen. “That’s what I need to talk to you about. My buddy out in California, Hack? The one in the Motorcycle Club? He’s been digging into the information we sent him. He’s sure there is more to these mistakes than it appeared on the surface.”
“What mistakes? Penelope’s?”
“Yeah, man. The screwed-up emails, the misinformation to the high roller clients, even the job postings that were in error. Hack thinks they are all related.” He scrolled up on his phone, pages and pages of data flying by, computer code pointing out what, to this Hack guy was probably obvious, but I couldn’t make sense of any of it. I frowned at the screen, shaking my head.
“What does all this mean? Are you saying someone was sabotaging Penelope?”
“We think so, but we have no actual proof. Just some, let’s say, less than legal investigative work done by Hack. He’d have looked deeper, but there are a few things standing in his way. First of all, he was not exactly invited to this little party, and secondly, something about him working across state lines, he needs your permission to dig deeper.”
If this could help me sort out what had gone on with Penelope today, then I was all for it. “Tell me what he needs me to do.”
A short time later, both Silas and I were sitting in front of Penelope’s laptop as Silas’s mysterious friend Hack worked on it remotely, the screen jumping from window to window as he dug around in areas of a computer only a true savant could find.
