Page 48 of Handling the CEO

“These pics show nothing. Even exes talk to each other from time to time.”

“If you say so.” Mike is the one who starts moving around the room now, hands behind her back, like she is Picard on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. “But then, if your girlfriend isn’t working with Richard, why would she have come to the office two hours ago and taken every piece of code off our network? Here—we have her on camera. Explain this.”

She presses a remote she had in her hand and the TV in the room shows a video from the IT department. It’s a bit dark, but we can make out DJ getting to her computer with what I assume is an external hard drive, and plug that in. She clicks on her keyboard a few times, then starts pacing, chewing on her nails as she monitors the screens on her desk. She is as beautiful as ever, but I can see she is stressed, watching the screen every few seconds, and putting her hands in her hair.

My VP fast forwards on the video, and my brunette goes back to her desk, unplugging the hard drive. Her shoulders sag as she casts another glance around the office, looking defeated, then walking out.

I do not know how to react. I can’t believe she would have done that. This morning I would have never thought she would have her ex anywhere near her. The code… she took the code? Why did she come into work? She had it all on the cloud. I didn’t understand, and I needed to get out of this room to see her, call her, and make her explain.

“We realize this is troubling you,” Mike continues. “But you can understand why the board is here. First the slip-ups, missing meetings, losing suppliers, me having to step into critical sessions. Hiring an EA who spies on us behind your back with your permission so we can’t prosecute her. We are in a partnership with your girlfriend with a damaging contract for us, where she owns the software, just uses our airplanes to test it out. Now it appears she not only lied to you, but ran away with all the work.”

I have no answer, knowing exactly what comes next.

“Jon, the Board has looked over the evidence, and we think it is probably better if you take a little sabbatical until this all clears over.” Lemkin twists the knife in my back, as I struggle to breathe still staring at the pictures in front of me and the video paused of DJ running away.

“Michaela has volunteered to pick up your duties,” another suit says, but I stop listening. I get out of my chair and walk out.

As I exit the room, I turn back and my heart breaks looking at Mike. But she doesn’t look at all upset. The smile on her face makes my skin crawl, and I know I have been played. She has been playing me for fifteen years and has now finally got me where she wanted me. She wanted the company, and now, despite years of profits and successes, because of some of my blunders and DJ, she has it.

But McAv needs to wait, as I have to find Dahlia and have her explain. I need her to make it better, as my mind can’t comprehend what I just saw, and I hope I can get to her and that everything will be OK.

I am out in the corridor and stumble with my phone, dialing her number.

It rings and rings and rings. Then voicemail.

Fuck!

I call her again. And voicemail again.

I check my texts and I notice one from her.

Don’t wait up, I have something I need to do urgently. I’ll see you tomorrow before the custody meeting.

What does that mean? Where did she go?

I reply, typing with trembling fingers.DJ, call me asap… What the fuck is going on? Did you take the code? Why was Richard at your house?

There are a couple of missed calls from Nate also, but returning them is the last thing on my mind.

I get to my office and just grasp at my phone, hoping the woman I am in love with gets back to me and that it’s not all an absolute disaster.

DJ

Theairplanewheelshitthe tarmac and I jolt awake. I can’t believe I fell asleep, but I was absolutely worn after having to run into McAv. I dashed in there immediately after Richard left and cleared any bits of code in their local drives, as I suspect some of my teams have saved locally from time to time. I know I did, as even I got a bit careless some days. No way was I leaving anything there if someone was still feeding information to Lex Aviation, as they must be if they knew how close I was.

I check my phone as I get in the back of my Uber, and I see 10 missed calls and several voicemails from Jon.

“Shit!” I read the text from him—how the hell did he hear about that? I press the green icon and he answers immediately.

“DJ! What the fuck? I have been calling for hours!” He sounds agitated. I can imagine him pacing around his office, and I am beginning to think something is horribly wrong.

“Sorry Jon, I was on a plane, and I fell asleep. How did you know about my ex at my house?”

“Plane? Where did you go? Shit! Did you run? Fuck—they were right, weren’t they? You took the code and ran!”

“What? Who is ‘they’? I don’t have a response to that—I had to get to Colorado fast, that’s why I had to fly here. Can you slow down a bit? Are you OK? I am worried now.”

“Am I OK? No, I am not OK—my girlfriend has apparently been collaborating with her ex-husband, took her code for which we had a contract and ran out of state! All that and the board just booted me out of my job between Anya and you!”

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