Chapter Four

The Tuesday morning call with his CFO went pretty much as he’d feared.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Drew was managing to hold his temper in check, but only barely.

“How did she even manage that? She’s not even employed here, much less set up as an authorized user, Bill.”

A long silence, and Drew’s stomach dropped to his feet.

“Bill?”

No answer.

Drew pinched the bridge of his nose in a vain attempt to rebottle his rage before the building headache he suddenly had exploded his head.

“Bill,” Drew said, slowly and evenly, measuring his words. “What did you do?”

He heard a long exhale on the other end of the phone, then he heard Bill clear his throat to prepare to confess.

“Well,” Bill began, “I was spending the weekend with Lola, and I’d forgotten my laptop in my hotel room, so…”

“Tell me you didn’t. Tell me, William Jones, that you did not use your girlfriend-of-the-week’s computer to access our secure mainframe, then forget to log out and clear the history. Tell me you didn’t make a rookie mistake like that.”

Another long stretch of silence confirmed Drew’s worst fears.

“Bill, I can’t talk to you anymore about this right now, or I will say something we will both regret.”

And Drew disconnected the call before Bill could reply.

Drew paced the length of his office, racking his brain to figure out a solution.

We’re pressing charges against Lola, obviously, but what else? Bill and I have been friends since we were sixteen - he’s family. Is there a way to salvage that?

He’d never had to deal with anything like this before. Ordinarily, he would turn to his comptroller or CFO, but the comptroller was on vacation overseas, and his CFO was the idiot whose booty call had stolen from them…

Striding over to his desk, he dialed Trixie’s extension.

“Miss Benning, please come see me,” he barked when she answered, then Drew hung up.

He told himself he’d summoned her for purely business reasons – as his accounting manager, she’d have the knowledge and ability to help the company work through this.

A tiny part of him acknowledged grudgingly he also just wanted to see her again.

***

Trixie was trembling as she replaced the receiver.

Wow, he’s mad.

And she wondered if it was because of the theft, or if the mistakes she’d made over the last several months were finally coming home to roost.

At this point, she was fully prepared for her professional life to be in shambles too.

Why not?

She’d arrived at her house Monday night to find Joshua pouting on his dog bed, and a note on the kitchen counter beside Grant’s front door key that confirmed what she’d suspected all along. Grant had met someone else; he was sorry if the situation hurt her, he hoped they could still be friends, blah blah blah.

Wasn’t even man enough to tell me to my face. He came by when he knew I wasn’t home, packed the few things he still had at my place, and bailed out.

And don’t they always say things happen in threes? Trixie mused bitterly. My father died, and my cheating boyfriend finally officially dumped me. Only thing I have left is my job, and I get to kiss that goodbye now too. Great.

As she got into the elevator and pressed the button to travel to the top floor, her self-loathing continued.

Idiot, she chided herself. Yes, I’ve had a lot going on. Still no excuse. I brought it to work, let it distract me, and now, I’ll pay the price for it.

Determined not to cry until she made it out of the building and into her car, Trixie squared her shoulders, set her jaw, and stepped off the elevator into the lobby outside Drew Alexander’s office.

“Good morning, Miss Benning. Go on back, he’s expecting you,” Andrea informed her.

Trixie took a deep breath and ventured down the hallway. The door was open, but to be polite she paused.

She’d planned on announcing her presence but found herself just watching Drew for a moment, taking in the sight of him.

No suit jacket today, Trixie noted. Sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Work mode.

She particularly appreciated the way his tailored dress shirt molded to his torso, the corporate white enhancing his naturally tanned skin and muscular arms.

Got a thing for strong arms, she admitted internally. I’d like to have his wrapped around me.

She felt her color rise as her mind wandered off course into very unprofessional territory, little snippets flashing across her brain of what it might be like to touch him, hold him, kiss him…she only just stopped herself from sighing aloud with longing.

Get a grip, he’s the big boss! Totally off limits.

Drew glanced up and noticed her in the doorway. The scowl of concentration he’d been wearing was instantly replaced with a wide smile.

He’s got perfect teeth was Trixie’s next strange and very out-of-character thought.

Focus, dammit!

“Good morning, sir,” she said in what she hoped to God was her most brisk, professional manner.

“Miss Benning.”

To Trixie, the way Drew said her name felt like a caress. He rose and stepped around the desk, then walked towards her, maintaining eye contact, his movements reminding her of a sleek and powerful jungle cat.

He reached past her and closed the door.

“Have a seat,” he intoned gently, indicating the visitor’s chair she’d occupied during their previous conversation.

She sat, and although she tried not to show it, she was surprised when Drew not only sat next to her again, but brought his chair closer, so that their knees almost touched.

“So,” he began. “After we spoke yesterday, I consulted with both our legal team and our CPA group. They’ve each made recommendations as to next steps.”

He leaned forward.

“The next steps the CPA suggested were identical to yours. I was able to tell him that my accounting manager had already made those exact recommendations to shore up this point of vulnerability. So, thank you so much for that. I like the way you think.”

Trixie smiled.

“Now. As far as the legal piece. Can you please put together the data trail you followed, all your notes, work it up into a formal presentation, say, via Power Point? Speaker notes, the works?”

“Yes,” she asserted. “I can do that rather quickly, actually.”

“Good. I’ll need it by mid-morning Thursday. I have a meeting set with the Board of Directors that begins at two p.m. Friday in Denver, and I will have to be able to lay out the entire scenario for them, along with my proposed course of action to handle the fallout of what’s happened.”

“What’s going to happen next, sir?”

Drew grimaced at the ‘sir’ part.

“What? At least I stopped with the ‘Mr. Alexander’, didn’t I?”

“You did,” he conceded. “Doesn’t stop my hoping you’ll start just calling me Drew.”

Trixie’s gaze dropped to the floor so he wouldn’t see just how tempted she was by him.

“That wouldn’t be proper. I work for you.”

She could sense his grin widening as he watched her, and it was confirmed when she glanced at him through her lashes. She noticed his eyebrow twitch and was grateful when he relented

and moved back onto strictly business-related topics.

“Anyway, the next steps are, I need you to coordinate with the CPA to book this transaction in a very specific way onto the general ledger. His words, not mine,” Drew added hastily, hands raised in reaction to the ‘you know accounting?’ look that she’d unconsciously let wash over her face.

She chuckled.

“Okay. He probably will have me build two new GL codes, one in liabilities, one in expenses, then input an accrual recording the loss. Hopefully we’ll be able to make recovery of at least some of it, and we’ll just relieve the accrual at that time. What we don’t get back we’ll expense out.”

“Greek. Complete Greek to me,” Drew told her. “You guys do your thing.”

He looks completely confused right now - and it’s adorable, she realized. In fact, it’s hilarious.