Climbing High (7 page)

Siree pulled back her shoulders and lifted her chin. “You have a problem.” She let her eyes drop to the bulge in the front of his trousers.
Two can play as well as one
. “I understand.” The inflection on her words narrowed Jake’s eyes. The taunting glitter softened to humor.

“It seems I do, Siree. It seems I do.” He strode back to his desk, waved a hand at the two plush bucket chairs facing it. “Have a seat and let’s hash this out.”

By the time she settled in the chair and rested her attaché on the floor, he had turned into the consummate business tycoon. “Some person or persons are stealing from this company.” He spoke in clipped but quiet tones, his eyes icy gems in a taut face. His anger rippled over her like glacier-chilled wind. She knew the thief, when caught, would face the full extent of his wrath.

“The jobs of thousands of my employees, the welfare of their families, and the money of my investors are all in jeopardy. I need the thieves caught fast and clean.” He stared hard at her. Not a glimmer of the sensuous web he’d tossed over her remained. “Tyrus apparently thinks you can do this? Do you?”

“If anyone can.” She sat back, feigned relaxation and hoped she exuded confidence. “You seem certain the thefts are multi-pronged.”

“I’ve been digging on my own for several months, and I’m no slouch on a computer.”

The understatement widened her eyes.

“I’m the first to acknowledge I’m no forensic accountant and I want this thing done properly. I don’t want them alerted by a heavy-handed search before we can get the proof I need to apprehend them. I’m fairly certain at least one source originates within the company, but the money trails overlap outside JDI, as well. There are hundreds of clients, suppliers, bankers to take into account. They all have to be checked. Frankly”—he gave her a lop-sided smile that didn’t reach his eyes—“I’m swimming with the sharks, Siree, and need you to handle this while I keep afloat.”

“I’ll find the pattern,” she stated. “And you think the best place to do this from is your west coast office? Why?”

“There are two departments operated solely out of this office. Both handle the huge sums a person would need to use to cover their tracks, our pension fund for employees and our Blue Chip investments fund for profits.”

She nodded in agreement with his thinking. “But if those aren’t the sources, I understand I can access all other sections of the company from here?”

“With the right passcodes, you can.” His cool tone now seemed to be directed at her.

She froze. Caught off guard, she reviewed any reason he wouldn’t trust her. Okay, she may have given him a few. “I’m here because I haven’t ever said no to Ty, but also because I want to help you. I owe you. I have no other agenda. I trusted you with my identity, and I’m putting my anonymity in jeopardy by taking on this job. Don’t you trust me?”

He’d maneuvered the change from business to personal so smoothly she concluded he’d been pushing for it. “If Tyrus says you’re up to the job, I trust you are. Do you have a personal agenda? I trust you don’t. But what’s going to happen if half way through, your cover gets blown and the press is at you? Are you going to bail on me? I have a finger-wide opening before JDI stock goes public. I can’t afford to start over again. If you’re in, I need a commitment you’re in for the kill.”

She sagged back in her chair. The part of her longing to help Jake had locked the part protecting her privacy in a closet. Now he’d pulled the door open and demanded she come out. She had a choice to make.

“I don’t see why I can’t do it. After all, I’m just a new employee working away in a cubbyhole in Vancouver. Even my name isn’t real. The media would have no interest in me if I stayed away from you.”

“But that’s our
conundrum, Siree. We won’t be able to stay away from each other.”

Outraged, she straightened, ready to defend herself against the charge.

He worried his bottom lip with his thumb, unaware of her reaction. “I need to be kept in the loop at all times. That means close communication and I can’t trust in the usual methods. If we have a hacker or hackers moving funds, don’t you think they’re just as likely to be hacking into our communication systems? A thief inside the company already has access to all our communiqués. Our security team constantly finds and closes breaches in our systems. The world rotates on corporate warfare, money, and power.”

His voice softened, became sympathetic. “You’d have to meet with me, and though I’d do everything in my power to protect you from the media, someone spying for another company, or yes, in order of full disclosure, my crazed stalker”—he sighed with resignation, as he took in her surprise—“I can’t promise you I’ll be successful.”

“Stalker?” She leapt to her feet. “Some crazed guy is after you?” Her lungs felt like they’d turned to stone. She couldn’t get a breath.

“Take it easy.” He half rose, as if to go to her. “Gribbs has it under control.” His knuckles whitened as he gripped the arms of his chair. He sank back into it. “The question here is whether you want to commit to this.”

She sieved air into her lungs, and crossed to the huge bank of floor to ceiling windows, ranging two sides of his office, to give her rioting thoughts time to settle. Below her, Vancouver looked like a gigantic ballroom, with thousands of Japanese cherry trees preening in voluminous pink skirts. Miniature people waltzed through the streets, joining and parting in intricate steps, and somewhere in the changing pattern serious journalists and sleazy reporters worked hard to find a new way into Jake Ingles’ business and private affairs. The thought caused a pinching sensation in her chest. Could she do it? Abstractedly, her gaze moved from the scene outside to the actual glass of the window. She realized she could see Jake’s reflection. Unaware she watched, he raked his hands through his hair then rubbed his temples. His brilliant eyes closed, his strong neck bent. The indomitable man dominating her thoughts turned into a vulnerable man before her eyes. From shallow draughts of air, Siree stole a deep breath and turned. His eyes snapped open, his hands dropped. She wouldn’t have known he’d given in to a moment of weakness if she hadn’t spied on him in the glass. He’d risked his life on the mountain without a moment’s hesitation. Now the risk became hers. “I’ll take my chances,” she said, hoping the wild relief in Jake’s eyes would make this all worthwhile.

She thought she saw a moment of regret before his features tightened. “There’s one thing more, Siree, before you lock in your decision. I will be putting private security on you. I’d have done the same for Priestly. I’ll have Gribbs find a woman around your age that can go everywhere you go without raising questions. We’ll give her a cover working in the same section. I hope you can see this as a necessary precaution, but, regardless, we’re going up against some ruthless people with a lot to lose. I’d be irresponsible if I didn’t protect you in every way I can. It’s a deal breaker for me.” He searched her face.

She could see he wouldn’t bend, and admired his determination to take care of his people. “I’ll agree to that if you agree I get my privacy outside working hours.”

“No one would ever call you easy.” His slow smile weighted the words. “A compromise then. For now, no security outside work, unless your digging exposes you, or something in my situation heats up. You’ll agree to round the clock security if Gribbs deems it necessary.”

No wonder Jake headed a huge conglomerate
. He’d caught her neatly by appealing to her sense of reason, and keeping any hint of a personal concern out of it. “It’s a deal.” She held out her hand. He rose to shake it.

“I understand what you’re putting on the line to do this work for me. Thank you.” His thumb stroked across the pale pink of her unvarnished nails, then turned her hands over and inspected her fingers. He caught her other hand and lifted it. “All better,” he said, his voice husky, as his fingertips trailed across hers. “This is a beautiful ring.” He touched the large oval opal she wore on her ring finger. “New?”

Siree took a strangled breath and pulled at her hands. “No, I wear it all the time, except when I’m climbing. I guess that’s why you haven’t seen it before. It’s the last gift my father gave me, before …” Her voice broke. “Except for my life.” She lifted her face and warmed him with a brilliant smile. “He gave me my life.”

He studied her eyes for a few seconds, flummoxed by his response to her.
Not professional, old man. No touching from now on.
He dropped her hands. “The paperwork is probably ready by now.” He crossed to the desk and pressed the button on the speakerphone.

“Let the play begin,” she whispered.

Chapter Four

Siree settled into her mother’s condo, and into her tiny office at JDI headquarters downtown. She settled for Janice, shadowing her through the day, and settled into the role of undercover investigator. But each time she received a message from Jake, sent by Gribbs through her mother’s landline, she felt as unsettled as a climber in an avalanche, swept away by a greater force than she could resist. The assignment alone put tremendous pressure on her. The time crunch before JDI’s financial situation became common knowledge meant she had to put her head down and work harder and longer than ever before.

Though she’d had a wonderful catch-up day with her mother when she first arrived, she’d barely seen her since. For the first time in their lives Sharon McConnell had all the time in the world for her daughter and a hunger to be with her while Siree couldn’t spare the time from work to meet her mother’s need. Stuffing papers into her attaché, she now understood how emotionally torn her mother must have felt when she had to choose work over her daughter.

Just then her mother came down the stairs into the vestibule of her two-story condo. Overlooking Coal Harbor and Stanley Park, its huge windows offered prime views of the city. Sharon glanced at her watch. Her brows pulled together.

“It’s barely six thirty a.m. Are you leaving already, darling?” Sharon pressed a kiss to her daughter’s cheek and tucked a spill of golden hair back behind Siree’s ear. “I hoped we could eat breakfast together.”

“Would you settle for a quick café au lait?” Siree remembered too well the many times she’d wanted breakfast with her mother, and some embassy duty had kept Sharon from joining her. “I should have time before Janice arrives.”

“Lovely, darling.” Sharon led the way into the kitchen and put milk into the microwave to heat while she turned on the espresso machine to make it European style. “I can’t help but conclude you’re working too hard, Siree. You’ve lost weight and have shadows under your eyes. Is it possible to cut back a little?” Concern rather than censure colored her voice. “I’ve seen enough bodyguards in my day not to recognize that Janice is one. It seems Tyrus and Jake placed you into a dangerous situation.”

Sharon had met Jake, inviting him to a dinner party at her home, at Siree’s request. The large group gave them an opportunity to hide in the open, while she reported her first findings, slim pickings indeed. He had taken the initiative to approach Sharon about acting as go between for Gribbs to reach Siree. When her mother understood the convoluted process kept the press from discovering Siree she replied with a no-nonsense, “Of course.”

“The threat is minimal, Mom. Jake just wants to cover all the bases. I’m sorry I’m causing you concern and can’t spend more time with you, but I’m in a real time crunch and needed results yesterday.” She jabbed the loose strand of hair back behind her ear.

Jake had let Sharon know Siree’s new position as software designer for JDI hid a greater responsibility and Sharon, a shrewd player on the world stage and fully informed on what her daughter’s work entailed, had probably guessed a lot more than she let on. She gave her daughter just what she needed, a change of subject.

“By the way, honey, Ty phoned to say he’s flying in tomorrow. I asked him to stay with us. I hope that won’t cause you any problems?”

“Uncle Ty. Wonderful.” She took her first deep breath in days. Just running things past Ty had helped her see the patterns in the past. Something about this job kept her so tense she seemed to have lost her gift.

“Can you use his visit to get Jake over?” she asked her mother.

She found the constant need to report to him highly stressful, never certain if Gribb’s plan would work, or she’d find herself surrounded by the paparazzi. So far she’d stepped into the back seat of a nondescript town car and been whizzed around the block while she told him she’d found nothing. She’d met up with him at the information counter of the Vancouver airport, stopped to speak to him, as instructed, at an industry luncheon, and actually had one ordinary meeting in his office at headquarters. Each occasion had three things in common: the media hovered on the periphery, his security team hovered a little closer, and she had no leads to report. The role of Mata Hari lacked glamor, she’d concluded. Not finding the answer he needed caused her even more stress. Thus reminded, she took a last sip of her coffee and pushed back from the counter. Her mobile pinged. She read the text. “I’ve got to run, Mom, Janice is on her way up. I’ll plan to be in for dinner tomorrow when Ty arrives.”

“Lovely, darling, and I’ll check his plans and arrange a dinner party for some time this week. Do remember to eat something.” Sharon enfolded her in loving arms. For a few seconds Siree allowed herself to lean on her mother and absorb some of her strength.

Fifteen hours later any energy she’d soaked up from her mom, and all of her own, had diminished to the weakness of a twenty-watt bulb. She finally had a scent, and, nose to the ground, followed the trail for hours, her bloodhound instincts quivering with anticipation. When she hit a dead end, the adrenaline of the chase drained away, leaving her exhausted. She would have to backtrack and try a different approach.

At ten o’clock Janice stuck her head in the door. At five feet ten inches the black American had the grace of a model and the ability to kill a man a dozen different ways. She had the computer skills to make her cover as a software writer legit. Over all too brief coffee breaks, Siree had learned Janice had been on an all-female marine team in Afghanistan, and left the military after her second tour of duty to work in private security. Gribbs called her in on special contracts. Siree had total confidence in Janice to protect her if the need arose. They’d come to admire each other’s skills, and only Janice’s insistence on professional protocols kept them from becoming closer. “Ben’s arrived to relieve me. He’s stationed outside in the hall. I’m standing down till 08:00 tomorrow.”