Read Online Professional Liaison by Sandy Sullivan - Free Book Online Page B

hair.
    This isn’t going to be easy. She’ll never trust me again.
    “My sister Caroline got involved in an affair with a guy. He’s the son of the owner of Cockrill Enterprises.”
    Her eyes widened in shock. “Jonathan Cockrill?”
“Yes.”
    “He’s a bastard and ruthless to boot.”
    “Not as ruthless as his old man.”
    She rubbed her arms and crossed them under her breasts. “What’s this got to do with me?”
    “They want Marshall.”
    “They want my company?”
    “Not necessarily your company, Liss. They want to take it down.”
    “Well they can’t have it. Bastards!”
    “They don’t care who they hurt in the process. You, me or Caroline.”
“Explain.”
    He stood and began to pace, running his fingers through his hair. “Caroline is married.”
“Damn.”
    “Yeah. She and Matthew are having problems. They have been for some time. She met Jonathan when she went out of town for a convention about six months ago. They started a pretty wild affair but when she went to break it off, Jonathan threatened to tell Matt if she didn’t keep seeing him. When his old man found out about it, they pinned Caroline and told her they would kill her if she didn’t help them take down Marshall Enterprises.”
    “I don’t understand. What connection does your sister have with Marshall?”
    “Caroline Vincent is my sister.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No.”
    “She’s my CFO.”
“I know.”
    “Shit, Drew. This is like something out of a bad movie. Corporate espionage?”
“Yeah.”
    “How do you fit into all this besides being Caroline’s brother? Where do I fit into this?”
    “You were the means to the end. I found out about Mandy’s surprise for you from listening to Brad’s conversation with her. I already told you that. I figured if I could get your key to the elevator and make a copy, they would have access to the offices without anyone knowing. I don’t know what they took or what they did. All I had to do was get your key.”
    “They tried to tap into our current projects that we were working on. Buyouts of smaller companies, but luckily my IT guys are on top of it and when they tried to access the computers, it locked them out.”
    The tight knot in his stomach released slightly before it clenched again.
They didn’t get what they wanted. Now what will they do?
“Fuck.”
    “Yeah.” She rubbed her arms before she said, “Maybe Caroline just need to tell her husband what she’s done and get it out into the open. If they don’t have anything to blackmail her with, then they’ll have to figure out some other way. You’ll be off the hook.”
    “If it were only that easy.”
    “It is that easy, Drew. Now that I know what they are trying to do, I can stop them through my own channels. I have connections, too. Connections they don’t know about.” A moment later, she grabbed the phone off the counter and held it out to him. “Call her. Call her now. I want to talk to her.”
    Trepidation rolled down his back.
Could it be that easy to walk away from all this?
“Let me use my cell. She probably wouldn’t answer if it showed your number on her caller ID.”
“True.”
    Fishing the cell from his pocket, he flipped open the phone, scrolled through the numbers until he found Caroline’s and hit talk.
    “Hey, baby brother. What’s up?” Caroline said.
    “Hey sis. I need to put you on speaker phone.”
“Why?”
    “I’m at Melissa Gordon’s house.”
“Drew…”
    “Can you hear me, Caroline?” Melissa said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
    The worry in her voice concerned him.
    “Drew has told me what has been going on. I don’t like the fact that you’ve been blackmailed into cooperating with the competition, and I’m furious that your brother has been dragged into this.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Drew and I have become close in a way. And he’s told me what he had to do to help you.” Her gaze met his across the expanse of the room. Understanding and