Suspicions: A Twist Of Fate / Tears Of Pride

Kane was sitting behind the desk when she entered. He motioned her to be seated in one of the side chairs as he finished scribbling some notes on a legal pad. But instead, she remained standing with her arms folded against her chest. The rolled newspaper was clamped firmly under her left arm.

“Have you seen the paper?” she asked him, echoing the conversation she had overhead in the elevator.

“Yes,” he replied, looking up from his work.

“And you read the article on Mitch?” she accused.

“I’ve read several, starting last evening,” he replied evenly. His eyes searched her face and he studied her intensely.

“Is it true?” she asked, her incredulity registering on her face. “Did Mitch really embezzle? How do you know—and why did you let the press find out about it? Do you know what you’ve done? You’ve ruined his career. He worked for this bank for over twenty years, and in one clean sweep you destroyed him!”

Her voice had risen with her emotion. She flung the paper onto his desk and turned her head away, biting on her fingernail and trying to piece together her shattered poise. Kane rose from the desk and crossed the room to close the door. He came back beside her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Gently he rubbed the tension out of her neck and shoulders.

“Don’t,” she implored. “Don’t touch me—just give me answers, preferably straight ones!”

His fingers stopped their comforting motion but remained against the back of her neck. Her hair was pinned into a businesslike knot, twisted behind one ear, and Kane rested his hands on her exposed neck. Her head was bent, and she pressed a hand to her forehead as she waited for his explanation.

His voice was low and soft as he began to speak. “You’ve met my associate, Jim Haney?” His fingers felt the barest of movements as she nodded. “During the conversion, while Jim was still working here in Seattle, he…discovered that funds were being funneled out of some of the larger trust accounts. It took Jim quite a while, but finally he tracked down the culprit.”

“Mitch?” she asked in a voice that was barely audible.

“Yes.”

“But…how can you be sure?” She pivoted her head upward to find his face, and there was an unhidden pain in the depths of her eyes.

“Erin. We caught him red-handed. There’s no doubt.” The words were spoken softly, but there was an almost cruel hardness in his features.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she forced them backward and vainly attempted to keep her voice from shaking. “I…I just can’t believe it.” She averted her face from his intent study.

Kane propped her chin between his fingers and let his thumb rub it caressingly while tracing the line of her jaw. “You were very close to him?” he asked gently.

Erin shook her head faintly and bit her lip. “He’s been a good friend to me.” Her eyes were shining with unshed tears when she looked up at Kane’s face once more. “He…he helped me through a very difficult time in my life…” she explained, and gave in to the urge to lean against him. His arm wrapped securely around her, and for a moment Erin forgot everything other than Kane’s comforting presence. This couldn’t be the same coldhearted man who had fired Mitch, could it? Had Mitch really stooped to thievery?

“The difficult time,” he whispered. “The divorce?”

She nodded mutely against the smooth fabric of his jacket.

A knock resounded on the thick mahogany door, and before Kane could respond, the door swung open. Olivia Parsons, with all of her self-assurance and poise in place, breezed into the room with only a brief apology.

“Excuse me, Mr. Webster…Erin.” She included Erin out of courtesy. Her cool green eyes swept over the intimate scene before her, and although they reflected a glimmer of interest, her professional aplomb never wavered. Erin moved away from Kane with as much grace as was possible, but she was sure that Olivia hadn’t missed the tender embrace between employer and employee. “I didn’t mean to disturb you, but your secretary indicated that you needed these financial statements before the board meeting this afternoon.” The tall brunette with the svelte figure and sleek Halston original dress handed Kane the stack of papers that she was carrying. The confident smile that she was wearing never left her face.

“You must be Miss Parsons,” Kane surmised, his eyes traveling appreciatively over the neatly typed pages.

“Please call me Olivia,” she responded. She gave Erin a fleeting head-to-toe appraisal, as if seeing her for the first time. Turning back to Kane, she continued. “I really didn’t know that you were busy,” she apologized again, and Erin felt a tide of crimson creep steadily up her neck.

“No problem,” Kane assured Olivia, and escorted her out of the room. “Thank you for taking the time to bring the reports by.”

“Anytime,” Olivia suggested in a voice so throaty that Erin barely heard it.

Once Olivia had made her exit, Kane closed the door and deliberately turned to face Erin. His back was pressed firmly against the polished wood grain of the door, as if he were using his own body as a barricade against another intrusion. His body had stiffened, and all of the familiar fondness had escaped from his features. His face had become a mask devoid of emotion, and his words were no longer tender or caring. They were brittle in the air.

“I don’t think that my office is the place to continue this discussion,” he said tersely.

“I think it’s a perfect place to discuss Mitch—right in the middle of his office!”

“Is that how you still think of it, as Mitch’s office? If so, you had better change your mind. Mitchell Cameron is gone. He was an embezzler—a thief—and he’s no longer with Consolidated Finances. I hope that fact doesn’t hamper your work.” He strode across the room to the desk. “We can discuss this later…tonight if you like. But right now I’m very busy.” He sat at the desk and started reading the reports that he had received from Olivia.

Erin watched him with disbelieving eyes. How could he change so rapidly? It was as if he were a kind, considerate gentleman one moment and a heartless bastard the next. He looked up at her and flashed a perfectly condescending smile at her, but she knew it was an act. She had been with him enough to recognize the cool distance in his gray eyes.

“You’re the one who called me in here,” she reminded him, and waved the green personal memo in the air. “Just what was it that you wanted to discuss?”

The petrified smile fell from his face and a darker, more volatile expression took over. “I wanted to ask you to dinner tonight.”

“You’ve got to be kidding! First you call me in here. Then you nearly throw me out. And now you expect me to go out with you?” Sarcasm dripped from her words. “Not a chance!”

“Why not?”

Erin sighed wearily, tired of the argument. “For the same reasons that I spelled out to you yesterday.”

There was a pool of darkness in his eyes. “You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?” he suggested, and then continued. “Or is it yourself who scares you?”

“It has nothing to do with fear, and you should know it! It’s just that I don’t think it would be good for either of us, professionally that is, to be the subject of office gossip or speculation.”

“Don’t you think that you’re putting the cart before the horse?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she sighed.

“In order for there to be any gossip, there’s got to be a glimmer of truth. Someone has to start the rumors, and since I’m not one to ‘kiss and tell,’ I’ve got to assume that you are. Otherwise, there would be no cause for concern, would there?”

“You don’t understand,” she accused with a vehemence that interested Kane. “Gossip…it can be vicious—ugly! It can ruin your life!”

“Only if you let it—the same as anything else. Now, why don’t you be honest with me—no, make that honest with yourself—and tell me what’s really bothering you. I can’t believe that a little innocent speculation about what you do after-hours is all that traumatic. For God’s sake, Erin, you’re a thirty-year-old divorcée, not a whimpering virgin! What kind of lily-white reputation are you trying to create?”

Her eyes narrowed and she planted her hands firmly against her hips. “The point is that I like to keep my personal life just that—private! And even though you and I won’t go around telling anyone that we’re seeing each other, believe me, the word will get out.”

“And everyone will just naturally assume that because we’re dating we’re sleeping together, right?” he surmised, elaborating on her logic. He threw the neatly stacked reports down into an unruly pile on his desk and covered the floor space that separated them in long, swift strides. He didn’t touch her, but he was close enough that she could feel the delicious warmth of his breath as it fanned against her hair. She stood her ground, not moving an inch, but every nerve ending of her body was rigidly aware of him and his nearness. “And even if some of the people around here think that we sleep together”—his fingers touched the silken skin of her cheek softly—”what’s so bad about that? What do you care what other people think?”

Erin’s lips thinned into a white line. She tried to control her temper and ignore the warm feelings that Kane was commanding from her. She pushed herself away from him in order to think clearly and avoid the compelling magnetism that seemed to surround him. “I’ve worked very hard to get where I am with this bank, and I don’t need the frustration of knowing that coworkers think that I sleep with the boss to promote my career.”

“Would you mind it if they thought you slept with the boss because you wanted to and not for career reasons?”

“You can’t possibly understand!” she whispered, and turned on her heel to leave.

As she pushed open the door to make her exit, she heard Kane’s parting words. “You, Miss O’Toole, are paranoid! And I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty!”

Kane’s voice boomed through the open door. Several of the secretaries looked up from their typewriters to stare openly at Erin. She tried to ignore their curiosity and continued toward her office. She could feel their speculative glances boring holes into her back, but she managed to return to the security of her office with a modicum of poise.

Outwardly she controlled her ragged Irish temper, but once in the sanctity of her own office, she could feel the fumes of anger rising steadily within her. No doubt half of the legal department had already sized up her situation with the new boss, and it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet! She tried to concentrate on her work, and she told herself not to be childish, but she couldn’t help but feel that Kane had betrayed her trust by announcing that he planned to see her after work. To make matters worse, he had brushed off the subject of Mitch’s dismissal with an arrogant wave of his hand and very little explanation.