Chapter Twenty
Vivien walked into her office feeling like an eighteen-wheeler had run over her—twice. She’d never had a hangover before, but she imagined it presented a lot like a whole day spent crying into her pillow.
Yeah, she’d been that girl.
On the ride back to Haven the night before last, she’d managed to stop, but the second the bedroom door had closed she’d lost it again.
The slow incineration of what little control she had over her life was complete. Nothing in the last three months went the way it was supposed to. Emotional entanglements had only made it harder for her to be here, to escape as easily as she had before.
If the kick in the ass from her breakup with Christopher hadn’t taught her that, Saturday night sure as hell did. All she wanted to do was curl up in a little ball and ignore everything. Preferably in her apartment, in New York, where even ice cream could be delivered if you knew the right place to look, but at the very least she wanted to stay in her bed at Haven like she had all day yesterday.
But that wasn’t the type of woman she was; she took her knocks, regrouped, and went back in swinging. So instead, she put on her favorite pantsuit, her highest pair of heels, styled her hair into the perfect bun. She put on her armor, hoping that no one else would find the chinks in it.
“Uh-oh,” Josh said, coming in, her iced coffee in hand. “Should I have added a double shot of espresso?”
Raising an eyebrow in warning, she took the cup. “What’s on the schedule for today?”
“Um, you’ve got a meeting at two with the external auditor you hired, but other than that, not much.” Josh frowned. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? You told me Friday to keep your schedule light today so you could catch up on paperwork and review the numbers before the auditor came in.”
Rubbing her forehead, she shut her eyes. God, Friday seemed a lifetime ago. “Right. It was just a surprise given how busy I’ve been lately.”
“I sent all your messages to your inbox and filed them by importance. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
Vivien gratefully collapsed into her desk chair. One hour at a time. Sorting through the messages, she sent off quick replies to department heads, putting out a few minor fires. Things ran much more smoothly than they had when she’d first started. The chain of command, while still the same basic concept Jed operated, was more defined and less dependent on the CEO for constant oversight.
Getting to know the inner workings of MT made it a bit clearer as to why her father spent so little time at home; he micromanaged every single step of production on each game and wanted to work directly with each department. While that helped foster the initial culture of the company, it just wasn’t feasible now that it had grown to have a staff of over two thousand instead of twenty. Hopefully, the meeting with the auditor would give them enough evidence to find the source of their troubles so she could get the hell out of Dodge. If it didn’t, Eli’s computer forensics team was their last hope.
She was catching up on emails from some of her clients when her interoffice messenger chimed.
RICHARD BARTON: I will be in your office within the next five minutes. Make yourself available.
Annoyed, Vivien thought about telling him to leave her alone, but she didn’t want to antagonize him needlessly.
VIVIEN MONROE: Fine. I’ll let Josh know you’re coming.
She’d barely had time to get her thoughts together when her uncle strode through the door, looking like he’d stepped out of a Savile Row tailor shop. Idly, she wondered if he had a valet at home to keep his clothes so pristine and his Italian loafers so polished. In his hand, he held a slim folder.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice cool but polite.
“Nice to see you dressing the part again.” Richard took a seat across from her. “It’s such a shame that you won’t be sitting behind that desk much longer.”
The edge in his voice made her regret her decision not to have backup available. “Oh, I don’t know. From what Eli tells me, we still have a ways to go before we find out who wants to hurt the company. Until the problem is resolved, I plan to use the piles of vacation time I saved up and continue to do two jobs from here.”
She thought about saying she might stay on for good, but she stopped short. Putting that idea out there wasn’t even close to a good plan, especially with how things stood between her and Liam.
“Oh, I think you’ll be on your way back to the Big Apple sooner than you might think.” A small smirk crossed Richard’s usually expressional face, but Vivien couldn’t get a read on him.
“Do you have some information about the break-ins you want to share with me? Eli and I were just discussing how to dig deeper to find the culprit.”
He studied the contents of the folder for a moment before holding it out to her. “The break-ins aren’t something you should concern yourself with now.”
“Why shouldn’t I worry about major security breaches?” Vivien took the folder and opened it on the desk in front of her. Her heart dropped to the heels of her Manolos.
A collection of photos spread out before her. They were in chronological order, judging from the date stamps at the bottom of each. The first, dated six months ago, showed Christopher leaning in to give her a kiss on the balcony of the hotel room they’d splurged on when they sneaked away to Paris for the weekend. The next, taken in the hallway of her building, showed him sneaking into her apartment late at night, an ostentatious bouquet of roses in one hand, a Harry Winston bag in the other. Another showed one of their rare dances together at a business function; Christopher held her a bit too close and too easily to be mistaken for a purely platonic encounter.
If those didn’t already send chills of revulsion done her spine, the next set made her physically ill with the sense of violation. A set from one of her last nights with Christopher in a hotel in Boston; they looked as though they were taken through the keyhole of the room or something, but they clearly showed her about to strip off her nightgown for him. If the clothes—what little of them—were anything to go by, the next few were taken her first night with Liam. Whoever took the picture had to have been standing over the side fence. No other way he’d get such a direct shot into Liam’s eat-in kitchen. She fought back nausea, wondering how her uncle could go this far. How long had he had her followed? Why?
In that instant, she realized that Liam had been right all along. Her uncle’s plans went deeper than she could have imagined. Vivien wanted to squash Richard like a bug, but she’d been in enough negotiations to know who held the trump card in this round. He wouldn’t win, though.
She might be down, but she sure as hell wasn’t out. Liam and Eli knew with a fair amount of certainty that he was behind everything. They just needed to find the information to nail him, but it looked like the others would have to go it alone for a while at least.
Pushing the file back at her uncle, she narrowed her eyes. “What exactly do you want me to do?”
“What I want you to do and what you will do may be two entirely different things, dearest niece.” Richard took the file back, his face still cool as a cucumber. “You have two choices the way I see it.”
“As if there would be any other way,” she muttered, grasping the arms of her chair to keep from clawing his eyes out.
If he heard her snark, he gave no indication. “Your first choice is to demonstrate the intelligence you inherited from my side of the family by gracefully stepping down and returning to your little life in New York.”
“By gracefully stepping down, I assume you mean recommending you to the board before I leave.”
“Ah. There’s that intelligence.” He allowed a small smile on his thin lips. “It would only be right, given my years of loyal service to the company.”
Vivien bit her tongue. Loyal service. Maybe if your definition of loyalty was manipulating everyone to get your way. “And if I don’t want to turn my father’s life’s work over to you?”
“Come now, Vivien. Don’t pretend as if you care for this company. You never showed any interest in it. It should have been mine from the start, and it would have been if it weren’t for that father of yours.” Richard sniffed, looking at her as if she were beneath his notice.
Vivien racked her brains, trying to make sense of her uncle’s motives.” Yours from the start? Uncle Richard, you don’t even like video games. This place was Jed and Mom’s, from the company to the foundation. Why do you care? Why not go work for some big firm in New York or L.A.?”
“I’ve put more than thirty years of my life into this place. You’re right, I don’t give a damn about video games, but I’ve built this company from the ground up. Without me, your father would still live in that little house in Fort Worth, developing video games in his back room.” He rolled his eyes. “What my sister saw in him, I’ll never know.”
“I’m your niece,” Vivien reminded him, grasping for a way out of this. Leaving the company—her mother’s legacy, Jed’s legacy—to him would be a disaster. “You mentored me. Helped me get into Stanford. How could you sink this low?”
“You proved a hindrance to my plans.” Richard shrugged. “Family doesn’t factor into business, Vivien. I thought your years away would have taught you that. Also, you’ll speak with the Dallas Police Department and ask them to end their misguided investigation into your father’s crash.”
Viv’s breath caught in her chest. “Investigation? What investigation?”
Her uncle’s smile turned feline with self-satisfaction. “Oh, did your young man not mention it? Yes, the foolish detectives seem to suspect Jed’s death was due to something more than unfortunate circumstances. They’ve kept the investigation open too long now, and it would interfere with some of my plans to have a whiff of scandal around MT.”
Liam had known the police thought her father’s death was suspicious, and he hadn’t told her? Pain hit her in the solar plexus, short-circuiting her brain while Richard continued on.
“Now, should you have some inexplicable inclination toward nobility, those photos would find themselves into, shall we say, less discreet hands than mine. Hands that will make sure the pictures are as lurid and tawdry as possible. I will ensure you and that computer technician you’ve been fucking don’t have a career to go back to when all is said and done.”
Her blood turned to ice shards in her veins as the betrayal continued to slap her in the face from two sides. He wouldn’t. She immediately dismissed the thought. Of course, he would. He might be the last family member she had left except for Greer, but he would throw her to the wolves if he had to get what he wanted. Everything she worked for since she left Dallas ten years ago would be ruined. Not only that, he would manage to get rid of the one person who could help defend her father’s legacy from within. Liam put his heart and soul into his work here, and he loved his job. It would kill him to have his career blown to hell by the scandal those pictures could create if the right puppet master spun the story.
Torn, pissed off, and ready to punch something, Vivien held her composure.
“You’ll have my decision tomorrow.”
Make him sweat a little. Don’t give in right away. But she knew even as she said the words that she would give in. It was the only option that protected those that mattered to her. She couldn’t let Greer or Liam or Faith or anyone close to her get sucked up in the media storm that would break if the pictures of her and Christopher surfaced. His wife and her connections to reality TV stars would make sure it was a complete circus. Leaving took Greer and Liam out of the direct line of fire and gave them the space they needed to bring that slimy bastard down.
…
“Did Viv say anything to you about this?” Greer’s whispered question pulled Liam out of his thoughts.
He glanced around the boardroom, drawing a little comfort that everyone else in the room looked as confused as he felt. “Ha. Your sister hasn’t said a word to me since Saturday night.”
Three days and nights. Three days and nights since he’d heard anything from her. He spent most of yesterday trying to come up with an excuse to see her. Even as annoyed as he was with her, it felt strange not to see her after two weeks of having her in his home, in his bed, in his arms. Hell, a good night’s sleep fell into the category of distant memory for him since their fight. He tossed and turned, fuming and stewing and trying to think of the best way to convince Vivien to stay. He never expected to love her this much, but he couldn’t force her to stay.
“Just heard from my contacts at the DPD,” Eli said.
Liam’s heart leaped. “They made progress on the investigation?”
“In a manner of speaking.” The former SEAL winced, his gray eyes dark with frustration. “They said that due to a lack of evidence and the family’s wishes, they were officially ruling it an accident.”
Greer frowned. “What investigation? And what family?”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Liam sent Greer an apologetic look. “We’ll fill you in on that. But this means…shit.”
Vivien knew. She knew he’d kept the investigation from her. Fuck. He was so, so screwed.
As he looked at the faces in the room, he noticed one missing aside from Vivien. Barton. Just as Liam noticed his absence, the man himself appeared.
“He might as well have a trail of slime coming after him like the slug he is,” Greer muttered. A smile almost fought its way to Liam’s lips, but not quite. Not a lot to smile about these days.
But Barton did look particularly slimy today. Maybe it was the high polish on his shoes or the extra pomade in his hair. Or maybe he knew something everyone else didn’t. Maybe… No. Liam shook the thought away. That wouldn’t happen unless she’d discussed it with him and Greer and Eli first.
Liam sent Eli a questioning look, hoping his friend had some idea of what to expect. The grim look in Eli’s steely eyes told him that was a no-go.
A few uncomfortable minutes later, Vivien walked in. Hell. The powersuit-wearing Ice Queen cometh. In high heels lethal enough to poke a man’s eye out, Vivien strode into the room, her face closed off.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Vivien said, taking the chair next to her uncle’s.
Mr. Nguyen, one of the older members of the board, looked a little perturbed at being dragged into the office at eight a.m. “What is the meaning of this, young lady? Have you concluded your investigation into the break-in?”
A shadow passed across Vivien’s face for a brief moment, so quick anybody who didn’t know her would have missed it. “No, Mr. Nguyen. Mr. Williams and his team are still working on that.”
“Then why are we here?” another board member asked.
“I’m sad to say that I’ve exhausted all of my available leave from my firm in New York.” Vivien’s voice remained flat, her voice expressionless. “So, the time has come for me to make my recommendation to you and return home.”
The room erupted in concerned whispers. Liam, Greer, and Eli exchanged surprised looks. No one told them anything about this. Something wasn’t right here. He wanted to pull Vivien outside and demand an explanation, but there wasn’t time.
“I feel that it’s in the best interest of my father’s company that my uncle, Richard Barton, be named the Chief Executive Officer. I’ll remain the Chairperson of the Board, per the terms of my father’s will, but I believe that Richard is much better suited to be in charge of the day-to-day management of Monroe Tech.”
Anger bubbled up in Liam. What the hell? Where was this coming from? Sure, when she first got here, Viv seemed inclined to let her uncle take over. But now? This didn’t make a damn bit of sense.
“Shall we put it to a vote?” Barton suggested, a smug smile on his face. Liam half expected him to start preening like the peacock he was.
A dull roaring in his ears, Liam watched as the stunned board voted on Vivien’s recommendation. Out of twenty board members, twelve of them voted in favor of Barton stepping in as CEO. Greer sat beside him, looking just as poleaxed as he felt.
“Well, it seems as though the ayes have it. Congratulations, Uncle Richard.” She gathered up the stack of papers she brought in with her. “I’ve already signed the necessary paperwork, so if you’ll excuse me, I have a plane to catch.”
Before anyone had a chance to react, Vivien left, the echo of her heels against the tile floor the only sound in the room. As soon as the door shut behind her, the board members began to move around, some going to shake Barton’s hand—albeit begrudgingly—and some standing in clusters, looking extremely pissed about the recent turn of events. Eli came over to Liam and Greer.
“What just happened?” Greer asked. “Because I thought that I saw my sister throw us all to the wolves and jet off to her glamorous life in New York.”
Eli crossed his arms over his chest, temper evident behind his usually calm facade. “Something’s not right here. I know she wanted to get out of here, but I didn’t think Vivien would make a decision like that without talking to us first.”
“Like hell she would,” Liam snapped. He’d expected her to pull away after his untimely confession, but this? “It’s classic fight or flight. She got spooked, saw an out, and she ran because caring about anyone scares the living hell out of her.”
He fought the urge to punch something. Why had he thought he could change her? Why did he let himself think for a second that it would end up any different than it had? Vivien cared about him and Greer—he knew that much, but she didn’t want to care. She didn’t want to rely on anyone, least of all people who might love her.
Love.
Shit.
He didn’t want to be in love with her. He wanted to turn back the clock to before he knew Vivien Monroe or at least to back to when he only saw her as an outsider trying to mess with his company. This hit him so much harder than any other breakup. The full body blow of Vivien giving up and leaving now, before they found out who was attacking their company almost brought him to his knees in a way even Sophia hadn’t managed. He started toward the door, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“Don’t, Liam,” Greer snarled. “You’re only setting yourself up for more hurt. She’s not going to stay for us.”
She’s not going to stay for us.
The words cut like a knife, not just because they were the truth, but because of the hurt behind them. Greer had been left behind in one way or another by everyone in her family. She deserved better. He deserved better.
Behind him, he heard Barton crowing over his victory. “My niece saw sense, finally. It was a foolish girl’s impulse for her to even attempt to run a company.”
“Look, Vivien can run off if she wants,” Eli said, keeping his voice low. “But we still have an investigation to finish. If we figure out what’s going on with the company, it might convince the DPD to reopen their investigation. I’d lay money that Barton’s behind Viv’s sudden exit and the one who spilled the beans. When we talked yesterday, she seemed pretty committed to staying until we found our culprit. She was supposed to meet with the auditor that afternoon. From what her assistant said, Barton came in that morning and as soon as he left, Vivien began acting strangely. She had him buy her a plane ticket, and she went home to pack instead of meeting with the auditor. I didn’t know why until now.”
Why didn’t she come to him? Or Eli? He wanted to know what was going on, but Vivien wouldn’t tell him. Too stubborn for that. She’d just say that it wasn’t any of his damn business and that she could take care of herself. She might pretend to care about the company, about him, but at the end of the day, she was too scared to stay and accept where she belonged.
“We need to catch this bastard. Fast.”