Dangerous Surrender(2)

She could have emailed it to him, but she’d wanted to see him in person, to confront him and to see if he was a crook and a liar. Taylor didn’t trust many people but Hugh had given her a job when she was twenty-two and in the last five years he’d become the only father figure she’d ever had. This kind of fraud could bring down his company, everything he’d worked for. And in her experience people weren’t just a little dirty. That type of dirty business outlook expanded to all aspects of their lives, like a cancer. She just couldn’t believe that he’d been hiding what type of man he was, that he’d somehow fooled everyone, including her.

“This is way too much R&D…” Trailing off, he glanced at the pictures again. He picked up one, his jaw clenching tight. “You’re sure this is Chemagan?”

“You’ve never been there?”

He shook his head. “No, this is one of…Neal’s projects.”

Neal Lynch was Hugh’s partner and a man Taylor tolerated because she had to. Ten years younger than Hugh, the two had partnered up over a decade ago, before Taylor had even known who Hugh Powers was.

To her surprise Hugh let out a savage curse. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

Taylor shifted slightly in her seat. “Everything is in your name, Hugh.”

His jaw tightened again, the anger in his blue eyes palpable. “That bastard… All that R&D money has to be going somewhere. We need to find out where. It’ll prove what he’s been up to. Whatever the hell this is,” he said, gesturing to the photos and paperwork on his desk.

Hugh seemed angry but not exactly surprised. “Hugh, has he done something like this before?”

Her boss shook his head. “Not that I know of, but lately…he’s had some money problems the past year. His divorce and other personal stuff.”

Personal meaning his gambling problem, something Taylor was aware of, but she didn’t comment on directly. “Are you going to involve the authorities?”

He let out a long sigh and glanced back down at the readout. “Maybe. I need to figure out how deep this goes and who else is involved, then we’ll have a better game plan. If it’ll effect the company…honestly, I don’t know that I’ll prosecute, but if we can get enough leverage to oust him, he’ll be done in business. I’ll make sure of it.”

She nodded, relief slamming through her now that she knew Hugh wasn’t involved. Unless he was the best actor in the world, then she believed him. He’d never given her a reason not to and he was so successful that she couldn’t imagine why he would start stealing from his own company. Neal, however, did. “I can help with that.” Because she had no problem working to bring Neal down. In fact, she relished the idea. The guy was a creep on a personal level, but stealing from his own company and making it look like his partner did it? Super douche. “Do you mind if I use your bathroom?”

He shook his head and pressed a button under his desk. The door on the wall made a soft snicking sound as it opened a couple inches. Standing, she made her way to the plush room and pulled the door shut behind her. Her hands were still damp with sweat so she washed them, then splashed cold water on her cheeks. She’d been so consumed with worry that she hadn’t been able to eat much for almost two days. The jittery effect was finally catching up to her.

As she turned from the sink back to the door, she shook her head at the sight of the panel of four video screens. Even in here Hugh had to be in control. She loved her boss but he was a bit of a freak when it came to security like this. He had a shot of his office, outside the main lobby, in the main lobby and a shot of the hallway outside his office.

She started to exit the bathroom when she saw Neal Lynch in the hallway heading for Hugh’s office. Ugh. He came in early sometimes too and she really didn’t want to see him now. She didn’t think she’d be able to hide her disgust of him. When he appeared in the doorway to Hugh’s office, Hugh started gathering the photographs.

There was no sound unfortunately so all she could see was their interactions and hear a muffled conversation. She hoped Hugh didn’t give them away. She didn’t want to give Neal time to start covering his tracks. Hugh took one of the photos and shoved it at Neal.

Uh oh.

“You fucking bastard!” Hugh’s angry shout carried through the bathroom door.

Well so much for not giving them away. They needed time to gather evidence against Neal, not tip their hands. Too late for that now.

On screen Neal said something then Hugh shoved another photo at him, right into his chest. Damn it, Hugh, what are you thinking? Worry spiked inside her.