Defiant Mistress, Ruthless Millionaire(11)

The message Irene had left on her phone on Saturday night replayed in  her head. Callie had the opportunity, here and now, to put things right  and settle the matter once and for all. First, though, she had to send  those files through to Josh.

Once that had been done, and she'd received the pingback read receipt  she'd requested, Callie debated logging straight back out again. There'd  be a record of how long she'd been active on Josh's computer somewhere  in the system if anyone bothered to look, but the question was Would  they? Obviously, if she logged out and logged back in again it would  send up a red flag, even if Josh's password worked for her again. She  knew his access codes were changed on a random basis. Perhaps even after  giving her this password, it would be invalid for future use.

This was her first and last opportunity. She had to do it, no matter how  much it went against her grain. Callie's first loyalty had always been  to Irene and she was permitting that loyalty to be compromised by her  unexpected emotional response to a man she barely knew.                       
       
           



       

Taking a deep breath, Callie allowed her fingers to dash over the  keyboard, executing a variety of searches using specific keywords. In no  time at all she had a list of files and one by one she copied them onto  a flash drive so she could study them at home. Silently she vowed to  destroy the information as soon as she knew Josh was innocent of what  the Palmers accused him of.

For some reason, when she got home, she was reluctant to turn on her  computer. Eventually, though, after she'd had a light bite to eat and  had brewed a pot of herbal tea, she opened her laptop and powered it up.

A sense of foreboding manifested in a burning sensation in the pit of  her stomach as she slotted the memory stick into its spot. A burning  sensation that grew stronger as she opened each file she'd copied and  skimmed its contents. Josh Tremont seemed to have an awful lot of  information about the corporate structure and current business plan at  Palmer Enterprises for someone who didn't work there.

On top of that, he had a massive file on Bruce Palmer, detailing  everything publicly known about the man, plus a great deal not generally  known about him, either. The amassed information bordered on  obsessive-certainly far more than one would expect from a business  rival, no matter how competitive he was.

Callie sat back in her chair, her hands clenched into fists in her lap.  From his notes his intentions were quite clear. He wanted to destroy  Palmer Enterprises. But it didn't make sense. Sure, they competed in a  healthy marketplace for similar work, and in business it was every man  for himself, but why was he so hell-bent on bringing Palmer Enterprises  to its corporate knees? This appeared to go much deeper than mere  competitiveness. There was something almost chilling in Josh's  systematic approach. As if he'd declared war and was working to a  strategy that, once implemented, would not stop until his goal was  reached.

Callie took a sip of her rapidly cooling tea, hoping the soothing brew  would calm the anxiety that had now formed a tight knot in her chest.

For all intents and purposes, the man she had grown so attracted to was  not the person he appeared to be at all. Sure, the Josh she knew was  focussed, hardworking and driven. But he was also warm and interesting  and there was something she glimpsed deep inside him that drew her in  ways she'd never encountered with another person before. There was a  hurt hidden behind the urbane exterior he presented to the world. A hurt  that spoke to something in her heart and urged her to help him heal in  any way she could.

Callie closed the windows she'd had open on her computer and was about  to shut down when she noticed one file she hadn't opened yet. Its title  was innocuous-nothing to even indicate why she'd downloaded it-but she'd  searched for files that had the word Palmer in them and this one had  cropped up.

She double-clicked on the document icon and waited for the file to open.

Her eyes scanned across her screen double-time as she scrolled through  the many pages of the Word file. A buzz of excitement thrilled through  her veins. This was definitely something big. Something that Tremont  Corporation had in place to pre-empt Palmers with an innovative new  contract overseas. It would leave Palmers in the corporate dust.

While it wasn't what Irene had specifically asked her to look out for,  Callie's mind spun on the possibilities. If Palmers had this  information, they would lead the world. And if Josh really was intent on  bringing Palmers down, getting ahead of him in this work would stop him  as effectively as a heart attack.

The next morning Callie phoned Irene before she left for the office,  arranging to meet with her at the older woman's favourite café on the  waterfront for lunch.

"I investigated the original author of some of the documents. They  didn't try to hide their tracks very well." Callie mentioned the name of  one of Bruce's up-and-coming business interns.

"Bruce isn't going to like that, but don't worry. We'll deal with him. He'll be sorry he sold us out."

For a moment Irene looked furious, but then she re-composed herself.

"Everything I found is on here," Callie said, passing the memory stick over the table.

A pang of guilt for what she was doing struck her square in the chest,  but, she rationalised, it was no more than Josh had done to them. She'd  allowed herself to begin to think he was a different breed from the man  Irene had warned her about, which only served to show how cleverly  persuasive he really was.

"That's everything?"

"Yes, everything I could find. Seriously, I was shocked when I saw how  much information he'd gathered on your family, particularly Bruce.  Surely that's not the norm when someone is trying to undermine another  firm?"                       
       
           



       

"Not unless he was looking for dirt to dig up."

"Well, he certainly didn't find any in that lot," Callie said staunchly.

Irene slipped the memory stick into her handbag, a worried frown bisecting her brows.

"There's still something about the man that concerns me. He's a constant  threat to us and I want to know why." Irene reached across the table,  her perfectly manicured hand now curled like a manacle around Callie's  wrist. "You're going to have to get closer to him. Really close. The  information you need to get isn't going to be something he keeps on a  hard drive anywhere. It'll be something he keeps inside him."

There was an iron command in Irene's voice and Callie shot her a worried glance.

"I mean it, Callie. You've come this far; you're going to have to take  it all the way. It's the only chance we have to find out what on earth  is behind it all."

All the way? While her mind rejected the idea of allowing herself to be  used so clinically, her heart and her pulse rate both leaped at the  idea.

"I'll do my best, Irene," Callie said, laying her other hand over the older woman's. "I promise."

Callie was on tenterhooks Wednesday as she waited for Josh's call to  announce his arrival back in the country. She'd worked hard all day,  trying to distract her thoughts, and her rampant hormones, from the  prospect of seeing him again.

She'd just returned from the central library, where she'd delivered some  archive material she'd finished with, when she became aware of a change  in the air. A level of energy and intensity the office had been lacking  while he'd been gone. Had he returned in the short time she'd been away  from her desk?

"Callie? Come through to my office, would you?"

He was back. Callie smoothed the form-fitting sleeveless cream  turtleneck dress she wore over her hips and walked through to Josh's  office. Looking at her, no one would guess how her blood thrummed  through her veins or how her nerve endings had suddenly become  infinitely attuned to his presence.

She'd no sooner stepped through his door than strong arms wrapped around  her body and drew her hard against him. She caught a glimpse of  sapphire-blue glitter before his eyes closed and his mouth slanted  across hers.

Instantly she parted her lips, giving him free access, allowing him to  plunder the soft recess with a hungry sweep of his tongue. Callie  reached her hands up around his neck and laced her fingers together,  relishing the feel of his hardness against her body, savouring the taste  of him on her tongue.

It had only been a matter of days since he'd last kissed her, but it felt like an eon.

When Josh gently withdrew his lips from hers she wanted to protest, but  she held back the sound of dismay that gathered in her throat. Men like  Josh Tremont did the chasing. It was up to her to allow herself to be  caught.