There was no way he would let that happen. Not to his brother, not to his employees and not to the family business he'd worked so many long, hard hours to develop. If the Los Angeles Times really wanted to pick a fight with him, then it'd better come at him with everything it had. Because he was about to make it his life's mission to bring those bastards down.
"We have a problem."
His brother looked up as Nic blew right past Marc's assistant and entered his office with a slam of his door.
"What's going on?" Marc asked, looking faintly alarmed.
Operating on instinct, and rage, Nic slammed his hand down on the desk hard enough to rattle everything resting on top of it-including Marc's laptop and cup of coffee. Then watched as his brother grabbed the coffee and put it on the credenza behind him despite the obvious tension in the air. Such a Marc thing to do. Staying calm when Nic was still so furious he could barely think, let alone form coherent sentences.
When he turned back to face Nic, Marc was completely composed, but he figured that wasn't going to last long. His brother might be the cool one of the two of them, but he was even more ragingly protective of this business than Nic was. Once he heard what was going on, Marc would lose it as completely as Nic had.
"Tell me."
"I just got off the phone with a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. She's doing an exposé on Bijoux and wanted a comment before the article goes to print."
"An exposé? What the hell does she have to expose?" Marc stood up then and walked around the desk. "Between you and me, we're in charge of every aspect of this company. Nothing happens here that we don't know about, and we run a clean company."
"That's exactly what I told her." Nic shoved a hand through his hair as he tried to make sense of the situation for what felt like the millionth time. They were good to their employees, treated them well. Gave them raises twice a year, bonuses once a year. Hell, they'd built a state-of-the-art facility on the edge of the ocean, one that provided everything from free health care to free day care and three meals a day for their employees.
He and Marc were invited to weddings, christenings, birthday parties … and they went, every time. Fostering a sense of community, of family, within the company was incredibly important to him-probably because he'd never had much of a family beyond his brother. The fact that someone would be so disgruntled, so angry, so vengeful, that the person would deliberately sabotage them like this … it made absolutely no sense.
"And?" Marc ground out the words. "What's she exposing?"
God, Nic didn't want to tell his brother this. Didn't want to see how devastated he was going to be at the accusation. Not when Marc had poured his heart and soul into making Bijoux not only a success, but also a company with a heart and a social conscience.
Still, it had to be done, and Nic might as well rip the bandage off as quickly, as cleanly as possible. "According to her, she's exposing the fact that we're pulling diamonds from conflict areas, certifying them as conflict-free and then passing them on to the consumer at the higher rate to maximize profits."
Marc's mouth actually dropped open, and for long seconds he did nothing but stare at Nic. "That's ridiculous," he finally sputtered.
"I know it's ridiculous! I told her as much. She says she has an unimpeachable source who has given her credible evidence."
"Who's the source?"
"She wouldn't tell me that." Nic fought the urge to slam his hand into the wall as frustration welled up in him all over again.
"Of course she wouldn't tell you that, because the source is bullshit. The whole story is bullshit. I know where every single shipment of diamonds comes from. I personally inspect every mine on a regular basis. The certification numbers come straight to me, and only our in-house diamond experts-experts whom I have handpicked and trust implicitly-ever get near those numbers."
"I told her all of that. I invited her to come in and take a tour of our new facilities and see exactly how things work here at Bijoux."
"And what did she say?"
"She said she had tried to come for a tour, but PR had put her off. It's too late now. The story is slotted to run on Friday, and they really want a comment from us before it goes to print."
"Friday's in three days."
"I'm aware of that. It's why I'm here, freaking out."
"Screw that." Marc picked up his phone and dialed an in-house number. They both waited impatiently for the line to be picked up.
"Hollister Banks." The voice of their lead counsel came through the speakerphone. He was obviously out of his earlier meeting-and just as obviously hadn't yet gotten the urgent message Nic had left for him. He sounded far too cheerful.
"Hollister. This is Marc. I need you in my office now."
"Be there in five."
His brother didn't bother to say goodbye before hanging up and dialing another number. "Lisa Brown, how may I help you?"
Nic listened as Marc told their top diamond inspector the same thing he'd just told Hollister.
"But, Marc, I just got in a whole new shipment-"
"So put it in the vault and then get up here." The impatience in his voice must have gotten through to her, because Lisa didn't argue again. She agreed before quietly hanging up the phone.
It took Lisa and Hollister only a couple of minutes to get to Marc's office, and soon the four of them were gathered in the small sitting area to the left of his desk. No one said a word as Nic once again recounted his discussion with Darlene Bloomburg.
He got angrier and angrier as he told the story. By the end, he was literally shaking with rage. This was more than just his company they were screwing. It was his life, his brother's life, his employees' lives. If Bijoux went down for this-and he'd been in marketing long enough to know that if this story ran, they would absolutely take major hits no matter how untrue the accusations were-it'd be more than just Marc's and Nic's asses on the line. His employees would be under investigation and, if the hits were bad enough, also out of jobs. All because some ignorant reporter with a chip on her shoulder couldn't get her facts straight.
As he tried to channel his rage, he promised himself that if this story ran he would make it his life's mission to get that reporter fired. Hell, he'd get her fired even if it didn't run. She should have known better than to make this kind of mistake.
"Who's the source?" Marc asked Lisa after she and Hollister had absorbed the story-and its implications.
"Why are you asking me? I have no idea who would make up a false claim like this and feed it to the Times. I'm sure it's none of our people."
"The reporter seemed pretty adamant that it was an insider. Someone who had the position and the access to prove what he or she is saying." It was the third time Nic had said those words, and they still felt disgusting in his mouth.
"But that's impossible. Because what the person is saying isn't true. The claims are preposterous," Lisa asserted. "Marc and I are the first and last in the chain of command when it comes to accepting and certifying the conflict-free diamonds. There's no way one of us would make a mistake like that-and we sure as hell wouldn't lie about the gems being conflict-free to make extra money. So even if someone messed with the diamonds between when I see them and when Marc does, he would catch it."
"Not to mention the fact that there are cameras everywhere, manned twenty-four/seven by security guards who get paid very well to make sure no one tampers with our stones." Everyone in the room knew that already, but Nic felt the need to add it anyway.
"What this person is saying just isn't possible," Lisa continued. "That's why Marc insists on being the last point of contact for the stones before we ship them out. He verifies the geology and the ID numbers associated with them."
"There is a way it would work," Marc interrupted, his voice a little weaker than usual. "If I were involved in the duplicity, it would explain everything."
"But you're not!" Nic said at the same time Lisa exclaimed, "That's absurd!"
Nic knew his brother almost as well as he knew himself, and if there was one thing he was certain of it was that Marc would never do anything to harm Bijoux. The two of them had worked too hard to get the company to where it was to let a little extra profit ruin everything. They already had more money than they could spend in three lifetimes. Why risk it all, especially in such a despicable way, for some extra cash?