Pursued(13)

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?