Wife Wanted (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance)(48)

 

“What do I do, Meredith?” he whispered. “What am I supposed to do?”

 

But she didn’t answer. Riley set the picture down so he could change. As he pulled his shirt off, he caught the scent of Anna’s perfume. Vanilla and something else…cinnamon? He breathed it in, but his face fell. How could he ask her to marry him when she didn’t even know his real name? She needed to know the truth, and if that meant the next time they met he had to come clean, then that was what he’d do.

 

He just hoped he still thought the same thing when he saw her again.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 17

 

 

 

Phoebe avoided everyone she could at the office on Monday and kept to herself in the archives. Her stacks of files had somehow grown over the weekend, so she put her head down and went to work. Her eyes kept glancing back at the file cabinets behind her, wanting to dig through and see what else she could find that Yancey had screwed up. Thankfully, he hadn’t stopped by at all yet today, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t messed with anything else while she was gone.

 

“Just get through your work,” she muttered to herself. “You’re meeting with Mitch tonight, so you have to be in a good mood.”

 

They were meeting for dinner at her place, mostly for a date but also to get a better game plan for what to do with the files. She needed to document everything she’d found before she took it to anyone on the board. If they would even listen to her. Yancey had power in this company, influence.

 

She was just the girl from the archives room.

 

Her desk phone rang, and she jumped, shrieking quietly. “Damn it,” she whispered, then tried to calm herself before she answered. “Ms. Baron in archives.”

 

“Ah yes, Ms. Baron,” Yancey said on the other end, “I need to see you in my office.”

 

“What for, sir?” Her gut clenched as her other hand gripped the edge of her desk.

 

“We have a few things we need to discuss. New protocols for the filing system.”

 

She glanced around, trying to think of an excuse, but nothing came to mind. “Right now, sir?” she asked pathetically.

 

“Yes, Ms. Baron, unless you are no longer adequate to keep track of our data and I need to hire someone else. I expect you up here in less than five minutes.” He hung up before she could say another word.

 

Phoebe set the phone down and quickly saved the data she’d been entering, then headed for the door. The ride up to Yancey’s office seemed to take forever, her heart thudding in her ears as she tried to figure out if he’d seen what she was up to. Or worse. Did he know that she’d been poking around the same documents he’d been switching out? He could fire her on the spot, and she couldn’t do a thing about it. Could he have her arrested? What if he was trying to pin this all on her?

 

When the doors dinged open, Phoebe was white as a sheet, and her steps were shaky as she waded through the busy cubicles with the techs working away. None of them even glanced at her as she walked by. Hardly anyone knew who she was. They wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow if Yancey got rid of her.

 

Her feet froze a few feet from his assistant’s desk. What if he did try to get rid of her?

 

“Ms. Baron, are you all right?” the blonde assistant asked. Phoebe couldn’t even remember her name. “Ms. Baron?”

 

“Yes, I’m sorry. I just…forgot something back in my office.”

 

“Well, Mr. Yancey is ready to see you,” she said. “And you know he does not like to be kept waiting.”

 

“No…no, he doesn’t.” Phoebe took a deep breath, smoothed a hand through her hair, and forced a smile onto her face as she opened the heavy metal office door. “Mr. Yancey?”

 

“Ah, Ms. Baron, please come in and have a seat.”

 

She glanced up at him. He was dressed to the nines, as always, but he wasn’t alone. There was a red-headed woman sitting on the corner of his desk. Her black skirt was hiked almost all the way up to her hip, and Phoebe blushed at the blatant show of skin. That, and when the woman turned, she eyed Phoebe up and down with a look of contempt. Granted, Phoebe did not own the best clothes in the world, but she thought her navy-blue pantsuit was just fine. She readjusted her jacket as she sat down, and the woman smirked. A diamond necklace hung around her neck and down towards the cleavage protruding from her blouse. Matching earrings and bracelet, too. Phoebe knew they had to cost a pretty penny. Figured. She got called into the office to deal with the boss and his new bimbo.