Working It(26)

The door whooshed open, and Nolan smiled. “Good morning, Ms. Rollins. How may I help you?”

Shit.

Zack got to his feet, all semblance of peace having evaporated in a flash, and met his boss at his office door. “Samantha. I’m surprised to see you today.”

Ignoring Nolan, she pushed past Zack into his office. “We need to talk. Privately.”

“Of course.” Zack cast a quick glance at Nolan, who was already on his computer, no doubt trying to figure out what was going on.

Samantha wasn’t a woman who stood on ceremony, nor was she a person who pulled any punches. When Zack turned to face her after closing his door, he wasn’t completely surprised to see steel in her gaze.

“What’s going on?”

“We have a problem, Zack.”

“Budgets for hardware purchases for the next quarter will be done by the end of the week.”

Samantha closed her eyes and sighed. “Don’t worry about that for now. We have a bigger issue that needs to be addressed.”

He moved to his desk and sat down on the edge. “What’s going on?”

“The finance team was going through the books, part of their quarterly audit. They found a number of discrepancies when it came to some tech purchase orders. Further investigation showed line items listed and bought that didn’t match purchase requests.”

Zack’s team was responsible for the company’s technical purchases, but there wasn’t a centralized process for oversight. Any manager on any team could buy something IT related through the regular requisition system, and he had no way to know if a tech order had been made until it was reported to him during quarterly accounting. “I told you, we should have a dedicated purchasing department for this sort of thing. Not everyone knows what they’re doing or exactly what they’re ordering. If I had to personally research and approve every order, I’d never have time to do anything else.”

“That doesn’t help with our immediate concerns.”

“Which is what?” Unfortunately, he had quite the imagination when it came to this sort of thing. So many ways for problems to arise and go sideways on them.

“Finance thinks one or more of our vendors might be scamming us. They need someone with technical expertise to go through POs from the past year to identify any problems. If this runs as deep as I think it might, we’ll be suing.”

It was a good thing he was sitting down, because the amount of work she’d suggested was staggering. Tech orders included everything from specialized equipment and server arrays right down to printer cartridges and thumb drives. “Every PO for tech? That would take an entire team of my staff at least a month.”

“You have a week.”

“Samantha, that’s not—”

“One week.”

“What about the budget?”

“Still due Friday.”

What a nightmare. “Do you have any idea what you’re asking me to do?”

If she felt bad about the situation, Samantha didn’t show it. “Get a conference room, order food for them, do what’s necessary to get the facts. I need to know how deep this thing runs, and I need to crush it fast.” She gave him one final look before leaving.

Nolan was sitting at his desk, his eyes glued on Samantha as she bolted through the main office. He waited for the door to close before turning his head to Zack.

“I spoke with Kyle down in Operations, and he gave me some of the details. A purchasing scam?”

“We need to find out if this is a mistake, if a vendor has been defrauding us, or if someone on the inside is arranging this for a kickback.”

Nolan groaned. “How long did she give you?”

“One week.”

“Shit.” He turned and began typing on his computer. “I’ll book a conference room and clear your calendar.”

Zack shook his head. “We also need to get the budget done. Same time frame.”

God, he hated this, being the only one who seemed to be able to solve a fucking problem in this company. Exhaustion would be the least of his concerns given how much he needed to do. Not to mention that he wouldn’t have a moment to get anything done on the gym, which meant Max would be saddled with anything that came up.

Nolan pushed away from his desk and came into Zack’s office. “We’ll work out a plan to get it done. Not that I have training in any of this, but you won’t have to worry about the organizing or running around.”

A small measure of relief washed over him. “Good.”

Zack’s cell phone rang. Fishing it out of his pocket, he saw Max’s name on the display and accepted the call. “Not a good day, buddy.”

“Yeah, kind of shitty on my end too. It might get better, though, if things line up. I think I’ve found a contractor who’d be willing to work with us at a discount. Something about having kids from a high school carpentry class acting as apprentices. Don’t know, but it’s worth checking out.”

“I’ll have to leave it to you. I’m going to be locked in the office for the next week.”

“Shit. Really?”

“What?”

“I can’t. I have to hop on a plane in two hours and head to Calgary for at least a week. Mom’s in the hospital. Her appendix burst, and I need to be there for a few days to help her at home.”

“Your dad can’t help her?”

“Apparently his new arthritis meds are hurting more than helping. He can barely get out of bed. They need me there.”

Zack reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Then let’s reschedule with the contractor.”

“Can’t. He only has these kids for a limited time, and if we go ahead with it, there’s a significant amount of paperwork that needs to happen beforehand. If we don’t get the ball rolling in the next few days, then we lose the kids, which means we get pushed to the back of his queue.”

Zack jumped at the gentle touch of Nolan’s hand on his shoulder. “You need my help.”

“No, I’m—”

“I’ve got you.”

How could three simple words make such a huge difference?

“Was that Nolan?” The humor in Max’s voice came through loud and clear.

“Yes.”

Before Zack could stop him, Nolan took the cell out of his hand. “Max? Hey, yeah . . . Better, thanks. If you email Zack the information, I’ll grab it and make the arrangements . . . No problem at all. I think the gym is a worthwhile cause. I hope your mom is feeling better soon . . . Okay, perfect. I’ll go get it now . . . Sure.” He held out the phone for Zack. “I assume you want managers for the budget, and recommendations from them on team members we can pull to help with the other problem?”

“Yes.” Zack sat stunned. He could only watch as Nolan smiled and moved to his computer to tackle the day’s disasters.

“Dude?” Max’s voice echoed up from the cell. When Zack pressed it to his ear, he could hear him chuckling.

“Yup?”

“You need to seriously marry that man. He’ll have you so organized you’ll be running Compass, the gym, and probably my club within a year.”

After everything that had happened, Zack doubted Nolan wanted anything else to do with him. “Say hi to your parents for me. I hope your mom is feeling better soon.”

Zack’s hand fell to his lap, the call ended, as he watched Nolan work. Had it only been a month since Nolan had come into his life? Watching Nolan’s smooth, sure motions as he typed an email, a phone receiver pressed to his ear, was like watching a dancer move. This wasn’t the same person who’d been freaking out in the bathroom before his interview. Or the same man he’d pressed against the wall at the gym.

A vulnerable Nolan had been a temptation he’d struggled to withstand. A confident Nolan was going to be the death of him.

Because Zack couldn’t pretend that he was doing this new, stronger Nolan a favor by keeping his distance, keeping him safe from Zack’s temper for fear of pushing him over the edge into panic. If there was no reason to keep him away, Zack might be tempted to let him in.





Nolan crossed the threshold of the Compass lobby and smiled as he placed a large coffee in front of Mindy, the security guard. “Good morning, my angel.”

In the weeks after Ryan Cooper’s attack on him and Zack, security had been paying extra attention to them to ensure nothing else happened. Nolan appreciated their assistance and wanted to make sure they knew it. Today, Zack had told him he didn’t need him to come into the office until ten, which didn’t make sense given how many things he could have done in those three hours. With nothing else to do, Nolan had spent a few minutes of his extra leisure time to swing by the coffee shop on his way into work.

Mindy had been working the security desk the day of his interview. It felt like a lifetime ago, when in fact it had only been a little over a month. Unlike on their first meeting, she smiled up at him. “You’re the angel. How did you know I needed this?”

“Because it’s a Tuesday, and nothing exciting ever happens on a Tuesday. Hence coffee.” He put a full tray of additional coffees down in front of her. “For the boys.”

“You don’t need to suck up.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. Just making sure that the people who keep me safe are taken care of. Have a good one.”