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  “She’s out in the plant somewhere, I think.”

  “Okay.” He went to walk away, but decided he had better introduce the Company’s owner since she was inches from introducing herself. “Kathleen, this is Ian Wiley.” The woman came seriously close to spitting her mouthful of coffee all over the woman she was being introduced to. Ian smiled and shook her hand.

  Ian followed the tall man down the next hallway through a door that led to the working part of the building. They went through the design and fabrication rooms, she was pleased with meeting everyone, they, on the other hand, were scared shitless. She knew her father had visited the plant, usually every other month or so. She guessed they weren’t use to seeing her and that’s what the big deal was, although she had visited the plant with her father, as recently as two years ago. Maybe some of these people were new.

  Rich took her around the production floor, many of the machines were going and she was required to wear a hardhat if she went any further. She opted against it, there was no need to watch a machine cut steel. Instead he took her over to the production floor manager’s office. Darren Johnson looked about Rich’s age with white hair and a thick white mustache. He took his hardhat off and reached out to shake the woman’s hand when Ian had been introduced to him. She leaned to return the shake when a spunky brunette in a black pants suit walked into the room. Ian stared at the woman who dropped the file she was carrying when she saw the blond standing in the room looking back at her.

  “There you are, I’ve been looking all over this place for you.” Rich snorted and bent to pick up the papers.

  “I….” It’s her! Oh my god! She’s here. Why is she here? She could hear Rich talking to her and now standing contently waiting for her reply. Find your voice Cassidy. Say something! “ I’ve been down here working with Darren on a new deal, it needs to be out of here next week.”

  Ian met cool gray eyes with her steel blue ones. The woman standing across from her had her jet black hair pulled up off of her neck in a clip. Her light pink blouse stood out under the black jacket. Ian could swear the woman’s skin had blushed to that color all over.

  “Oh. Anyway, Cassidy Harland, this is…” Ian cut him off and stuck her hand out to the other woman that stood eye level to her. Ian, was wearing flat, lace up dress shoes, and imagined the brunette was probably in shoes with at least two inch heels to make her that tall.

  “Ian Wiley.” She smiled as she felt a trembling hand touch her own briefly.

  “It’s nice to meet you Miss Wiley.” Damn, Damn, Damn it to hell and back! I almost got it on with my god damn boss! Oh my god, I was going to have a one night stand with her! Holy shit! She took a deep breath, taking in the sight in front of her. She’s gorgeous.

  “Well, we should get back to the office, I’m sure you’ve seen enough of the plant.” Rich smiled quickly, then his face went thin when he remembered she was here on business.

  “Yes, you’re right Rich.” She turned to follow him out of the office and whispered as she walked past the still stunned woman. “You got your name.” She took a deep breath and continued down the hallway. My god! How the hell was I supposed to know she worked for me? Great Wiley, this is just what you need. She’s beautiful. The woman that had been labeled by Ian as the one that got away, now had a name, a name that was on a paycheck every other week with her computer generated signature on it.

  ~ ~ ~

  “I need to know what happened with the deals on these accounts.” Ian tossed a file full of reports on the desk.

  “What are these?” Rich sat at his desk reading the reports. “I don’t know anything about a deal with Amtrak, and our account with CSX doesn’t have any locomotives or box cars listed on it for the past year.”

  “So you’re telling me that these deals never came across your desk for production?” Ian tried to contain her frustration.

  “No, Miss Wiley, I’ve never seen these.” He turned to his computer and pulled up Amtrak and showed the past two years history on the account. Then, he typed in CSX and showed her the past two years account history for them too. “If these came down to my department they’d be listed here.”

  “This doesn’t make sense. These deals didn’t go through because production was backed up and logistics was too slow.”

  He took offense to her words. “There is no way, me and Cass would’ve known if we had a deal that was behind. These deals you’re referring to never made it to production. I swear to you, I’ve never seen them.”

  “Do you have a conference room we can meet in with the Logistics Director?” She realized his office was plenty big enough, but she was uncomfortable not sitting at the head of the table.

  “Yeah.” He called down to production and asked Cassidy to meet him in the conference room in ten minutes. She crossed her fingers hoping the infamous Ian Wiley was long gone.

  She was slightly disappointed to see Ian standing in the corner talking on her cell phone. Cassidy took a seat across from Rich and watched Ian walk up to the head of the table and sat down when she ended her call.

  “Did you bring her up to speed?” She looked at Rich, he shook his head no. Great. “I have reports for four major deals that were supposedly cancelled or rejected due to slow-moving production and delayed logistics. These deals have cost the company millions of dollars in the past eight months.” Cassidy looked at Rich with questioning eyes.

  “I don’t know anything about it Cassidy. I’ve checked the accounts on my end and I don’t have any orders that match these deals.” He looked like he was sitting in a vice that was slowly squeezing him.

  She tucked a loose piece of dark hair behind her ear and hesitantly looked at Ian. “I don’t know anything about this, my department is running very smoothly. In fact, in the three years that I’ve been here and year and half that I’ve been director, we’ve never been behind with a shipment.” She was so nervous her teeth were chattering.

  Rich seconded her statement. His fists were clinched together and his knuckles were white. “We’ve never been behind in production, this doesn’t make sense Miss Wiley.”

  Ian stretched her neck, trying appear normal. She was fuming inside, past the point of pissed, heading down the path of rage. “This doesn’t make sense to me either, I’ve been through the locomotive books a hundred times in the corporate office. I’m going to need both of you to pull your files for the past…” She mentally tried to remember how long Fraser Higginbotham had worked for the company. She knew Benjamin Bradford had worked for her father for probably ten years. “five years.” If something was going on, her father would’ve found out, no this, this is a recent problem. “I’m going to head back to my hotel and go through some of the other files that I brought with me. I’ll meet with both of you tomorrow morning. Please keep this in this room, the other directors are already aware of this and the fact that I’m here. I met with them yesterday.” She stood and ran her hand through her short hair, her blue eyes were almost black. Cassidy tried desperately to make eye contact with her before she left the room, but Ian was gone as quickly as she had appeared.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Come on Cass, it’s ladies night at Playerz, at least have one drink with me and Wendi.” She tossed the clip on the dresser and let her shoulder length black hair flow freely.

  “Yeah, we haven’t seen you since Aspen!” Wendi chimed in.

  “I’m really busy with work guys.” I have to see her again tomorrow, ugh! I don’t know why I’m so drawn to her, it’s not like anything will happen now, or ever. She’s your boss!

  “That’s not an excuse and you know it.” Both women said simultaneously.

  Cassidy knew they were right, she’d done everything she could at the office, even stayed two hours late to help Rich get all of the files together for the meeting. “Fine, I need to shower. I’ll be there in an hour.” She sighed.

  The bar was already packed at eight thirty. Do straight people only go to one bar? Or is this the only night they go out? She
sat at the small high top round table. The waiter came by and winked, meaning he’d return shortly.

  “So, what's got you so busy at work girlie?” Wendi was contemplating grabbing the waiters ass when he came back over, but she decided to wait a little longer.

  “What can I get you?” The shirtless Italian looking man was probably barely twenty one. His dark brown eyes seemed to be looking right through Cassidy’s tight, baby blue colored, scoop neck sweater. Her black jeans and zip up leather ankle boots completed the outfit. Her black leather jacket was hanging on the back of her chair.

  “What are you guys drinking?” She looked at both of them with Martini’s. Eww, never mind. “Ugh, bring me Soco on the rocks.”

  “Lime?”

  “No.” He disappeared into the crowd.

  “Oh my god, did you see how tight his little black jeans are? Mmm!” Wendi was definitely in heat and on the prowl, as usual.

  “Yes sir!” Trina agreed, and high-fived the redhead. Cassidy rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t straight-hate!” They all laughed.

  “So really, how’s work? You seem like you're pissed off.” Trina’s voice took on a more serious tone. Cassidy’s drink arrived, she sipped it at first, then gulped half of it down. She felt the bourbon go straight from her empty stomach to her aching head.

  “We have some major issues going on.” She shrugged.

  “Okay?”

  “My department is involved, well technically it is anyway.”

  “Oh no, is it bad?” Wendi emptied her Manhattan glass and nodded to the waiter for another.

  “I’m not sure, it could be nothing. The owner of the company was at the plant today.”

  “Oh that always sucks, I hate it when my boss is snooping around. Is he a jerk?” Cassidy downed the rest of her glass and ordered another when the waiter appeared with Wendi’s drink. Trina decided to go ahead and order another Cosmopolitan while he was there.

  “No. Not from what I saw today. She’s”

  “A woman!” Wendi almost choked. “I thought”

  “Mr. Wiley died a few months ago, don’t you remember that?” Cassidy shot her a look.

  “Yeah, I just”

  “She’s his only child, and heir to a fortune.” Happy to see her glass reappear Cassidy chugged half of it again.

  “At least she’s not a bitch, it sucks that she’s snooping around your department though.”

  “Ha! That’s not even the half of it.” Why does it have to be her, of all god damn people?

  “Okay? What else is going on? Did she say something to you? Is she an old bag? What?” Trina could see the unsettled look on her friends' face, even in the dim light her eyes seemed dark.

  “Do you remember the bar in the ski lodge, in Aspen?”

  “Yeah.” Both women looked puzzled.

  “The blond with piercing blue eyes?”

  “Oh yeah, the one you were smitten with. I swear I thought you were going to have one hot steamy night of sex with that woman, she looked at you like she wanted to devour you from top to bottom, then start all over again. She made me think about becoming a lesbian. She was really attractive, what about her?” How could Wendi forget? She and Trina gave Cassidy hell for a week, they thought she’d be the one to hook up with someone, instead they both did.

  “She’s the infamous Ian Wiley…my boss.” Cassidy tossed back the contents of her glass and raised up to the waiter, he turned to get her another.

  “Oh my god Cass!” Trina spoke first.

  “Holy shit!” Wendi was right behind her, she swallowed the rest of her drink and ordered another too.

  “Yeah, you're telling me.” She sighed and drew out the breath she’d been holding.

  “What did she say to you?”

  “Nothing. Well it was strictly business. I told you she’s here because something’s up. She has us pulling all kinds of files and records. I don’t know. We’re meeting with her in the morning.”

  “Are you going to talk to her? I mean about you know, Aspen and everything?”

  “No. There’s no way I will cross that boundary with her. She looked as shocked to see me as I was to see her. I’m sure that’s a side of her that I, as an employee, wasn’t suppose to see.”

  “How come you didn’t know it was her in the bar?” Trina asked.

  “I’d never seen her, only heard her name a hundred times. I met her father, she looks a lot like him, but I never put it together in that bar, like a millionaire would be sitting at a tiny ski lodge bar picking up a strange woman.”

  “Wow, this is really weird, I wouldn’t know what to do.” Wendi felt nervous.

  “I’d quit my job.” Trina retorted.

  “What! No, I’m not quitting my job. So, I may know a little secret about the company’s owner, who happens to be my boss, I’ll just keep it a secret and go on like it never happened.”

  “How are you going to do that? You guys shared a pretty heavy moment. I’ve never seen a woman unhinge you like she did.”

  “Oh well. I’m just thankful I didn’t sleep with her, my god.”

  “No shit! That would be a huge mess.”

  “I’ll drink to that, amen sister!”

  ~ ~ ~

  Cassidy shifted slightly in her chair, fighting off a hangover with a headache from hell. They’d been sitting there for three hours. She knew there was nothing to hide, the records in her department were squeaky clean. Still, the powerful blond sitting in front of her made her skin crawl with nervousness and her blood boil with lust. She fought the fire between legs with rattling nerves.

  “Damn it.” Ian sat back forcefully in the chair. “None of this adds up.” I’m going to have to dig deeper, I think I may have only scratched the surface. There’s nothing left to do, except call for an audit of the entire company. Oh Dad, I wish you were to handle this. I don’t know if I can do it. And if that woman looks at me one more time with that scared to death look in her eyes I’m going to smack her. How was I to know she worked for the company? Thousands of god damn employees and I had to try to fuck one of them. More than that, she’s so damn attractive. I would’ve probably tried to see her twice. A grin crossed her face, not going unnoticed to both Rich and Cassidy.

  “What do you think happened?” Rich asked as he thanked god the fuck up wasn’t in his department, or in the plant at all for that matter.

  “I’m not sure, maybe these deals were just turned down or rejected by the director. He’s blaming you guys, but the records indicate that he’s lying to me. Either way, I’ll figure it out.” She stood up and shuffled all of the reports together and slid them into her briefcase. “By the way, the plant looks good Rich.” She forced a smile and walked out of the room.

  “Well, that went over like a terd on a waterfall.” He loosened his tie and sat back in the chair.

  “Yeah, you’re telling me. I don’t want to be the one to piss her off. I’m just glad it doesn’t have anything to do with me.” She cringed, thinking about how mad Ian looked when she left the room. She didn’t even say bye, hell she didn’t even look at me for that matter. I guess I was just another girl in a bar to her. Damn it, damn it to hell. Why me?

  “Miss Harland?” Their joint secretary had messages for Cassidy and Rich, she called to the first one that she saw. “You have a message.” Cassidy grabbed the piece of paper, she had no problem reading Kathleen’s loopy handwriting.

  Change your mind yet? I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I’ll be at Antonio’s if you’re hungry around 7 p.m. She knew who it was from, but couldn’t figure out why. “Thanks. Did they leave a name or number?”

  “No, she called for you, when I said you were in a meeting she said please give her this message. I wrote down everything she said, then she hung up.”

  “No problem.” Cassidy went into her office and shut the door. One p.m. now, six hours to decide.

  ~ ~ ~

  Cassidy had worked until six and rushed to her apartment to shower and change.
She new Antonio’s was a fairly nice place so she opted for pair of nice black jeans and a plum colored V-neck sweater, she zipped up her black leather ankle boots and snatched her black leather jacket from the rack on her way out. She left her hair down, the small breeze blew it around slightly on her shoulders. The light snow that fell earlier was already gone.

  “Seven exactly, how’d I know you’d be so punctual?” Ian spoke, her blue eyes twinkled in the low lighting of the restaurant. She was in a white turtle neck and regular blue jeans, her brown leather jacket hung on her chair. Cassidy stripped out of her jacket and hung it on the chair before she sat down.

  “You’ve seen my records, you know I don’t cut corners Miss Wi…” Ian reached across the table and brushed her hand over Cassidy’s. Cassidy thought her hand was on fire from the heat as their skin touched. She felt her heart skip a beat.

  “Since the secret is out, you now have the name that mattered to you so much. It is nice to meet formally though, Miss Harland. But, please call me Ian.”

  “Are you sure? I mean you’re…”

  “Cassidy, you can’t expect me to sit here and treat you like an employee, I’m above that, I thought you would be too.”

  “I am. I just don’t know what to say, I’m still in shock.”

  “So am I, a little embarrassed too, I might add. You met me under…well, intense circumstances.”

  “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” Cassidy said sarcastically as she slid her hand out from under Ian’s.

  “And what secret might that be?” Ian questioned as the waiter came by. She ordered an expensive bottle of wine to go with her main course of veal parmesan. Cassidy quickly ordered shrimp primavera. As soon as the waiter walked away Cassidy answered her.