Because chaos was the only word she could use to describe the churning of emotions and thoughts that wouldn’t leave her alone during those empty moments. The moments when she wasn’t crunching numbers or when she wasn’t having sex with Branden or when she wasn’t laughing with him over some stupid thing he used to do to his little sisters. She’d come to not only respect him over the last few days, but like him a lot. And need him more than a little.
And that scared the shit out of her. After her father died, her mother had fallen apart, leaving Cara to bear the burden of responsibility for herself, her mother, and her brother. Her mother had been dependent on her father for everything—her dad had always been in control of the major decisions in the family, including the finances—and her mother had been lost upon his death. No way did Cara want that to ever happen to her.
She made her own way in the world.
And she could never come to need Branden. That would set her up for a huge fall.
But God, resisting his help, his care, his concern, was getting to be difficult.
Crunching numbers not only kept her aware of her job, but kept her mind off Branden.
Mostly.
A knock sounded at her office door and she jerked. Before she could say, “Come in” or “Go away,” Mike Gaunt stuck his head into her office.
“Hello, Ms. Michal. I know it’s Friday and you’re probably going to want to get out of here early, but do you have a few minutes?”
“Yes, of course,” she said. That wasn’t the answer she really had on the tip of her tongue, but what else could she say?
Mike stepped in, looking as nervous and uptight as always and carrying a folder in his hand. He sat down across from her and put the folder down on her desk. “Can you help me understand this?”
Cara glanced at the folder but didn’t pick it up. “What is it?”
“Look at it, please. I came across it purely by accident. Before I take it to Mr. Duke I wanted to give you an opportunity to explain.”
Cara didn’t like the sound of that. She picked up the folder and looked inside. It was one of her reports related to the sale of stock in a company located in Switzerland. She had run the report, then given it to Max. It listed out the terms and what the share cost would be in a “lit market,” a traditional exchange. Presumably, Max and his brokers had run with the information, offering the stocks to high-frequency traders who used incredibly fast technology to view the offers and to buy or sell within milliseconds. The price wasn’t listed out to the public until after the sale was complete. That was how most business at D&M was done. They were one of the biggest dark pool traders on Wall Street.
Cara was staring at the report and as she did, she could feel Mike Gaunt’s eyes on her. After a few minutes, she looked up.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Gaunt, I’m not seeing any issues with this.”
Mike made a face that made it evident he didn’t believe her. He put his hand out. “May I?”
Cara handed the report back to him.
“Who is S. M. Mahoney?” he asked.
“I have no idea.”
He held the paperwork out for her again, saying, “Look at the sender and recipient of this email.”
Cara did. It appeared the report had been forwarded—by her—to Max, Jean, and someone named S. M. Mahoney.
“I don’t know who that is, or why he or she was sent a copy of this report.”
“It’s a he. His name is Samuel Mason Mahoney and he is the CEO of Whitaker Enterprises.”
“The company that ended up purchasing this stock?”
“The very same.”
“But I don’t understand. I didn’t send this report to him.” By now bile filled the back of her throat and she swallowed hard against the acrid taste.
“It came from your email address.”
“That’s what this indicates, but I didn’t send it. I sent it to two people, the same way I do every report, and if it goes anywhere from there it’s up to them. I did not forward this. It had to be someone else who somehow accessed my account.”
Gaunt sighed and said, “I was really hoping that you would have an explanation for this. One that made sense.”
“Well, I don’t,” she said, her tone both angry and defensive. She wasn’t going to let her fear