Rich (Benson Security #5) - Janet Elizabeth Henderson Page 0,2
as though he knew a secret, a sexy secret, that he was willing to share with her if she’d just take a step toward him. Which was not going to happen. She didn’t do relationships. And she definitely had no intention of entering into a casual arrangement with a colleague. No matter how much he tempted her.
“Rachel,” her father said with long suffering, “you know as well as anyone that Harvard can’t get close to the family without help.”
“Then you help him. You know the company and the family members on the board even better than I do.”
The vein throbbing at his temple brought back many childhood memories. Apparently, that particular vein hadn’t even been there before Rachel was born, and she was the only one out of her siblings to cause it to throb.
“How exactly can I help him?” His tone was clipped. “Should I tell everyone he’s my long-lost son?”
Rachel cocked her head as she considered the idea.
“Don’t even think about it,” Callum snapped. “Nobody would buy it.”
“Because Harvard’s African-American?” Rachel prodded her partner, as making him snap was too much fun to resist. “How very narrow-minded of you. Father could just as easily have had an illicit affair with a black woman as a white woman.”
“I haven’t had any affairs,” her father barked.
She gave him what she hoped was a sweet smile. “As you keep telling me, this situation isn’t real. We’re pretending, and it’s only for the duration of the investigation. If I can pretend I’m engaged to my bodyguard, surely you can pretend you have an illegitimate son.”
“And have my reputation ruined in the meantime? Do you seriously want your mother to have to deal with that kind of gossip? Stop being so difficult. We both know you wouldn’t let her suffer like that any more than I would.”
Roger Ford-Talbot pushed back his chair and started pacing the length of Benson Security’s conference room. Pacing was something else he seemed to do more often around her than her brothers.
“Rachel,” Callum rumbled, “just suck it up and do the bloody job. You’re best suited to it, and you know it. How hard can it be to pretend you’re engaged to Harvard? You hardly take your eyes off each other anyway.”
Harvard cocked an eyebrow at her in challenge. Daring her to deny Callum’s claim. Like she cared one way or another what any of them thought.
She absently tapped her red nails against her iPhone screen. “My strengths lie in business management, not in espionage. Or even in any type of fieldwork. And goodness knows I’ve been in enough field situations to know I’m not suited to it. I don’t see why we can’t just give the job you want to give me to Harvard. As director of special projects, he’d have no problem getting close to the family members employed at TayFor.”
“Because,” her father said as he paced, “the company would never appoint someone to a role like that without them going through the interview process, and that involves the whole board. There would be no way to guarantee he got the job, and even if he did get it, it would take months to put him in place within the company. Months where this thief is free to steal whatever they like from us. Whereas you’re a family member and a shareholder, so you could take up the position without delay or any argument from the board.”
Which reminded her—she was still angry about that little deception too. “When I turned thirty, I told you I didn’t want my shares in the company. I told you to get rid of them.”
“And I assumed you were making an emotional and irrational decision that you would regret later, so I kept them for you.”
Callum snorted. “Aye, the first thing anybody thinks when they meet Rachel is that she’s emotional and irrational. Listening to you talk, I wonder if we know the same person.”
Her father ran a hand through his pristinely coiffured silver hair. “Regardless of everyone’s perception of my daughter, it’s a good job I kept hold of her shares in TayFor. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any way to get your team in place to investigate the family.” His head fell forward and he shook it. “I can’t believe it’s come to this. I can’t believe that someone I trust is stealing from us.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Really? You can’t believe it? Uncle Theo’s on marriage number five, while the payments for his first four marriages are crippling him