with.
But because Mirabella was his administrative assistant, because he interacted with her every day and relied on her being as efficient as she had been up until now, for this as well as so many other reasons, her well-being was his concern.
In his view, the term well-being encompassed a great deal of territory.
“But he does know, right?” he prodded, watching Mirabella’s face for a telltale clue. “The baby’s father does know about its existence? You did tell him, right?” He wanted to know.
Mirabella shifted uncomfortably. It felt decidedly strange to her to be thinking about Kyle in the present tense now that he was dead. But the fact that he was dead really didn’t change anything. She didn’t want to admit to having slept with him, which, in turn, was to admit to being used by him.
In her eyes it made her seem like a little fool—and worse. But since Zane was obviously not letting go of this, she made the nebulous admission and hoped that would be enough for him.
“Yes, I told him. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to drop the subject.” She began to get up. “I’d—”
She stopped abruptly as another wave of nausea, this one far more intense than its immediate predecessor, suddenly caught her up in its grip. She dug the fingernails of her left hand into the arm of the sofa as if that could somehow channel the sensation she was feeling out of her body and into the inanimate object.
It couldn’t.
Caught up in all this, Zane saw that horrid color—pea green—reemerge and all but paint her complexion from the throat up.
He could see by the sudden panicked look in her eyes that she felt she wasn’t going to be able to make it down the hall in time.
He wasn’t about to allow her to embarrass herself in front of the other people on the floor. They were, in general, good people. But a lot of good people still loved to gossip. Some actually thrived on it, he recalled.
With that in mind, Zane quickly got to his feet and out of her way.
“Use my bathroom,” he volunteered. He saw she was about to demur and he quickly cut her off. “You’re not going to make it down the hall. Now stop being so damn stubborn about everything and use the blasted bathroom,” he ordered, pushing open the door to the pristine restroom.
She wanted to protest and tell him that she was going to use the ladies’ room since it was available to everyone. But she never got the chance.
Her words were blocked by the sensation of something ominous about to reappear at any second and it was going to be right here, on his rug, if she didn’t hustle and take advantage of the generous offer he’d just made to her.
She felt there was a time for pride and a time for practicality and this definitely fell into the latter category.
Wanting to murmur “thank you” but afraid if she so much as opened her mouth, they would both deeply regret it, she could only nod at him as she dashed past Zane and straight into the bathroom.
Knowing she would welcome privacy as much as he would welcome not having to hear anything he’d prefer not to, Zane pulled the door closed behind her.
Just in time.
The next moment, he heard a knock on his outer door.
Zane’s first thought was he needed to get rid of whoever was on the other side of his office door before Mirabella emerged from his bathroom. That seemingly innocent event could very easily start rumors and rumors of any sort were the last thing he needed to deal with right now. He’d learned from personal experience that people were capable of taking a tidbit of what they perceived to be information and somehow wound up spinning the complete works of William Shakespeare out of it.
Crossing quickly toward the door, Zane pulled it open.
Any thought of sending the person off instantly vanished when he saw who it was.
In his midthirties and balding, Meyer Stanley had a slight build. He obsessively maintained ramrod straight posture in an effort to appear at least a little taller than his five-foot-five-inch stature. He succeeded only in making himself look like a determined swizzle stick when he walked.
His most outstanding feature, despite the black framed glasses he wore—or perhaps because of them—was his eyes. As he walked into Zane’s office, Meyer’s eyes appeared so huge, they were almost startling.
To say Zane was surprised to see the IT expert was putting it mildly.
“I just talked to you a few minutes ago,” Zane said. Had Meyer forgotten to add something?
Meyer bobbed his head up and down. His glasses slid down his nose, and he pushed them back up with a jerky motion of his index finger.
“Yes, I know.” The three words came out sounding almost breathless.
Zane took a guess as to why the man had felt compelled to suddenly rush over. “Did you find out where my father’s money was being wired?”
Again Meyer nodded vigorously in response. When he spoke, his voice had dropped several octaves from its usual high-pitched tone. But before he spoke, he looked furtively around, as if he wanted to make sure there was no one else in the room who would overhear what he was about to say.
“I thought it was best if I came to tell you this in person.”
Zane had worked with Meyer for a couple of years now, albeit in a different division, and knew the man had a flair for the dramatic. But this was a level he’d never witnessed before. Zane had absolutely no idea what to expect.
An uneasiness began to work its way through his system, although he continued to maintain a perfect poker face.
“Go ahead.”
“The regular transfers from one of your father’s bank accounts—when they were being made,” Meyer qualified, trying to be painstakingly accurate, “were going into an encrypted bank account belonging to—”
Meyer paused, not for any sort of dramatic effect, but because he was obviously nervous about the disclosure he was about to make.
Zane couldn’t remember ever seeing the IT expert behave this way. Just how damning was this discovery Meyer had made?
“Go ahead, out with it, Meyer,” Zane ordered. “Who did the account belong to?”
Meyer swallowed. “It belonged to—”
A noise from the side of the office caught his attention. Meyer looked around Zane’s arm and he saw the bathroom door being opened. Someone was coming out.
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