It Started with a Lie (Truth and Lies Duet Book 1) Read online

  “Exactly. I don’t want this stopped. I own the majority of FDB now, something you handed over to me when you wanted my money. I’m just making sure it’s being allocated correctly. Call it protecting my investments.”

  I hear some noise in the background.

  “I have to go,” Mark says. “I need you to hand over whatever she asks for. Consider me your new CEO and consider her my proxy for the next ninety days.”

  “Ninety days?” I practically yell. I’m stuck with this woman for ninety days?

  “Three months.”

  “I’m not giving her private company information.” My voice borders on whiney, and I hate that my first response is an emotional one. I’d like to deal with my brother in a level-headed way since clearly he’s lost his goddamn mind.

  “Yes, you are. That’s why I hired her. Deal with it.”

  The fucking asshole hangs up on me. I shake my head as I toss my phone angrily on Becker’s desk.

  I don’t know what the hell to do here. I don’t want Jason and Becker to know I’ve blown through our profits, and I really don’t want anyone to know the money I took from my brother is going straight to payroll to ensure everyone gets paid this month. It’ll all balance out soon—that part isn’t a lie. I really do have clients lined up, but I spent a ton of money acquiring them, and now we’re hovering along the red. Mark’s check was just a boost to get us back in black, but now I’ve got this bitch up my ass.

  I blow out a breath and finish my burger. I guess it’s time to face the music.

  I head back to my office. Tess is gone, but the brunette sits at my conference table tapping on her laptop. I study her for a split second. Her long, dark hair cascades around her shoulders, and I wonder if it’s as soft as it looks. She’s focused on her screen as her fingers tap away at the keys. Slender neck, petite frame, and fuckable for sure, but she looks a little too straight-laced for me with her high-necked black blouse and her perfect posture.

  She catches me staring when she glances up, and I act like I didn’t pause in the doorway to check her out as I stalk into my office. I slam my door behind me, and she focuses accusatory blue eyes on me.

  “I’ll need your financial records dating back two years,” she says. “I may need more than that, but we’ll start there.”

  “Fuck off.” I slide into the chair behind my desk so I’m back in my power position.

  “Mark mentioned you might be averse to this setup.” She stands and sets her hands on her hips as she squares off across my desk from me. She softens for a beat. “Look, I’m sorry I walked in on you with that woman. It was embarrassing for both of us.”

  “It wasn’t embarrassing for me,” I say, cockiness smeared in my tone.

  She rests a hand on her chest in what looks like an attempt to appear genuine. She must be trying a different tack than mega-bitch, but this one isn’t working for me, either. “It was for me, and I apologize. I know this isn’t ideal, but I’m just here to ensure your company is thriving. You have the tools to do that yourself, but Mark is paying me handsomely to help you.”

  “Ah,” I say, pursing my lips. “Of course he is.”

  She sits in one of the chairs opposite me in front of my desk. “We could do this the hard way or the easy way. Your call, Mr. Fox.”

  I raise a brow. “Are you coming onto me?”

  Her hand flies up to her throat in shock. “No! Absolutely not! I’m a professional!”

  I wink at her. This might be fun after all. “I have everything under control, Ms...” I trail off because I forgot her name.

  “Davenport. Vivian Davenport.”

  “Right. Viv.” I grin.

  “My name is Vivian,” she says through gritted teeth, and the fact that she corrects me tells me I need to use the nickname more often. “And if you really had everything under control, you wouldn’t have hit your brother up for a loan.”

  I hiss through my teeth. “Look, Viv. I’ll play semi-nice, but here’s the thing. My partners can’t know why you’re really here. They can’t know you’re working on finances.”

  “You’re going to lie to them?”

  I shake my head. “Nah, just keeping this little detail from them. Beck’s the creative visionary, Jason’s the IT guy, and I’m the business brain.” I feel like shit when I say the next part, but I have a feeling my transparency will go a long way with this one. “I don’t want them to think I’m having trouble holding up my end of the deal.”

  “They’re your partners, Brian,” she says softly, and she looks almost human for a beat.

  “What, no more Mr. Fox?” I retort as I dodge the real meaning behind her words.

  She lets out a frustrated breath but doesn’t respond.

  “Fine,” she finally says after studying me for a few beats longer than necessary. “We’ll figure out what to tell them later.”

  A knock at my door interrupts us, and before even asking who it is, I yell, “Come in!” Before the door opens and under my breath so only Viv can hear, I say, “That’s how you’re invited into a room.”

  I feel her glare on me as Jason opens the door and looks between Viv and me.

  “Hey, man. This is Viv. We just started seeing each other.” It’s not a lie, exactly, but I’m definitely leading him into believing something other than the truth. I catch her quick gasp, and I wonder if she’ll play along or throw me under the bus. I think about how grave this situation is, this shit about my brother hiring some woman to come in and tell me how to do my fucking job, and before I can stop more lies, I mutter, “It’s pretty serious already.”

  I don’t have time to consider the consequences of this declaration, but it’s the first thing I could think of to explain why she’s here.

  “Well fuck me,” Jason says. “I never thought I’d see the day a woman got this one to commit.”

  I glance over at Viv, scared at what her reaction might be. She smiles at Jason as he walks over to her to shake her hand.

  “Nice to meet you, Viv. I’m Jason.”

  “It’s nice to meet you as well.” She smiles at him and doesn’t correct him for using Viv instead of Vivian. Why’s she being nice to him when she’s such a royal bitch to me?

  Jason shoots me a secret nice work look, and I put on my best show to act like I’m happy to be in a relationship with this chick. “Why didn’t you bring her to the wedding?” he asks.

  I push the twinge of guilt that I slept with Jason’s ex to the back of my mind. “She was out of town. Just got back in last night.” The lies roll off my tongue easily, just as they have my entire life.

  “Hey, are you going to that gala Friday night?” Jason asks.

  “Shit. I forgot about it.” I shake my head. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

  “A late client meeting came up and I can’t go,” he says. “They gave us two spots and there should be some great networking opportunities. Are you free?”

  I glance at my calendar. “I can make it work.”

  “I’m sure your new girlfriend would love the spare ticket,” he says.

  “I was planning to spend time with you anyway, so a gala sounds like fun,” she says with the most saccharinely sweet tone she can muster.

  I look in horror at her and wonder what the fuck I’ve done with my little lie.

  chapter eight

  When I walk into my office on Tuesday morning, a small transformation has taken place in the corner where my little circular table for entertaining clients used to sit. Now an elaborate desk is set up in that same corner facing mine, and a brunette woman is studying spreadsheets on her laptop when I walk in. I feel her eyes shift over to me.

  I don’t show her how affected I am by the fact that I went from having my own huge corner office to sharing it with a stranger overnight. I don’t even bid her a good morning as I stalk over to my desk and get started on today’s tasks, the first of which includes a Skype conference call with Jason’s team of IT developers and one of our clients.

  “
Good morning,” she says, attempting civility, but I ignore her as I set up the call.

  “Mr. Everly,” I say in a loud and exuberant greeting to the client once we’re connected. “How’s the wife?” I always start conference calls with something personal.

  “She’s great,” he says. “Due any day with number four.”

  I whistle through my teeth and hide the horror I feel so it doesn’t show on my face, and then our IT team shows up to the call. We get to business.

  “Jason sent me the latest results on the attempted breach of security, and I have to say, I’m really impressed,” Mr. Everly says. We’ve been developing cybersecurity with him that hackers can’t breach for a few years now.

  “I’ve been in touch with him regarding your numbers, and my team has been looking at the analytics.” I pick up a sheet of paper on my desk just as Viv clears her throat. I glance up at her thinking she’s trying to get my attention, but she’s focused on her task. She taps some keys, and I lose my train of thought.

  “And?” Everly asks.

  “Um,” I say, looking at the printout in front of me as I try to gain my footing back. “And everything looks to be on track,” I say lamely. I had something to say, and now I completely forgot it because some goddamn stranger is in my office clearing her throat and tapping keys when I’m trying to concentrate.

  I shake my head to clear it, and Viv opens a bottle of water and takes a sip. I glance over at her again, but she’s focused on her screen. Full lips wrap around the bottle as she takes a sip, and then she sets the bottle down. She replaces the cap, and her tongue catches a stray drop of water on the side of her mouth. My traitorous dick immediately responds to the little glimpse of her tongue.

  “Mr. Fox?” Everly’s calling me and I’m in outer fucking space staring at this woman’s mouth.

  Sales pitch. I need to close this sale. I need to make this company some money. “We were able to detect and prevent every attempt at violation, and our developers have already protected several other companies during trials. We’re ready for you, Mr. Everly.”

  He nods. “I’m ready, too. Let’s meet next week to sign the papers.”

  Thank God. I don’t say that aloud, but God, did I need this win.

  We make arrangements, and as soon as I end the call, I start in on Viv. “This isn’t going to work for me.”

  She looks up at me with brows drawn tightly together. “What isn’t?”

  I blow out a breath. “I need you to work somewhere else. I can’t stop my brother, can’t stop you, can’t make this go away, but I don’t have to share my office with you.”

  “Actually, that’s not true,” she says. “Mark created this setup, and I answer to him, not you.”

  “You’re a horrible bitch,” I mutter.

  “Excuse me?” she asks, hand flying to her throat again in surprise. Well, baby, I’m full of ‘em.

  “You heard me.” I stand and yank the cord from my laptop. I grab it off my desk, toss it angrily into my briefcase, and slam the lid shut. “Be that as it may, you can’t force me to sit in here with you.”

  I stalk out of the office and toward our conference room, slam the door, and throw my briefcase on the desk. The conference room was the first empty room I could think of on short notice. Becker’s office might work, too, but only for the weeks he’s out of town. Our space is crammed full because of all the employees we’ve hired over the past year. Growth has been phenomenal, in part because of ad spend.

  I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial up the asshole who did this to me.

  My brother doesn’t answer, the little shit. I’m sure he’s off being a rock star or whatever the hell he does. I leave an angry message and end with an ultimatum that it’s her or me running this company, and then I set up a temporary office in the conference room.

  It only works for a full twenty minutes.

  Apparently the marketing team has their weekly roundtable on Tuesday mornings. “Mr. Fox, it’s so nice of you to join us this morning,” Marty, the head of marketing, says to me. He’s clearly excited I’m here after he’s invited me every week. I can’t think of a good way out of it, so I’m stuck in a meeting I don’t want to be in while another woman sits in my office running my business.

  The meeting lasts three hours.

  Three goddamn hours of my life I’ll never see again.

  They lose me about twenty minutes in. I act like I’m taking notes, but really I’m managing email and trying to figure a way out of this. I set up appointments and listen with half an ear as they discuss new strategies for reaching clients. Most of it involves money, so it’s probably important for me to be here—or, better yet, Viv should be here.

  Mark told me over the last year that I need to assemble a team for company finance because of our explosive growth, but I ignored him. I thought I could handle it.

  But maybe he was right. Maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in if I’d have shared the plate with someone else.

  I have a small team who I parcel responsibilities to: Lydia on payroll, Sam on accounts receivable, Emily on compliance, Derek on tax law. I don’t have an in-house accountant because I don’t want gossip in the office, so instead I pay a private accountant handsomely to keep track of our finances. He’s the one who told me I overspent, but the information came a day late when I was more than a dollar short.

  The interminable meeting finally ends, and when I return to my office to set my briefcase down before I head out to lunch, Viv stops me with her words.

  “I need to start by going over last quarter with you,” she says. “Some things aren’t adding up.”

  I blow out a breath. This isn’t good.

  chapter nine

  After a lunch I eat by myself, I finally slink back into my office. She’s tapping away again, but she stops once I settle in behind my desk. She looks over at me expectantly, like she’s waiting for me to be friendly or issue her an apology.

  She’s not going to get one.

  Jason appears in my doorway. He glances at Viv’s setup in the corner, and he looks at me in confusion. “Does she work here now?” he asks, gesturing to her with his thumb.

  I look up at her as my eyes widen. I didn’t come up with a reason why her desk is in my office.

  “I own a small business and he offered to let me set up shop here,” she says smoothly. I wonder if it’s always so easy for her to come up with a lie on the spot...and I still wonder why she agreed to lie for me when she was the one encouraging me to tell the truth. She pulls a face. “So many distractions at home.”

  “I hear you. I can’t get anything done at home,” Jason says. He looks back at me. “Not this guy, though, am I right? He’s a workaholic.”

  She nods and gives him a look that screams yep, sure is, and then she gets back to work. He asks me a few questions about one of our accounts, and as soon as he’s out the door, Viv looks back up at me.

  “Your brother called,” she says.

  “When?” I ask.

  She glances at the clock hanging on my wall. “About a half hour ago.”

  So he called her before he returned my call. Dick. “And what did my wonderful brother have to say?”

  She appears to be choosing her words carefully. “He said to let you know if you were serious about the ultimatum you gave him, you won’t like his answer.”

  I nod. He’s choosing her over me, but this is my damn company. And it isn’t just my company...it’s my life. I spend more hours in this office than I do in my own home. I’ve closed more deals, come up with more ideas, and seen more success in the very chair where I sit right now than anywhere else in my life. I refuse to hand over what I have left to my brother, and the best way to prove that is to play nice.

  But Brian Fox doesn’t play nice.

  He pretends to...but he doesn’t.

  “Fine.” I force out a frustrated sigh as I pretend like I’m pushing my pride aside. I nod resolutely. “Fine,” I say again. “Then let’s f
igure out how to make this work.”

  A small smile plays on her lips, and I can’t tell if it’s victory or smugness. Does it matter? Either way, I want to wipe that smile right off her face. And I’ll figure out a way to do it. I play to win, especially when my brother’s got a horse in the race. “Great,” she says, and then she launches into the data from last quarter that doesn’t line up.

  Of course it doesn’t line up. When you live in fucking Vegas and your job includes entertaining clients, sometimes money gets tossed around haphazardly. My brother has never been tight with it before. It pisses me the fuck off he randomly decided to start now.

  But I’ll do what I have to in order to get back in his good graces, to get FDB back on track, and to get this bitch off my back.

  * * *

  I play nice the rest of the week, and I’m relieved when the clock strikes six o’clock on Friday. I’ve been listening to her crunch on dark chocolate almonds intermittently all day, distracting me from every task I’m trying to accomplish, and it’s just putting me in a bad mood.

  I want chocolate almonds, but I refuse to ask her for one. I want her out of my office and out of my life.

  My mood turns from bad to worse when Lauren walks in and Viv offers her some chocolate almonds, which Lauren all too happily accepts.

  I love my job and I’m one of those lucky bastards who leaps out of bed every morning because I’m excited to go do what I love.

  This week, though, has been the week from hell. And it’s just the first seven days out of ninety. The weekend is a welcome reprieve from the shit I’ve had to put up with from some woman.

  It’s a welcome reprieve, that is, until she asks me one simple question as I pack up my shit to head home for the weekend.

  “What time should I be ready for the AceStar gala tonight?”

  Fuckkkkkkkkk.

  Just when I thought I was getting a break from this woman who is suddenly ruining my life, I have to take her to the event tonight all because I’m too much of a chicken shit to admit to my best friend that our company might be losing money.