Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Boss? Read online

  ‘But surely he couldn’t do that. You and your father ran the business.’

  ‘And how could I forget my father? He made sure that there was always some excellent excuse why my father should attend some function Travis had organised instead of seeing me. And when I complained? I was being childish and jealous. So, of course, when the position for CEO came up? He took my job. The only job that I had trained for and wanted since I could read a map.’

  ‘Oh, Scott, I can’t believe it.’

  ‘Believe it.’ He paused a moment and shook his head and blew out sharp and fast.

  ‘And then there was the lovely Alexa. She was the final trophy in his little collection. When he had Alexa he had the full set. He had everything he wanted. Everything he thought that I wanted. He had taken everything that mattered to me.’

  Scott was pacing now like a caged animal. ‘But Travis had forgotten something rather important. Where do you go when you have everything that you have ever wanted?’

  Scott whirled, one hand in the air.

  ‘I remember coming into this room on the day before I left for Alaska. Travis was sitting at the head of the table. Master of all he surveyed. And I looked at him and laughed in his face. Do you know why? He had no clue. None. About any of it. He didn’t know how to run a business. How could he? He had shadowed me for almost a year but that wasn’t nearly long enough. Sad thing was, Travis was clever enough to realise that he taken on too much too soon. But too arrogant to admit that he had failed.’

  ‘So what did he do? After you left?’

  ‘He did what any desperate fool does. He threw money at the problem. Brought in top consultants. Experts in new mapping technology. Anybody and anything that could give him a rope to hold on to so he could try and climb out of this pit that he had dug for himself and for Elstrom Mapping and have someone else to blame when it all went wrong.’

  Scott gazed out of the tiny squares of mullioned glass on to the busy London street and his voice dropped to a sad whisper.

  ‘My father came back from Italy with Freya and walked in the front doors to find the bailiffs were already here to unplug all of the ludicrously expensive computer systems that Travis had ordered and never bothered to pay for or train anyone to use.’

  Scott looked at Toni over one shoulder then turned back to gaze at the city street.

  ‘Travis was gone. Resigned. Walked out. Leaving Freya and my father to try and sort out the chaos that he had created and left for other people to deal with.’

  ‘Oh, no. That’s so cruel.’

  ‘Cruel and irresponsible,’ Scott agreed. ‘But if you’re looking for someone to blame for my father’s poor health, don’t look to Travis. Start with me. Because I saw it coming and did not do one thing to stop it.’

  ‘What do you mean, you saw it coming?’ Toni asked as she stepped closer to Scott so that she could see his face.

  ‘It was common knowledge that we desperately needed to invest in new mapping and survey technology. That was why I had spent three months studying the alternatives and putting together a proposal which would have taken us into the next generation of mapping.’

  Scott turned and gazed at the imposing chair at the end of the table. ‘I stood here and spent an hour going through the detail. Freya loved it. But she was the only one. Alexa and my father sided with Travis. He couldn’t wait years. I wasn’t being adventurous enough. I needed to wake up and be more experimental. I was not the man for the job.’

  The pain in Scott’s voice was so intense that Toni rested her hand over his in support and for a moment his gaze focused on her. ‘I walked out, Toni. I was so angry and bitter that I wanted Travis to fail and for the world to see it. Why should I stay and try and save the business when my father had chosen to put his trust in Travis instead of me? Let Travis bankrupt the business. Then they would see who was wrong and who was right!’

  Scott gave a low shuddering sigh. ‘Not something I am proud of. He brought out an ugly side of me which I didn’t know existed.’

  ‘That was what he wanted to do, wasn’t it? Make things so impossible that you had to leave him in charge of the company.’

  Scott flashed her a closed mouth smile. ‘Clever girl. He goaded me into it by forcing me to choose whether to stay and work with him or take off. So no, Travis Brooks is not my favourite person in the world. And now he’s back and he needs money. The question is—what will he do to get it this time? My ex-wife soon outlived her usefulness and he moved on to the next wealthy woman a year later. He had no use for her any longer. And I cannot forgive the man for that.’

  Toni paced up and down the parquet floor several lengths, her head down but her gaze was wild as she mentally worked through the question and tried to come up with an answer.

  ‘Did Travis keep his shares in the company?’ she asked, blinking.

  ‘Not all of them,’ Scott replied. ‘Alexa was an expensive luxury so he sold a few to Freya when he needed some money.’

  ‘Freya? Yes, of course. Neutral territory. I’m beginning to get the picture. One last question.’ She licked her lips. ‘What about Alexa? Does she still have a say in what happens to Elstrom?’

  ‘Alexa wanted half my shares as part of the divorce but when she saw what was left after Travis was left in control, she changed her mind and walked away with the home that we had made together as final settlement.’

  He strolled forward and tented his hands on the table. ‘I can see where you’re going with this. My dad might be ill but he has handed over his control of the company to me. Travis has some shares, but I control the decisions now. What I say goes and he had better get used to that.’

  ‘Travis could still fight you.’

  ‘I expect him to.’

  Scott gestured towards the stairs. ‘This fire is nothing. Just a small temporary setback. Your location scout won’t even know that things have changed. I’ll make sure of that.’

  He broke into a strange and slightly scary grin. ‘This is round two, Toni. Now it is his turn to feel excluded. And this time I get to win.’

  ‘Win?’ she repeated. ‘So this is a battle. Oh, Scott. Don’t you see what he’s doing? Travis is pulling your strings again. Making you play his game and by his rules all over again.’

  Toni stood in front of Scott and pressed the palms of both of her hands flat against his chest. ‘Don’t let Travis manipulate you into doing something you will regret, Scott. Because, if you do, he will have won.’

  That caught Scott’s attention. ‘What do you mean—won?’

  ‘You told me on my first day in this office that you had come back to save the family business from losing everything. But now I’m wondering if that was the only reason. Was it to do with Alexa and Travis?’

  ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Toni. It has been a hell of a long night. Why don’t you head off home and get some sleep and I’ll catch up with you later?’

  ‘No, Scott. I need to hear this. Please. Tell me now and I will never mention it again. Why have you come back to work for Elstrom? You told me that it was about your family legacy. I understand that better than you could know. But I’m beginning to think that there is a lot more to it than that. Why are you here, Scott? Why did you agree to come all the way from Alaska to save an old wooden building and a few rooms of maps and charts? Was this to spite Travis and get retribution for taking your place in your family?’

  Scott gazed at her with a stunned expression on his face, jaw slack and his eyes dancing.

  Then, just as quickly, he shook it off.

  ‘Right now I am a lot more interested in making this building safe to work in. The junction box is fried and I don’t intend to spend a minute longer than I have to on Travis when there is so much work to do.’

  ‘All I am asking for is the truth. That’s all.’

/>   ‘The truth? You want to know the truth? Why don’t you ask Travis? He will tell you his version of the truth. Oh, yes. Golden boy Travis could even convince my own father that I was responsible for throwing my wife at him. I neglected her, you see. Left her all alone while I was out working on every mapping project I could find. According to Travis, all that work had nothing to do with trying to save the company. It was all because I couldn’t stand to see Travis in charge of Elstrom Mapping instead of me.’

  He pushed both of his hands flat against the brick wall and closed his eyes for a second before speaking into the distance, his voice low and harsh and intent.

  ‘And do you know the worst thing? He was right. I couldn’t stand to see Travis at the head of the boardroom table with all of those portraits looking down at the back of his head. So yes, I took too many trips overseas to win some new business to pay for the extravagant lifestyle that my father’s new family was living. There was no one else doing the work to bring in new business and for once I was determined not to see it go down with the crazy plans for expansion that Travis and Alexa came up with between them without even bothering to ask me first.’

  ‘Was it so very bad?’

  ‘Need you ask? It was a disaster. My father trusted them to turn the business around. Clever academic business degree Travis was going to rescue the company and bring it into the new technological age of map-making.’

  Scott shook his head and coughed low in his throat. ‘He had so many grandiose plans and no clue about what he was doing. So yes, I went out looking for new business, but don’t you dare tell me that it gave him permission to seduce my wife behind my back and laugh about it to my face.’

  ‘I would never do that,’ Toni gasped. ‘And I’m sorry that you had to go through that. It was inexcusable and cruel. I know...I know how it feels when someone you love betrays you.’

  ‘You know? You have no idea what it felt like to walk into the boardroom and find my wife with Travis. You have no idea at all. Because it was one of the few times in my life when I understood why people commit crimes of passion. He was very lucky that day that I chose to walk out and leave the two people who I thought were my family to rot.’

  The sound that Scott’s fist made when it hit the wall made Toni jump with shock. ‘No, Toni. You only think that you know. You don’t have any idea at all.’

  ELEVEN

  Every one of Scott’s words hit Toni like a slap across the face and she flinched as though he had struck her.

  She felt instantly overwhelmed by what had happened a year ago on her birthday.

  An event which she had pushed firmly away as past history.

  Her breath caught in the back of her throat and she gasped at the sudden flash of memory. Pain surged through her and she collapsed down on the hard wooden chair, her legs like jelly and unable to take her weight. Suddenly she felt sick and tearful and pathetic.

  ‘You are wrong, Scott. I do know. Because exactly the same thing happened to me.’

  ‘What are you talking about? How can the same thing have happened to you? Have you ever been married?’

  ‘No. But I had a boyfriend who I trusted and cared about more than I should. We were together day and night for almost three months working on a documentary in France together. I thought I knew him and that he loved me and wanted to be with me. I was wrong. About both of those things.’

  ‘No—’ Scott started to speak but she held up one hand ‘—let me finish.’

  She had to get it out and explain or she would go mad.

  ‘I had worked like crazy for weeks to finish the filming and editing before the deadline and it still wasn’t done. Peter was doing the networking and keeping the client happy; I was working the cameras. We were a great team. Then he asked me to help him out. He had been invited to a family wedding and really wanted to be there but that was going to be impossible unless we finished the final studio work that week. Could I help him by finishing it on my own? Then we could meet up back in London in time for my birthday that weekend.’

  Toni dropped her head back. ‘Of course I said yes. He was my boyfriend. I would do anything for him. I worked for forty-eight hours straight to make the deadline. And it was great work.’

  She sniffed and gave a low laugh. ‘The problem was, it was so good that the client offered me a free ride back to London on the company jet. Fantastic, I thought. I’ll pop around to Peter’s apartment and drop off the equipment then take a day’s holiday to sleep. But something weird happened on the flight. The client asked if I could get hold of the talent agent for Peter’s girlfriend. He had completely forgotten to ask Peter and they were looking for a lingerie model for another campaign. They were such a handsome couple!’

  A low chuckle turned into a half cry. ‘I started to tell the client that he was wrong and that I was his girlfriend but suddenly things started to click together in my mind. The fabulous clothes in Peter’s wardrobe which he claimed belonged to his sister who used the apartment. The telephone calls he took at all hours of the day and night from clients. And the texting. The constant bloody texting, day and night. It all made sense.’

  Her voice faded away. ‘There was no family wedding. That was just an excuse that he had made up to get rid of me. Peter was having a clothes optional dinner for two with his Brazilian girlfriend when I turned the key and walked in on them in the shower.’

  Even moistening her lips could not make the words come any easier.

  ‘I am sorry. I had no idea.’

  ‘Why should you? I keep these things to myself,’ Toni replied. ‘He used me because I was convenient and trusting and I fell for it. That hurts and it never completely goes away, does it?’

  His answer was a small shake of the head.

  Toni closed her eyes and luxuriated in the warmth of his body pressed against her side and, without thinking of the consequences, she leant sideways against him, daring to push the boundaries that they had set in the bedroom.

  His left arm snaked around her waist and Scott drew her even closer to his body.

  She could feel the pounding of his heart under his smart blue shirt as she pressed her fingertips to the soft fabric which separated his skin from hers, only too aware that one thin layer of mightily creased cardigan wasn’t perhaps the best outfit she could have chosen to rescue smoke-damaged documents. She must stink of smoke.

  Strange. Somehow, that didn’t seem important any longer.

  Who was she kidding? Scott meant more to her than any man she had ever known. She had never told anyone about that day. Not even Amy knew the real truth. Until this week she would never have thought it possible that she could forge so powerful a bond to this amazing man and feel that friendship and connection back in return.

  Peter had been her lover and her colleague and for a few idyllic and heady months in one of the most romantic cities in Europe she thought that they had a future together. But, looking back, she knew now that Peter had never been her friend. Real friends didn’t use one another.

  ‘Tell me what you need me to do,’ she whispered. ‘I have to go back to work in a week but I have loads of pals who would be happy to help. We can bring a team in and start the clear-up. We can turn this place around in a week. You wait and see.’

  She could stay this way for ever and not regret it. But, just as her head lolled back against the chair, she sensed his mood change, as though someone had opened the window wider and allowed a cool breeze into the room.

  His arm slid away from behind her back and he moved, just an inch, then more, and their bodies slid apart, slowly at first then swiftly as Scott stepped sideways and bent over the paperwork on the table.

  The shock of being separated was like a physical blow to Toni’s poor heart. But it was the look on Scott’s face that truly startled her as he turned to face her.

  Desire, a
nguish, self-reproach and unmistakable desire. For her.

  She had not been mistaken after all.

  The way his hand had started to seek hers when they were out, the way she caught him looking at her when she least expected it, and the kiss on the roof terrace the night before had been real. The gentleness of his mouth on the nape of her neck which turned her legs to jelly had meant as much to him as it had to her.

  And she didn’t know whether to grin and shout in glee while she had the chance, or be patient and let him take the lead.

  This was why, when he did speak, the words he used touched her heart and made it weep.

  ‘A week? You think we can clear up this mess in a week? Somehow, these past few days I had forgotten that you have your own life and another job. Oh, Toni.’

  His finger stroked her cheek from her temple down to her chin. ‘I can’t do this, Toni. I thought a fling was what I needed—hell, what we both needed. But you’re a lovely woman and any man would be honoured to have you in his life and we both know that I will be back in Alaska in a few months. It wouldn’t be fair on either of us to make promises we can’t keep. No matter how much we would like things to be different. You should go back to your work and make it the success it deserves.’

  Well. That answered her question.

  Two choices. She could accept what he said and let him go with a smile on her face or she could do something mad and challenge him.

  Just the thought of not having Scott in her life sent a cold shiver down her back. He was hers and nobody else’s. And she hadn’t even realized that until this moment. She didn’t want to lose Scott Elstrom. She couldn’t lose him, not now, not after all they had shared together.

  She wanted Scott and she wanted him badly enough to fight for him.

  ‘Can’t do what, Scott? Be friends with me? Like me and want to spend time with me? Want to hold me in your arms? Is that what you can’t do, Scott? Please tell me the truth because I’m starting to get confused by what your body is telling me and the words coming out of your mouth.’