Deceptive Nights (19 page)

Her heart raced as she answered the phone.
Simon had come into her office quietly so Madeline wouldn’t know he
was listening as Phoebe put Madeline on the phone’s speaker.

“
I was just informed by
Kyle in Lansing that they are missing twenty six reports from
Monday afternoon. Did that delivery go out?”

Playing the role, she checked her delivery
sheet. Simon had not signed the board when he had left. She looked
up at him accusatory, but she didn’t want to let on that he was in
the room, so she said, “I’m positive it did.”

“
Did you make sure?”
Madeline asked. Her voice clearly said she was perturbed about
something.

“
No ma'am and I didn’t
check the board to make sure it was signed, but Simon told me that
the FedEx man arrived early for the Lansing copies.”

“
And did you do a
confirmation with Lansing?”

“
We haven’t had to do a
confirmation in a long while.”

“
Well that’s probably why
Lansing is missing these reports and Kyle has reported them to me.
How do you know the FedEx man made the pickup if you are just
taking someone’s word and not finding out yourself. I gave you a
job, to do and I don’t think I’m asking for too much. You do know
your job don’t you?”

This was clearly said to make Phoebe look
dumb and if Phoebe didn’t know what was going on, it would have
certainly worked. “Madeline, I’ll look into it.”

“
There’s nothing to look
into. I’ve checked the system and I can’t find a report from Monday
that was sent out. On top of that, the reports from Monday have
been purged and we can’t go back and get them.”

“
I’m sorry, Madeline,” she
apologized. “I’m sure I can request the copies from the girl’s
computers. Give me an hour and I’ll look around for the numbers we
need.”

“
One hour, Phoebe. If I
don’t hear from you in an hour you can kiss your ass goodbye.” The
line clicked and Phoebe looked at Simon.

“
You are going to help me
find these reports.”

He smiled to comfort her. “I’ll do all I can
to help you out,” he promised.

Phoebe decided to try to see if there were
copies of the reports and learned Carolyn and Rhonda had typed all
the reports that were needed. Her heart would have sank in
disappointment if she didn’t know what was going on. She went to
the bathroom to give herself some privacy. Pacing the bathroom like
a caged tiger, she cursed a vindictive at the ceiling fully knowing
Madeline had arranged all of this to get her fired. Madeline was
clearly going for the jugular with her sharpest blade of
deceit.

When she returned to the office, Simon asked
if she was all right. His concern was so phony she wanted to again
punch him, but closing her fist so tight she felt her nails digging
in her palm, she shook her head and went into her office to call
Madeline back. Simon followed and sat down on the other side of the
desk.

“
What are you going to tell
her?” he asked.

“
The truth. The reports are
missing. The computers they were typed on have crashed and the
audio is purged.”

“
She is not going to be
very happy.”

“
Well, I don’t know what
else to do.”

“
Why don’t you lie? Say
that Rhonda and Carolyn have to see if they typed at home or
another typist has them. This should put everything off until
Friday, but first call Leslie, Kyle’s boss, and tell her you need
until Friday in order to find the reports. She owes you favors,
she’ll give you the time.”

If she had been in trouble, she would have
taken this suggestion blindly thinking Simon had her best interest
in mind. “Alright, thank you Simon.”

“
No problem. I only want to
help.”

It took all her control not to slap him, but
instead she picked up the receiver and called Leslie.

“
Hey kiddo, how’s it
going?” Leslie’s perky voice asked.

“
Hi Les, this is Phoebe
about the reports you are looking for?”

“
Yes?” Leslie said, matter
of fact.

“
I need to speak to a
typist offsite. Can you give me until Friday at least?”

“
No problem. Talk to you
then.”

Simon looked a bit perturbed and Phoebe was
sure after she had hung up with Leslie, Simon had thought that
Leslie would refuse. Phoebe called Madeline next to tell her what
Simon had instructed her to say. Madeline seemed a bit put off, but
with Leslie in agreement with Friday’s date, that meant Madeline
had to put off firing her until then. Phoebe would just have to
pretend she was stressed out until Friday. That would be easy to do
because she always looked like that around the office.

Patricia looked through the copies Wednesday
night when Phoebe got off work and sighed tiredly. Phoebe had
informed her mother of what was going at the office and Patricia
was quite amused.

“
This is over a hundred
grand, Phoebe,” Patricia noted after briefly surveying the papers.
“I don’t have a final total right now from just glancing it over,
but the large numbers do stand out.”

“
I know. Can you add it up
for me, including the payroll tax?” she asked.

Her mother was great at accounting, which was
her part time job. Patricia had always wanted to have her own
accounting company, but never had the money to do it.

“
I can do you one better
and even check with this payroll company that your company uses and
see if there is any suspicious activities. I know a couple of
people that work there.”

Phoebe was excited because with this money
she could give it to her mother to help her afford to work at home.
“I need the car again to go into the office. No one should be there
so it should be alright. I was reading something in Simon’s file
and the more I think about it, the more I think I should get a copy
of what I saw.”

Patricia looked skeptical. “You have enough
here to go to any lawyer and get what you deserve.”

“
I still want to, Mother.
I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” She kissed her mother’s cheek.
“Thanks for everything.” Grabbing the keys off the desk she headed
to the office. This time when she came in, she checked everywhere.
No one was there and she went back into the employee’s
cabinet.

The agreement Simon was promised at his time
of employment was that he was on an annual probation. If by that
time, which was in a month, his performance improved he would be
given a salary that would match hers along with benefits without
any added responsibilities. On top of that he would be appointed
co-manager of the Detroit Offices.

She had to wonder how had Simon gotten this
agreement out of Madeline when he was about the laziest office
assistant she had ever met. Staring at Simon’s name, she frowned
immensely wondering if her suspicions were true and went into
Madeline’s office. On the wall was a newspaper clipping from the
Lansing Journal Newspaper of Madeline standing in the middle of two
other people at a business awards dinner. Underneath the picture,
the byline read, “...outstanding business woman of the year,
Madeline Porter, stands next to Cynthia Reed, Editor-In-Chief of
the Lansing Journal, and Joel Bowen, her co-business partner.”

Cynthia Reed, a light blonde, deep tanned
stick looked reluctant to be in the photo, but Joel looked ready to
burst with happiness standing next Madeline. Phoebe went into her
office and got online to look up Joel Bowen. His name came up as a
wealthy investor living in Lansing. A picture of his family came up
and her eyes went wide as saucers as she saw Simon standing next to
his father, Joel.

Phoebe went back to the copier room and
looked in the other drawers to find papers on P&B
communications. Madeline only owned thirty percent of the company.
Joel had put the money up for the business while Madeline had the
know how to run it.

Phoebe’s brain was going a hundred miles an
hour. If Madeline was screwing Phoebe out of some money, Phoebe
would bet her life she wasn’t the only person Madeline was
screwing. She searched more through the papers and decided that she
needed her mother to have a look at all of this. Replacing the key
to the file cabinet, she went to the back server and found herself
in the Lansing offices computers by routing through the servers,
which were connected. Finding Latrice’s computer was easy because
the technicians had set up the computers by name. There was a
recently updated accounting spreadsheet. When she tried to go into
it, the computer would not let her.

At first she decided not to press the issue,
but it nagged her to death not knowing what was this spreadsheet
about and decided to try Latrice’s son’s name Roger. The
spreadsheet opened up and she printed the entire spreadsheet to the
printer. It consisted of a three year record of the Detroit office
payments for the FIA account, but why would Latrice need to keep
record of the payments the FIA made to P&B Detroit offices when
all the accounting procedures were outsourced. Latrice was just
supposed to send the checks off.

A noise in the front of the offices startled
her. She closed the programs down she had opened and signed Simon
off the computer. Quickly packing up her things, she heard the fax
alarm going off. She was going in there anyway to pick up what she
had sent to the printer. Standing in front of the fax machine,
Jacoby wore a nice pair of Bugle Boy khaki pants and a plaid shirt.
He looked as if he had thrown on his clothes, but he sure as hell
looked damn fine in those clothes. Phoebe stood there admiring the
firm backside of him and enjoying the view as she became aroused at
just looking at him.

He cursed quite violently and was about to
yank the paper out the machine.

“
I hope that’s not your
only copy,” she said startling him.

An expletive shot out his mouth as he turned
around to glare at her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“
We are not about to go
through that again. Is that your only copy?”

“
For now it is until I can
get to my damn computer next Monday.” His tone was sharp and filled
with annoyance. Again he tried to yank the paper out the jammed
fax.

Quickly she went over to him and moved his
hands out the way. “You’re going to tear it and break the machine
too.”

“
Then you get the damn
thing out.” He stepped away from the machine to give her room to
help him out.

She gave him her back as she properly removed
the fax from the machine with a simple click. He reached around her
once the machine was cleared and punched in the telephone number.
Phoebe was very aware that a few times the front of him brushed up
against the back of her and her breath caught in her throat. Her
arousal was evident and she hoped he couldn’t sense it.

Jacoby stepped back and watched as she feed
the paper through the machine. He couldn’t take his eyes off her
backside and fought to keep his hands from touching the voluptuous
portion of her body. His heart rate increased and his body came to
attention as he imagined pulling that skirt up and moving the
stockings away, then finding the warm moistness and hearing her
cries of passion as she pressed back against his heat.

She turned abruptly and handed him his fax.
“Even an stupid bitch can fax a report.”

He had to swallow before he spoke. “I never
called you stupid.”

“
You didn’t have to, you
just made me feel that way.” Moving around him, she gathered her
brief and coat by the door and turned back to him. “Make sure you
lock up, Mr. Knight.”

Just as she reached the glass doors to go out
the office, she heard him calling her. He wasn’t too far away she
assumed without turning towards him, but not going out the doors,
knowing he had followed her to the front of the office.

Jacoby’s voice was almost a desperate whisper
as he called her name again taking steps towards her. She turned to
see him only inches away and his cinnamon brown eyes blazed with so
much desire. There were no words needed to know what he wanted, so
when his arms wrapped around her waist and his mouth engulfed the
skin on her neck, she was not surprised.

There was a need coursing through his body so
powerful it seemed to radiate into her own bloodstream and feeling
his touch was almost a relief. Everything in her arms dropped to
the floor as she pulled his mouth down to her own and their lips
fused as if they were meant to be. They couldn’t move fast enough
opening a blouse here, unzipping pants there, lifting a skirt and
practically tearing off her stockings and panties.

He cursed viciously in a very sorrowful tone
of voice and she knew what he was feeling. Neither could deny they
wanted each other badly, yet they both knew they would regret what
they were doing. Even as this realization dawned on them, they
could not stop the pleasure enveloping them as he pressed her
against the glass partition and drove deep inside of her as if his
life depended upon her. His teeth gently nibbled on each breast
igniting her flames of passion way past the conscious level and she
blissfully enjoyed the roughness, grasping him for dear life. The
convulsions peaked inside her as her nails clawed his back and she
felt him erupt deep into her. They were oblivious to the outside
world as sweet pleasure and serenity surrounded them holding and
bonding them together.

Phoebe didn’t want this moment to end, but
reality was cruel and she regained her equilibrium first. Releasing
her legs from around his waist, she nudged him away. He carefully
let her down releasing her only when he was sure her feet were on
the floor securely.