Single Sashimi (31 page)

At the name, Yardley flinched.

“Didn’t Akaogi refuse to partner with Oomvid on a
Takoman
multi-player game? I think you were the one who spearheaded that.” She took a step nearer to him. “So tell me how well I do my job, despite disgruntled ex-bosses who try to sabotage me.”

Yardley’s mouth opened and closed a few times, then he clenched his jaw and spoke through his teeth. “Talk about sabotage. Sending your little boyfriend into Oomvid to try to dig up dirt. You won’t find any—I’m cleaner than a surgery room!”

That mysterious boyfriend again. Some guy had obviously done something to upset him, and he chose to believe Venus was behind it all. She pulled her shoulders back. “You’re off your rocker.”

Which only made him steam hotter. He looked like he might blow his thinning hair clear off his head. “I demand to speak to Drake—”

“He’s not available, Yardley. You either deal with me or you leave this building.” She pointed at the door. “Darla and I will kick you out bodily if you refuse. I warn you, we’re in great shape.” At least, she hoped Darla had some muscles under that slender frame. She didn’t know if she could handle Yardley alone.

He ground his teeth, looking at her as if she were the devil himself, but not wanting to leave either.

Venus crossed her arms. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Darla pointed out the glass doors. “Somebody’s coming.” Venus looked up to see Mom’s tiny frame hop-stepping toward them.

She entered with a bright smile. “Hello, dear. Why hello, Yardley. We met at my mother’s Christmas party. Do you remember?”

He looked down at her with a condescending smile. “You were a bit unwell that evening, as I recall.”

Mom’s smile grew hard, and her teeth gleamed. “You weren’t invited, as I recall, but my mother allowed you to stay when you snuck in with the CEO of Oomvid.”

Yardley’s mouth pulled into a disagreeable line.

“I take it you’re here annoying my daughter because of Brett?”

Brett? Who was that?

Yardley’s face darkened. Venus moved closer to her mother.

Mom gave that false tinkling laugh that always used to grate on Venus’s spine. It sounded like music to her now, while Yardley’s back popped into a straight line. “Isn’t Brett clever? He’s an investigative reporter, you know. With the
San Francisco Chronicle
.”

He paled. “A reporter?”

“Such a nice boy. His mother is my good friend. Venus, do you remember Mrs. Kawa—”

“Mom…” Now was not the time for her to go tangential.

“Anyway, I told Brett about Venus’s development tool, and how she thought that nasty girl Esme had stolen it and given it to Oomvid.”

Venus knew the astonishment must be painted all over her face, but she couldn’t close her mouth. She’d assumed Mom hadn’t been listening when she told her about Esme.

Yardley ground his teeth. “Esme didn’t steal—”

Mom’s eyebrows popped up. “Esme? Not Ms. Preston? Know her quite well, do you?”

His lips disappeared as he pulled his mouth taut.

Mom smiled widely. “So Brett went to Oomvid for some interview and asked to use a company computer—all very official, nothing wrong with it—and well, Esme wasn’t very smart.” She spread her hands wide. “She used the company computer for all kinds of things.”

“What kinds of things?” And would any of it even be admissible in a lawsuit?

“Brett just
happened
upon some emails Esme sent about how Oomvid’s CTO hired her to
borrow
Venus’s development tool. And other emails that were very specific about Esme handing Venus’s program directly to you.”

Email evidence? Oh my. Esme hadn’t been smart at all.

Yardley’s eyes darted around the lobby, as if looking for an escape, but he remained rooted to the ground. Venus couldn’t figure out what was going through his mind.

“And wouldn’t you know, Brett
happened
upon some emails among your programming team, about how you told them to work on a development tool similar to the one you handed them, but not similar enough to infringe on the other program’s patent.”

His nostrils flared. “All that was gotten illegally, and Bananaville won’t look very good if I leak the information that the CTO’s mother sent a spy into Oomvid to steal company secrets.”

Mom’s smile never faltered. “It won’t be half as embarrassing as it would be for Oomvid to have yet another accusation that they steal technology. It’s been a whole ten months since they were last in the front page headlines.”

She had him. Venus knew the exact moment, because a muscle on his cheek jumped faster than a tick. Oomvid had been exonerated from that earlier accusation, but the company wouldn’t be able to handle yet another accusation so soon with any kind of dignity.

Mom regarded him with cool eyes. “I wonder if you know something about that other incident too?”

His eyes flattened into slits.

Mom didn’t back down. “It doesn’t matter if it isn’t true, as long as it’s in the paper.”

“That’s libel.”

Mom frowned. “Maybe.” She brightened. “But Brett has many online connections.”

Darla shot to her feet. Venus started—she’d forgotten she was behind the receptionist’s desk. Darla’s smile had the warmth of an arctic winter. “Sir, did you still want to speak to Drake?”

Yardley looked like an angry picture of Rumpelstiltskin that Venus remembered from a childhood book—she expected him to start jumping up and down in frustration. Too bad the earth wouldn’t open up and swallow him too.

He glared at her. “I’m not leaving.”

Venus shot him a look like a knife blade between the eyes. “You will leave now. I have wanted chocolate for
hours
, and if I don’t eat my truffles in the next five minutes, I am going to
bite your head off
.”

His fierce gaze had morphed into one that looked at her like she’d turned into a pink elephant.

Mom solved the problem by grabbing his elbow and pulling him toward the door. “So nice seeing you, Yardley. Say hello to your parents for me.”

Mom pushed him out the door, but just before the glass doors swung shut, she opened them to call out. “Oh, I almost forgot. Silly me.” She tittered. “I hope you don’t mind…When I drove up, I dinged your car a little bit…”

D
rake knew that if he told Venus the truth, she’d kill him. Painfully. But he couldn’t deny that she had a nicer…silhouette since she’d put on a few pounds.

He admired her
silhouette
as she paced in his office, licking her fingers from her third Reese’s peanut butter cup in the last half hour. “When Mom asked Brett to do all that, she wasn’t thinking about legalities.”

“I doubt the emails would hold up in court.”

“Exactly. She thought social embarrassment to Oomvid would be enough to get what she wanted. What she wanted for me.” She paused, her fingers tapping her thigh like she had the shakes—which she probably did, a massive sugar rush from the candy she’d been consuming. “I don’t think this will get me anything but a libel suit.”

“Have you looked into it?”

“Not yet. I wanted to ask you what you thought.”

He almost raised his arms and shouted, “Gooooaaaaaallllll!” but restrained himself. “You’ll need to consult a lawyer.”

“Mom said she’d ask the family lawyer, but I don’t know if he’s versed enough in this sort of thing.”

“It might not make a difference for you. Oomvid will continue to develop their own version of the Spiderweb.”

She sobered and stared out the window of his office at the bare trees. “I know.”

He didn’t like seeing her like this—quiet, resigned. The Venus he knew never quit. Many times her pigheadedness caused him multiple migraine headaches, but this Venus—defeated, motionless, waiting…he didn’t like her so lifeless. “You can’t lie back and let them walk all over you.”

“I’m weighing my options,” she snapped.

Her show of spirit cheered him. “I might be able to help.”

She faced him, but her eyes were clouded. “I don’t know what I want anymore, Drake.” She paused, then resumed pacing. “I’ve never thought what would happen if this all were taken out of my control. I never considered not having the Spiderweb, not having Jaye. I should have. Maybe I just didn’t want to think about it.”

Her dream had died, and not at her own hands, but at someone else’s. He could imagine how he’d feel in her situation.

“The strange thing is…” She paused as if uncomfortable.

“What?” he asked gently.

“I’m getting along so well with Mom these days. Better than before, anyway.” She grimaced.

“Maybe something changed.”

“I think something did. She mentioned…after Yardley left, she mentioned something about ‘winning back her daughter.’ ”

He watched her face, not sure how she felt about it. Back when they’d worked together before, she had sometimes mentioned her father but never her mother, and from the small interactions he’d seen…“Are you okay with that?”

“We’ll never be buddy-buddy—she hasn’t changed
that
much—but she’s softer since the party.”

She had a thoughtful look on her face. He speculated that her relationship with Laura Sakai might never be extremely close, but it wouldn’t be as difficult as it had been before. That made him happy for her, for reasons he didn’t want to dwell on.

A knock at the door, then Darla’s head popped in. “Venus, your two o’clock appointment is here.”

“I’ll email you a list of a few lawyers,” he told her as she left. She nodded and waved her thanks.

Bananaville might be on the upswing, but Venus had lost everything, with no way to get things back exactly the same as before. Maybe she’d be more interested in staying here. He wanted her to stay.

Logically, it didn’t make sense—the woman was aggressive, arrogant, prickly, and argumentative. But somehow he worked easily with her, he trusted her. She was strong and armored for everyone else, but he found himself wanting her to open up and be vulnerable to him. And completely outside of the physical attraction between them, he liked her.

Was it right for him to keep her here? She could be CTO of a larger company, making more money, working toward her dream of CEO. Her talents were wasted here.

But if she had that better job, things would go back to the way they’d been before. She’d be driven, no time for relationships—she always made that clear. If she stayed here, she’d have more time, she might be more open to it.

That was selfish and self-serving of him. He was ashamed for even considering it.

And for the second time in his life, he prayed.

“I know you want what’s best for her. I’m starting to want that too. You came through for me, even though I didn’t deserve it. Maybe I can come through for her.”

The problem was, there wasn’t much he could do. He didn’t have the same kind of clout as her grandmother, as his father…

Dad.

Drake never asked him for anything. He’d raised his children to work hard and build their own kingdoms in the business world. He wasn’t a magic genie to bail them out or give them a hand up.

But this he might do, as a favor to Chieko Sakai, who had connections with practically all the investors in the Bay Area, but no foothold in the game development community. Because of Drake, his father had some clout.

He still hesitated to pick up the phone. A deep-rooted “obedient son” part of him warred with the desire to help Venus. Old versus new But she had the courage to face an unknown future. He could face a potentially new chapter in his relationship with his father.

“God, Venus might not like my meddling this way What do you think?”

He didn’t get an audible answer, but he fancied God chuckling at him. That was good enough. He didn’t think God disliked the idea. He picked up the phone and dialed.

“Dad? Are you still close to a few people on Oomvid’s board of directors?”

If her lawyer pulled at his goatee one more time, she was going to reach over and yank it out for him. Clark fiddled with his facial hair every time he was thinking. Since he was brilliant, he thought a great deal.

Venus did not need the distraction today of all days, when Oomvid had specifically called to set up this meeting with her.

She sat at the spacious conference table and crossed her legs, bouncing her foot up and down and loosening her plain, low-heeled pumps. She’d been oh-so-tempted to grab her highest pair of stilettos for today’s meeting—she even took out an old favorite, a pair of black and tan Valentinos—but her Bible reading time had been in Psalms again: “Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly.”

The Valentinos went back in the closet.

“Stop it.” She snapped her fingers and stabbed one at Clark, just as his hand crept up to his chin. “Do not touch your face.”

He looked at his hand as if he just realized it belonged to him, then lowered it to his lap.

Her foot jiggled faster. She had arrived exactly on time. If they kept her waiting much longer, it would border on rudeness.

The door opened. Dean Logan Herne and Tip Connealy both on the board of directors, walked in. Venus’s shoulders eased back. She hadn’t wanted to ask about Yardley when they’d called to arrange the meeting, but the presence of Dean and Tip meant lower executives like Yardley weren’t invited.

They shook hands. Their eyes were firm and serious but not flinty or granite. Venus took it as a good sign. As they sat, Dean was the first to speak. “We’ll cut right to the chase.”

Clark sat with ruffled feathers, denied the pleasure of dragging the purpose of the meeting from them.

Tip passed folders to Venus and Clark. “We received the information you sent us about Esme Preston and our Chief Technology Officer, Yardley Yates. Your, er…mother, Ms. Sakai, contacted one of the board members directly, as well.”

Venus wanted to sink through the floor.

“The board discussed the situation with the input of select advisors. We have terminated the employment of Preston and Yates.”

Venus stifled a cough and ended up swallowing a bolus of air. Her hand rubbed her throat. They fired them? She hadn’t expected anything like that, not when Brett’s intercepted emails were useless in a lawsuit, and Dean and Tip weren’t known for being pushovers or stupid.

Tip gestured to the folder in front of her, which she’d forgotten about. “That outlines our offer to you. We want to buy the Spiderweb. We also want to offer you the new position of CTO.”

The edges of her vision started closing in. She grabbed the edge of the table. She would
not
pass out. She refused to allow herself to pass out.

Clark, who’d been reading the offer and rubbing his goatee, stepped in. “About the legal transference of ownership and further development of the tool…”

Venus followed with only half an ear. They wanted to buy the Spiderweb—not steal it. They wanted her as Chief Technology Officer of Oomvid.

Her first and foremost thought was that she’d have to leave Drake.

“You need a good slap upside the head.” Lex glared at Venus, and probably would have delivered the needed blow had she not been holding baby Elyssa.

“Break it up, you two.” Trish pushed her way between Lex and Venus so she could take Elyssa. “I need to feed her.”

As Trish settled on the couch, Lex and Venus slid their eyes away at the same time. Even though they were cousins, once they passed puberty, they’d been uncomfortable disrobing in front of each other—put it down to old-fashioned Asian modesty—but since the birth of the baby, Trish had no qualms about her body.

She looked at the two of them, who were trying not to stare at her abnormally large chest as she undid her nursing bra. “Oh, for crying out loud. You guys are such prudes.”

“You were too, at one point.”

“Yeah, well, when you’ve had everyone and their sister gaping at you while you sweat and heave and push a seven-pound infant out of your nethers…”

“You’ve gotten so crass!” Venus covered her eyes.

“I’ve gotten realistic. It happens when you discover bodily functions you never knew you had.” She set Elyssa to suckle and covered her with a burping cloth. Thank goodness.

Trish’s front door opened. “Hi guys.” Jenn entered carrying a grocery bag and—more importantly—her pan-sized Longaberger wooden basket, which meant she’d baked something for dessert. Yum. She set it down. “Lex, can you get the rice cooker out of my car? And Venus, go grab the crockpot.”

“You didn’t cook it fresh? Sacrilege.” But Venus slipped on her shoes to head outside.

“I cooked it yesterday, let it sit a day to meld, and heated it up in the crockpot. It’s oxtail stew.”

“Ooh, goodie!” Lex hustled out the door ahead of her.

They managed not to drop dinner as they brought it inside, just in time to see Trish make a face at the salad Jenn was finishing.

Jenn ignored her. “Greens are good for you, Momma.”

“Yeah, well, Momma wants french fries.” Trish grinned.

While Jenn dished up for them, Lex poked Venus in the ribs with a bony elbow. “Tell Jenn about it.”

“What?” Jenn looked up, licking a drop of stew from her finger.

Venus related the Spiderweb offer and the CTO position to her steaming bowl of rice covered with stew. “Can we eat yet?”

“There.” Jenn slid a bowl in front of Trish, who had come back from laying a sleeping Elyssa down in her crib. “Let’s pray.”

Jenn always said long prayers for grace. Venus suspected she did it just to annoy her cousins, who were usually raring to eat. Today, she asked for wisdom for Venus in her decision.