Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (124 page)

“Like I drank a bottle of whiskey last
night,” he said with another smile. I couldn’t help myself, I smiled back.

“Me, too,” I told him. He sat his cup down
and opened his arms. I melded into him and wished that we could stay right
there like that all day.

Adam kissed the side of my face. “I better
let you get ready for work.”

I sighed. “Yes, I suppose I should. I heard
you speaking to Alex earlier, is there anything I should know?”

Adam looked at me like he wasn’t going to
answer before he said, “No, honey. I’m just getting a little paranoid, I guess.
I was asking Alex if he thought Marjorie’s death had anything to do with my
involvement with the oil spill and the Presidential campaign. We’re getting so
much bad press and pressure from all types of radical groups. What happened to
Vick… Anyways, he assured me that what happened to Vick, and ultimately to
Marjorie, are very likely not connected.”

He put his hand on the back of my head,
and pulling me gently towards him, he placed his lips firmly on my forehead.
“Just be alert, and always careful. I couldn’t bear it if anything ever
happened to you.”

I just nodded slowly. I didn’t know what
to say to that. I hadn’t even considered the possibility that I might be in any
type of danger. I was well aware that politics, big business, and massive
amounts of money could make people do crazy things, but Adam wasn’t so involved
in any of it that someone would want to hurt people he was close to, was he? We
were simply the attorneys…right?

I gave him a soft kiss on the lips and
said, “You be careful.”

********

My meeting with Miles was actually short
and painless. He’d asked me to meet him at the bakery near my office and we
talked over croissants and coffee. He assured me that he was going to keep his
mouth shut. I think the arrest had scared him a little once he was faced with
the real possibility of jail time.

We set up another meeting before his
arraignment the following week, and I gathered my things and headed down toward
the office. I was walking across the courtyard when I saw something that
stopped me in my tracks.

Two men were standing near the edge of the
sidewalk. I was too far away to hear what we were saying, but the man facing me
looked agitated and the man with his back to me was waving his arms as he
talked. They were both well dressed, and I absolutely recognized the one facing
me as Alex. The other, although I couldn’t see his face, closely resembled
Jack. I stood watching for a minute hoping the man would turn towards me.

They seemed to have reached a boiling
point though and the man facing away from me pushed his body up against Alex in
an aggressive nature. I was sure we were about to come to blows when suddenly,
the other man stepped back and shoved past Alex, taking off down the sidewalk
at a hurried pace.

Alex stood there watching him go for a few
seconds, and then glancing in both directions quickly, he hurried across the
street away from the courtyard. His eyes skimmed across me, but the courtyard
was already filling with people in business attire and I don’t think he
realized it was me.

I was confused. I didn’t think that Alex
and Jack knew each other. What could they possibly have to argue about? I told
myself that maybe I had been mistaken about it being Jack. After all, I hadn’t
seen the other man’s face. Maybe it hadn’t been Jack at all, but whoever it was
is not a fan of Alex, that was for sure.

I continued my walk to the office, and
when I saw the reporters out front, I cringed. Fortunately, our security was
there, as well, and they forced the crowd to clear a path for me to the door.
They couldn’t stop the reporters from yelling out their intrusive and insulting
questions and comments, however.

“Ms. Winston, did Mr. Hanson kill his
wife? Are you sleeping with him? Were you sleeping with him while we were still
together? Was he getting back together with her? Did you assault her in your
office yesterday?”

I had seen plenty of media circuses in my
few years as an attorney, but had never been at the center of one myself. It
was disturbing, but I tried to practice what I always told my clients, “Hold
your head up, act like they’re not there, don’t respond, and don’t take any of
it personally.” My own advice was harder to take than I had ever known. Just as
the door was opened for me by the building doorman, Rose Dugan came up behind
me and asked,

“Ms. Winston, did you kill Marjorie Hanson?”

I looked in her direction, but thankfully
caught myself before I replied. Don’t let her get to you, I told myself and
continued into the office. I breathed a long sigh of relief as the doors swung
closed behind me.

Carla was at her desk as usual with my
messages sorted and ready for me. As she said good morning and handed them to
me, she asked, “How are you doing?”

I smiled at her. “I see you’ve heard what
happened last night?” When she nodded, I said, “I’m doing as well as you would
expect. I do appreciate you asking.”

Once I was in my office with the door
closed and hopefully the world shut out for the time being, I took out my file
on Miles V. I flipped through the pages until I got to the statements that
Miles IV and his daughter had given to police the day after Miles’ third wife
was killed. I winced as I read the words the police had taken down as they
spoke to Miles IV.

“Mr. Brigham, why was your wife out
climbing in the wilderness, along a steep cliff, alone?”

“Because she was a spoiled, selfish little
viper,” Miles had told them, as if a matter of fact.

“And by that, you mean what?” the
detective had asked him.

“Just what the hell I said. We had an
argument, about money, again. She spent my money like there was going to be no
end to it. We had planned on a climbing trip that day to de-stress. What a joke
that was. I got to listen to her bitch and whine and pout until I could hardly
stand it any longer. She gave me an out by telling me to go on and leave her
alone. I did just that. When I got back to the lodge later and found out she
hadn’t returned, though, I went right back out to look for her.”

“And discovered her, dead,” the detective
had said. “Mr. Brigham, do you believe your wife’s death was an accident?”

“If you’re asking me if I think someone
killed her, the answer is no. No one cared enough about her to even expend the
energy, I think. She just shouldn’t a been out there alone. She was stupid,
plain and simple. I was stupid to for leaving her out there and I feel bad
about that, but you have to believe me that girl was proof positive you can
take the girl outta the trailer, but you can’t take the trailer outta the
girl.”

It went on like that for three pages. I
sat it down for a few seconds and massaged the leftover headache behind my
eyes.

I just couldn’t believe that a man could
be so smart in business and finance that he had amassed a veritable fortune,
and yet he could also be completely ignorant to the fact that you couldn’t just
go around saying whatever you felt like, giving no consideration to what it may
make people think of you or what the consequences may be. I was about to pick
the file back up to continue reading when my phone rang. It was the
investigator, Brett.

“Ms. Winston, I found out why the feds are
interested in David Tyler.”

“Why?” I asked, anxious to hear the
answer.

“Mr. Tyler apparently has some information
with regards to a fortune in missing campaign contributions. Mr. Brigham’s
money was apparently not the only funds Mr. Landon had misappropriated, and
Tyler has agreed to testify before the Grand Jury regarding all of that, as
well as naming others that were allegedly involved.”

“Wow,” I said with a sigh. “This thing is
a lot bigger than I thought.”

“Do you want me to keep digging?” Brett
asked. “Maybe see if I can come up with some names of people he’s fingering,
stuff like that?”

“Yes, Brett, thanks,” I told him. I hung
up and tried to sort out my thoughts. I was starting to get more than a feeling
that somehow everything that was happening led back to the oil spill. That was
where this mess had all started. Miles was being sued by some very angry
people. Vick was stealing from some very powerful people. Lots of them had
motive to want Vick dead, and many of them also had motive to want Miles to be
blamed for that murder.

I hated to think it, but even Alex had a
stake in all of this. Once Vick was killed, Alex was able to step right into
his position as campaign manager for the President of the United States. That
was a position that some people would kill for.

I shook off that thought. I was being
silly and as Adam had said this morning, a little paranoid. Alex was Adam’s
good friend. He wasn’t a murderer.

I thought about Marjorie then. How did she
tie in to all of this, or did she at all? Was her murder, coming so close on
the heels of Vick’s, just a coincidence? None of it was making much sense to my
tired brain.

I looked at the clock and realized it was
mid-afternoon. I hadn’t eaten a thing all day. I grabbed my purse, and decided
to take a walk to the sandwich kiosk down the street. As I stepped outside of
the office, I took a deep breath of the fresh, cold air. The reporters had
disbursed some, and the few that were left yelled out some questions at me that
I let fall on deaf ears. I took my time walking. The city was decorated
beautifully for the Christmas season. I strolled along and tried to lose my
stress in the beauty all around me.

When I got to the kiosk, I ordered a
turkey sandwich and a coffee. I took them to a bench in the little park across
the street and sat down. Just as I was about to take a bite, I heard Jack’s
voice, again, “Hi.”

I looked up at him. I didn’t want to be
angry or suspicious right then so I just said, “Hi.”

“May I join you?” he asked, holding out a
sandwich and coffee he had in his hands.

“Sure,” I told him. “I’m not the best
company today, though.”

“It’s alright,” Jack told me sounding
sincere. “I understand you’ve been through a lot. How is Adam holding up?”

I studied his face, trying to ascertain if
he was still being sincere. I didn’t see anything threatening there, however,
so I said, “He’s doing as well as can be expected, I guess. It’s been a rough
couple of days.”

“I can’t imagine,” Jack said between bites
of his sandwich. “The news reports are calling him a ‘person of interest’ in
Marjorie’s death. Did you see the press conference today?”

“No…what press conference?” I’d suddenly
lost my appetite.

Between bites of his sandwich, Jack said,
“The Chief of Detectives was asked by one of the reporters if Adam was a
suspect. He said no, however, Adam was a person of interest.”

I knew well from my job that being a
person of interest in a murder case was not good. What it technically meant was
that the police had no evidence that Adam was involved, however, they had
strong suspicions about him. What it said to the public unfortunately was that
Adam was guilty, and the police just didn’t have enough evidence to convict
him. It was a term that could very well ruin a person’s life.

I had defended a man not long ago in a
civil suit who had been declared a person of interest in the death of his wife.
That man had lost his job; his friends and family no longer wanted to have
anything to do with him. His credit was ruined, and the worst part as far as I
was concerned, was that I had firmly believed he was innocent.
          

“I’m sorry, Jack,” I said as I got up from
the bench. “I need to get back to the office.”

Jack stood, as well. “I am really sorry I
upset you,” he said. “It wasn’t my intention.”

“I know,” I told him. “I just need to get
back to work. I’ll speak to you later.”

He said okay and I began to walk away. I
got a few steps down the sidewalk and turned back around. “Jack, do you know a
man named Alex Fritz?”

“Hmm, the name sounds familiar, but I
can’t place it. Who is he?” I wasn’t sure, but I thought there was a slight
change in Jack’s demeanor. He looked worried or anxious, maybe.

“Just a friend of Adam’s,” I told him. “I
thought maybe I saw you with him earlier today. I must have been mistaken.”
With that, I turned back around and continued my walk back to the office.

I waited until I was almost a block away
before glancing back again. The man I had seen arguing with Alex this morning
had been wearing a black suit and overcoat. When I looked back, Jack was
walking away in the other direction. The overcoat was thrown over his arm, and
his black suit really stood out against the light cover of snow on the ground.
I was sure it was him.

I continued on my walk back to work,
stopping at a small newsstand about a block from the office. The little Chinese
man who waited on me could barely speak English, yet he knew enough to point at
the front page and say, “The lady looks like you.”

I gave him a tight smile paid for my
paper, tucking it under my arm as I went on my way. When I was back in the
safety of my office, I opened it. There was Adam and I on the front page. It
was mostly me since I had turned to look at Rose Dugan. Adam was holding my
hand, but he was still facing the other way and trying to pull me along behind
him.