Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) (32 page)

CONCERN WAS PLASTERED ALL OVER
Patricia’s face when she walked into Jade’s office.

“What is it?” Jade motioned to the chair across her desk.

“I’m not entirely sure.” Patricia seemed eager to get what she knew out. “I called a new buyer I know, Michelle at Johansson Tek, and asked her why they were charging us so much for the flat-panel displays when other vendors were charging half as much. She pulled up the record and quoted a price similar to the Japanese bid. They were only two-percent higher.”

“You’re kidding,” Jade blurted, though clearly it wasn’t a joke.

“When I asked her why we were paying almost thirty-percent more, she didn’t know what I was talking about. What’s even weirder is when I mentioned it to Timothy, he started fidgeting and said he forgot about an appointment and had to leave immediately.”

Jade leaned back in her chair. “I think I need to take a trip to Johansson Tek myself and speak with their CEO. Something doesn’t add up.”

“Should I let Timothy know?”

“No. Do you think Timothy might be dangerous?” Jade asked.

“I don’t know. He seemed really agitated. I’ve never seen him like that before.”

“Okay, listen to me. I want you to play it down. Tell Timothy you’ll let him handle it, and you just thought he should know about it. Act like it’s no big deal.”

“I already kind of made a big deal about it.” Patricia’s brow creased with deep recesses.

“Okay, well keep it cool. If he asks if you told anyone, say you thought he’d take care of it, and it was probably just some kind of mistake. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes. Should I let you know if I find out anything else?”

“Immediately, but don’t tell Timothy about it. And let me know right away if he starts acting funny or doing anything unusual. Don’t hesitate to call the police. Here’s Detective Hawkins’s number.” Jade scribbled it down on a sticky note and handed it to her.

Patricia nodded.

Jade rose and put a hand on Patricia’s shoulder. “Thank you for bringing this to me right away. Keep up the great work.”

The worry lines on Patricia’s face instantly faded, replaced with a smile. “If there is anything I can help with…”

“You’ll be the first person I ask.” She walked Patricia to her door. When she opened it, she found Linda waiting outside. “Linda?”

“I have something I need to discuss with you.” Linda’s tone was firm.

“Sure, come in.” Jade gestured her toward the seating area.

Linda didn’t sit. She crossed her arms and had a sternness in her eyes. “Are you having a relationship with Bryce Radisson?”

Jade froze, her lungs locking up. She forced herself to reply as calmly as possible. “What? No.”

“I see.”

You see what?

“An employee raised this to my attention recently and I’ve been making inquiries.”

She wanted to ask who, but that would give her away.

“Our policy strictly states that a manager cannot have a relationship with a subordinate employee. And anyone who is found guilty of sexual harassment will be terminated. Hypothetically, if you and Bryce did engage in a relationship that went bad, you run the risk of him suing for sexual harassment, and he runs the risk of being fired by you.”

“I—”

“I’ll be frank, Jade. If you two are in a relationship, it sends a message that company policy doesn’t matter. And if we had another situation, they could point to you two, and we’d lose a lawsuit in a heartbeat. You would be putting this company at further risk.”

Jade swallowed hard. “Uh, thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

“If you have any questions on the matter, please stop by and see me anytime. I’ll reiterate the same thing to Bryce.” Linda sent her a polite smile and let herself out.

How did Linda find out?
They were keeping it a secret; no one knew.
Who am I kidding? It’s written all over our faces.
There was no hiding the way her eyes lit up or her lips curved into a wide smile whenever he walked into the room. Bryce was just as guilty with the way he looked at her. And if the employees could see it plain as day, then there were no options left.

She and Bryce couldn’t be in a relationship unless one of them left the company. And since it was her company, that meant Bryce would have to leave.

Her chest constricted.
Would he do that for me?
She didn’t know how strong his feelings were. And if they weren’t strong enough, could she bear to work side by side with him every day, knowing they could never be together? She stood. She needed to find him, to talk to him about this. She prayed he’d help her figure out a solution.

Stepping outside her door, Jade heard the tail end of Roz’s phone conversation. “Talk to you latah, Joshua.” Roz pulled a string of gum out of her mouth with two fingers and then popped it back in.

Jade stopped short.
Joshua? As in Joshua Greenberg from Johansson Tek?
“Who was that?”

“Nobody.” Roz waved her hand and kept her eyes on her phone.

Jade’s eyebrows drew together.

“Need somethin’?” Roz was now looking at her computer screen instead of her.

“Uh, no.” Jade headed to Marge’s desk to see if she could locate Bryce. Roz was hiding something from her, but she didn’t have time to deal with that now. And what the hell was up with Bryce meeting with Stan?

Was there no one she could trust?

IT WAS PROBABLY A STUPID IDEA
to traipse across the country and show up at Johansson Tek alone, especially if they were somehow involved in all this. And maybe Joshua Greenberg or others from his company were involved in her attack. At least she’d been smart enough to ask Marge to call Detective Hawkins. Surely they wouldn’t hurt her when others knew she was here.
Well, it might be stupid, but at least I’ll get to the bottom of this once and for all.

Luckily for her, the CEO of Johansson Tek had an opening in his schedule the very next morning. Marge was able to get her on the last flight to New York from SeaTac airport, just three hours after Patricia had been in Jade’s office. She was now running on three cups of coffee, after a seven-hour flight, and not being able to fall asleep until two a.m. due to the three-hour time difference.

She hadn’t had a chance to let Bryce know where she was going before she left. He was tied up in meetings, and she barely had enough time to drive to her house, throw together an overnight bag, and make it to the airport before her flight. It was her bad luck that her cell phone had gone dead and she’d forgotten her charger at home. Marge knew where Jade was; she’d let Bryce know.

Now Jade waited in the lobby of Johansson Tek at five a.m. her time, and she felt every missing hour of sleep.

“Mr. Johansson will see you, Miss Buchanan. Please follow me,” his assistant said.

Jade walked into a spacious executive office. “Mr. Johansson, thank you for meeting me on such short notice.” Jade extended her hand to Gregory Johansson and looked into his eyes. She’d met him on two occasions with her grandmother, when Gran had taken her on shopping sprees to Manhattan.

“Of course, Jade, and please call me Greg. I greatly admired your grandmother. As you know, she and I had been working together for a very long time.” He seemed genuinely happy to see her, no evil eyes, no sinister look.

“My grandmother was very fond of you as well.” Jade sat in the chair he indicated. “Unfortunately, I have a delicate matter to discuss with you.”

“Please be forthcoming. I always appreciated that about Gloria.”

Jade swallowed hard. “There seems to be a discrepancy between the amount you’re billing us and the amount we’re paying.”

“By how much?” Greg leaned forward to review the copy of the check and the purchase order Jade was handing him.

“By almost a third. As you can see, we cut a check for the amount on the purchase order. But one of your buyers told us recently that you’re invoicing us for only a third of that amount.”

Greg reached for his glasses and put them on to study what Jade had given him. “Would you give me a moment?” He dialed a number on his phone. “Ah, yes, Randy, can you look up a work order number for me and let me know how much it is? Yes, I’ll wait. The number is 69342. Can you email a copy to me? Okay, thank you.”

After he received the email, Greg leaned back in his chair. “You’re right. Our work order is for one third of the price you cut this check for. I’m afraid we overbilled you. Let’s take a look at all the invoices to see if it’s happened before.”

“I’m sure it’s a mistake.”

“Thank you, Jade. This is highly embarrassing. We value our relationship with you, and we’ll work with you to make this right.” Greg punched another number on his phone. “Frank, can you come down to my office right away. Pull the invoices for Synergy Technologies and bring them with you.” He turned his attention back to Jade. “Frank is our CFO. He’ll help us figure this out.”

Greg printed the work order while they waited. “We may be here a while. Why don’t we sit down together by the windows? Would you like something to drink?”

“I’ll have a sparkling water if you have it.” Jade took a seat in an oversized leather chair. “If I drink any more coffee, I’ll have a buzz for a week.”

Greg sat down next to her. “So, tell me, how does it feel to be CEO at such a young age?”

“Unreal.” Jade smiled. “At first, everyone assumed our new COO was running things. I had to come on pretty strong before they took me seriously.”

Greg laughed. “Well, if you’re anything like Gloria, I’m sure they take you seriously now.”

“Yes.” Jade chuckled. “I’m sure they
all
take me seriously now.”

“Ah, Frank.” Greg glanced at the doorway and motioned a tall, thin man in a dark gray suit over to where they were sitting. “Let’s review the invoices over here. This is Jade Buchanan, CEO of Synergy Technologies.”

Frank looked down at Jade over his glasses and shook her hand. “Mind telling me what this is about?” he asked Greg.

“It seems we’ve over-billed Synergy at least once.”

“I don’t think so.” Frank frowned.

“We’re not accusing your team of anything, Frank. We just want to know how the mistake was made. Let’s look at the facts and work from there.”

Greg arranged some papers in front of them. “Here’s Synergy Technologies purchase order and check in the amount of $355,750 last month for one thousand units. Here’s last month’s work order from downstairs for $249,025. What does your invoice show?”

Frank pulled the top invoice from last month and smiled. He placed it in front of both of them. “It shows we billed Synergy for $249,025 and the check behind it”—Frank flipped the page over—“is for $249,025.”

Jade leaned forward, surprised not by the amount of the check, but by the check itself. “That’s not one of our checks.” She pointed to the copy she brought with her. “This is what our checks look like.”

Frank picked up both checks and examined them closely. “The names aren’t the same.” He placed the checks upside down so Jade and Greg could read them. “The top of your check says Synergy Technologies Corporation. The check we received says Synergy Technologies, LLC.”

“Wouldn’t that be the same company?” Jade asked, confused.

“No.” Frank leaned back to explain. “Companies can have similar names, especially if they’re incorporated in different states. You could have Synergy, Synergy Technologies, Synergy Technologies Corporation, Synergy Technologies, LLC. They’re all different corporate entities unless you register them as the same. Most corporations don’t.”

Jade thought she understood. She pointed to the check from her company. “Is your company name Johansson Tek, LLC?”

Frank and Greg leaned in to look. “No, we’re Johansson Tek Corporation.”

“So this check wasn’t written to your company. And you received a check that wasn’t written from my company.”

“Yes, it appears that way.” Frank massaged his forehead. “I should have caught this. I sincerely apologize.”

Jade shook her head. “I have a feeling I’ll be apologizing in the end. Something fishy has been going on at my company, and I haven’t been able to put my finger on it.”

Frank flipped through the stack of invoices. “It appears to have been going on for at least a year. All are from the same corporate entity.”

A year?
Jade’s chest grew heavy. “Would you mind reviewing all of your invoices from my company as far back as you have a record?”

“You want to know how long this has been going on?”

“Yes. Is that okay, Greg?” She heard the pleading in her own voice the minute the words were out. There was no point in trying to hide it now.

“Absolutely.” Greg’s eyes softened. “Whatever we can do to help.”

Jade took in a deep breath of relief. She turned to Frank. “Do you have any idea how they could be doing this?”

“From what I can see, it appears the order is being placed with the bogus company and then the bogus company places the real order with us. We in turn must ship it to them or directly to you. Greg, may I borrow your computer?”

“Be my guest.”

Frank pulled up the web-based financial system and logged in. “Yeah, see here.” He waved Jade over. “When I pull up the order, the shipping address appears to be correct. However, when I go into Accounts Receivable to invoice you, it goes to a P.O. box. Is this address yours?”