The company was Quantum Ventures.
The CEO was Isaac Miller.
Rachel maneuvered through foot traffic to the curb and hailed a cab. “Does Jim know where I was?” she asked as a cab pulled up. She slipped inside and slammed the door at the same time she gave the driver her destination.
“I don’t think so. You didn’t tell anyone but me where you went, did you?” Casey paused; Rachel waited. “And you didn’t tell anyone else who you were with?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t knowhowhe’d know. But, Rachel, even though Tom drafted the order, Jim assumed you would call back or at least come in this weekend, so he listed you as the attorney of record on Friday’s filing. If Quantum Ventures’ legal department knows, or ifhetold them...”
“They would have filed a countermotion to have me removed from the case.”
There were four things that Rachel was certain of just then.
First: her boss knew where she’d been.
Second: he knew whom she’d been with.
Third: what had been the best weekend of her life was almost certainly going to cost her the career she’d fought so hard for.
Fourth: Isaac Miller, the man she’d begun to fall for, believed she had betrayed him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“WHATTHEHELLwere youthinking, Jonathan?” Isaac rarely raised his voice, but the breach in his emotional dam—thatRachelhad created—had grown. Continued to grow, in fact, and he found himself unable to rein in his temper. “What you did? It’s beyond irresponsible. It easily qualifies as flatstupid!”
Jonathan sat slouched in the same chair he always chose when he came to Isaac’s office, a hangdog look on his face. “I’m telling you, Isaac. I asked her if she was clear to work for us and she said yes. What else was I supposed to do?”
“What...else...” For a second, Isaac thought he might rupture a vessel, perhaps develop an aneurysm and collapse where he stood. When that didn’t happen, he began to pace. Back and forth in front of his floor-to-ceiling windows, repeatedly shoving his hands through his hair. Grabbing fistfuls at the crown. Pulling until he thought he might yank himself bald. Spinning to face his brother, he forced his hands to his sides. “What else should you havedone? Tell me you aren’t serious.”
“We did the in-depth preemployment background check we do on all employees. Shit like noncompetes don’t show up on those reports, Isaac. The most I can do is ask. If someone lies, I have no way of knowing.”
Scrubbing his hands over his face, Isaac tried to slow his breathing. “Your human resources department should have called her former employer and asked for references. That person should have asked if there were any legally binding agreements in force that would prevent her from working for the competition.”
“Part of her condition of employment was that we didn’t contact her current employer for a reference. She said she didn’t want them to know she was looking for another job. Happens all the time, so HR didn’t think anything of it.”
He closed his eyes and counted. First to ten and, when that didn’t work, to twenty. Then he looked at his brother and forced himself to remember that the kid was, in fact, brilliant. And more often than not, brilliant minds did not come equipped with add-on faculties like common sense. Case in point.
Sighing, he dropped into his chair. “We’re in a hell of a mess, Jonathan. Our investors are furious and they, and their lawyers, have been bombarding us with questions we can’t yet answer. Our legal department is scrambling to figure out how to salvage something, anything, in relation to this project so that we don’t lose millions.Millions.And our best efforts may be irrelevant as the entire project appears to be going tits-up thanks to social media. Quantum Ventures’ reputation for ethical business practices is, as we speak, dissolving like sugar cubes left on the sidewalk during a monsoon.”
Jonathan sat forward and rested his forearms on his knees, hands dangling, chin tucked to his chest. “I’m sorry, Isaac. I’m good at ideas. I’m great at execution. It’s the other stuff that trips me up.”
“Yeah, it does.” No point softening the truth.
Or so he thought until Jonathan looked up, eyes wide, face pale as fresh milk. “I’ll pull the project.”
“It’s not that simple, Jonathan. We have to answer the legal complaint, prove we’ve stopped work as orderedby the judge and figure out how we recoup the money we’ve invested so that those financial backers I mentioned don’t jump ship and take their money elsewhere.”
“How do I make this right?”
He thought about what to say, thought about telling Jonathan that they were so far up shit creek that a paddle was pointless and even an eight-cylinder outboard motor would likely do them no good. But the kid was a mess, and all Isaac had done was add to his stress.
It wasn’t his fault that, on the inside, Isaac was a bigger mess than the developing corporate calamity. He hadn’t been able to sleep last night, his mind awash in weekend memories, his body craving one woman’s touch, his heart feeling odd in her absence. Texting her at 3:42 a.m. had been foolish. But as he sat in the dark, empty highball glass dangling from his fingers, mind softenedby alcohol, he had realized he was falling in love with Rachel. More the fool was he. He just thanked God he hadn’t said as much in his text.
Then there was the other truth of the matter, particularly as it related to Jonathan. Isaac couldn’t deny that he, himself, was more to blame for this debacle than Jonathan. As Quantum Ventures’ CEO, he should have been more careful in the application stage. He should have thoroughly vetted the senior members of Caffeinated Brainiacs’ development team. He should have had his legal team confirm there weren’t any noncompetes in play, particularly with those senior team members. And he should have ensured that everyiwas dotted and everytcrossed instead of assuming someone from Caffeinated Brainiacs would handle the finer details. Bottom line? Isaac had handled Jonathan more like an indulgent older brother than the renowned capital-venture expert he was.
But what was done, was done.