Bile rose in Callie’s throat, forcing her upright and into her bathroom. She clung to the cold surface of her bathroom vanity as thoughts tumbled through her head, one after the other.
Now she understood Josh’s relentless pursuit of Palmer Enterprises and his apparent aim of bringing the company down around Bruce’s ears. Fear made her stomach lurch and Callie fought to keep it under control.
What did Josh plan to do, she wondered? At what stage would he play out the final stages of a drama she had no doubt he’d planned for years. He’d said he would force his father to publicly acknowledge him. He obviously planned to use the letters to do so.
Realisation dawned. She knew exactly when Josh planned to go public. At the time it would do the most damage to Bruce’s credibility. The consul announcement would be made on Christmas Eve and she knew there’d be much feting and fanfare surrounding it. The truth about Bruce’s behaviour—about the woman he’d used and discarded and the son he’d ignored—would be blown into the stratosphere of tabloid gossip.
The Palmers stood to lose everything they held dear.
Callie ran cold water in the basin and splashed it against her face. What should she do now? Did she go to Irene and tell her the truth? Shatter the very foundation of what she’d built her life around? Tears filled Callie’s eyes and began to tumble in a steady stream down her cheeks as she realised she could never be the one to destroy Irene’s world. Not when Irene had been the one to create one for Callie.
So where did that leave her? Did she warn Bruce that his bastard son was hell-bent on revenge? Or could she forestall Josh, confront him about his father? Beg him to withdraw from the retribution that was honestly his? By her reckoning she had four weeks before the announcement was due to be made. That was four weeks in which she had to turn things around. Right now she had no idea what to do.
“What do you mean Palmers beat us to the punch on this one? We had this deal all but signed.”
Josh glared at the assembled management team in the boardroom and scoured their faces for any hint of what had gone wrong.
“Josh, we don’t understand it ourselves. Somehow they must have gotten an inside track on our proposal,” one of the executives offered.
An inside track? Josh pondered the ramifications of that suggestion for a split second before speaking again.
“Is there any way we can block them? Go lower? Offer more?”
“It’s a done deal. The trade ministry has signed off on it already.”
Josh swore, long and low, before dismissing his team.
“This had better not happen again,” he growled to his legal advisor as the man held back after everyone else had filed out of the room.
“Josh, there’s no way the leak came from any of them. They hadn’t even been made privy to your final proposal before Palmers swooped in under us.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“That maybe you’ve been employing the same underhanded tactics yourself for so long that now you can’t even trust your own men. Think about it, Josh. Who else could have disseminated that information? Who else might have something to gain by it? Either your computer system was breached externally by some hacker, or perhaps you need to look a little closer to your own office before you start accusing these guys of foul play.”
His own office? There were only two people who had access to his computer. Himself and once, very briefly, Callie—and he knew for damn certain he hadn’t shared his proposal with Palmers.
Had she double-crossed him? An ember of fury flared to life deep in his gut. The evidence certainly pointed to it. Had she hoodwinked him all along? A wave of disgust nearly swamped him. He’d allowed his libido to rule his head. He’d let her get close. He’d seen her, wanted her, had her and he’d shared truths with her he’d never shared with any other person.
Above all, he’d trusted her. The words she’d uttered weeks ago now came back to haunt him, “Seems you ought to be more concerned about the loyalty of people you can buy.”
People like her, maybe?
If it was true that she’d betrayed him, she would pay for her deceit, along with that of her old boss. He’d make sure they were both hung out to dry. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out where her loyalties lay.
Palmers would be high on the success of this latest contract, they’d be eager to do the same again—to pip him at the post—and this time he would let them. An idea began to formulate in his mind. He’d have to be careful, but he knew he could do it, and prove Callie’s innocence or guilt at the same time.
And when he carried this one off, he’d have destroyed his competition for good.