An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [56]
An electric moment passed before Alek spoke. “You won’t be working late tonight, will you?”
“No. Will you?”
He shook his head. “I plan to be home at five-fifteen.”
“That early?” She usually didn’t leave the office until after six.
“I’ll be lucky to last that long,” he whispered.
There was no missing his meaning. Julia’s body went into overdrive. She’d never thought of herself as a highly sexual person, but in that instant she knew she had to do something to appease the overwhelming urge she had to make love with her husband.
“Alek…would you mind kissing me?”
He blinked, then bent his head, meaning only to brush her lips, she suspected, but that wouldn’t be enough to satisfy her. Not anymore. She touched his lips with her tongue, teasing and taunting him.
A deep moan came from low within his throat, which aroused her as nothing ever had before. The kiss deepened and deepened until they were completely lost in each other.
She wrenched her mouth from his, gasping. “Five-fifteen,” she said when she could manage to speak.
“I’ll be there.”
Jerry was waiting in her office when Julia returned from lunch. Without greeting her, he announced, “Roger’s made contact with someone from the lab.”
Julia was stunned into speechlessness. “How do you know?” she asked when she could. There was a cold, sinking feeling in her stomach.
“Rich Peck.”
“Who’s Rich Peck?”
Jerry spun around and glared at her. “The private eye I hired. Rich traced the phone numbers that came into Roger’s home for the past several days.”
“How did he do that?”
“Julia,” Jerry said, clearly exasperated with her, “that isn’t important right now. What is important is that someone from Conrad Industries contacted Roger. They used the phone from the lab.”
“But…who?”
“That’s the point. It could’ve been any number of people. The phone’s used by nearly everyone on staff. What I’m saying is that we’ve got a traitor on our hands.”
Julia found that hard to believe. Almost everyone who was employed at the lab had been with them three years earlier. Their dislike of Roger was well-known. After the fire it had taken months to rebuild, and Julia had tried to keep as many employees on the payroll as possible during that time, in order not to lose her trained and loyal help. There were at least twenty who’d been with Conrad Industries fifteen years or longer. The strain on the budget crippled the company financially. And nearly every employee had hung on, counting on the promise of reimbursement once Julia could get the company back on its feet.
Julia appreciated their sacrifice. And their trust. Her father had recently died, and to say she was inexperienced would’ve been an understatement. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was one of the bleakest times in Julia’s life and in the company’s history.
Ruth’s faith in her to pull the company out of financial disaster had helped Julia survive that grim period.
The idea that someone working in the lab was selling her out now—it seemed impossible. She refused to believe it. Refused to accept it.
“What do you think we should do?” Jerry asked.
Julia walked over to the window and stared down at the street ten floors below. Cars and people looked miniature and seemed to be moving in slow motion. It was as if she was staring at another world that had no connection to her own.
“Nothing,” she said after a moment. “We do nothing.”
“But…”
“What can we do?” she demanded impatiently. “All we have is the knowledge that someone contacted Roger. Should we haul every employee in for questioning by Peck, hoping his expertise at grilling fifty-year-old men and women will flush out whoever wants to betray us?”
“We could have Alek scout around and—”
“No,” she said quickly, interrupting him. “Alek is as much a suspect as anyone else.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Alek’s poured his whole life into this project. You don’t think he’d betray us.”
“No, I don’t,” she agreed readily enough. “But that doesn’t change the facts. Roger had every reason to hope Conrad Industries would prosper, too,