Beauty and the Badge by Julie Miller

Author:Julie Miller [Miller, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Published: 2009-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“I thought you said you’d handled it!” He stormed into the meeting room, tossing his coat and gloves on the back of a chair and heading straight for the liquor cabinet.

The big man rose from his chair, looking uncharacteristically startled by the accusation. “I did. I got the disk back from that woman. And I shredded the document, just like you ordered.”

He poured himself two fingers of bourbon, swallowed it down and poured himself another before he turned to glare at the old man sitting at the opposite end of the table. “Apparently, another copy of your conscience is still out there somewhere. Did anyone else get a special delivery this evening?”

“Yes.” The big man pulled a matching envelope from his pocket.

The woman tossed hers onto the table. “No handwriting, no return address, no idea who’s behind this.”

Surprisingly enough, the old man pulled out a letter, as well. “We all got them. I don’t understand. It isn’t supposed to happen this way.”

The woman’s sarcasm was cutting. “Did you have some other plan in mind for bilking us out of millions of dollars?”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t send these. Profiting from our mistakes was never part of my plan.”

“Yet someone is profiting from our work.” The man in charge polished off his second glass before facing the group again. The fire in his belly matched the sense of betrayal that burned through him. He unbuttoned his collar and loosened his tie before taking his place at the head of the table.

He waited for the others to sit, eyeing each of them around the table, trying to assess which one of them was lying to him. The old man was the obvious choice, but he looked drawn and devastated and frankly incapable of playing such a tough game. The big man? He’d have the guts to do it, but even if his allegiance had shifted, he’d be surprised if his enforcer had the forethought to pull it off. The woman? Now she’d have the brains to conceive of such a plan—turning an information leak that could ruin them all into an opportunity to make herself a tidy fortune. Although he’d been certain he’d bought her loyalty in the bedroom. Besides, she had plenty of other weapons in her arsenal to get what she wanted which were more effective and less crass than a blackmail letter.

Time to get the facts and put a stop to all this posturing nonsense. “Is there anyone outside this room who knows about the clinical trial results and the cover-up solution I authorized?”

The old man nodded. “Dr. Allen in the lab suspects something. Although when I met with him, he didn’t show me any proof—he merely raised concerns about moving Gehirn 330 into production so quickly.” He paused until he had everyone’s attention. “I have a solution. If we go public with this—”

“Absolutely not!” the woman snapped.

“If we go public,” he repeated more slowly, “then that takes the leverage away from our blackmailer. Yes, there’d be legal consequences for us to face, fines to pay—”

The big man shot to his feet.

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