Читать книгу When Morning Comes - Harmony Evans - Страница 12

Chapter 4

When they got back to Paxton, Autumn stopped at the restroom to freshen up. Just as she suspected, the tears she’d nearly unloaded on Isaac had taken a toll on her mascara. Of course, they weren’t real. She’d only pretended that she was going to cry.

Deep down she hated to use such a manipulative trick, but it was the only way she knew how to get a sense of his character.

She wet a paper towel and dabbed at her eyelashes. When she was finished, she smiled at her reflection in the mirror. Thank goodness, Isaac had passed her test.

He cared.

She was impressed with how well he treated the street vendor and their waiter at the restaurant. He didn’t have to give either man any extra change or tips, but he did.

And he didn’t have to care whether her hands were cold, either. Her heart swelled remembering how he’d bought her the hand warmers. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had done something so sweet for her, just to save her from discomfort.

And she was relieved because maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t like all the other greedy, stingy, emotionally dead men she’d met—and busted—while working undercover.

In her experience, the maxim “the bigger the bank account, the larger the ego” was a reality. There was something about making a ton of money that made some men turn into arrogant egomaniacs who thought they were above the law.

It was true that Isaac didn’t seem to be too concerned about how Wall Street sometimes negatively affected Main Streets all around the world. He was likely worried about his job, and rightly so; otherwise, Sterling wouldn’t have hired her to investigate him.

If he didn’t have the activist mentality that she did, perhaps it was because he truly believed he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Autumn hoped that’s what she would discover, too. All she had to do was remember to avoid letting her emotions get in the way of her case.

When she got back to her office, Isaac’s door was open, but he wasn’t there. Presumably, he was already well into his afternoon meetings.

She hung up her coat, walked to the desk and noticed a light blinking on her phone.

Oh joy, she thought, her first voice mail.

Twenty minutes later, she’d figured out how to retrieve the message. It was Sterling calling for an update. The man certainly didn’t waste any time, she mused while locking her purse in her desk. Although she wasn’t particularly afraid it would get stolen, she wasn’t stupid.

Petty crimes in the workplace were a common occurrence—a box of binder clips here, a laptop there. She wasn’t about to give anyone the rope of temptation. Plus, the location of her office was a little remote, which was likely the reason it was originally used for storage.

Autumn grabbed a pen and an index pad and headed down to Sterling’s office. His secretary, Doris, a plump woman who somehow managed to look attractive even with a tiny gap in her front teeth, informed Autumn that Sterling was on a call and she would have to wait.

Ten minutes later, the woman ushered her into his office and Autumn almost burst out laughing when she tiptoed out. But when she saw Sterling’s face, she knew why. The man looked like he could melt copper off a penny with his eyes alone.

She took a few, tentative steps toward his desk. “I got your voice mail. You wanted to see me?”

Sterling motioned her closer, waving his hands impatiently.

“Yes, yes. Come in.”

Autumn parked herself in one of the maroon-tufted leather chairs fronting Sterling’s enormous desk.

She gave him her sweetest smile. “Is there anything wrong?”

“The world’s gone to hell, that’s all,” he barked, and sat down hard. “I’m hoping you have some good news for me. What have you learned so far?”

That Isaac was as kind as he was cute, she thought, but she knew that wasn’t the information Sterling was seeking.

“Not much yet,” she admitted. “We went to lunch and he informed me of our assignment.”

“And what do you think?”

“It’s brilliant.”

“I know,” Sterling replied. “I thought of it, didn’t I?”

Autumn wanted to gag at the air of superiority in his tone, but at least his eyes didn’t have daggers in them anymore.

“You certainly did, and it’s the perfect way for me to observe how Isaac prepares for a new client presentation from start to finish.”

Sterling steepled his fingers. “I called you in here because I want you to know that this is a real assignment with a real client, not a decoy.”

Autumn nodded. “I’m glad you told me. I was kind of wondering about that when Isaac indicated the client seems to be afraid of computers.”

“Eleanor Witterman is not afraid of computers,” Sterling corrected. “She simply doesn’t trust them. Quite frankly, on days like today, I think she might be right.”

Autumn raised an eyebrow, not knowing what he meant but gathering it had something to do with the world going to hell.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Paxton. I’ll do my best to make every investment we advise as transparent as possible.”

“Good,” he replied with a satisfied nod. “How do you like your office?”

“It’s great. Nice touch on the old office furniture. Very film noir. I feel like Jimmy Cagney’s going to show up at any second and offer me a cigar.”

He snorted a laugh. The sound was like a street full of taxis honking in unison. “Yeah. I picked it out myself. Straight from the storage closet in the basement. My father started this business back in the early 1950s and he was something of a pack rat.”

“Are the boxes in my office the files you want me to review?”

Sterling nodded, absently jingling the coins in his pocket. “There are about eight years of records contained in those files. The rest are electronic.”

“And these are all the deals Isaac has been involved with since he’s been employed here?”

“Yes. He interned here while he was an undergrad, and then I hired him full-time after he graduated from Harvard.”

“What made you think he’d be a good fit for Paxton?”

“He’s smart. Smarter than a lot of people around here initially gave him credit for.”

She gave him a pointed stare. “Why? Because he’s black?”

Yeah. I went there, Autumn thought as Sterling sat up in his chair, his pale face aghast.

“We don’t condone, nor will we tolerate, any form of discrimination here at Paxton.”

She thinned her lips and didn’t back down. In order to conduct her investigation, she needed to have all the facts. Even the ugly ones.

“However since you asked,” Sterling relented with a shrug. “That could have been the reason initially, but it’s certainly not the case now.”

His broad smile should have been reassuring, but instead it made Autumn wonder if he was telling her the truth.