Gone - Part One Read online

  I nuzzle my cheek into his chest, soaking in the natural fragrance of him combined with the delicious cologne he uses. "Will you call me when you're back?"

  "The minute I'm back in New York, I'll call."

  Chapter 17

  "Clive is going to appreciate every one of these suggestions, Lilly." Jordan gestures towards a row of chilled water bottles sitting on a counter near her desk. "Do you want more water?"

  I shake my head with a small giggle. "I've had three. I think I've had my limit for the day."

  She laughs heartily as she places the almost empty bottle that it's in her hand down before picking up another. "I can do with one more. After that, cut me off."

  I smile back at her, glad that we've hit it off as well as we have. After I arrived and we dove into the framework of the security system currently in place at Corteck, she'd taken a call from her four-year-old son. She put him on speaker phone so he could say hello to me and my heart had flipped at the sound of such a precious, young voice. It brought to the surface a rush of emotions I wouldn't be able to explain away so I'd excused myself to use the restroom while she finished talking to him.

  "You should come over for dinner one night." She runs her hand over my forearm as she settles back into the chair next to me at her desk. "Do you have a boyfriend? You can bring him too."

  "I don't have a boyfriend." I try not to laugh too heartily. I don't want to give anything away. Technically, Clive isn't my boyfriend so I'm not lying. "I just got to New York. I've been too busy with work to go out."

  "My husband has a lot of single friends." She twists the plastic cap back onto the bottle of water she's still holding in her hands. "We can invite someone over for dinner when you come."

  I scratch my neck while I stare at her face. The wide grin that covers her mouth is addictive. I can't help but smile back at her. "I'm not sure I'm ready to date yet. I'm still trying to find my feet."

  "It's not a date." She turns back towards one of the two computer monitors we've been staring at for the past three hours. "You'll come for dinner. A handsome, available friend of my husband's will come for dinner and we'll eat. It's simple."

  Life is never that simple. My life stopped being simple when Clive Parker slid his fingers into my panties.

  "I do want to make new friends in the city." I cock a brow. "I don't see how it can hurt."

  "Perfect." She slides her chair closer to me. "We'll do it on Tuesday."

  "Tuesday it is."

  ***

  It's Tuesday. For most people that means they're inching closer to the weekend. For me, it means another day that has passed since Clive spoke to me. I've been telling myself that I haven't heard anything from him because the man runs a corporation that employs more than a thousand people worldwide. I've also been convincing myself that what is happening between us is simple and uncomplicated and I need to keep it that way. He said he'd call and I have to trust in that even though I called Bruce yesterday and found out Clive was in his office all day with the door shut. I sent him a few text messages asking how his nephew was doing. I finally called him last night and left a voicemail but the only response has been empty silence.

  I need to focus on my work and on picking up a bouquet of flowers to take over to Jordan's house for dinner tonight. Judging by the fact that Clive is intentionally avoiding me, meeting a new man might be the best thing for my bruised ego. I've been dumped enough times to know when it's within distance, staring at me like a neon light on the horizon.

  "Lilly?" Dan's voice shakes me from my thoughts as he rounds the corner and suddenly appears in front of my desk. "I'm here to give you a heads-up."

  "A heads-up?" I parrot back. "About what?"

  "Mr. Parker." He doesn't continue beyond that even though I'm staring at him with my mouth hanging open.

  "What about him?" I push back.

  "Lilly." I hear Clive's voice before I see his tall frame. He walks with the confidence of a man on a mission. Apparently, right now, that mission involves me. "We need to talk."

  "I'm listening." I don't look up from my computer's screen to acknowledge his presence. "What is it, Mr. Parker?"

  He rests his hand on the edge of my monitor and I'm fearful for just a moment that the weight of his body will cause it to snap in half. "I'd like you to come with me to my office."

  "Right now?" I adjust my hands slightly, pulling them into my lap.

  "Right now, Lilly." He turns quickly on his heel as he heads back down the corridor towards the bank of elevators.

  "What the hell is going on?" Dan can't hide his curiosity. It's literally seeping out from each of the words. "Do you have any idea what that's about?"

  "I don't," I lie. "I have no idea at all."

  Chapter 18

  "I expected you to be right behind me, Lilly." He reaches past me to push his office door closed with a loud thud. "I held the elevator for more than four minutes waiting for you."

  I've held my breath for the past four days waiting for him so I'd say we're even.

  "I had to save what I've been working on." That's the second lie I've told in the last ten minutes although this time there's a ribbon of truth in it. I'd been working on something all morning and the idea of walking away from my desk without backing it up was terrifying to me.

  He studies my face briefly as if he's weighing the merit of my words. "You're a conscientious worker. I'll give you that."

  It's exactly the words any woman wants to hear when she's blindly attracted to a man. How utterly unromantic of you, Mr. Parker.

  "I think I know why you've called me here," I say it calmly. We moved beyond the expected protocol of me playing the naïve, new employee when I came in a heated rush while pressed up against the window. It's the same window that I can't bring myself to look at right now.

  "Really?" He slides his suit jacket off before he removes one silver cuff link, followed by the other.

  If we're getting comfortable, I might as well join in. I pull off the black blazer I've been wearing all day over my yellow sundress. "Yes."

  I watch in silence as he pushes the sleeves of his dress shirt over his elbows, revealing his muscular forearms. "I doubt that you know why I called you into my office, Lilly."

  A fleeting image of him pulling me over his knee and giving my ass a quick spank floats through my mind. I shake my head to chase it away. "You're having second thoughts about us, aren’t you?"

  "Us?" he asks with enough sincerity in his tone that I can sense it's genuine.

  "Yes." I cross my arms over my chest. "You called me in here to talk about that."

  He cocks a brow before he walks over to a cabinet near his desk. I don’t move as I watch him pour himself a half glass of bourbon. He downs it quickly and effortlessly in one gulp. Considering it's barely past noon, I'd venture a safe guess that talking about what happened between us is more difficult for him than I imagined it would be.

  "We can chalk it up to a stupid decision." I don't want my voice to crack as much as it does when I say the words. "We don't have to talk about it again. I just don't want to lose my job."

  He pivots quickly on his heel until he's facing me directly. "Your job?"

  "I need this job." I drop my hands to my side. "I don't want to lose it."

  He steps towards me. "You should have thought about that before you did it."

  I recoil physically from the words, stumbling backwards. "I'm going to lose my job because of what we did?"

  He stops mid-step to stare at me his hand flying wildly in the air. "You think you're going to lose your job because we fucked?"

  I rest my forehead against my fingers trying to find a way to salvage the only job that's ever held any meaning for me. "I can't change what happened, Mr. Parker… Clive," I pause. "I know you think I'm the kind of woman who just jumps into bed with anyone. I don't blame you for thinking that after you saw that picture and read that letter, but…I'm not like that."

  "Stop." His hand darts into the
air between us. "Just stop."

  I clamp my left hand over my mouth for good measure. My natural inclination is to fight tooth and nail to hold onto this. It's how I've lived my life up to this point. Standing idly by while something this important is taken away from me is taking every ounce of strength I have.

  "You crossed a line." He takes a heavy, determined step towards me.

  "What line?" I say into a small breath. "I have no idea what line."

  "I know about your latest personal project, Lilly." He reaches to grab my arm. "I know that you're developing an organ donation app. You think you can use what happened to my sister to further your career."

  "What?" I bark the word out as I try to take a step back. "How do you know about that?"

  His eyes scan my face, stopping to drink in the confusion that has to be clouding my expression. "Who do you think you are? You can't just waltz into my life and use the death of someone I love to make a few dollars."

  The words bite through me so ferociously that I feel a physical ache within my chest. "You don't know what you're talking about."

  "I know exactly what I'm talking about." His hand finally drops from me. "You got the idea for the app when Parker told you about Coral, didn't you?"

  "Parker never told me about Coral." The words are sincere. Parker's sole focus during our exchanges had been finding a way into my bed.

  "I'll ask him right now." He takes a few long strides towards his desk. "I can call him this minute."

  "Go ahead." I move back until I feel the welcome oasis of the couch pressed against the back of my knees. I lower myself onto it.

  I watch as he dials a number. He waits patiently before slamming the phone back into its receiver. "He didn't answer."

  I don't respond because I have absolutely nothing to say to him. I'm stunned that he's accusing me of trying to garner some sort of financial gain by using the fact that his sister's organs were harvested after her death in a car accident. My relentless need to create the app has nothing to do with him at all. I should tell him that but my curiosity about how he knows about its existence is too overwhelming to ignore.

  "How do you know about the app?" I look directly at him. "Tell me how you know."

  Chapter 19

  He leans against the desk, his voice a harsh whisper. "Your employment contract gives me unlimited access to any computer you own."

  My gaze narrows as I feel a dull pit forming in my stomach. "I have the files for the app on my laptop. I've never brought it to the office."

  His jaw tightens. "I was visiting Rebecca on Saturday while you were here with Jordan. I accessed the files then."

  My eyes close as I take in a deep breath. It's why he wanted me to live with her. He hasn't trusted my motives since he walked into Star Bistro weeks ago. I shudder as I think about all the information I've stored on my laptop. I feel exposed in a way I've never before.

  "I saw the schematics for the app. It's brilliant. You want to give donor families the chance to connect with the recipients of the harvested organs. I found the framework and I read your testing files," he spits the words out violently at me. "You even used the control sequence of a teenage woman as the donor. I thought you were smarter than that."

  I push my head back as I let out a single, solitary breath. "You ordered me down here to go over your security files so you could violate me."

  "Violate you?" He doesn't even try to suppress the chuckle that escapes his lips. "I had a right to see those files. I knew you weren't being honest with me. I had Bruce run a background check on you yesterday. You didn't exist until you enrolled in MIT."

  The actions sting more than his words. After the intimacy we've shared and the promises he's made to me, the fact that he still doesn’t trust me rips through me with the force of a jagged knife. "I can't believe you went behind my back to rummage through my personal computer."

  His hands jump to his hips. "I can't believe you'd use someone else's pain to make a profit."

  "That's not what I'm doing." I push my hand against the arm of the couch to find the strength to pull myself up. I have absolutely no faith that my legs will support me right now. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

  "The information on your computer is cut and dry." He clenches his right hand into a fist and slams it against the edge of his desk. "I saw what you're doing with my own two eyes. You haven't been truthful with me. You wanted a position here so you can use my contacts to launch your app and you wanted my sister's name attached to it for all the sympathy it's going to bring."

  It's a concept that might have some merit if my own past wasn't more tragic than his. "That's honestly how you see me? You think I'm capable of that?"

  "I don't think you're capable of it." His hand leaps to my chin. "I know you are. I saw the proof myself."

  I push against his chest to free myself of his touch. The same hand that falls from my face is the one that stroked my cheek and brought my pleasure. So much has changed so quickly. "I quit."

  "If you think you're walking away with those files, you're going to have a fight on your hands, Lilly Randall," he hisses the words at me. "I'm going to sue you."

  "It's not Randall." I look directly into his eyes. "My name isn't Lilly Randall."

  "What?"

  "It's Lilly Vanderwelle." I yank my jacket into my hand before I brush past him to move towards the door of his office.

  "Wait." He reaches for my arm but I'm beyond his grasp. "I've heard that name before."

  "I'm not surprised." I turn as I twist the door handle in my palm.

  "In the paper." His eyes are instantly alert and locked on my face. "On the news. I remember the name was everywhere."

  "Yes, everywhere," I repeat back. It had been everywhere. Every major newspaper in the country had splashed the headline across their front page.

  His expression is impassive as he pushes for more. "What was it? Goddammit, you tell me what the fuck is going on. Why are you using a fake name to work here?"

  I cast my gaze down trying to find a way to calm my overwrought emotions. "It's actually very simple, Mr. Parker."

  "Tell me." His hand waves in the air as if to spur me on.

  I spit out the words one-by-one trying to detach myself from them. "Six years ago my father came home from a graveyard shift at the factory he worked at. He walked into the room my two younger brothers shared and shot them both at point blank range. Then he came into the room I was in with my older sister. He shot her before he turned the gun on me." I rub my hand over the scar on the back of my neck, closing my eyes as I recall the sounds and smells of that moment. "My mother was last before he pushed the gun into his throat and pulled the trigger."

  "Christ, Lilly." His voice cracks but I can't bring myself to look at his face.

  "I was the only survivor." I bite my lip to try and ward off the onslaught of tears that always rips through me when I think of my family. "My mother's heart is inside a stranger's body. My four-year-old brother's liver saved a young woman's life. My sister's cornea gave someone their sight back and everyone I've ever loved is gone."

  I don't hear anything he's saying as I pull open the door, walk through and don't look back.

  Thank You!

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  About the Author

  Deborah Bladon has never read a romance hero she didn't like. Her love for romance novels began when she was old enough to board the bus, library card in hand to check out the newest Harlequin paperbacks. She's a Canadian by heart, and by passport, but you can often spot her in New York City sipping a latte and looking for inspiration for her next story. Manhattan is definitely her second home.

  She cherishes her family and believes that each day is a gift for writing, for reading, and for loving.