LITMIR.BIZ

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words didn’t convince Jordan. It was as if she had just rolled down steel shutters on herself.

      ‘You could have fooled me,’ he said steadily. ‘Since our evening together there’s an occasional chill coming off you that feels as if it could be rolling in from Antarctica.’

      ‘Is there?’ She frowned. ‘Well, I’m sorry if that’s the case. I really don’t want to jeopardise our working relationship.’

      She noticed how his lips twisted drily at those words. ‘No, neither do I.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘We need to stick together, Charlie, because we have a lot of…stuff to get through over the next few weeks.’

      ‘You mean with Dad being away and it being so busy in the office?’

      ‘Sort of…’ Jordan hesitated. ‘I think you should know that I offered to buy your father’s share of the business from him a while ago.’

      Instantly Charlotte felt apprehensive. Her father was her only safety barrier between herself and Jordan. And after their night together she needed that protection more than ever.

      He watched her reaction carefully as he spoke and saw the concern in her eyes. ‘He turned down my offer.’

      ‘Oh…’ There was relief in her look now. ‘Well, you can’t blame him, Jordan. The business has been in our family for two generations.’

      ‘And family is very important to the McCanns.’

      ‘Yes.’ She shrugged. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?’

      ‘No, and I can understand your sentiments. Obviously you want to take over a share of the running of the company one day, and so you should. You’ve worked very hard to make the interior-design division a success.’

      ‘Why do I sense that the word “but” is going to creep into this?’ Charlotte reached for her glass of wine.

      ‘I don’t think your father can afford to turn down my offer,’ Jordan said bluntly.

      ‘Why ever not?’ She laughed at the absurdity of that remark. ‘He’s a wealthy man. He can afford to do whatever he likes.’

      Jordan looked thoughtful. ‘But it isn’t only down to money. He has become forgetful and his business judgement isn’t as sharp as it has been in the past. I know he lost a lot of money on shares last year and…’ He hesitated and lowered his voice. ‘I really haven’t wanted to tell you this, Charlotte, but I feel I must. The auditors did a spot check and there is a substantial amount of money missing from the company accounts.’

      It took a moment for what he was saying to sink in. ‘Are you saying my father is stealing from the company?’ Her words trembled alarmingly.

      ‘I didn’t say that.’

      ‘You might as well have!’ She cut across him. ‘My father is an honourable man—how can you suggest such a thing?’ She glared at him.

      ‘I’m just being honest with you, so there’s no point being angry.’ Jordan’s voice was calm. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I think your father is innocent and that Ruth is the culprit. I have a feeling she has taken the money without your father’s knowledge.’

      ‘This is preposterous.’ Charlotte shook her head. ‘Why would Ruth take money from the company?’

      ‘I don’t know. But I got a phone call from her last week and she was very agitated. At first I couldn’t make out what she was talking about. She was babbling on about the accounts and money but before she could explain she got cut off.’

      Charlotte stared at him in distress. And a prickle of unease crept in to disturb her certainty. Her father had only been married to Ruth for two years and Charlotte had worried about the match at first, but her only concern had been their age difference. Her father was nearly sixty; Ruth was forty-six. However, they seemed so ideally happy together that Charlotte had stopped thinking about age as an issue at all. And she had grown extremely fond of Ruth. ‘I can’t imagine for one moment that Ruth would dip into company funds.’

      ‘Well, I’ve given the matter serious thought since the phone call,’ Jordan said. ‘And Ruth used to work in the accounts department, didn’t she?’

      Charlotte nodded.

      ‘So she knows her way around the systems very well.’

      ‘I still can’t believe she would do such a thing,’ Charlotte said firmly. ‘Apart from anything else, Dad is a wealthy man. She wouldn’t need to do it.’

      ‘Well, the money is definitely missing. And, reading between the lines, that’s how it looks to me—’

      ‘There must be something more to this, something we don’t know.’ Charlotte’s voice was emphatic.

      ‘Don’t you think it speaks volumes that they haven’t come back from France?’ he asked quietly. ‘And since discovering the money has gone, I haven’t been able to make contact with them.’

      Charlotte had to admit that was a bit odd. Her father was such a workaholic; he loved the office. But she had thought that Ruth was making him take an extra-long break. In fact she had even secretly applauded Ruth for the action, because her father had looked so tired before he left. But now…

      ‘How much money are we talking about?’ she asked curiously.

      ‘It’s not the amount of money that’s the problem, it’s the implication. These are serious charges; if they were to be made public the scandal could ruin the good reputation of the business. I’m sorry, Charlie…really I am.’ He reached to touch her but she flinched away.

      Then, unable to bear his close proximity a moment longer, she got up from her chair to stand with her back to him, staring out of the windows.

      ‘Look, the situation can be salvaged, but it will have to be done fast. If your father can’t afford to pay the money back, then we can come to an agreement. I can afford to pay the debt and in return your father can transfer the equivalent shares in the business over to me, giving me overall control of the company.’

      The calm, businesslike words made a wave of anger rise in Charlotte. He had it all sorted out in his mind by the sound of it. ‘How convenient for you,’ she murmured. ‘You’ve wanted control of the business from the moment you walked in, haven’t you?’

      ‘That’s not fair, Charlie.’

      ‘But it’s true.’ She stared sightlessly at the tulips that danced in the breeze at the end of the garden. ‘You’re ambitious…and you like power.’

      When he didn’t answer she turned around to look at him. He got up from his chair and came towards her. ‘There is nothing wrong with being ambitious,’ he said softly. ‘You are too, otherwise you wouldn’t be so good at your job.’

      When she didn’t reply he stepped closer. ‘You are not so different from me, Charlotte McCann.’

      ‘I think we are very different,’ she replied steadily. ‘I’m worried about my father. Whilst you are worrying about getting control of the business.’

      ‘I’m worried about the future of the business and that’s a different thing. I told you this affects us all and it could be serious.’ He looked very cold now and very hard. ‘And I’ll have to be honest with you, Charlotte. Your father hasn’t been his usual self these last six months. And I can’t have a business partner that I can’t rely on.’

      She flinched at that. Jordan Lynch was a businessman first and foremost, she thought. The business side of her could see exactly where he was coming from. But the emotional side, the side that remembered that he had been her father’s friend, was having severe difficulty in accepting those words.

      ‘But you will allow time to sort this out, Jordan—if Ruth has taken the money you will give them time to pay it back?’

      Jordan

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