LITMIR.BIZ

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ostensibly to help her get to know them before she joined.

      A black curl of disappointment started up in the pit of her stomach. He’d had multiple opportunities to tell her and he’d consciously decided not to. It felt like a betrayal, unreasonable though that was. Unconsciously, a large part of her decision to take the job had been based on the assumption that Darius would be around and that she’d be working closely with him.

      Serve her right—trusting a man she hardly knew, she thought, squaring her shoulders and doing her best to keep Venkat from noticing how upset she was.

      ‘He didn’t tell me that he was moving out altogether,’ she said crisply. ‘Though I did get the impression that he’d be cutting off from this part of the business in a month or so.’ She was determined to cover her disappointment with cool professionalism.

      ‘Even less, if he has his way,’ Venkat said, and an expression of bewildered loss crossed his face for an instant. ‘It was a shock when he told me. We’ve worked together for years—we set up this business together—and out of the blue he tells me he’s quitting. I still don’t understand why he’s doing it.’

      Strongly tempted to find out more, Mallika bit down on her questions. It shouldn’t matter to her where Darius was going or why.

      ‘When you interviewed me you didn’t mention that Darius was leaving the firm,’ she reminded Venkat. ‘Why did you assume I’d know now?’

      He had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘I couldn’t tell you before you joined,’ he said. ‘Darius is a pretty big shareholder, and the news of his leaving isn’t public yet. I thought he might have told you since—I got the impression you guys are pretty friendly.’

      He took in Mallika’s suddenly stormy expression and changed the subject in a hurry. ‘Now, I thought I’d first introduce you to some of the key people in your team, and then you can start going through our current investment strategies. The team’s brilliant—I’ve been working with them pretty closely for the last few months. I’ve put them on to a few good things as well. Of course now you’re here you’ll be in full control, but you can reach out to me whenever you want.’

      As the day went by Mallika found herself feeling more and more confident. Venkat evidently valued her input, and his style of working wasn’t as different from hers as she had feared.

      She was packing up for the day when there was a knock on the door of her room. Assuming that it was the overzealous tea boy, who’d been popping up every half an hour, she said, ‘Come in!’ and continued stuffing files into her laptop bag.

      It was a few seconds before she realised that the man in the room was about twice as large as the tea boy.

      ‘Darius!’ she said, her brows coming together in an involuntary frown as she saw him. ‘I was wondering if I’d see you today.’

      ‘I meant to come over in the morning, but I had one meeting after another. How was your day?’

      ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I think I’m going to like working here.’

      ‘Did Venkat manage to spend any time with you?’

      ‘A lot,’ she said drily.

      Darius laughed. ‘He believes in throwing people in at the deep end,’ he said. ‘But he’s a great guy to work with. If you’re done for the day d’you want to catch up over coffee? There’s a decent café nearby.’

      Mallika hesitated. She really wanted to confront Darius about him leaving, but her upbringing made her shy away from any kind of direct conflict.

      Some of her indecision must have shown in her face, because he was beginning to look puzzled.

      ‘Or some other day if you need to leave,’ he said easily.

      Mallika made up her mind.

      ‘I need to get home, but I have time for a coffee from the machine down the hall,’ she said.

      Compromise—that was one thing she’d learnt early in life. And also that attacking issues head-on sometimes made them worse. She got to her feet and Darius followed her down the hall.

      ‘On second thoughts, I’ll have a soft drink,’ she said, taking a can from the fridge next to the coffee dispenser. ‘You can have that coffee if you want,’ she said, gesturing at the mug Darius had just filled for her.

      She picked up a second mug and half filled it with warm water from the machine before putting her unopened can into it.

      ‘It’s too cold,’ she explained as Darius raised his eyebrows. ‘I’ll leave it in the mug for a bit and then it’ll be just right and I’ll drink it.’

      Darius’s lips curved into a smile as he followed Mallika back to her room. She was wearing black trousers, a no-nonsense blue shirt, and extremely sensible shoes. The whole outfit looked as if it had been chosen to downplay her looks, but the most boring clothes in the world couldn’t conceal the narrowness of her waist and the athletic grace of her walk. Quite contrary to the intended effect, the clothes made her more appealing—at least to him.

      ‘Is Venkat involved in the day-to-day running of the fund?’ she asked, perching herself on the edge of her desk and swinging her legs idly.

      ‘Not really …’ he said cautiously, and she gave him a quizzical look, ‘Okay, he’s very involved in it—but his area of expertise is sales. You won’t be reporting to him, if that’s your worry—all the directors report straight to the board.’

      ‘Hmm … no, that isn’t what was bothering me.’

      She smiled at him, and Darius felt his heartbeat quicken in response.

      ‘But tell me—is it true that he’s interfered in some of the investment decisions the team have made in the past?’

      It was very likely to be true. Darius had heard rumblings from his team, but he hadn’t paid much attention up till now. Mallika’s pointing it out after being exactly one day in the job, however, hit him on the raw.

      ‘He’s talked to them about a few deals,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t go so far as to call it interference.’

      ‘Maybe it wasn’t brought to your attention, then,’ she said, clearly unfazed by the sudden chilliness in his tone. ‘But he’s made some bad calls, and the fund’s asset value has dropped. It’ll take me a while to undo the damage.’

      It was her air of knowing exactly what to do that got to him.

      ‘I’d suggest you take a few days to understand the business properly first,’ he said firmly, though he was feeling uncharacteristically defensive. ‘Before you jump in with both feet and start undoing things.’

      Mallika frowned. ‘I thought the whole point of my being here was that I already know the business,’ she said. ‘I researched the fund before I even started interviewing with you guys, and it’s obvious that you have problems. Logically, it makes no sense to wait to fix them.’

      ‘There’s a lot of stuff you wouldn’t know from the outside,’ Darius insisted. ‘Venkat might have his … quirks, but not all the decisions he’s made have been bad.’

      She shrugged. ‘Statistically speaking, even if you made decisions by rolling dice you would end up making some decent ones. But from what I can make out Venkat is superstitious, and his judgement is coloured.’

      It had taken Darius months to realise that Venkat’s superstitious side sometimes overruled his normally sharp business brain. Mallika had taken exactly one day to figure it out. She was extraordinarily perceptive and he felt slightly wrong-footed. Again.

      What was this woman doing to him?

      Mallika was leaning forward a little. ‘Look, you hired me to run this fund,’ she said. ‘Not because you liked my face. So let me get on with my work. If I mess up you can play the hero and come in and

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