A Private Affair Read online

  Table of Contents

  A PRIVATE AFFAIR

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Also Available

  About the Author

  Copyright Information

  A PRIVATE AFFAIR

  Dara Girard

  Published by ILORI PRESS BOOKS LLC

  www.iloripressbooks.com

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Author.

  ***

  Chapter One

  “Are the rumors true?”

  Carissa York glanced at the man who’d gotten into the elevator with her. Ed Lehane was a man with more hair on his face than on his head. A classily dressed man, with a full beard, hazel eyes and a slender build. That’s what others saw. Carissa saw him through different eyes in her position as the head of Human Resources; a divorced father of three caring for an elderly mother.

  “I’m sorry,” Carissa said as the elevator doors closed. “What was that?”

  “I was just wondering if you had an opinion about the rumors.”

  “What rumors?” Carissa asked, glancing at a woman who was checking her teeth in the reflection of the elevator doors.

  “You mean you haven’t heard?” His voice rose in surprise, then he checked himself and fell silent when the elevator stopped and the other two occupants stepped off. “You must have heard,” he said, once the doors closed again and they started to ascend. “Everyone’s buzzing about it. Well not everyone just—”

  “What are you talking about?” Carissa asked, losing patience. She liked Ed. He worked as the administrative assistant to the senior VP, Nathan Cole, but she had a busy morning ahead of her and didn’t have time for idle chatter.

  “A week ago I made a reservation for four men from Barra Industries at the Stanton hotel.”

  “For how long?” Carissa asked with sudden interest. Barra Industries had been sniffing around Simus Labs before, and the Stanton was the only five-star hotel in the area. Simus Labs was located in an industrial park in Northern Virginia.

  “That’s the thing. He said a month, possibly indefinitely.”

  “Hmm.”

  “And if that wasn’t suspicious enough, I heard from Alexis that the board of directors are having a special meeting on Saturday. She sent out the letter. So is this proof that Barra Industries is taking over? And if so, what’s going to happen to us?”

  Carissa didn't know what to say. The CEO’s executive assistant Alexis, requesting an emergency board meeting meant something big was going on. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, so let me get the facts then I'll get back to you.”

  Simus Labs had gone public four years ago. They created smart devices for the home, but recently, their web connected smoke and carbon monoxide detector had attracted attention and was likely the reason Simus Labs had caught Barra Industries’ attention.

  “I don’t mean to bother you, but I'm scared. Moves like this are only good for the people at the top. I’ve got my obligations. Holly needs braces. Do you know how much they cost?” He didn’t give her a chance to respond. “If they bring in their own people and I lose my job, I don't know what I’ll do.”

  “Until things are confirmed it is all just speculation,” Carissa said in a reassuring tone. At least she hoped it sounded reassuring because she could feel herself trembling inside. A takeover could be an HR nightmare, but that wasn’t Ed’s problem. She touched his sleeve, pasted on a smile and changed the subject to something less threatening. “Have any weekend plans?”

  “I’m taking the kids to a water park.”

  “Enjoy it,” she said as the elevators opened on their floor. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Ed went in one direction. She turned and walked to her office acting as if she didn’t have any worries and smiled at her assistant, who informed her that she had a visitor. Carissa walked into her office and saw a dark haired woman with a streak of silver, wearing a stylish tailored suit and bold gold earrings. Mia Wexler had not only been Carissa’s mentor, she’d been both a manager and was now an executive at Simus Labs. She’d fought for Carissa when others, like Nathan Cole, didn't think she was capable due to her lack of not having a college degree.

  “What’s going on?” Carissa asked taking a seat behind her large desk, not pretending to offer a plastic smile or obligated greeting.

  Mia laughed. “Can’t a person just drop by?”

  Carissa shook her head. “No, because I was just about to call you regarding the rumor. A rumor I want killed before it spreads throughout the company.”

  “You can only kill it if it’s not true,” Mia said in a quiet voice.

  Carissa stiffened. “You mean it is? Barra Industries is buying us out?”

  “Obviously you haven’t looked through your morning mail yet. So I’ll tell you what you’ll find inside that sealed confidential memo.” She pointed to a pile on Carissa’s desk. “It’s about a ten o’clock meeting that’s scheduled for today for all department heads.”

  Carissa flipped through her mail, found the envelope and opened it. It verified everything Mia had said. Carissa’s worst nightmare had come true. Today, in the executive conference room the Barra Industries monster was going to gobble them up. Barra Industries was a conglomerate made up of different industries one of them focused on the area of home security. It made sense that they’d want to capitalize on a niche market, like Simus Labs, so that their product wouldn’t compete with one of their product divisions that was focused in the same area.

  “If you think about it,” Mia said, as if reading Carissa mind. “It’s a savvy business move. They had two options. Compete with us or buy us out.”

  Carissa shook her head. “This is not good. What’s going to happen to Simus Labs? To us?”

  Mia shrugged, but Carissa wasn’t fooled by her calm demeanor. “It depends.”

  “On how heartless they are?” she asked.

  Mia flashed a small smile. “It’s not that simple, but we both know that a takeover can be vicious. Some of us will not make it through the fallout. My guess is that R&D and the factory workers will be okay if they want to keep and use the device we developed. However, it’s the office workers who have something to worry about. Expect some heads to roll.”

  Chapter Two

  The moment she saw him, she hated him. He stood at the front of the executive conference room—tall, polished, wearing a dark suit, close cropped hair and skin the color of sundried bricks. All he needed was a large ax casually resting on his shoulder. He kept his expression neutral, despite the tension in the room or perhaps because of it. There was no coaxing smile of reassurance. Carissa wondered if he took a perverse pleasure in their fear. He held all the answers, which left people who were the heads of departments—from production to payroll—feeling like kids in trouble with the principal. But no, this was worse. School kids didn’t have to worry about what the principal did impacting their ability to
feed their families.

  Carissa glanced around the room and noticed that the primary fiscal person, Hannah Broadstreet, was missing. And she was a hard woman to miss. She was a woman with big shoulders, lacquered black hair and a lumbering gait who always looked like she was chewing gum, although she never did. She was one of the key players who had helped keep Simus Labs in the black and was a valuable asset to the company. Her conspicuous absence was not a good sign. Carissa glanced at Mia and could see that her friend had her corporate mask in place, but Carissa wasn’t fooled by it. Mia was sixty-three and Carissa knew that alone made her vulnerable. She glanced back at the ax man. His gaze caught hers. She didn’t look away, she didn’t care if he knew how much she despised him, that even if he managed a smile and tried to charm them, she wouldn’t be fooled. He’d lost his chance to earn her trust. Not that he seemed the kind of man to seek it.

  Stuart Rich, president and CEO of Simus Labs, walked in front of the stranger, breaking their gaze and took his position at the head of the room. He took his place like the showman he was—eyes bright, smile broad. He meant to appear reassuring, but his efforts created the exact opposite. He greeted them with praise and apology. Telling them of their good work, thanking them for coming, although he knew they had busy schedules and apologizing for how the meeting must have been an inconvenience. Carissa blocked him out until she heard the news she’d been waiting for. “And due to our successful negotiations, Barra Industries will immediately take over the running of Simus Labs.”

  From the lack of gasps it was clear most people had heard the rumor. After a brief silence, the group peppered him with questions about benefits, promotions and job security.

  Like a ringleader in a circus, Rich held up his hands, his smile still in place, almost eerily brighter and broader, and said, “I can’t take any questions until the end. This is a perfect opportunity for our stockholders and for us.”

  Carissa felt as if the words ‘for us’ were an afterthought and she knew the words ‘perfect opportunity’ were relative ones and conveniently vague. She knew he probably had nothing to worry about but she hated his slimy words and lack of honesty.

  “And now,” he continued. “Let me introduce the man who’ll be in charge of this transition, one of the senior vice presidents of Barra Industries, Kenric Riverton.”

  Kenric? What kind of name was that? She thought. But his surname was certainly apt. She expected him to sell a number of them down the river. Carissa watched him shake hands with Rich and smile. His professional, plastic smile made her like him even less and she didn’t think that was possible. He addressed the group with the confidence of a man used to domination and attention. “Change is hard for everyone. My job is to make it as painless as possible. Two people assisting me with this transition are Donald Burnie and Glenda White.”

  Both individuals stood and nodded like dutiful, expensive puppets. Mr. Burnie’s silk tailored suit was clearly new and Ms. White’s diamond earrings could afford someone the down payment on a house. Carissa briefly wondered who they’d annoyed to land them in some small Virginian town when they obviously belonged on Park Avenue.

  “Starting now Donald will take over the position held by Hannah Broadstreet, who accepted a generous severance package and won’t be returning.” He continued not allowing them a moment to even whisper their surprise or unease. Like a maestro, he gestured to an associate and the lights dimmed and a powerpoint presentation appeared on the main wall.

  Carissa leaned back in her chair. She knew what his tactic would be, but vaguely wondered if he would surprise her. Men like him always followed the same formula. First, would come flattery.

  “Simus Labs is an extraordinary company and an excellent acquisition for Barra Industries. Because of your loyal customer base, excellent smart device products and impressive advertising campaign you forced us to take notice. But when your smoke and carbon monoxide detector came on the market we knew we had some thinking to do and hard decisions to make.”

  He had a beautiful speaking voice—a mesmerizing voice that could convince you to grab a knife and slit your own throat for the sake of others. She knew what would come next. After flattery would be strategy.

  “We had to ask ourselves, do we continue to compete and risk losing our company’s market share or do we find a way to work together?”

  She had to admire his semantics. ‘Working together’ sounded so kind and welcoming. She’d expected him to use battle terms like ‘join forces,’ perhaps that would come later.

  “So we came to the conclusion that it would be best for all those involved to begin negotiations. While Simus Labs is inarguably a successful company, it’s also spread too thin and its financial solvency is structured on one main product. Which is fine for now, but what about over the next five years? How about ten? In an environment filled with innovation, it is crucial to think with a forward mindset. Let me present you with our vision of how Barra Industries will propel Simus Labs to greatness.”

  He spoke as if he expected applause. As if his words could camouflage the reality. Instead of looking at the presentation, Carissa looked around at the audience. She felt their worry, their pain, their shock. She, and they, knew that not all of them would have a chance to sit in this conference room next year. Maybe even next month. She flexed her hand and took a deep breath although she felt like exploding. How dare he talk about numbers and percentages as if that was all that mattered. Were they just commodities? Prisoners with number identification instead of names? Things to be shifted around for the benefit of the whole?

  How easy and cowardly it was to focus on the numbers, leaving her to deal with the true cost—the lives. The people. The human element of their business, which men like Riverton chose to ignore. She’d be the one to deal with the tears and the anger while he lined his pockets with the wealth he’d gained and polish his plastic smile. Carissa returned her gaze to the presentation, holding back a yawn. Not because she was bored, but because she was stressed.

  She blinked then switched her gaze to Riverton. He stared directly at her. Although he spoke to everyone, his gaze remained on her. She swallowed hard, but didn’t shift her gaze, challenging him. She knew she should be demure and glance away, especially since he’d caught her not paying attention. But she couldn’t back down. She had little respect for him, she didn’t care what he thought. She knew men like him feasted on the flesh of the weak and she would not let him take a bite out of her. A man like him had put a cousin of hers out of work five years ago, another, just like him, had closed down a factory where her Uncle had worked. Her uncle had worked hard to distinguish himself from a family of layabouts and losers, the first to own a home. But the loss of his job had led to the loss of his beloved house and the shame was too much. A bullet to the head ended his suffering, but still rang in her mind like an echo in a canyon. But she knew a man like Riverton wouldn’t understand something like that, so on her uncle’s behalf, she couldn’t or wouldn’t look away.

  After a few moments, he shifted his gaze and Carissa started to breathe again, not realizing that she had stopped. He had affected her more than she wanted to admit, but she still felt a small victory, although she knew it would be short lived. The reality was Barra Industries and Riverton had already won.

  Carissa tried her best not to yawn through the remainder of his talk of a ‘friendly takeover’ and his plan to meet with each and everyone of them in the coming week, before thanking them for their cooperation. He ended his talk with a smile then turned the floor back over to Rich who answered their questions with such vagueness that no one left the meeting feeling that their job was secure.

  Carissa exited the conference room seething. “I hate him.”

  Mia sent her a sharp look. “You don’t know him enough to hate him.”

  “I know plenty. He laced that speech with just enough arsenic to hurt us without killing us.”

  “He’s everything he’s supposed to be—sharp and strategic. He’s pow
erful. The true nature of his character will be revealed when we get to see how he uses that power.”

  “We already saw it. He’s cold, calculated and heartless.”

  “I’m sure he has a heart, he just doesn’t show it. He can’t afford to.”

  Carissa sent her friend a look of pity. “Do you think defending him will help you keep your job?”

  Mia stopped and pinned Carissa with a look that made her feel small. “No, but I think you were too busy looking around the room to really listen to what he was saying. A lot of what he said made sense. Simus Labs would be vulnerable in a few years. Barra Industries can help us expand. He shared ideas I’d wanted to see implemented for years, but Rich wouldn’t budge.”

  Carissa sighed, she didn’t want to face it, but Mia was right. However, her opinion of Riverton remained steadfast, but she kept that information to herself. She gathered her staff in one of the smaller conference rooms near HR and shared the logistics of the takeover, giving them the letter Rich and Riverton—or rather their assistants—had drafted, telling them about upcoming changes and trying to answer questions she couldn’t really answer.

  After dismissing her staff, Carissa returned to her office thinking of all the possible scenarios and decisions she’d have to make. She was jotting down a note to visit Ed when someone knocked on her office door.

  “Come in,” she said forcing a smile to greet whoever entered.

  The henchman did.

  Her smile fell, but her heartbeat rose. He looked large, cool and polished in a suit that had probably never travelled this far south before.

  “May I speak to you for a moment?” he asked with a polite sincerity that surprised her. She’d expected a subtle demand.

  She gestured to a seat. “Of course, Mr. Riverton.”

  He sat. “Call me Kenric.”

  Seriously? With a straight face? Not happening. “How may I help you?”

  “At the meeting I could see that my speech didn’t go down well with you.”