Changing the bad boy

Chapter 17

PRESTON POV

"Can I see you in my office, please?" I ask Valerie. Her head snaps up, and an instant alarm flickers over her face."Of course," she answers immediately and pushes back on her desk to get to her feet as soon as possible.

I don't miss the surprised look on Lydia and Alana's faces. It is not usual for me to ask someone to come into my office, especially not Valerie. And if I do, it's not without barking at her. Asking her nicely is new, but something I know I should've done the entire time.

The thought of how I've come off as a hardass, and how I've treated Valerie, has me dropping my head in shame. She never deserved that kind of treatment from

me, or from anyone.

As to what Lydia and Alana think about it, I really don't care. They'll gossip about whatever I do, regardless.

"Close the door, please, "I instruct Valerie as she follows behind me into my office. Her eyebrows go up in surprise because besides me not asking her nicely, we usually leave the door open, but for this we need privacy.

She closes the door, and I watch how she straightens her shoulders like she's gathering her courage and walks towards the desk. I hate that I've made her insecure.

My cellphone chimes with an incoming text message but I ignore it. It can wait.

This is more important.

"Please, sit," I instruct

Valerie and gesture to the chair across from my desk.

She does and looks up at me with a somber look on her face.

She's wearing her pink glasses and there's more of a curious expression on her face now than the concerned one a minute ago. I like it.

I'm starting to like her.

And I want her help.

Me and my brothers came up with a loose plan. First and foremost, we agreed that we have to keep our knowledge about the fraud under tight wraps. The last thing we need is for Domere

to find out what we know. So there must be no leaks.

Second, we need to find out how much money he's embezzled off the Paramount. And when we have time, go back through other jobs he's done for us to see if he worked them the same way. At this point, I don't know how much money we're talking about overall, but it's in the millions and that makes me furious. Not just because someone took advantage of us and stole our hard-earned money, but because I missed Andrew's agreement when I suggested that we all cancel whatever weekend plans we had, so we could spend the entire weekend going

through the Paramount records. The only one grumbling about it was Easton because he had a golf trip planned to Arizona.

"I want to pay you double the time to help us go through the Marramount invoices this weekend," I tell Valerie.

She blinks and then blinks again.

"Double?" she asks.

"Yes," I frown. I know it's short notice and that she might have plans, but she's seemed so eager to help this far. And we usually don't offer our employees double their salary. Not that we usually need or expect them to work overtime. "If that's not enough I..."

"No, no, no," she says

hurriedly. "That's fine. When would you need me?"

I realize it's more of a scheduling thing for her than it's a money issue.

"We're going to be here all weekend," I tell her."Starting early on Saturday morning, probably around eight. You can set your times, and I don't need you the entire weekend, but I'll take as much time as you're able to help. Whatever is convenient for you."

And damn, I'm a bit proud of myself. Old Preston would've demanded she put in as much time as we needed.

Valerie nods slowly, and as she does, a couple of pieces of blonde hair fall out of her

hair clip. She uses her hand to swipe them off her face."Okay," she says. "I will need to make some arrangements. Can I let you know later today when I can come in?"

"If you're not able to make it, I understand," I reassure her. We'd manage without her. It would just take longer.

"I might not be able to do both days or the entire day, but I'll be here."

The determined expression on her face reassures me she's serious and up for a challenge. I like that part too. I'd like to provoke her, and not just at work. It makes me wonder, again, where the father of her kids is and if she has a partner.

But I don't ask, I just tell her "Great. We appreciate it."

She smiles and gets ready to stand up, but I stop her with my hand.

"We're keeping this under tight wraps," I say and keep eye contact. "Nobody knows anything about this, except for me, you, and my brothers."

Her eyes widen, but she nods seriously. "I understand."

"Can you order breakfast and lunch to be delivered for the weekend but keep it on the down low?"

"Yes, sure."

"We'll use the conference room Can also vou make

sure that we have all the invoices separated into years?"

She goes to answer, stops herself, nibbles her bottom lip, and tries again."I've started to separate everything we have on paper into trades. I have them organized by year electronically."

"Even better."

Her face splits up into a big, beautiful smile. There's a small streak of pink lipstick on her teeth. Normally that would irritate me and be a complete turnoff, but with Valerie, it's just charming.

"I'll have that finished this morning," she promises and I believe her.

"Thanks, Valerie."

I watch her get up and walk towards the door. Her blonde hair is loose down her back and it sways softly as she walks, just like her hips.

The chime on my cellphone sounds again, and I reluctantly pick it up. Five missed calls and eight text messages. All of them are from Hanna. I don't even bother reading them, just delete them like all the previous ones. I know what they'll say and I'm not interested.

A half-drunken night about three months ago is not something I'm looking to repeat. I've told her as much, too. What I don't understand is why she keeps on insisting she needs to talk to me.

That T've ignored her for three months should be clue enough.

The closed door to my office is pulled open, and my dad's voice comes from the doorway. "Preston," he says sternly. I look up to find him walking inside, dressed impeccably in a dark suit.

"Hi, Dad."

He doesn't respond to my greeting, just continues with the purpose of his visit, or interruption-not that he cares- and I'm not surprised. That's just how he is, and has always been.

"We're getting estimates for that old clothes factory by the river. I need you to double-check the numbers we get before we make any decisions."

Another project? Now?

"When are we planning on starting that one?" I ask.

I didn't even know he was seriously interested in that building. It had some definite potential but would take about as much work and probably cost just as much as the Paramount. And we already have two more renovations scheduled.

"Depends on the cost."

"Okay. I'll look it over. Who's sending the proposal?"

"Ralph Demers."

Fuck.

No way in hell's going to happen, no matter how good the proposals are.

But I'm also not about to tell Dad about our suspicions without talking it over with my brothers and without being a hundred percent sure that we are correct.

"Preston," Valerie's voice comes from the door.

My dad's head turns toward her and I watch her cheeks turn pink as she realizes he's in my office.

"Oh, hi Mr. Cartwright," she says before turning her eyes back on me. "I'm sorry to intrude, but we've been getting daily phone calls from a woman named Hanna..."

I groan, and my dad focuses his stern blue eyes on me.

He doesn't say anything, but the look is clear enough. He doesn't mind that we play around as he calls it, as long as we do not embarrass him or the company.

"She just called again and despite me telling her you're busy, she's pretty persistent. She said that she'll be going to the media unless you respond to her today."

"The media?" My dad asks before I get a chance to."Why would she do that? What is this all about, Preston?"

"I don't know, Dad, but I'll find out," I promise him, even though having a conversation with Hanna is the last thing I want to do.

"Did she say why?" He asks and turns his attention to Valerie.

"No, Sir, she didn't. Just that she needed to hear from Preston."

He nods and glares back at me. "Is she a potential problem?"

"I don't think so, Dad, but I'll find out what she wants."I think I know, but why would she go to the media about wanting another night with me, or some kind of relationship? She must know that would be the end of any chance she'd have, not that there was one, to begin with.

"You make sure you do that. We don't need any fiascos at this time."

I'm not sure people would care about another gossip story about my s*x life, but it's still a potential complication. There were no naked pictures, and we used protection, I'm sure of that. But we did spend the night together at her place. There might be security photos of us arriving there together and me leaving in the morning, but that doesn't seem like something she needs to talk to me about.

I guess she could spill details to the media about how I f**k, but that's no real news either and nobody has complained this far.

The fact that she's been so persistent bothers me a bit. And it pisses me off that Valerie has to deal with it.

"I'll call her," I promise both my dad and Valerie.

She nods and gives me an embarrassed smile -like she's picturing what the call will be about that I don't like.