Just One Night, Part 1: The Stranger Read Online Free

unfortunate joke since I have never seen him give or inspire anything that resembles love.
    “We have a new account!” Tom says as he steps inside and closes the door behind him, apparently unaware that he has essentially slammed the door in Barbara’s face.
    I close the file in my hands. I am not the person Tom runs to when a new account comes his way. I’m still working my way up here and my climb is made all the steeper by the fact that I used Dave’s family connections to get my foot in the door. An Ivy League education should have been enough . . . but then nothing is ever enough these days. You have to graduate at the head of your class, have internships under the direct supervision of the captains of industry. You have to have a solid golf game.
    I have a job that many magna cum laude Rhode Scholars would kill for. I got it because I’m smart, capable, and have an Ivy League education . . . and because my boyfriend’s godfather is one of the cofounders of the company.
    I have something to prove.
    “I take it I’ll be part of the team handling this account?” I ask as I watch Tom claim the chair opposite me and idly look through my appointment calendar on my desk. I’ve learned to record my personal appointments exclusively on my phone and to keep my phone out of Tom’s reach.
    “No,” he says as he thumbs through the weeks and months of my professional life. “You’re leading the team.”
    There’s a shift in the room’s atmosphere. His eyes are still on the calendar but I can see he’s not reading it. He’s waiting for my reaction. I’ve wanted to lead a team since I got here but have long since accepted that I have a few more years to wait before the honor’s granted. And yet here is Tom, handing me this gift . . . why?
    “It’s a small account?” I ask, trying to make sense of the nonsensical.
    “No. It’s Maned Wolf Security Systems.”
    Now the atmosphere isn’t so much shifting as it is deconstructing into a swirl of confusion. Maned Wolf Security Systems. It provides security for the biggest corporations on the globe, produces the highest tech surveillance systems, firewall protections, and even has an armed guard division that operates in some of the more volatile parts of the world. It has government contracts and politicians who vie for their support.
    I have no right to lead this team. There shouldn’t even be a team. Maned Wolf is as insular as it is powerful. A billion-dollar operation that has yet to go public. It’s Apple meets Blackwater meets Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Secrets are kept; outsiders, unwelcome.
    I haven’t earned the right to break them out of their shell.
    But I really want to.
    “Why me?”
    Tom raises his eyes from my calendar. “He asked for you.”
    And now the atmosphere has weight. I feel its pressure on my shoulders and against my chest. Tom looks at me with an expression laced with curiosity and suspicion.
    “Who’s He ?” I ask.
    “The CEO.”
    I should know his name, but I don’t. I know their contracts, their marketing, their strength. Their people have never been of much interest to me.
    And yet, as I wait for Tom to say more, I sense that the focus of my interest is about to be irrevocably altered.
    “His name is Robert . . . Robert Dade. He says he met with you in Vegas.”
    People say there is nothing more wonderful than having your dreams come true. But some dreams were meant to stay dreams. Sometimes when our dream life sneaks into our waking world, it causes a chemical reaction.
    And when that happens, everything explodes.
    *     *     *
    I ’M GIVEN ONLY a few days to prepare for the meeting. I put together a team, but, per Mr. Dade’s request, the first meeting will be private. Just the two of us.
    When Tom had told me that, I once again saw the suspicion in his eyes. It was easy to attack Tom’s mannerisms, even his management style, but not his intelligence. I made up a story as to how I had met