Wire (Pierce Securities Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

turned the floor over to him, feeling guilty about blindsiding him. She hadn’t warned him about this meeting and didn’t know how he would feel about public speaking, but then again, she couldn’t really talk around him, so she wasn’t sure how she would have given him such a warning.
    “Thanks, Paige, ” he emphasized her name, making it clear he was pissed. “I’m pleased to be here and want to let you all know my office has an open-door policy. I’m proud to be working for such an upstanding company and am eager to get started.” He linked his fingers together on the table in front of him, and Paige was entranced by the hands that had roamed her body that night. The capable, gentle hands… “I’ll be meeting with everyone one-on-one this week, to determine work styles and stuff like that. I’m not here to start firing everybody, so you should all be good as long as jobs are getting done.”
    His voice was reassuring as he spoke to the employees, and Paige was pacified, but when he turned his face back to her, the hard edge was still there, and she realized the soothing reassurance wasn’t for her. He was still pissed, and Paige knew she really didn’t want to talk to him.
    “Great!” Pasting her cheery smile on, Paige continued with updates. “Our monthly staff birthday party is next week, and Presley’s baby shower is two weeks from now.” She beamed at the highly pregnant woman sitting in a chair near her. “Let’s all show up for that and eat cake!” After a few more announcements, the general meeting was over. As they all filed out, Paige raised her voice above the commotion, “If the department heads could stay, please, I’d like to have a brief meeting with you guys.”
    Evan’s posture had relaxed, and he stretched out his long legs under the table, bumping her toe with his shoes. She didn’t know if he was trying to get her attention or not, but she couldn’t look at him to hazard a guess.
    Not understanding her body’s reactions to him, Paige chastised herself. She really needed to get a grip on reality. And the reality was, she was an adult who ran a multi-million dollar company. She could certainly look at a man, for heaven’s sake.
    But she kept her head buried in her tablet, tapping at the screen, checking emails until everyone filed out, leaving six people around the table.
    Paige had Evan start work today, on meeting day, because he needed to meet the department heads. While she didn’t want The Crimson Lady to be anybody on her staff, logically she knew it had to be an inside job. Not only did somebody have to have access to the servers to load her onto them, but that same somebody had to push the patch with The Crimson Lady on to all the clients. At least, that’s what common sense dictated. She looked at the faces around her—of the people she considered friends—and couldn’t imagine any of them doing any of this.
    She watched Evan listen carefully to the introductions and plotted how she could help him catch The Crimson Lady without actually interacting with him.

    Evan paid close attention as each department head gave reports to Paige, who listened attentively, ignoring him completely. He typed notes into his tablet—possible motives and modes of each person to accomplish the creation and implementation of The Crimson Lady—not feeling any closer to a resolution to the problem than before these meetings.
    Of course, he was flabbergasted at Paige’s behavior. He couldn’t imagine why she couldn’t at least acknowledge him. Did their night together mean absolutely nothing to her? His initial reaction was to be pissed, then he realized that if The Crimson Lady was in this room, which was likely, she may not want them to know of their past. But still, couldn’t she at least look at him?
    When the meeting was over, Evan rose quickly, wanting to follow Paige to her office to talk privately. But when he got there, a man was standing outside waiting for her, looking