next time they made love? Could she avoid making love with him completely? At least she had to try.
The board meeting lasted an hour before they called her in. There were seven members in all, including Koltan. Harmon would have made the eighth member, but he was out sick. She almost felt compassion towards him, but his latest fiasco with trying to marry off his son to make a business deal was upsetting her more than she cared to admit. Then there were the shares that Koltan wanted to offer the employees. The old man was so greedy that he would deny his hard working employees this opportunity. No, he deserved no sympathy from her.
She smiled as she was offered a seat and tried to avoid Kolta n’ s eyes.
“ Miss Brennan ,” the chairman of the board, Mr. Kelvin said. He was a balding man with a chubby face, wearing black rimmed glasses .“ Welcome . ”
“ Thank you sir ,’ she replied widening her smile. The ma n’ s face softened and his brown eyes danced.
“ You come highly recommended ,” he stated pointedly at her .“ You had only two weeks for a three month project. How was it ? ”
“ It was challenging. I had to do some research. I went back into the archives to learn what worked and what did n’ t work in the past . ”
“ Tha t’ s good. We like what we see. Can you give us your presentation now ? ”
She had expected to give a demonstration of her report and had prepared slides and fact sheets. She handed all the members seated at the large table a folder with her facts and continued with her slides. By the time she was done, they were all impressed with her. She stole a glance in Kolta n’ s direction and saw him grinning from ear to ear.
She was asked to step out for a brief moment while they made a decision. It took only two minutes for them to call her back inside. When she entered, she was asked to sign a four-year contract with the company. She was told that this was a first, but they were at a critical juncture and her presentation had impressed them a great deal.
After the board meeting she made it her mission to avoid Koltan at all costs. She needed time to settle her nerves and wanted no distractions. The day was spent getting ready for the audit, which would be in one week.
She took home some more files from the archives, now that she had free access to them without permission from anyone. She spent the entire week going through the old documents with a fine tooth comb.
By the time she went to bed on Friday night she was exhausted. Her phone had rang many times while she worked through the files, but she ignored the calls, not wanting to break her concentration. As she climbed into bed, she saw that most of the calls were from Koltan and a few were from an unknown number.
On Saturday morning he called again, and she took the call. He wanted to know why she never answered his calls. She told him she had been busy with the work she had taken home. It was not a complete lie, but she knew he got the impression that the work belonged to the company. She told him that her weekend was going to be busy and promised to meet up with him on Sunday night.
Around midday, an anonymous number called her. She was somewhat apprehensive about taking the call, thinking it might be Niki. When she answered, it was a ma n’ s voice.
“ I know who you are and I have some information for you ,” he said.
“ Who is this ?” she asked .“ What do you mean you know who I am ? ”
She was getting alarmed and was about to hang up when he said .“ Yo u’ re Fische r’ s daughter . ”
That gave her pause .“ Who are you? How do you know me ?” she insisted.
“ Meet me at Newport Shopping center at seven. I’ ll be waiting in front of the coffee shop. I have something you need ,” he replied, and then she heard a click.
Part Two
Chapter One
It was six thirty and she was n’ t sure if