Chapter31
“What is your status, Mr. Cutter?”
Portia didn’t waste any time with pleasantries when Ash entered her office. He was so used to it that a deviation would be cause for concern.
He’d come to respect her too. She put in the work and asked intelligent questions. Sure, she still treated him like a peon and he never forgot that she held his and Hope’s fates in her hands, but he respected her.
If it hadn’t cost a lot of innocent lives, he’d say the bombing and its aftermath was one of the best things to ever happen to the Tremaine Corporation. He knew from his own role in it that her father had his fingers in some very unsavory pies. Portia, on the other hand, had a shrewd business mind and a definite plan for the direction of the company. She’d be good for the Tremaine Corporation—and if she was able to dig out all the rot, she’d be great.
If she hadn’t tasked him with unmasking himself, he’d love to help her turn the company around.
Wait. Why couldn’t he “discover” some of her father’s more heinous crimes and feed them to her?
Portia cleared her throat. He couldn’t keep her waiting any longer.
“Found a treasure trove of stuff,” he said, before he could change his mind. “But no sign of Leopold’s accomplice.”
Portia’s expression didn’t give much away. He watched her, curious how she would react.
She sighed. “What kind of stuff?”
Perfect. Now was his chance.
Mentally flipping through the files he’d discovered, Ash came up with five projects that seemed reasonable. Some were located in more easily accessible servers. Others would show that he’d spent serious time digging for them.
If she tackled any of them, she’d have already done more good than her father ever had.
“Want me to show you? Or send the files to your desk?” He’d prefer to show her the files.
If he made accessing them appear complicated, maybe she’d believe that he was working hard on her request.
“Show me,” she commanded.
Ash dropped into his chair. He fiddled with the keyboard, typing quickly, and digging into the system where he remembered the projects lived.
It took a few minutes to access a couple of them. With a flick of his wrist, the files were on screen. He split the screen, then split it again so she could see more than one file at a time. With a pinch and a flick, he filled the quadrants.
She leaned closer to watch what he was doing.
She may have earned his respect, but her presence at his back felt too much like a death threat hanging over him.
“I think your father’s assistant knew about some of these.” Ash reached toward the screen and circled two of the files. “These showed up in the same file structure as the other... information.”
He wasn’t brave enough to actually mention her newfound sister Dizzie. Not on Portia’s home turf. The whispers in the company hallway indicated that they still weren’t getting along. Ash wasn’t surprised. Even though she’d been unaware of what her delivery actually was, Dizzie had delivered the bomb that had actually killed Portia’s husband. Ash squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He hated the role he’d played in that.
“What are the projects?” Portia asked.
This was his chance. “Best I can tell, one is a failed drug. The other has... something to do with organs. I think.”
“Organs? Is this the spare parts program? It’s being dismantled.”
Ash couldn’t tell if the distaste in her voice was due to the program or because Dizzie was the one undoing it. “No, it appears to be a different program. Um, used organs.”
“Another one?”
The horror in her voice almost made him smile. That she could sound so horrified, even after learning about her father’s twisted schemes...
He hadn’t expected decency from a Tremaine, but it appeared Portia possessed some.
