She wished she had his Teflon air of aloofness. It was taking all her effort to hide her crush on her boss while he looked through her half the time and, when he did acknowledge her, put up barriers so quickly afterward, it was like walking into a glass wall, halting her in her tracks.
Despite that, she inwardly jumped for joy when she picked up an email from him, addressed to her and Oladele.
I’ll be meeting with investors all week. I don’t want any delay in responding to my father’s legal action. My assistant has instructions that I can be interrupted at any time if you need my signature or authorization to keep things moving.
Twice that day, Oladele handed Siobhan a folder and asked her to run upstairs. Twice Siobhan gave strangers an apologetic smile while she patiently waited for Joaquin to skim the paperwork and sign off.
“I’m confused,” she told Oladele when she returned the second time. “Why is he meeting investors individually? It doesn’t seem very efficient. Why doesn’t he hold a conference call and be done with it?”
“My educated guess is that these are his own investors in ProFab. Lorenzo is trying to undermine him, suggesting Joaquin took on too much debt by purchasing LVG. Lorenzo wantsthem to pressure Joaquin to back off, but he’s reassuring them instead, and doing it in Lorenzo’s office, which is a nice touch.” Oladele’s mouth quirked.
Siobhan had to admire the power move. “I guess coming here shows them what he’s purchased, too.”
“The personal touch will have a ripple effect. Word will spread,” Oladele added.
It was the sort of tactic Siobhan’s brother-in-law would use. Why host a press conference if a whisper campaign was more effective?
She started back to her desk, then paused.
“Can I ask… How did you meet Joaquin?” That wasn’t really what she wanted to know.
“Through Fernando. Joaquin sometimes came to the parties he and Zurina hosted.” Oladele gave her a circumspect look. “If you’re asking if I conspired with Joaquin to oust Lorenzo, I did not. I could tell the board was leaning toward handing things to Joaquin, but Zurina spearheaded that. Lorenzo left me a voice mail the morning it happened, asking why the board was meeting without him. I didn’t know it was happening until it was.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t implying that you acted improperly. I know you wouldn’t,” Siobhan assured her.
“I don’t think you would act improperly, either.” Oladele held her gaze for an extra millisecond, allowing the significance of her statement to sink in before she switched back to work mode. “Can you get Señora Perez on the phone for me?”
“Of course.”
Oladele knew,knewthere was more to Siobhan’s relationship with Joaquin than either of them admitted to. Should she confess that their romance had lived and died before she got here?
Tuesday was more of the same. As Siobhan was searching through old records, Oladele handed her a folder.
“Upstairs?” Siobhan guessed.
“Sí, por favor.”
Siobhan hurried to the elevator with too much eagerness. She waved the folder at Joaquin’s assistant, who nodded at her to approach the inner sanctum. She moved down the hall, past the empty boardroom and paused when she found a bodyguard stationed at Joaquin’s door.
It was the first time she’d seen one here, but it was a fairly normal sight to her because Cinnia and all of her in-laws employed them. That was how Siobhan knew Killian. He handled all the security for her sister’s family. Siobhan had taken self-defense classes with one of his instructors when she’d been a teenager and still practiced on a regular basis.
She showed her work badge to the man, but before she could knock, the door was pulled inward.
Joaquin’s voice was saying, “—appreciate your making time—”
He cut himself off as he noticed her.
“¿Firma, por favor?”She waved the folder as an explanation and stepped back to allow his guest to exit. Her cheeks warmed with pleasure at how arrested Joaquin had seemed by the sight of her, though.
“Give my best to your family,” Joaquin said absently.
“I will,” promised a male voice as a strange man stepped out.
Siobhan had conjured a polite smile for Joaquin’s guest, but it fell off her face. He wasn’t a stranger at all. The handsome man in his forties was very well-known to her.
“Dorry,” he said with surprise.
“Ramon.” Siobhan breathed the name with shock and enough familiarity to raise Joaquin’s hackles.
