“What are you talking about? Yeah, I bid that for you guys and I remember getting AmEx to do the asphalt part of it. But that’s all I know. What’s going on?” He looked between us, genuinely confused.
“Nothing. It’s fine,” Cane patted his shoulder. “Can you do me a favor though?”
“Sure. I owe you, anyway.”
“See if your company keeps their fax log. See if you can find the fax number that quote from Grady came from, okay?”
He looked confused but said, “I’ll get back to you this afternoon.”
Max
I tossedmy phone on my desk and leaned back in my chair. I stretched my neck and justbreathed. Finally things were starting to work themselves out.
I had sent Kari a message, letting her know we won the bid andshe had responded with a slew of sexy things she wanted to do to me to celebrate.
I grabbed my work calendar and flipped through, seeing what we had coming up. I wanted to take Kari to Cane’s cabin in Payson to get away as soon as possible.
Cane buzzed in and I hit the speakerphone. “Yeah?”
“Pick up your receiver.”
I lifted the phone to my chin, pressing it against my shoulder. I unrolled the sleeves of my dress shirt as I listened to Cane continue.
“Dan just called. Chalgon doesn’t keep their fax records, so we won’t know who sent that quote. But you know what I’m thinking, right?”
I exhaled roughly, tossing a pencil onto my desk. I knew exactly what he was thinking and the thoughthadcrossed my mind, although I found it hard to believe. The fact that Grady’s number this time had been sent to his house and not our office and didn’t get sent out to our competitors didn’t hurt his case.
I didn’t want to even consider it. But I knew damn good and well what Cane was thinking.
“It can’t be,” I said.
“Explain it to me then. You heard Grady and you heard Dan. Tell me how they got our number or tell me which one of them is a liar.”
I took another deep breath. I saw Cane’s point and thinking Samantha would have faxed the number to Chalgon was the logical answer. It was the simplest choice...but one I just couldn’t imagine; I thought he was jumping to conclusions. It could’ve been anyone in our office. It could’ve been Norm or Lucy just as easily as it could’ve been Sam.
Keep tellin’ yourself that.
“Do you really think Sam would do that?” I asked warily.
“I do and I think she did.”
“Cane, that’s a big accusation...”
“And it’s not one I’d throw around for the hell of it either. But it makes sense and I just have this feeling...”
I looked at the ceiling, the clock ticking on the wall making me feel like a bomb was getting ready to go off. It was an ominous sound.
“It sure as hell kept her around longer,” he said. “She would’ve been let go a couple of weeks ago if we had gotten another job. Think about it, Quinn.”
I knew, down deep, he was probably right and the fallout from it, if it were true, would be giant. But I just wanted to spend the next couple of days enjoying the feeling of not being drowned in work.
“I’ll deal with it next week. I just need to relax for a couple of days. On that note, would you mind me taking Kari to your cabin this weekend? I really want to get away with her and relax, no interruptions.”
“No problem. You still have a key?”
“Yeah,” I said, looking up at the sound of my door opening and Sam walking in. “I appreciate it. I really want this weekend with Kari to be special.”
He laughed. “You’re both family tome.Now you just need to be toeach other.”
