Corner Office Secrets Read online

  “If it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll leave.”

  Vann reached out and gripped Sophie’s wrist. “Sophie.”

  The lightest touch of his big hand released that feverish swell of heat, the roar in her ears. That clutch in her chest of wild excitement. “What do you want?” She tried to keep her voice from shaking.

  “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said. “I was surprised, that’s all.”

  “Were you following me?”

  He just stood there silently, not admitting it, not denying it. She tugged at her wrist, but he wouldn’t let go. “Answer me, Vann.”

  “Yes, I was following you,” he admitted.

  “What for?” she demanded.

  No part of her could resist as his arm slid round her waist. As his hand came to rest at the small of her back. The heat of it burned through the fabric.

  “For this,” he said, as his lips came down on hers.

  * * *

  Corner Office Secrets by Shannon McKenna

  is part of the Men of Maddox Hill series.

  Dear Reader,

  We can all probably agree that letting someone get close is dangerous. It takes heroic courage to allow it. And to do it with a stranger is terrifying.

  I love stories about children being reunited decades later with their birth parents. It’s a huge risk with an uncertain reward. Those stories make me feel like I have electricity buzzing through me. Primordial emotions. Fears and longings and hopes that move us in ways we can’t imagine. Those are the stakes for my heroine, Sophie Valente, in Corner Office Secrets.

  Sophie has come to Maddox Hill with a huge secret. She’s the biological daughter of the company founder, famous architect Malcolm Maddox. Sophie’s mother’s last wish was that Sophie find her father, so she’s giving it a shot...but very carefully. Trying to make sure she won’t get hurt. And having tall, dark and dreamy CFO Vann Acosta smoldering mysteriously at her while she does it...oh, Lord. Too much to take.

  I hope you like this second installment of the Men of Maddox Hill series! Be sure to check out book one, Drew Maddox and Jenna Somers’s story, His Perfect Fake Engagement, where you’ll be introduced to Malcolm. Stay tuned for the next installment, Drew’s little sister Ava’s story!

  Be sure to follow me to stay up-to-date on future books! Look for contact links to my socials and my newsletter on my website, shannonmckenna.com.

  Happy reading! And please, let me know what you think!

  Warmest wishes,

  Shannon McKenna

  Shannon McKenna

  Corner Office Secrets

  Shannon McKenna is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over twenty-five romance novels. She ranges from romantic suspense to contemporary romance to paranormal, but in all of them, she specializes in tough, sexy alpha male heroes, heroines with the brains and guts to match them, blazing sensuality, and of course, the redemptive power of true love. There’s nothing she loves more than abandoning herself to the magic of a pulse-pounding story. Being able to write her own romantic stories is a dream come true.

  She loves to hear from her readers. Contact her at her website, shannonmckenna.com, for a full list of her novels. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/authorshannonmckenna to keep up with her news. Or join her newsletter at shannonmckenna.com/connect.php and look for the juicy free book you’ll get as a welcome gift! She hopes to see you there!

  Books by Shannon McKenna

  Men of Maddox Hill

  His Perfect Fake Engagement

  Corner Office Secrets

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or shannonmckenna.com, for more titles.

  You can also find Shannon McKenna on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Excerpt from Texas Tough by Janice Maynard

  Excerpt from The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass by Maisey Yates

  One

  Vann Acosta stared at the screen, his jaw aching. “Play it again,” he said.

  Zack Austin, Maddox Hill Architecture’s chief security officer, let out a sigh. “We’ve seen it ten times, Vann. There’s not much to unpack in the video itself. Just Sophie Valente, taking pictures of a computer screen. Let’s move on to the next step.”

  “It’s not time for that yet,” Vann said. “Play it again.”

  “As many times as you need.” Tim Bryce, Maddox Hill’s chief technology operator, put his hand on the mouse. “But nothing’s going to change. So there’s hardly any point.”

  Vann gave Bryce a cold look. He was not going to let himself be rushed. As chief financial officer of Maddox Hill, he owed it to his employees to get all the facts, and to study them for as long as it took to get clarity.

  “I’ll make that call,” he said.

  “Where the hell did you put that camera?” Zack asked. “It looks like it was recorded from directly behind your desk.”

  “It was.” Bryce looked pleased with himself. “The camera is in a picture frame above the desk. I bought it from a spy gadget website. It has photos of my sons in it. Looks perfectly innocent, but it got the job done.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Vann said. “Sophie Valente’s been personally developing our own data loss protection software. She’s teaching our IT department to prevent exactly this kind of data leak, right? It’s her specialty.” He looked at Zack. “Wasn’t that the point of hiring her in the first place?”

  “Yes, it was,” Zack admitted. “And yes, it seems strange.”

  “Very strange,” Vann said. “If she wanted to steal Maddox Hill project specs, she wouldn’t fish for them on Tim’s desktop computer where she could be seen by anyone. She’s smarter than that. It’s far more likely she was conducting a random spot test.”

  Bryce’s eyebrows climbed. “On my computer, at twelve thirty on a Friday night? I doubt it. I made a point of talking about the Takata Complex project in front of her last week, and letting her see the documents on my screen. She knew those files weren’t watermarked yet. Drew and his team are still fine-tuning them. I just wanted to see if she’d bite, and she did. The files were copies of old, outdated specs, so she got zip. But I nabbed her. Maybe she can wipe herself off our log files, but she can’t wipe herself off my video camera.”

  The smugness in Bryce’s voice bothered Vann. This was not a kid’s schoolyard game. There were no winners here, only losers. “Play it again,” he repeated.

  “Be my guest.” Bryce set the clip to Play. It was time-and date-stamped 12:33 a.m. from four days before. For twenty seconds all they saw was a dimly lit office.

  Then Sophie Valente, Maddox Hill’s new director of information security, appeared in the camera’s view frame. The light from the monitor brightened, illuminating her face as she typed into the keyboard. The camera was recording her from behind the screen and slightly to one side. She wore a high-necked white blou
se with a row of little buttons on the side of her neck. Vann had memorized every detail of that shirt. The silk fabric was tucked loosely into her dress pants, lapping over the wide leather belt she wore with it. Her hair was wound into its usual thick braid, hanging over her shoulder.

  She lifted a cell phone and began taking pictures of the screen. Her hand moved quickly and smoothly between keyboard and phone as if she’d done it many times before.

  But her face looked so focused and serene. That was not the nervous look of a person doing something shady after midnight. She was not shifty-eyed, or looking over her shoulder, or jumping at shadows.

  On the contrary. Sophie Valente was in a state of total, blissful concentration.

  “Who logged into your computer at that time?” Vann asked.

  “Me,” Bryce said. “But I wasn’t here. I was home watching TV with my wife and son.”

  Vann stared at the screen. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said again.

  “Facts don’t lie.” Bryce’s voice had a lecturing tone. “I don’t say this with a light heart, but Valente is responsible for our data breaches. She knew the documents weren’t watermarked. She’s avoiding a log trail by taking photos of the screen. What’s not to understand? If you’re confused, we can go over my data—”

  “I understood it the first time around.” Vann tried to control his tone, but the look on Maddox Hill’s CTO’s face set his teeth on edge.

  Bryce did not look as sorry as he professed to be. In fact, he looked gleeful.

  Still. The man had been at the architecture firm for over twenty years, working his way up the ranks. More than twice as long as Vann had worked there. He’d never been Vann’s favorite person, but his opinions had weight.

  “What is it that doesn’t convince you?” Bryce sounded exasperated.

  “Every piece of evidence could be coincidental,” Vann said. “We all use multiple computers. She’s often here at night. She’s responsible for information security. She was thoroughly vetted by the HR department before the hire, and she checked out. We already gave her the keys to the kingdom. Hell, we hired her to code the keys to the kingdom for us. She should be allowed to explain what she was doing before you accuse her.”

  “Yes, but she—”

  “Corporate espionage is a serious charge. We cannot be wrong about this. I won’t trash a woman’s professional reputation unless we’re one hundred percent sure.”

  “But I am sure!” Bryce insisted. “The data breaches started a month after Valente was hired to head up Information Security. She’s fluent in Mandarin. She went to school in Singapore. She has contacts all over Asia, and at least two of the stolen project specs were tracked to an engineering firm in Shenzhen. On top of it all, she’s overqualified for her job here. With her credentials, she could make twice as much if she took a job at a multinational bank or a security firm. She had a specific reason to come here, and I think I’ve figured out what it is. Have you even looked at her file?”

  Vann glanced at Sophie Valente’s open personnel file, and looked away just as quickly. Yeah, he’d looked at that file. For longer than he’d ever dare to admit.

  It was the photo that got to him. It captured her essence as photos rarely did, and it was just an overexposed, throwaway shot, destined for a personnel file or a lanyard.

  Sophie Valente’s face was striking. High cheekbones, bold dark eyebrows, a straight, narrow nose. Her mouth was somber, unsmiling, but her lips had a uniquely sensual shape that kept drawing his eye back to them. Her thick chestnut hair was twisted into her trademark braid, with shorter locks swaying around the sharp point of her jaw. Large, intense, deep-set topaz-gold eyes with thick, long black lashes gazed straight at the viewer, daring him not to blink.

  Or maybe that was just a trick of the light. The effect of the proud angle of her chin. And the picture didn’t even showcase her figure, which was tall, toned. Stacked.

  Sophie Valente didn’t look like a shifty, dishonest person. On the contrary, she gave the impression of being a disarmingly honest one.

  His instincts had never led him astray before. Then again, he’d never gotten a stupid crush on an employee before. Hormone overload could make him blind and thick.

  He would not let himself fall into that hole. Oh, hell, no.

  “The evidence you’ve shown me doesn’t constitute proof,” Vann said. “Not yet.”

  Zack crossed his arms over his burly chest and gave him a level look. Zack knew him too well. They’d served together in Iraq, and worked together at Maddox Hill for almost a decade. His friend sensed that Vann’s interest in Sophie Valente went beyond the strictly professional, and Zack’s level gaze made him want to squirm.

  “We need more information,” Zack said. “I’ll talk to the forensic accounting firm I usually use. Meantime, this matter stays strictly between the three of us.”

  “Of course,” Vann said.

  “We don’t know much about her, beyond the background checks,” Zack went on. “Just that she’s smart and doesn’t miss much, so investigating without her noticing is going to be a challenge. She doesn’t fit the profile of a corporate spy. She’s not a disgruntled employee with a score to settle, she’s not recently divorced, she doesn’t have debts, or a drug habit. She doesn’t appear to live beyond her means, and she doesn’t have a motive to seek revenge. At least, not that we know of.”

  “How about old-fashioned greed?” Bryce offered. “Those engineering specs are worth millions to outside firms. We should alert Drew and Malcolm and Hendrick. Now.”

  “I’ll handle that when the time is right,” Vann said. “When we’re sure.”

  Bryce made an impatient sound. “The time is now, and we are sure. I’m not talking about hauling her off in cuffs in front of everyone, Vann. I’m just talking a discreet warning to the bosses. Who will not thank us for keeping them in the dark.”

  “Malcolm and Hendrick are both in San Francisco for the meeting with the Zhang Wei Group,” Vann said. “I’m joining them tomorrow, and Drew’s wedding is afterward, at Paradise Point this weekend. Let it wait, Tim. At least until next week, after the wedding. And leave Drew alone. He’s busy and distracted right now.”

  Massive understatement. Drew Maddox was the firm’s CEO, but at the moment, he was so wildly in love with Jenna, his bride-to-be, that he was useless for all practical purposes. It was going to be a genuine relief when the guy took off for his honeymoon and got out of everyone’s way for a while. At least until he drifted back down to earth.

  But Vann couldn’t knock his friend. It was great that Drew had found true love. No man alive deserved happiness more. They’d been friends ever since they met in their marine battalion in Fallujah, Iraq, many years before, where Drew, Zack and Vann had shared a platoon. He loved and trusted Drew Maddox.

  Still, the upcoming wedding had changed things. Drew had moved into a new phase in his life when he got engaged to Jenna. Vann still belonged to the old phase. It felt lonely and flat back there.

  But hey. People grew. People changed. Whining was for losers.

  He had nothing to complain about. He liked his job as chief financial officer of an architecture firm that spanned the globe and employed over three thousand people. He hadn’t set out to achieve that title. He just did things intensely if he did them at all. An ex-lover once told him he was so laser-focused it bordered on the freakish.

  Too freakish for her evidently. That relationship had fizzled fast.

  “So how do you intend to investigate her? Is there some way to get her out of the way?” Bryce demanded. “We’ll bleed out if we drag our feet on this.”

  Vann leafed through her file, thinking fast. “You said she speaks Mandarin?”

  “Fluently,” Bryce said.

  “That’s perfect,” Vann said. “We just found out that they need a last-minute interpreter for tomorrow’s meeting in
San Francisco with Zhang Wei. Hsu Li just had a family emergency, and Collette is our usual backup, but she’s out on maternity leave. If Sophie speaks Mandarin, I could ask her to fill in for Hsu. That way, we get an interpreter, and she’ll be out of the investigators’ hair. Sophie will be too busy to notice what’s going on up here. You know how Malcolm is. He’ll keep her running until she drops.”

  Zack’s eyebrow went up. “And have her listen in on all the private details of Malcolm and Hendrick’s negotiations with Zhang Wei? You sure that’s a good idea?”

  “We’re not going to negotiate the nuts-and-bolts details of the specs in San Francisco,” Vann said. “That’s not in the scope of this meeting. It’ll be about money and timing, nothing all that useful to an IP thief. It’s not ideal, but I think it’s worth it, to get her out of the way for your forensic team to do their work. It also gives me a chance to get a sense of who she is.”

  “Well, they say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Bryce chuckled. “Should be no hardship to keep close to that, I’m guessing, eh? Whatever else you could say about the woman, she sure is easy on the eyes.”

  Vann ground his teeth at the comment. “I’m not yet assuming that she’s my enemy,” he said. “None of us should be assuming that.”

  “Uh, no,” Bryce amended quickly. “Of course we shouldn’t.”

  Zack nodded. “Okay, then. That’s the plan. Keep her busy. Keep your eyes on her.”

  Like Vann had any choice. Vann glanced back at the computer screen. Sophie Valente’s face was frozen in the video clip, her big, clear golden eyes lit by the bluish squares of the reflected computer screen. She seemed to be looking straight at him. It was uncanny.

  Bryce got up and marched out of Vann’s office, muttering under his breath, but Zack lingered on, frowning as he studied his friend.

  “You’re tiptoeing around here,” he said. “I agree that it’s appropriate to be careful. You don’t want to ruin her career. Just make sure you’re holding back for the right reasons.”