Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It (36 page)

Mr. Kline didn't smile when she approached his desk. Nor did he stand, or indicate that she should sit down.

With his mouth set in steely lines and his green eyes emotionless pools in the mask of his face, he said, "Miss Richards, I've come into possession of some very disturbing information regarding your past."

Miss Richards? What had happened to Veronica? And then his other words sank in. "My past?" she asked, faltering.

"Yes. It has come to my attention that you left CIS under a cloud, that cloud being the speculation that you had sold company secrets to a firm by the name of Hypertron."

Feeling all the blood drain from her face, she concentrated on remaining standing on legs that felt like the pins had just been knocked out of them. "I…"

What was she supposed to say? She couldn't deny it. That would be lying and she'd promised herself she would never compromise her personal integrity again.

The price was too high.

"How did you find out?" she asked instead.

If anything, Mr. Kline's countenance turned grimmer. "Are you saying it's true?"

"Yes," she practically whispered.

She wished she could have said it with brazen confidence, but she just didn't have it in her to be brazen about admitting to acting as a spy.

"You'll understand, I'm sure, that I have no choice but to terminate your employment with Kline Tech. If you leave without making a fuss, we will provide the usual severance package."

And if she made a fuss? Would he terminate her without severance pay? Looking at his emotionless features, she didn't doubt it for a second.

"I'd really like to know who told you."

"I'm not at liberty to say."

And that was that. But then who else could it have been? Marcus and Alex were about the only two people on the face of the earth who knew about what she'd done. And she couldn't see Alex calling Mr. Kline with the news.

She turned to go but stopped and faced him again. "I'm not your spy, Mr. Kline. If you make the mistake of believing I am, you'll be putting your company at further risk."

"I will, of course, share your denial of any involvement in the current situation with our corporate investigator."

* * *

"You fired Ronnie?" Marcus's voice rose in disbelief as he took in what George Kline had just told him. "Why the hell did you do that?"

Kline expelled a deep breath. "I know it's rough, but once she admitted she'd sold company secrets at CIS, I couldn't keep her on."

Marcus jumped from his chair and leaned over Kline's desk, his knuckles resting on the glass-covered polished wood. "Cut the crap. You wanted to set our perp's mind at rest and make him believe you trusted him."

Kline did not lean back in his chair but met Marcus's glare head on. "Hell, yes, I wanted to leave him with the impression that he's safe. I don't want him taking a runner before we get a rock solid case against him. I want that bastard nailed to the wall."

"So you sacrificed an innocent employee."

"She's not innocent. I told you she confirmed she'd sold company secrets."

Marcus spun away from the desk. "It was a onetime deal, damn it. She needed money to save her sister's life."

"Are you saying she couldn't have gotten the money any other way?"

"She didn't think so." And that was all that mattered.

"I don't employ corporate spies, former or otherwise."

Marcus turned around to face Kline again, his every protective instinct urging him to exact retribution for Ronnie's loss. "It's my investigation, damn it. You should have talked to me first."

Kline laughed, surprising Marcus with the genuine humor he read in the other man's expres-sion. "You know, you're like a hired gun from the Old West. You don't acknowledge anyone else's authority, even the man who hired you."

"I'm not trying to discount your authority."

Kline smiled. "I know. It's instinctive. I realized that from practically the moment I met you. You probably felt perfectly justified in not telling me about Veronica's past with your company as well."

"I would have told you if it had become an important factor in my investigation."

"In other words, if you thought I needed to know. And here I was under the mistaken impression that only the FBI operated on a need-to-know basis."

Marcus felt a reluctant smile tug at the corners of his mouth and sat down. Kline was right. He ran things his own way and trusted his own judgment. Those qualities made him a damn good investigator. On occasion, they also made him every bit as arrogant as Ronnie had once accused him of being.

"I was trying to protect her job. She's had a rough time of it the past few years."

Kline sighed, regret apparent in the uncharacteristic sag of his shoulders. "I know. Her parents died, leaving her custody of her sister, and then she had a baby."

"How the hell do you know this stuff?" Kline had once told him he didn't have time to read all of his employee's files.

"I read her file after Jack Branson came to me with hisconcerns ."

The bastard. Marcus agreed with Kline on one issue at least: he wanted to see Jack's hide nailed to the wall, after he got a chance to muss it up a little.

"I also talked to Allison about her." Kline leveled a piercing look at Marcus. "She keeps up on company gossip with astonishing efficiency."

"Is that right?" What else had the personal assistant told Kline about Ronnie?

"Yes. You can imagine my shock when she told me that she'd heard from one of her coworkers that Veronica's baby just happened to belong to my hot shot consultant and said consultant had asked her to marry him."

Sandy hadn't wasted a second spreading the news. What had she done? Sent out a broadcast e-mail?

"Ronnie hasn't decided."

"Well, I've done you a favor, then, haven't I? Not having a job to hold her in Seattle should make it that much easier for her to come up with a favorable answer."

Kline was right, but that didn't make Marcus feel good. He didn't want Ronnie coming to him because she didn't have any choice. What kind of marriage would they have if she felt pressured by circumstances into agreeing to it?

He wanted her to want to marry him.

"Don't try to justify your indefensible treatment of a loyal and dedicated employee with that kind of garbage."

Kline laughed again. "You've got the whole code thing down, don't you?"

What was the man talking about?

"Code?" he asked, with barely concealed impatience.

"That Old West thing. Not only are you a law unto yourself, but you've got the whole honor and integrity thing going too. You probably think it would be taking unfair advantage of a woman to use financial pressure to get her to marry you."

"And you don't?" Marcus demanded.

Kline shrugged. "Hell, I don't know, but if it's the best thing for her, then maybe I wouldn't worry too much about my methods in getting her there."

Marcus didn't feel like arguing the merits of that kind of cold-blooded pursuit, because maybe if it had been any woman but Ronnie, he would have agreed. It wouldn't have mattered how he got the mother of his child to marry him if he didn't care about her personally, but loving her meant he wanted a hell of a lot more than grudging acceptance.

Loving her?

Hell, yes. Loving her. Just what did he think he'd been feeling for the last almost two years?

He needed Ronnie more than he needed his job, his lifestyle or any of his friends, including Alex.

Only love could explain his unshakable desire to make a life with a woman who had once abandoned him and caused him more pain than anyone had been allowed to since his parents.

Well, one thing was certain: he wasn't going to use this situation to force her into the marriage.

"When did Jack bring his concerns to you?"

"He came in first thing this morning."

"How did he find out?" Marcus knew Jack hadn't gotten the information from anyone at CIS.

That left the company Ronnie had sold the secrets to, Hypertron. But, frankly, he couldn't see the guy talking. It would damage his own reputation in the industry.

"He said an old friend from Portland told him. He worked down there at one of the high-tech companies before coming to Kline Technology."

Marcus didn't buy it, but he'd have to wait until they brought their accusations against Jack before getting the truth about who had ratted Ronnie out from him.

"Listen, Marcus. What I learned today goes no further. I didn't even tell Allison. She thinks Veronica resigned because of her plans to move to Portland. I also told Jack I didn't want the word getting out. I said it would look bad for the company image and I wanted to keep it under wraps."

That was something at least. He didn't know how much comfort it would be to Ronnie, though.

"So, we know who our spy is." A certain amount of satisfaction sizzled through him even amid his concern about how Ronnie was handling the latest upheaval in her life.

Kline smiled a predator's smile. "Now, you just need to build a case against him."

"I'm already working on it. I've got a tracer program on his e-mail that records the IP address of every outgoing and incoming e-mail, even anonymous ones. I've also got your internal security going over his regular and cell phone logs."

Alex was also running discreet inquiries at Jack's former company in Portland.

"It shouldn't be any time at all before we know who he's selling the information to. From there, it's a cakewalk setting him up to take a fall."

"Good." Deep satisfaction vibrated from the single word.

Kline had his own Old West code and it clearly encompassed getting his own back at a betraying employee.

After leaving Kline Technology, Marcus ignored speed limits on his way to Ronnie's apartment. When Kline had told him what he'd done, Marcus had been gutted. He could only begin to imagine how Ronnie felt. Damn. He hoped she wasn't crying. Her tears tortured him.

She had no way of knowing that Kline's giving her the axe was the man's idea ofactivity to set the bad guys at ease .

He slammed into a parking spot outside Ronnie's apartment. Not bothering with his usual ritual of turning off the Jag, he jammed it into first gear to keep it in place and was out of it without a backward glance. He didn't bother trying to look cool as he sprinted across the pavement and up the stairs to the hall outside her apartment.

He rang the bell and waited. Nothing. Damn it. She had to be home. Even if she wasn't, shouldn't Aaron and Jenny be there? He pounded on the door. Where was she?

He pounded again. "Ronnie, baby, open up."

The door swung inward, revealing Ronnie, her eyes swollen and her cheeks damp. Damn. Shehad been crying.

"Marcus. I shouldn't be surprised."

Of course she shouldn't be surprised. Had she expected him to do anything else but come over to offer comfort once he realized what had happened to her that day? She might not know he loved her. Hell,he'd just figured it out, but she knew he cared. A lot.

He stepped inside, closed the door and pulled her into his arms all in one movement.

"It's going to be okay, baby. Trust me," he said into her hair, as he placed a reassuring kiss on the top of her glossy brown head.

"T-trust you?" she asked, her tears making her stutter.

He closed his arms more tightly around her and groaned as she shuddered with a small sob. "Yeah, baby. Trust me. You aren't alone anymore. I'm here for you."

She went stiff against him and tried to pull away. It was just like her. She was too damn independent, but he wasn't going to let her face this alone.

"It's going to be okay. Kline promised to keep what he knows to himself. No ugly shadows are going to follow you to Portland."

"Follow me to Portland?"

He sighed. "Honey, I know you're upset, but do you need to repeat everything I say?"