Cathy leaned closer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Iris...did you sleep with him?”
Iris hesitated. “Yes.”
Their nights together had been precious and wonderful. They’d revealed themselves to each other in more than a physical way. Their loving had been generous and caring. They’d been vulnerable to each other because they’d had trust. Or so she’d thought. The sharing had been beautiful. Now those memories turned her stomach. How could she have been such a fool? Worse than that: How could she have given him her heart?
Cathy squeezed Iris’s shoulder. “For his sake, that’s one secret I recommend you keep from your sisters.”
* * *
Tyler waited for his cousin to respond to his announcement that Xavier’s key card had been used to enter Iris’s office.
“That’s impossible.” Xavier sounded baffled. “I haven’t used my key card in that door since Iris has been here. Are you sure it’s my card?”
Tyler read the key-card number from the report.
Xavier followed along, reading the back of his card, which hung from a belt loop at his hip. “That’s my number. But I swear I haven’t used my card on that door in months.”
“Could someone else have used your card?”
“No, I—” Xavier stopped himself. His dark eyes clouded with confusion. “But she wouldn’t...”
“Who?” Tyler’s patience was at an all-time low. He’d just accused the woman he was fallin
g in love with of betraying him and his company. He didn’t think he’d ever done anything more difficult or more painful. It had been like tearing his heart from his chest without anesthesia. Now it was possible he’d been wrong all along.
Xavier’s dark eyes were troubled. “Lauren needed to use the restroom. But she didn’t want to wait for Sherry to buzz her back into our offices so I loaned her my key card.”
Tyler took a figurative punch to his solar plexus. Did this explain the leak from Iris’s computer?
“You loaned your security card to Lauren?” Tyler’s voice sounded grim to his ears. “She doesn’t even work here.”
“I know.” Regret was heavy in Xavier’s voice. But it was too late. The game was already in play. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s against company policy to let other people use your key card.” Why couldn’t the nontechnical people in their company wrap their minds around the critical reason for this policy: security?
Xavier scrubbed his hands over his face. “We don’t know that Lauren used my card to get into Iris’s office.”
“Did you access Iris’s office?”
“No, but...it never occurred to me that she would use my card to sneak around the company.”
“That’s why the security policy exists. It takes away even the possibility of someone using another person’s key card for stuff like this.” Tyler tamped down on his anger. He wasn’t here to beat up on Xavier. He was after the truth.
Xavier rose and paced to his office window. He spoke over his shoulder. “You think Lauren used my key card to get into Iris’s office and send the email to The Gamer’s Seat?”
“Why else would your key card show up on the report the day the email was sent to Tipper?”
“But Lauren doesn’t have Iris’s computer password.”
Tyler rubbed the back of his neck. “Unfortunately, Iris doesn’t always lock her computer before leaving her office.” He knew this. He’d been in her office when she’d forgotten and he’d had to remind her. Why hadn’t he listened to her when she’d tried to tell him that earlier? Because he’d put Anderson Adventures’ needs first.
Xavier looked over his shoulder. “Another person who doesn’t follow the security rules. We must drive you nuts.”
“Yes, you do.”
Xavier turned back to the window. “This is hard to accept.”
“Believe me, I know how you feel.”