Freedom (Billionaire Secrets 2)
All weekend he’d kept his head down and been in touch with Linda. The photo of him kissing Heather hadn’t gotten out, but there were enough murmurings and innuendos about the reunion on social media.
He walked into his office, prepared to call Linda and check on her progress for stopping the release of the photo.
Everett Eastman, Dover’s most senior board member, was standing at the window, staring at the view.
Simon frowned and shut the door. It was unusual for Everett to show up unannounced like this. “Everett? What are you doing here?”
“When it rains it pours.” Everett turned to face him, his hands shoved into his pockets. As always the Brit was immaculately dressed, his graying hair slicked back. “I just got the sales numbers for the new product launch.”
“How bad is it?”
“Sales are slower than projected,” Everett replied. “Things aren’t dire, but it’s bad enough for the investors to take notice and panic.”
“They’re always panicking,” Simon muttered, though he hated getting bad news like this. He’d spent years perfecting Dover’s new products. Poured his heart and soul into all of it.
“That’s not the only problem,” Everett said.
A knife twisted in his gut. The chattering about the reunion on social media hadn’t necessarily been bad enough to get Everett’s attention, but there was something in his tone that set Simon on edge. Set him on edge enough to start being more concerned for Heather than for himself.
“I got a disturbing report from our financial investigator, Josh Bradley,” Everett continued. “I know he’s been working privately with you, and he disclosed that to me a few days ago when I first hired him. It’s only ethical that I reveal to you that Dover has hired him to keep our financial house in order. Especially in light of your previous assistant’s shady dealings and the new products not doing as well as we’d hoped.”
It didn’t surprise Simon that Dover was now one of Josh’s clients. Josh was the best at what he did, and it was only natural for him to have Dover itself as a client.
“So, what’s the problem?” he asked warily. If Everett was trying to bait him, it wasn’t going to work. He’d keep his cards as close to the vest as possible. Simon wasn’t about to tell Everett that Josh suspected that Heather had been responsible for the entire scandal getting out to the press.
Everett gave him a hard stare, a cold expression on his face. “Something very strange came to my attention. Our rivals, VLA Technologies, just announced that they’re unveiling their new generation of products ahead of schedule.”
“What? They’re not supposed to release their new generation for another nine months. That’s why we decided to bring the products to market so early. With VLA taking their time we’d have months to get traction and outperform them.”
“Well, they’re releasing the products three months from now,” Everett muttered darkly. “Somehow they managed to rush the design, and we’re not going to get a minute of breathing room with this. Not now that this mess with your new assistant has set us back when it comes to public trust.”
Simon cursed under his breath. “There’s no way they could have decided to do things ahead of schedule unless they had insider knowledge.”
“They had to have known that our rollout would be a disaster,” Everett said. “Which means they planned this entire scandal to use against us.”
“Everett, that’s crazy.” He held up his hands, suddenly connecting the dots. Connecting them and not wanting to.
“The financial investigator doesn’t think it’s so crazy,” Everett barked. “According to him, the only way VLA could have done things ahead of schedule was if they could either see into the future or planned this outcome months in advance.”
“You think—”
“I think your assistant was sent here to seduce you and then use it against you,” Everett cut him off.
“You think Heather is a corporate spy?”
“What other explanation is there?” Everett narrowed his eyes. “She used to work at VLA. They could have easily sent here to seduce you or spy on you.”