A Time To Give. Kathryn Shay

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СКАЧАТЬ made his way to the bench. He tried hard not to think about the people on staff who’d survived the first round of Mackenzie’s cuts, but now would suffer the sword of his greed. Dan, the comptroller, was still there. He’d heard Mackenzie had brought in his own vice president of human resources but had kept Janice, who supported her elderly mother and did the personnel work for Rockford Gas & Electric. His secretary and mother hen, Betty. And all those factory workers in the plant….

      Trey sat when they reached the shade and removed his Ray-Bans. “I got a line on something.”

      Still standing, Ben braced his foot on the bench and draped his arm over his knee. “Trey, I appreciate all this, but I’ve told you time and again the battle was over the day Lammon Mackenzie outmaneuvered me. Why do you keep after this?”

      The lawyer’s lazy gaze sharpened. “I’m still involved for a number of reasons. One—” he held up a finger “—you and I were friends as well as colleagues. I’m mad as hell that you ditched me because things went south. Two—” another finger joined the first “—I was your attorney when the sleazebag went after Cassidy Industries and I couldn’t stop it, so I owe you.” He drew in a breath. “Number three, you won’t use the money you got for the business and paid my fees. I put it in a bank account for you, but it just sits there. So that’s still an issue.”

      “Damn right it is. I keep getting notices on it.” He straightened. “I don’t want the damn money.”

      “And last,” Trey continued as if Ben hadn’t spoken, “I think I might have something on the bastard.”

      “Unless it’s something he did illegally when he took over, which you would have found out then, it doesn’t matter.”

      “It’s not exactly illegal, but it’s unethical and we might be able to claim fraud and possible bribery.”

      “I—” Ben stopped. “It is? What?”

      “Remember when the contracts from Rockford Gas & Electric got stalled?”

      “How could I forget?” Ben began to pace. “If we’d gotten those contracts, we wouldn’t have had to take Mackenzie on as an investor.”

      Cassidy Industries made instrumentation for utility companies; the business had gotten in financial trouble because Ben’s products had been eroded by software and digital advancements. He’d extended his bank credit and mortgaged his personal assets to keep the company afloat. Finally he’d needed an investor and had made the poor choice of Mackenzie Enterprises.

      Negotiations had gone well, but after the honeymoon was over, Mackenzie had started making stipulations on his several-million-dollar loan. Their business relationship had become heated, unfriendly, then downright hostile. In the end, Ben had been forced to agree to the two things that caused him to lose the company: that Cassidy Industries receive the Rockford Gas & Electric contracts, which were in the process of being approved by the utility company’s officers, and that the patent on fuel-cell technology, which Ben had developed to take the business to a new level, had to come through within six months. He still remembered that heart-stopping day he’d discovered the contracts had been delayed indefinitely. At that time, the patent had been pending.

      Trey’s eyes narrowed. “My private investigator thinks maybe Mackenzie paid off the contracts guy at the utility company. He seems to have had an unexpected windfall right as Mackenzie began his pursuit of your business. If I can find a connection between this guy and expenditures Mackenzie made at the time, we’ll have something. But it’s tricky and may take a while. We’re also going to check to see if he did anything about the patent that didn’t come through until after you sold out.” That patent, worth gold now, belonged to Cassidy Industries, not Ben.

      “Trey, I don’t want you spending money on a private investigator for me.”

      Trey shook his head. “It’s not just for you. I want to know what I did wrong.”

      “The only thing we did wrong was to fight fair.”

      “Maybe not. In any case, I owe you.”

      “Don’t start on that again.”

      “I’ll start on that all I want. You hired me fresh out of law school. I became a moving force in the legal world of Rockford because of you.”

      “At least my debacle didn’t hurt you too much.”

      “It didn’t hurt me at all. Do you know how much I earn?” He swore. “Let me spend some of it trying to make sense of what happened.”

      “You’re wasting your money.”

      “No, I’m not.” Trey grabbed his arm. “Just promise me you’ll think about this. I won’t go any further until I hear from you. But at least return my calls. I hate leaving my girl in bed on Saturday morning to hunt you down.”

      That got a chuckle out of Ben. Though he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a girl in his bed on a weekend, he did recall it had felt damn good. “I promise I’ll think about it. Now get out of here.”

      Trey nodded and headed the other way.

      “Thompson?” Ben called out.

      The lawyer looked over his shoulder, his brows raised.

      “Thanks. I wish you wouldn’t do it, but I appreciate your…caring enough.”

      Trey smiled. “I’ll be in touch.”

      As Ben trudged back to his job, he squelched the tiny bud of hope inside him. The fact that Trey always engendered this optimism was one of the reasons Ben didn’t want to see him. Nothing was going to come out of this newest development. If Trey could have stopped the takeover, he would have done it before.

      The war was finished between Ben and Mackenzie. Even if Mackenzie had played dirty, the result was that Ben had lost everything. There was no changing it now.

      “WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT, Dad?”

      Emily’s father glanced up from his computer screen. He was a big man, with powerful shoulders. Despite his thick shock of gray hair, he kept himself fit for someone nearing sixty. His perpetual grimace softened somewhat when he saw her. “Good morning to you, too.”

      She smiled. “Good morning.” She held up the FedEx package. “I received this request from Jacob Brill by messenger as soon as I got in. He wants information on the employees. Why?”

      “I’m selling off Rockford Instruments.”

      “What?”

      “I’m selling. The stock’s up, the climate’s good. Gotta strike while the iron’s hot, girl.”

      “Did you, at all, think to tell your vice president of human resources about this decision?”

      Lazily he leaned back in his chair. She recognized the casual pose as one of his many tactics to disarm someone who confronted him. “I decided last Monday. I tried to call you that night, but you were out. I flew to Vegas on Tuesday and just got back.”

      “I have dance class until ten on Mondays.”

      His smile СКАЧАТЬ