“No,” I said. I studied his face, wondering if he’d hear me out. “Listen, I don’t know what happened but I promise you, I haven’t used my card, not once, so there’s no way a stranger hacked my number.”
“What are you saying, Annabelle?”
“I think it was someone in-house,” I said. His eyes narrowed. He didn’t like that any more than I did. “Is there any way we can put an alert on it, so that when it’s used, it will tell us when and where?”
“I can track it online,” he said. “The credit card company will flag suspicious charges, but you’d have to be in Paris or something to trigger that.”
I rather wished I was in Paris at the moment. Paris is always a good idea, after all.
“What if we leave it open just to see if we can catch them?” I asked.
“I don’t know, they could rack up thousands in debt,” he said. “I don’t want to risk it.”
“Could we put a cap on the amount?”
One eyebrow went up higher than his eyeglass frames. “Meaning we make your maximum low enough that whoever wants to run up a huge bill gets rejected and has to use another form of payment?”
I nodded. “I hate to even suggest this, but if it’s someone in the office, then they’d likely use their business card to cover it, tipping us off to who it is.”
Trent handed my card back to me with a calculating look. “There’s going to be an email, announcing to the staff to be more conscientious with their business expenses. It would help if you look duly chastened by it.”
I smiled at him. “We’re going fishing?”
“That’s right, shark bait.”
I laughed. I had my suspicions about who had hijacked my card, but I was willing to wait until he was outed for certain before I threw any confetti in the air.
“One question,” he said. “How would you feel if there was a security camera installed in your office temporarily?”
“Whatever it takes is fine with me,” I said.
I arrived back at my office and stored my card back in my wallet. I hadn’t been in the habit of locking my door, although I usually kept it shut when I wasn’t here. I was going to have to rethink that while still giving the thief access to my office. Hmm.
I glanced at the room and noted that something was different. The mockups on my worktable weren’t as I had left them. I crossed the room and studied them. Nothing was missing, but it was clear they’d been moved, as if someone had picked them up and studied them. I felt a chill run down my spine. I had no doubt it was Carson West. Now I just had to prove it.
* * *
My raft floated by Nick’s, and I felt as if I were caught in a dream, floating around a gorgeous aqua pool with a hot guy on a Sunday afternoon as if I didn’t have a care in the world.
Ha! If only. Despite the margarita in my hand, I was not relaxed. Anything but. The gala for Lexi’s housing project was coming up fast, and I was being hypervigilant about every single aspect of it. With so much work to be done, it was exhausting, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the prize.
Carson West being on the design team was a stressor I did not need, but I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of him without a truckload of office drama. The pleaser in me didn’t like making waves, but I didn’t trust him not to sabotage the project intentionally and make it look like my fault. Add in my suspicion that he was also the one tampering with my corporate card, and tracking his every move at the office was becoming an obsession.
I was still unsettled by his questions about how I’d met Lexi and managed to bring her in as a client. The man gave me bad vibes, and they were creeping into my off time, too, which I mightily resented.
“All right, what’s going on?” Nick asked.
He caught my raft as it came alongside his, keeping me from floating by.
“What do you mean?” I asked. I sipped my margarita, playing it cool.
“You keep making these exasperated little noises while you’re staring off into space so it seems something is bugging you,” he said. He closed the paperback book he had in his hand and gently tossed it onto one of the lounge chairs beside the pool. “I thought you’d consider it a victory to have the tenant ban from the pool lifted.”
I grinned at him and made a V for victory with the index and middle fingers of my free hand. I had been quite stoked when he told me the pool and hot tub were at my disposal whenever I wanted.
“Which is much appreciated,” I said. “I’m just having a hard time leaving work at the office.”
“Can I help?”
I considered him. “That depends. Do you have any experience with disgruntled narcissists?”
“Carson West?” he asked.
I was impressed that he remembered the name from our conversation on my patio the night he’d turned up in his wheelchair with Sir.
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t trust him and he’s maneuvered himself onto Lexi’s project and my instincts are telling me he’s going to do something to sabotage it. He’s already started questioning how I, a new resident to Phoenix, managed to bag such a big client. I suspect he’s talking about me behind my back to other staff members, because there were just a few instances where I felt like something was off with colleagues that I normally get along with just fine. He’s trying to undermine me, and I genuinely don’t know what to do about it.”
I didn’t mention the corporate card because I didn’t have proof, but also I suspected Nick would be mad enough to talk to Miguel and I didn’t want anyone to know we were a thing. If we were going to last only a few months, then there wasn’t much point in going public.
“What’s your strategy been so far?” he asked.
“Watch him,” I said. “And try to anticipate what he might do to sabotage the project.”
“That’s got to be exhausting,” Nick said.
I let my head flop back on my raft. “Yes. I’m so tired. Although most of that is your fault.”
Nick let out a self-satisfied chuckle that warmed my heart. The same heart I had deep packed in ice so that it wouldn’t smash to bits when this fling was over.
“Okay, you’re playing a solid defense, but what you really need to do is move to an offensive position,” he said.
“Man-to-man or zone?” I asked. He lifted an eyebrow in surprise. “What? I played basketball.”
“Then you should know how to establish a fast break offense,” he said. “You need to soften Carson into thinking he’s got you figured out and then you kick into high gear and charge right around him. Nothing but net.”