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RAFAEL
Valentina knocks as I’m finishing my last call of the afternoon, and I beckon her into the makeshift office.
She looks like she’s been battered by the waves and dumped on shore. My chest tightens. “It sounds like you handled it. I’ll call you back in a few minutes,” I tell Xavier, who’s been updating me on a minor security breach at Sirena last night.
“What’s wrong?” I ask Valentina, tossing my phone on the desk and going to her.
“I screwed up, Rafa. I don’t know how it happened, but I screwed up. I’m so sorry.”
She’s shaking. Whatever has her like this isn’t some small hiccup.
I put an arm around her. “Let’s sit down, and then you can tell me what has you so upset. Whatever the problem, I’m sure we can fix it.” I’ve already sharpened my blade.
“The caterer’s office contacted me,” she begins.
I listen intently as she tells me a story that puts my nerves on edge. The more she talks, the harder my blood simmers. By the time she finishes, it’s at a full boil. This was not a mistake or a misunderstanding. This was a deliberate action meant to sabotage the most important launch event.
“I-I-I was prescribed some medicine for anxiety, and I don’t normally take it because it makes me foggy. But I took it the night of the gala, along with a sleeping pill, which I never take.”
Antianxiety medicine? Sleeping pills? What the fuck?
Valentina is normally poised, but she’s fidgeting nonstop. It’s painful to watch.
“I don’t know,” she continues. “Maybe I canceled them by mistake. Maybe I did something. Misworded an email. I—”
I won’t allow her to blame herself for this. Not for a fucking second. Someone’s going to pay for putting her in this position. I take her hands. “Listen to me, sweetheart. This wasn’t a screwup. This sounds like sabotage.”
“Sabotage?” Her features crinkle. “Like what Scott Bancroft tried to do with the bank accounts? It doesn’t seem quite the same.” She peers into my face, eyes wide. “Do you think he could be responsible?”
No, it doesn’t feel quite the same. But it’s the first place I’ll be looking. I thought he’d been sufficiently warned, but maybe my knife didn’t cut deep enough to leave a scar. “Maybe.”
“Do you think anything else might have been sabotaged?” she asks, bracing herself for bad news.
She was so excited on the plane. God help Bancroft if he’s responsible.
“Not sure.” I pause to organize my thoughts. “This is what we’re going to do. I need you to spend the next hour trying to get through to the caterer. Start out being nice with them, but if the business manager still refuses to put you in touch with the caterer herself, turn up the heat. Tell him if you don’t get a call back from her within the hour, they won’t see a cent. If he continues to put you off, say he’s left you with no other choice than to go to every media outlet in the state so that others are protected, and that we’ll be forced to sue them for breach of contract. I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
She nods, taking notes on her phone. “I’ll keep trying the party planner too.”
“Are we okay for tonight?”
“Yes. Different caterer. And it’s a different party planner too. I checked with her on my way up to talk to you.”
“Good. I also need the information about the warehouse you mentioned. I’ll send someone over to see what’s going on.”
“I have a packet from the party planner with that information, and other specifics—including names and contact information for all the vendors. I’ll confirm everything,” she says, scrolling through her phone.
Now that she has a plan forward, she seems less stressed, which makes me less stressed. “Focus on the caterer, and I’ll round up some people to help with all the other details. We’ll pull together as much support as you need.”
“I can’t find the email with the attachment.”
The stress is back, along with confusion. Great.
“Is it the same packet you gave me?”
She nods, her eyes glued to the screen as she searches. “Do you still have it?”
I don’t tend to keep emails after I’ve read them—but my assistant never throws out anything. “I’m sure Noelia has the hard copy. I’ll have her scan it and send it to you.”
