Wild Man Creek (Virgin River #14)

Wild Man Creek (Virgin River #14)
Robyn Carr




Prologue

Jillian Matlock was a natural in the business world and her ability to anticipate surprises and challenges was legendary. After many successful years in communications it never once occurred to her that she’d be tricked. Set up. Taken for a fall.

One busy Monday morning Jillian wondered only briefly why Kurt Conroy hadn’t shown up for work. Kurt worked for her in Corporate Communications at the San Jose software manufacturer, Benedict Software Systems. He was the director of PR. He was also her boyfriend, though no one in the company knew that. She’d spoken to him last night but he never mentioned a thing about not feeling well or taking some personal time.

Right now she had bigger fish to fry as she had just had a call from her boss, Harry Benedict, President and CEO. As Vice President of Corporate Communications, such a summons was fairly routine for Jillian. She had several face-to-face meetings with Harry each week. He was her boss, mentor and friend.

She gave his office door a couple of short courtesy raps before entering. The question about Kurt’s absence was immediately answered—he was seated in front of the president’s desk.

“Well, good morning,” she said to Kurt. “I wondered where you were. You didn’t mention taking the morning off.”

It took several beats before she noticed that Kurt could not meet her gaze and Harry was frowning darkly. She sat in the other guest chair and it still didn’t quite register that something was wrong. Very wrong.

“We have a situation,” Harry said, looking first at Kurt, then at Jillian. “Mr. Conroy has notified me that he intends to file a sexual harassment complaint, he has hired an attorney to represent him and he is here to suggest a settlement of terms that will help us all avoid a lawsuit.” Harry swallowed and his frown darkened.

For another long moment Jillian was on another planet. Someone had been sexually harassing her boyfriend? “My God,” she said, stunned. “Why didn’t you say something, Kurt? Who would do this to you?”

Kurt finally looked her in the eye and then he smirked. “Funny, Jillian,” he said. “Very funny.”

She unconsciously drew her eyebrows together. “What’s going on here?” she asked, looking between Kurt and Harry.

Harry cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. “Mr. Conroy alleges that you are the guilty party, Jillian.”

“What?” she said, automatically shooting to her feet. “What the hell…?” She stared at Kurt. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Please, sit down, Jillian,” Harry said. Then he looked at Kurt and said, “Take the rest of the day off, Kurt. I’ll be in touch later.”

Without a word, without a backward glance, Kurt rose and left the office of the president, quietly closing the door behind him.

Jill looked at Harry. “Is this some kind of sick joke?”

“I wish,” Harry said. “I can’t wait to hear your take on this, Jill.”

She gave a short laugh of disbelief. “My take? I thought I had a boyfriend! Harry, Kurt and I have been seeing each other for months! It was completely consensual and only became—” she struggled for the right word “—serious…very recently! He pursued me! And trust me, our private relationship had nothing to do with work! He had been promoted long before I ever went out with him.”

“You were seeing him secretly?” he asked.

“I’d prefer to describe it as ‘discreetly.’ I helped Human Resources put together the corporate policy years ago, when the company was so young. No problem with dating or marrying inside the company, but not within the same department. According to that policy, one of us would have had to change departments. Obviously Kurt would have to make the change, since he’s the subordinate. But his only experience is in PR and my department was the only place he had a good fit. We worked well together! Or so I thought…”

Harry shook his head. “You were instrumental in putting that policy in place, Jillian. In fact, if I remember, it was your idea in the first place.”

She scooted to the edge of her seat. “Yes, but it wasn’t developed because of the threat of sexual harassment! Sexual harassment is never consensual, and it’s never confused with dating—it’s always extortion of some kind. We—I mean the Human Resources team—were concerned about complaints inside departments from employees alleging promotion based on favoritism. That’s why dating within a department was a bad idea. We also created a policy saying employees shouldn’t be late, shouldn’t dress inappropriately and shouldn’t park in the president’s spot!”

She got a smile out of Harry for that. It was a small smile.

“I thought, given time and training, Kurt might be a good successor to me. And before you ask, my opinion is not because I liked him but because there was no one else more qualified. I know how you hate to go outside the company to fill positions if there’s opportunity internally for our employees.” The seriousness of this situation was becoming brutally apparent and Jill took a moment to pass her hand across her brow and then gaze across the room.

“Well, that’s a coincidence,” Harry said, passing her a folder. “Kurt sees himself as your successor, as well. Have a look at this.”

Jill’s hands actually trembled a bit as she lifted the cover of the folder and looked at a collection of memos, emails, printouts of text messages and miscellaneous notes. The first email she looked at came from her and it said, How am I doing? I could use shoulder rub! “Harry, this had nothing to do with a relationship! After a grueling meeting, he emailed me and asked me how I was holding up! In fact…” She looked closely at the date. She shook her head. “I wasn’t even dating him then!” She would have to plow through months of old emails. Months of deleted emails. Months of inane, trivial messages.