She was tempted to suggest they return to the ship and the privacy of their cabin to try and alleviate their mutual hunger, but she’d seen a side of Rand today that she’d begun to fear had vanished forever. She was determined to lure the fun-loving man out again.
“Want me to do your back?” Her palms tingled in anticipation.
“No.” That hard, bitten-off response carried the sting of rejection, but she’d made too much progress in the past hour to give up so easily.
“I bet you know all the good hiding places on the island,” she prompted.
He gulped his water instead of replying.
“We could find one.”
She couldn’t see behind his glasses, but his sudden stillness, the flare of his nostrils and the thin white line forming around his mouth was hard to miss. “You’re the one who said we have a confidence issue with KCL employees. Getting caught banging my PA in the lighthouse won’t improve it.”
She flinched at the crude statement, but acknowledged he had a point. Her gaze shifted to the black-and-white diamond-patterned lighthouse looming over the island. Too bad. She would have liked a private tour of the tall structure…and anything else Rand had to offer behind the thick, sturdy walls.
Forcing her eyes back to Rand she decided to aim for a less sensitive subject. “It must have been fun having an island as a playground when you were growing up. Did you and Nadia and Mitch come here often?”
“It wasn’t a playground. When we came, we came to work.”
“Doing what?” Other than telling her he’d worked onboard several ships, he’d never given her details.
“Mitch worked watercraft. Jet Skis, parasailing. Nadia taught snorkeling and kayaking.”
She waited for him to expand. He didn’t. “What did you do?”
“Food prep. Trash detail. Maintenance. Dad always gave me the hottest, dirtiest jobs. The only time I had a job with tips was when I worked as a cabin steward. He liked the idea of me cleaning toilets.”
That didn’t sound like the Everett she’d known. “Why would he do that?”
“He said if I wanted to run KCL I needed to have an intimate knowledge of the underbelly. He did his best to make sure I got it.”
Rand’s bitterness brought a lump to her throat. “I’m sorry.”
His lips compressed even more. “I’m not. I understand my workforce the way few CEOs do. My father did his best to break me, but in the end he did me a favor.”
Tara stared aghast. She’d known Everett could be ruthless with his competitors. But had he been as merciless with his own children? Apparently so.
How could the man Rand described be the same one who’d treated her so well? Had she been so blinded by the excitement of being transferred to the top floor that she’d seen everything through rose-colored glasses?
Maybe even her relationship with Rand.
Doubts made her stomach churn.
No. No. She had loved Rand.
Hadn’t she?
Although she had to admit, she’d learned more about him in the past ten days than she’d learned in the months they’d known each other before. Rand Kincaid was far more complex than the gorgeous, charming guy who’d swept her off her feet, shown her a good time and taught her about the pleasures of sex. But she knew now he’d barely let her scratch the surface.
Shaking her head, she lay back on her chair and pulled the brim of her hat over her face. How could she have believed herself in love with a man she’d barely known?
Because this Rand had depth and character and integrity that the younger man she remembered had never displayed.
And he was much more attractive.
“Must be nice to get a paid vacation less than two weeks after starting a new job.”Mitch’s bitter comment pulled Tara’s attention away from the papers spewing out of the printer Monday afternoon. She swiveled her desk chair and saw him entering her office with a long, confident stride very similar to his brother’s.
She’d never had a problem with Mitch when she worked for KCL last time. In fact, she’d considered him the peacemaker in many of the disagreements between Rand and Everett. But ever since she’d returned he’d been cool.
“Back off, Mitch,” Rand said from his open door before Tara could reply. “If you have a problem with the way my staff or I operate, then you come to me.”
The brothers faced off, each with his hands clenched by his sides. Their stances and profiles were so similar. They shared the same tall frames, broad shoulders, thick dark brows, straight noses and stubborn chins. Tara had never noticed the similarities before.
“You skipped out without saying a word.” Mitch’s voice carried an undercurrent Tara couldn’t fathom.
“Your PA knew we were going out of town, and she knew when we’d be back. If she didn’t inform you, that’s your problem.”
“She didn’t know where you’d gone and you didn’t answer your cell phone. Hell, for all I knew you’d headed back to California.” He and Rand exchanged another long, silent look.
“I was out of cell range.”
“A vacation violates the terms of the will.”
“Then it’s a good thing Tara and I weren’t on vacation. We were working on KCL business,” Rand said in a lowered tone.
“I couldn’t reveal our plans without raising a flag.”
Any remnants of the man who’d shared her cabin and her bed each night of the cruise had vanished the moment they’d stepped ashore this morning.
Rand had indeed danced with her at the luau and made love to her every night of the cruise, but it was as if he didn’t want to make love, yet couldn’t help himself. And as he’d stated at the beginning of their agreement, he hadn’t held her afterward or played happy couple. Each time he’d risen from the bed immediately after his cli**x, even before their breathing slowed or the sweat dried on their skin. He’d retreated to the bathroom, then returned to lie on his side of the mattress.
The contradiction between mind-melting passion and the detached man on the opposite side of the bed had been disconcerting to say the least. They’d been together. But apart. Far, far apart.
Once they’d reached her home he’d barely allowed them time to drop off their luggage and change into work clothes before heading into the office. He was all business this afternoon, from his tightly knotted navy tie to his polished cognac-colored wingtips. She wasn’t sure if she should consider today’s carpooling as a sign of progress or just a way for him to guarantee she’d be at her desk and ready to work when he needed something from her. Like the data she’d printed out.
“What were you working on that you couldn’t do it here?” Mitch asked.
Rand glanced at Tara. “Have the switchboard pick up the calls and bring your notebook and the spreadsheets into my office.”
He turned on his heel and headed for the inner sanctum, closely followed by Mitch. “Dammit, Rand, what’s going on?”
Surprised, but happy to be included after he’d shut her out on the island, Tara did as Rand instructed and joined them. She needed a machete to cut through the tense silence in the room.
“Close the door,” Rand ordered and Tara did. He jerked his head, indicating she sit in the visitor chair beside Mitch’s. “We took a three-night trip on the Abalone. Tell him what you found, Tara.”
“Whoa. Hold it. You voluntarily went on a cruise? You hate cruising.”
Tara’s shocked gaze shot from Mitch’s to Rand’s face. Rand hated cruising? He’d never said anything. And how could he hate traveling on a ship with as much experience as he’d had?
“Necessity.” He nodded for Tara to go ahead.
Smothering the questions bouncing around her brain, she flipped open her notebook. “I interviewed about three dozen customers while onboard, but a group of six men who’ve taken five different destination cruises with Rendezvous over the past five years gave me the most information. They’re single, but fit the target age and income demographic of the brand. They said in the past two years the quality and quantity of the food had dropped off noticeably, and the alcoholic drinks appeared to be watered down. They’re seriously considering switching to another cruise line for next year’s trip.”
Rand extended his hand. Tara passed him the spreadsheets. One tanned finger skated down the columns and then stopped. “Two years ago Rendezvous requested and received four-point-six million for refurbishing. From what I saw onboard, none of the textiles has been replaced in ten years. The carpets, drapes and bedspreads are worn and faded. The towels are thin. Not threadbare, but close. I saw chipped dishes in the stacks every time I ate at one of the buffets.”
The boat was shabbily decorated? That’s what he hadn’t wanted to tell her?
His hazel gaze drilled Mitch. “Where did that money go if not into the ships?”
“I have no clue without checking the ledgers.”
“Tara will access those for us and print copies. I want you to go over them with a magnifying glass at home. I’ll do the same. And we need to check every other ship in the brand, because the Abalone sure as hell hasn’t been refurbished.”
Mitch’s eyes narrowed. “You think someone is skimming?”
Tara’s stomach plunged. Rand suspected embezzlement. And he thought she’d tell the guilty party? Why would he think…
Because you told him you’d lied.
But he’d decided to trust her now. That’s what mattered.
Rand’s gaze shifted to Tara then back to his brother. “Until we see the other ships and the books I won’t know for sure. But it looks that way. And you can thank Tara for pointing us in the right direction. If she hadn’t targeted the repeat customers with her questions, we’d never have known where to start looking.”
Pleasure and pride bloomed inside her at his praise.
Rand gave her another long, intense look. “This conversation stays in this room. Mitch, I don’t even want your PA to get a whiff of it. Not with the way the KCL gossip factory works. If someone is embezzling from KCL, then we don’t want to tip them off and give them time to abscond or cover their tracks.”
Mitch leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the arms of the chair. “What’s the plan?”
“I want every Rendezvous ship inspected for improvements as it comes to port. Since each cruise originates in Miami that’s something we can handle without fanfare.”
Mitch nodded.
“And with Nadia in Dallas, that means you and I will have to do the legwork because I’m not trusting this to anyone else.”
Tara jotted notes and reminders to reschedule appointments set around docking times. She glanced at Rand. “You might want to spot-check the other brands, as well, to cover your investigation.”
Both men’s gazes focused on her. She shrugged. “My mother loved mysteries. I read a lot of them to her when she was…ill. There were always red herrings to keep from giving away the true villain.”
Rand nodded. “Good point, Tara.”