“Damn it.” Vincent tipped his head back to look at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and told her the truth. “Someone at Hunter is leaking our ideas to the competition and costing us millions in accounts.”
Lexi’s head spun so quickly she was surprised her neck didn’t snap. “What? Who? Tony?” She immediately slammed her hand over her mouth, unable to believe she’d accused his cousin of corporate thievery.
“I wish I could say you’re wrong, but I honestly have no idea.” He was back on his feet and began his usual path across the office, and then spun and retraced his steps.
“Do you have any idea which accounts?”
“Well, I think we both know they tried on the Stone account, but we got lucky on that one. Then there was the Keller account, and I’m going to venture a guess that we lost the Garcia account over it too. God, do you know how stupid I looked every time I walked into an office and gave what appeared to be a recycled presentation?” Vincent clenched his hands into fists and thrust them deep into his pockets as if to keep from punching the wall.
“Let’s think about this.” All Vincent’s pacing made Lexi nervous, so she too began walking her own route around the room, occasionally bumping into Vincent, who was deep in thought. “Can I ask how you found this out? Who’s the source?”
Vincent had a guilty look on his face as he answered. “That really doesn’t matter. The fact is the information is good.” Lexi watched him shrug then continue around his desk, closing that topic.
Suddenly all the meetings the previous week made sense to Lexi. He’d been fishing for information. “So, what do you need me to do? How can i help you?” she immediately asked.
“I really don’t deserve you,” Vincent muttered as he sat down at his desk and put his face in his hands. He took a deep breath and his head popped up. “Give me the file.”
Lexi slid into a nearby chair and handed him the Excalibur file.
“This client might seem like small potatoes right now, but I happen to know that Mr. Johnson has connections, and this line of watches is getting huge celebrity buzz and is looking to go very big very fast. He’s a family friend, so I really want to hit this out of the park for him. If we can snag this account now and look a little bit to the future in the presentation, this could be a huge money maker for Hunter. But we have to blow everyone away with our campaign.”
Lexi’s brow furrowed together in confusion. “I’m not following. What does this client have to do with catching the mole?”
Vincent sighed. “I want you to work on this, only you and me. I can’t risk anyone leaking this information. Not the long term plans of Excalibur or our concepts, none of it. Only three people know about Excalibur’s big plans. Two of the three are sitting in this room. Mr. Johnson is the other.”
Lexi examined the file he handed her. In it was his initial presentation plan. The idea was brilliant. She quickly scanned the documents and understood the direction he wanted to take this project. “What do we need for the initial meeting?”
“I have a PowerPoint in there. I need you to fact check it and clean it up. I’ve stared at it too long, and I know it’s sloppy in places. It needs a fresh set of eyes on it. If you think something needs to be changed, just do it. We aren’t going to do a full presentation. He wants a brief concept outline and a small mock up ad, which I will work on myself.” He shrugged when Lexi looked at him in surprise. “Fewer eyes on this the better.”
“When do we need this done by?”
“Sunday.” Vincent smiled apologetically when Lexi’s face went white. “Really, I’ve done most of the leg work on this, I just need you to polish it up and make it better. And keep a lid on it. Everything stays locked up tight.”
“I can handle that. Who else is presenting to him? Are Parketti or Reid?” Lexi asked, trying to get a handle on what direction this mole might be coming from.
“I know Reid is, and I bet Adria will also be presenting since she met him years ago when we were dating. He liked her then, so I assume she has weaseled into this as well.”
“And we’ve lost accounts to both of them, right, not just Reid?” Lexi was on her feet, tapping her pencil against her thigh as she walked the room.
“Yeah. Like I said, whoever this is, is giving information to a number of sources. It’s not like Person A here at Hunter is feeding everything to Person B at Reid. Whoever this is has lots of shady contacts and is working them to the fullest.” He began rubbing his temples slowly.
The exhaustion she had been seeing in his face all week suddenly made sense. She couldn’t imagine the amount of stress he was under with all of this happening at the same time as the launch of the Stone campaign and while they were still trying to nail down Marradesi.
“I’m sorry,” Lexi said softly as she watched Vincent lean back in his chair and stare at the ceiling. He looked so hollow, so stressed.
“For what?” He shot up out of his chair and walked over to the window.
She went over and stood beside him. “Because this has to be awful, wondering who has been lying to your face.”
He turned and peered into her eyes, his own full of sadness. “I really should be used to it by now, but yeah, it’s the worst, because it could be anybody.” Vincent turned his head back toward the window, pressing his forehead against the glass.
“I’m going to get to work on this and give you some space.” She rubbed her hand across his back. “If you need me, let me know.”
He reached out and grabbed her hand before she walked away and squeezed it as if his life depended on it. “Thanks.”
Lexi went out to her desk and got right to work on the Excalibur account, wanting to make sure everything was perfect for Vincent. There was no way in hell she was letting this one get away from them. He had been so gracious in teaching her everything he knew. She was overwhelmed by his generosity and wanted to do this for him and in some small way repay him for everything.
It was well into the afternoon, and Lexi was starting to feel a headache coming on when Tony strutted into the room. “What, no cape today, Supergirl?”
It was hard to resist slapping the smug grin off his face. His behavior was always so suspicious that she wanted to pin him to the ground and force him to confess. Even more horrific was that he was doing this to his own family. How he could do that to such good people baffled Lexi.