Chapter 43 Forty-Three

Chapter 43 Forty-Three
Sydney
“Marcus McBroten?” I balked, my hands shaking.
I flipped back to the beginning, reading carefully as though there was something I’d missed. Some kind of mistake. Eric was trying to hire McBroten?
My mind flashed back to when he had harassed me at the Hamptons and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach.
His name started to blur for a moment and I stared at my wrists where he’d left bruise marks. For a moment, I could smell the whiskey on his breath, and if Bryce had not shown up and punched the idiot in the face? I shook away the thought.
“It’s worse than you think.”
I looked up to meet Bryce’s gray eyes, his arms crossing over his chest.
“Worse how?” My voice shook slightly and I hated it. “My husband is hiring the man who assaulted me. It was on the tabloids. What could be worse than that?”
Bryce smiled. “That Marcus was once investigated by the SEC for embezzlement and his investment firm was accused of moving somewhere between three and four billion dollars?”
I felt the floor tilt slightly beneath my feet. Three to four billion. The heck? Bryce tilted his head slightly and I got it.
Eric was going to use Marcus to loot the company even faster. All of a sudden, I remembered where I’d seen Marcus before.
It was before I’d died. Eric had convinced me about the guy without even seeing him and I’d agreed. I was too busy fussing over Miles.
“Sydney?” Bryce’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I forced myself to focus. I needed to unless it was only going to happen again “I was just processing all of this.”
I glanced back at the documents. In the emails, Eric and Marcus were talking about salary negotiations and he was even going to ask HR to send him an onboarding timeline.
“How…how did you get these?” My head snapped up. “These are Eric’s emails. Not Prestige Global ones but still his email.”
Bryce stared at me blankly as though he didn’t know what I was asking or I had asked if the earth was round. “Does it matter where I got them from? What are we going to do about that?” He nodded at the files.
I stared at the documents again. “The board meeting is next tomorrow. I’m guessing Eric is going to present Marcus. How the hell do we stop the board from choosing him?”
My mind raced. We were getting a little too close. He was moving faster than I thought. Eric had gotten Marcus into the company about four months before he tried to kill me.
“You need your own candidate.”
My head snapped up. “What?”
“You need someone we can both trust and someone qualified enough that the board won’t dismiss the suggestion but they’ll be loyal enough that they won’t become a part of his madness.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re right. I need someone with experience but who?”
My mind spun around for a minute before I froze. “I know someone.”
He was one of the few who had been loyal to me after Eric had killed my dad in my first life. There was no way in hell I would let him be successful again.
“Ian George. He was one of my father’s senior partners. He moved to San Francisco and started consulting. The board knows him and he knows the West Coast market better than anyone else..”
Ian had called me back then and offered to come back to investigate. He said my father didn’t trust Eric and he had his suspicions. I’d foolishly dismissed him then because I trusted that fool of a husband.
“And you trust him?” Bryce raised an eyebrow.
“Completely.” I nodded. “My father trusts him with everything. He’s probably one of the most ethical people I’ve met.”
“Then we need to move fast” Bryce straightened, pulling out his phone. “We need to have him on board by tomorrow. Can you reach him?”
“Yeah. I’ll get my EA to contact him tonight.” I needed to call him to discuss. If Bryce could get a hold of Eric’s email, I had to assume that Eric could also monitor mine and I wouldn’t want him to get suspicious. “I’ll tell her to tell him I wanted advice on the West Coast expansion and I would like a call with him tomorrow. If I spoke to my Dad to talk to him as well, I’m sure he would say yes.”
“Good.” Bryce dropped his phone and moved around the desk towards me. “Sydney, I need you to understand something.”
He stopped in front of me but he was close enough for me to smell his cologne and see the faint stubble on his jaw.
My heart beat spiked. I couldn’t. I couldn’t let myself want him like this.
He reached for my arms, his fingers curling around them and I felt sparks shoot into my bloodstream. My breath caught in my throat.
“Sydney,” his voice dropped, his eyes holding mine. “You’ll need to be brave. If you’re pushing Ian to the board, you’ll be going against Eric and I…”
“I know.” I wanted to scoff at the idea that I was scared of Eric but my voice came out breathier than usual. I couldn’t think clearly. Not when he was this close. “I can handle Eric, Bryce.”
“You sure?” His thumb stroked along my left arm. It was barely noticeable, probably unconscious but I could swear that every single cell in my body felt it. “Eric is a lot more dangerous than you think.”
This time I scoffed. He killed me and made it look like an accident. For God’s sake Bryce, I know exactly how dangerous my husband was.
But I couldn’t say that. I would look insane so I smirked.
“Trust me Bryce, I know.”
Something shifted in his eyes and my heart skipped a beat. We were standing a little too close. I could see the flecks of silver in his gray eyes. It felt a little like the hotel room.
I stilled. No. I couldn’t do this and let myself get distracted when I was supposed to be focused on destroying Eric.
I couldn’t possibly be allowing myself fall in love. That’s what got me killed the first time. I pulled away from his grip, my heart beating wildly.
“I’ve got to go.” I hurried towards the door, ignoring the look of confusion on his face. “I’ve got things to do.”
“Sydney..wait…”
I didn’t.