The Billionaire's Triplets (A Steamy Contemporary Romance Novel) by Mia Caldwell

independent woman.
    “There really aren’t any others that I can think of, although they’ll get hundreds of bids.”
    Abby frowned. “Why would either of them consider Tina? She’s weak on the technical aspects.” She laughed. “Oh well, once they start working with her, they’ll learn their mistake soon enough.”
    “Abby, since Tina tried to delete her own files, would you poke around and see what else she tried to get rid of? She was negotiating with Tom, and I’d like to see any correspondence between them on the subject, or between Tina and anyone about that project.”
    “No worries. I have our IT guy coming in this afternoon to put everything right in the system. A lot of what Tina screwed up was out of ignorance, but we can see what she might be trying to hide while we are in there.”
    “In the meantime, I think I’ll give Tom Acker a call. He might be willing to tell me exactly what’s going on.” The more she thought about that, the better the idea seemed. She’d meet Tom, tell him the situation, and see what he said. If he did want to work with her, he’d probably tell her the truth. She wouldn’t play games and pretend that she didn’t know Tina had been sneaking around behind her back anyway. No one would believe she hadn’t figured it out—especially a sharp businessman like Tom Acker.
    “Look at this,” Abby said, coming over with a printout. “I think Tina was playing both ends against the middle.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “This email. It’s from Willa Gruber.”
    “Julio’s PA?”
    “Right. It’s confirming a dinner meeting for last night. She was supposed to meet privately with this woman at the hotel bar and the two of them were going to have dinner with Mr. Torres to talk about Milan.”
    “Tina went to Spain?”
    Abby squinted at the page. “No. Apparently he’s in town. At the Park Plaza.” Abby handed Lissa the page. She watched Lissa stare at it for a moment. “Now you do what you think best—as of course you will, anyway, but if it were me, I’d be picking up the phone and calling the Park Plaza. I’d want to catch Mr. Torres before I bothered with Tom Acker.”
    “Because?”
    “Well, in addition to the fact that he’s the more innovative person, and the fact that your style would blend well with his approach to projects, so that you’d reinforce each other—it would be brilliant. If that isn’t enough of a reason, I can think of three other reasons to talk to him.” She pointed to the picture of the triplets that sat on her desk.
    “Point taken, but I think you know that I’ve tried to contact him many times.”
    “Well, that was then. Now he’s in your city and close enough to reach out to. Who knows what gremlins might have been lurking out there and keeping you two from communicating?”
    Who knew indeed?
    Abby smiled and pointed to the printout. “Why, look here, you just happen to have the phone number for his suite. Even if he blocked your calls on his cell phone, you can call his room directly.”
    “So I can.” She held the page, not sure if she should crumple it up or make the call.
    “Another thing to consider,” Abby said. “This email came from his office. Tina has been hiding things from you. It isn’t totally impossible that the fact that there hasn’t been any communication from him might not actually be a fact at all.”
    “Why would Tina care about that?”
    “I can’t honestly say why Tina does much of anything she does. I’m just saying you can’t let your pride keep you from making the call. If you want to know what’s going on, I mean. And if you are interested in being on a hot team for the Milan job.” She walked to the door. “I need to meet the IT guy, so I’ll leave you alone with your angst.”
    Lissa took a long, slow breath, and when she exhaled, her body trembled. Fear? The angst Abby talked about? Whatever it was, if she intended to get involved in the Milan deal, she had to make the call. And if