The Darkest of Shadows by Lisse Smith Read Free Book Online

celebration…
TEXT:
  
Some people suck.
    Thankfully, May passed, as it always does, closely followed by June and July and then the rest of the months, until Christmas once again loomed darkly on the horizon.
    I still didn’t socialize with anyone outside of work—well, anyone except Sally. She religiously took me out for dinner or a movie night once a month. She politely referred to it as my therapy, but whenever she tried to bring anyone else along, I always canceled, so she quickly got that idea out of her system. I had work, and for the moment, that was sufficient.
    December, workwise, was a really busy time of year for us. Not that we actually accomplished much production, but the pending Christmas holiday seemed to prompt a flurry of social activities that surpassed any other time of year.
    I had Patrick booked for functions at least four times a week, sometimes more, and he managed just about all of them with his usual nonchalance. All except one particular party. That event, I was sad to learn, was something that required my attendance.
    “I need a date,” Patrick told me late one afternoon, while I was sitting in his office. He’d just flown in from Paris, where he had been for a Christmas Party the night before, and this was the first time all day that I’d been able to catch him.
    “I beg your pardon?” I wasn’t sure what he expected me to do about that. Assistant I might be, but I drew the line at matchmaking.
    “Monterey’s bash,” he explained. “It’s black-tie, and pretty much compulsory in our industry. I was supposed to go with Maria, but she’s booked with Peter to go to the Law Society function.” He shrugged in apology. “It’s rude to cancel this late, and we’ve confirmed for two.”
    I hesitated for a moment. “You want me to find you a date?” I asked in surprise.
    Patrick gave a small chuckle. “No, Lilly,” he said. “I want you to be my date. Strictly a work function—but I really need to take someone, and this last-minute, it’s just too difficult to find the right person, someone who won’t embarrass the company, or me.” He shrugged.
    “When exactly is this event?” I asked cautiously. A large part of me thought this was a bad idea.
    “Tomorrow night.”
    Oh, it was that event. His schedule didn’t actually say “Monterey’s bash,” although the name should have given it away for me. The function he was referring to was the Christmas Party for Monterey Enterprises, our biggest competitor, actually one of the biggest and most successful companies that existed. I didn’t know a whole lot about them, but from what Patrick had told me, everyone stepped very carefully around them.
    Lawrence Monterey was a force unparalleled in business. His net worth was estimated at well over fifty billion dollars, and that was the bottom of the scale of what they could determine.
    “Ah.” I interpreted his hesitation. “Monterey Enterprises.”
    “Yeah. Them,” he admitted. “It’s really important that we don’t offend him; hence, it’s important that we attend—but we also have to stay out of his notice as much as possible. We really don’t want to draw too much of his attention at the moment, not if we can avoid it.”
    That was an unusual comment. “Meaning what, Patrick?”
    Patrick shot me an almost amused glance. “It’s easy to forget how clearly you see situations,” he said.
    “What’s going on?” I encouraged him to continue.
    “We’re more vulnerable than we should be at the moment,” he admitted.
    “We, as in the company?”
    “Cartright and Nagel.” He nodded. “Our GM is ready to retire, he’s old, and it’s been his plan to step down for a long while now. But with Lincoln’s death, his plans have gone to pieces. He has to sell. Simple as that. We took a hit with the Harbor project in Belgium, confidence in the company fell…it was inevitable, I suppose, but for it to happen all at the same time has seriously weakened our global