Gage was working on clearing his head.

Lack of sleep had left him more irritable than a bear awakened from his den. The night had been filled with disturbing visions until Gage had surrendered and tossed back the blankets on his massive ebony bed. Working through the night, digging through files, and searching the Internet only made his mood darker.

Gage snatched up his office phone and rang for his executive assistant. "Maggie."  His tone held a thread of impatience. "Get John Adams on the phone. Tell him I want him on the next plane back to Chicago."

"Certainly, sir," Maggie replied.

"One thing," he interjected. "I’m expecting Lena Hanson at 3:00 p.m. If I’m tied up, interrupt me."

"No problem," she returned. "Will there be anything else?"

"Not for the moment." He swiveled in the tall-backed leather chair. "Hold my calls."

He returned the receiver to the phone. Maggie O’Hara was something else. Undoubtedly his assistant was accustomed to his periodic abruptness when he was running on adrenaline. He supposed the deadbeat husband who left her with two children to raise was his good fortune. Gage appreciated Maggie’s hard work and loyalty.  Her salary and vacation schedule reflected his gratitude. He and Maggie had built a solid business relationship on growing trust and mutual respect.

A pang of want assailed him.

He wanted a relationship with Lena that was built on trust and loyalty. More than business associates. More than friends. Gage was intrigued by the thought of having everything with her. The wall that stood between his wants and reality was a truth that plagued him. Experience had taught him that a woman couldn’t be trusted. But he wanted to trust this particular woman.

Lena isn’t Elise, he reminded himself. Lena was a woman of business and quickly becoming successful in her own right. She had been at the top of her graduating class from Northwestern University. The business she had developed as an International Consultant was reaching into the highest levels of the corporate world. 

He smiled when he remembered their first meeting. Lena Hanson was a woman of determination and courage. He wanted to see her succeed. He was going to make sure she was well protected until this business was finished.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

The morning had slipped away, and Gage had eaten lunch in his office again. The difficulty of tracking down a thief and running a business is the lack of time to do both. Most of his morning had been spent on the phone or in meetings. A new shipment of equipment was arriving for the lab, and he still had a presentation to prepare for a meeting next week.

A sharp knock at his office door interrupted his call with London.

The sharp-eyed intelligence of his business partner met his glance. He stood confident as ever at the entrance to his office. Gage absently waived in Mathew Kesselman. He had been next on Gage’s list of calls. The time had come for him of his suspicions of their lab manager, Eric Dempster.

"Don’t worry about it," Gage continued. "We should be up and running with the new project by the end of the month…yes…I’ll be ready for the convention." He could not hold back the lift of his lips. "I’ve hired a consultant to run through some social custom details."

Gage flicked a glance at Matt. "Listen, Bill, I’ve got to go. I’ll be in touch."

Gage placed the receiver in the phone cradle. He watched Matt admire the new Mark Rothko painting hanging on the wall. The ethereal colors of the Blue, Red and Green always fascinated Gage. He imagined Matt didn’t care for the sharp contrast of colors.

"Interesting piece," Matt said non-committally. "I should have been an artist. It’s amazing the money that’s paid on pieces I could paint myself."

"You weren’t born with an artist’s heart," Gage responded.

Never a man to waste time in idle conversation, particularly when it involved an employee leaking information to a competitor. Gage drew his partner’s attention with one bold statement. "Matt, we’ve got a mole passing NST Technology research to Synosis Technologies. I think Eric Dempster is the leak."

Foreign Affair - 18 >>>