“Hold on.” Cyrus hit the mute button. “I’ve got to take this,” he said to Daniella with regret.
“I’ll take my time. Maybe you can catch up and help me finish,” she said with a saucy smile. Then she went into the bathroom and closed the door.
She was so good about his work schedule, and he was grateful. Hopefully, he could wrap this up right away and get back to her. The past few days had exceeded his expectations, but they only had a few days left before they had to leave and go back to the States—which he didn’t look forward to. He would have preferred to stay longer.
Cyrus unmuted the call. “What’s the problem now?” If Hardy had missed the quota again he was going to fire him. Clearly it was time for some new blood because the man had lost his ability to problem solve.
“Seems the hops Hardy claims were bad were actually good enough for him to sell to someone else. He’s got his own side deals working.”
“What?” Cyrus hadn’t expected to receive this kind of information. “He’s stealing from us? Do you have proof?”
“No, but one of our production managers reported him, and she wants to talk to you directly. You have something to write with?”
Cyrus’s eyes swept the room until he spotted Daniella’s Chanel bag peeking out from under the plastic and paper sacks filled with souvenirs. She had to have a pen in there. The bag was the size of a small suitcase and he’d once seen her pull out a pair of scissors. “Hold on.”
He dug in the front pocket of the purse and didn’t find one, so he unzipped the main compartment and rummaged inside. He pulled out a pen, but in his haste knocked the purse to the floor, spilling the contents. Not wanting to keep Trenton holding any longer, he decided to clean up the mess after he’d gotten the details from his brother. Over at the desk he found a notepad and wrote down the name and phone number of the production manager.
“I told her you were on vacation, and she said she could wait until you returned to give you the details.”
“What do you think?” Cyrus trusted his brother’s judgment.
“I agree, it can wait. A few more days won’t make much difference, but I wanted to give you the option in case you thought it was worth pursuing right away. Since you’re already in Europe, you may want to even go up to London.”
Cyrus stood silently in deep thought. He’d made Daniella a promise and he intended to keep it, which meant he would not cut his trip short for business. He would simply monitor the situation from here. “You’re right, it’s not an emergency, but keep me up-to-date on what’s going on, and I’ll speak to…” He glanced down at the paper to get the name right. “Ms. Wozniak in person. Let her know I’ll call her in a couple of days to set up a meeting. I’ll fly up there before coming back to the States. Until then, let’s see if we can give Hardy even more rope to hang himself. Here’s what I want you to do.” He laid out a plan to work with Ms. Wozniak and how he wanted Trenton to monitor Hardy’s actions until he could dig more deeply into the situation. After a few more minutes of conversation, they hung up.
Cyrus felt good about the solution he’d come up with. Still in deep thought about the alleged thefts, he crossed the room, intent on picking up the spilled items from Daniella’s purse, when he pulled up short.
Nestled among the usual items of a pack of mints, a cell phone, makeup and a comb, was a small, pink, plastic container.
He hesitated, dread souring his stomach. He recognized the pack for what it was.
Daniella was taking birth control.
He tossed all the items back into her purse and took the pills over to a high-backed chair. Seated on the plush upholstery, he flicked open the container to see half the pills were gone. He fell back in the chair. The shaft of pain that hit his chest couldn’t have been more devastating if someone had kicked him in the sternum.