Page 70 of The Boss

Below are the affected projects as well as an estimate of how much time it will take to reconstruct Miss Webb’s work without full-time assistants.

I stopped reading before I got to the list. Fuck! I slapped my hand against the top of my desk, and the only thing I got out of it was a stinging palm.

Firing Ashlee should have meant that I didn’t have to deal with her anymore, but it appeared that my haste to get everything to do with her expunged from the company, I’d inadvertently led to her absence being more disruptive than her presence. Maybe I should have talked to Stu and Suzie before I’d fired Ashlee. That way, they could have told me that she had work they needed to access before IT came in.

I wanted to blame them for letting her keep her work entirely on one computer, but what Stu had said was correct. I’d wanted to make us a paperless company, and we had recently had some security issues with things on our servers. Since Ashlee worked for A&R, a leak about perks we were giving to various artists could start in-fighting over some of the differences, or it could ruin an event in numerous ways, including sabotage or paparazzi showing up.

Still, I couldn’t believe that Ashlee was irresponsible enough to have only one copy of the work she’d done. Her having a thumb drive back-up made the most sense because, no matter what I thought of Ashlee’s deceit, she had always worked hard and produced quality work. I didn’t know why she hadn’t responded to Stu or Suzie, unless she thought they were a part of her termination. Regardless of the reasons, we needed that information back.

I hated to even think it, but the fact that she’d taken the back-up with her when she left made me wonder if she’d been playing a long game to scam Manhattan Records. When I fired her, I’d cut her off from whatever she was trying to steal so she’d taken the only thing she could manage to smuggle out.

If that was the case, I would need to get the police involved. It was, however, possible that she’d had the thumb drive in her purse and had forgotten about it. I hoped that was what’d happened. Either way, I needed to reach out. I could have asked Finley to go since she’d most likely be more receptive to him than to me, but it had been my fault we’d lost that information in the first place. No matter how justified her termination was, the things I’d rushed through had caused this problem, and I needed to fix it.

I didn’t bother calling. If she wouldn’t pick up for Stu or Suzie, she definitely wouldn’t for me. I’d have to go to her place. My gut churned at the thought of seeing her again, but I couldn’t tell if it was excitement or dread. By the time I stood outside her door, knocking for the third time, whatever that emotion had been had turned into frustration that was rapidly becoming anger.

“She’s not there.”

I turned to see the door across the hall cracked open just enough for me to see a lined, tanned face and white corkscrew curls.

“Ashlee Webb?” I asked as I turned toward the neighbor. I gave her my most charming smile, even though I wasn’t feeling it. “She’s not here?”

“No.” The elderly woman looked me up and down. “Who are you?”

“I’m her boss,” I replied promptly. It was the simplest explanation. “Do you know when she’ll be back?”

“No.” Her eyes narrowed. “If you’re her boss, why are you at her apartment?”

“She has something I need.” Shit. I hurried to clarify. “Some information at work was wiped from her computer, and we can’t find her back-up. I just need to talk to her.”

“There’s this new-fangled invention called a phone,” the woman said.

I bit back the curse hovering behind my lips. “She’s not picking up.”

“She’s not picking up any of her calls, or just the ones from you? I saw you coming in and out of her apartment. You were drunk at least one of those times. I’ve seen it enough times to know, haven’t I? I look out for Ashlee. She’s a good girl.”

I wasn’t dumb enough to argue that point. “Mrs…”

“Posner.”

“Mrs. Posner, I promise you that I don’t intend to harm Ashlee. I just need to talk to her. Do you know where she is? Did she get another job?”

“Thought you said you were her boss.”

“I was. I mean…dammit.” I sighed and ran a hand down my face.

Mrs. Posner unlatched her door and opened it. “Come on in. If I like what you tell me, I may give you what you want.”

Something bloomed in my chest. Hope, I realized. An emotion I’d have to consider later. “So, you do know where she is?”

“I do.”

“Then what do you want me to tell you?”

She gave me a hard look and then nodded as if she’d come to some sort of decision. “Come in and find out.”

Forty-Five

Ashlee

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