Playing Dirty

Three

Sam turned from the stunning view of the Manhattan skyline and surveyed her new office, a wide smile playing across her lips as she took in the huge glass table, the white plush leather ergonomic executive chair, the cool white furniture that graced the large room and resisted the urge to do a dance of happiness around the room.

This was a dream come true...all her sacrifice over the years, her hard work everything had finally paid off with this job. She'd been badly in need of a career shift, disillusioned in her previous job with little hope of a promotion, due to the CEO being a misogynistic bastard who didn't believe in having women in leadership positions.

She'd turned in her application to Silvercorp on a whim, not really having much hope of getting a job, but had been pleasantly surprised when she'd received the call from Bradford Silverton himself, two months ago, offering her the position as the new head of the projects division of one the largest corporations in the US.

"Where do you want these boxes ma'am?" Jane, her new assistant, appeared in the doorway, holding a stack of cardboard boxes as she looked expectantly at Sam.

"Umm..you can put them over by those shelves." Sam hurried to relieve her of some of the boxes. "And it's Sam, please. I'm not much for formalities."

That earned her a smile, the first sign of a thaw Sam had seen from the blonde, since Sam had walked into the building. The reception was not surprising as Sam knew her appearance had stirred speculation as to her real reason for being here.

Bradford had been clear in stating her job description; a supervisory role, but she was still free to make decisions on behalf of his son who would was going through some issues. Her job was to bring the department back from the slump it had fallen into, a challenge she found exciting to say the least.

She stole a glance at the closed door opposite her own office, the plague proudly displaying Ryan Silverton's name and designation. For a brief moment, Sam felt apprehensive as she wondered how he would react to the news that someone had been brought him to second guess his actions.

"Would you like some coffee, Sam? We serve the best brew in the entire building, you know."

Jane looked up from unpacking the huge stack of business journals in one of the boxes. "Or if you would prefer something to eat instead, I can go down to the restaurant and pick something up."

Sam flashed a smile and shook her head.

"Thanks, but I already had breakfast, though it's good to know there's coffee close at hand." She crossed back to her desk and flipped open her laptop to log onto the company's private network. "Is there some way I can get an idea of some of the ongoing projects? I've tried accessing the database, but there's not much here."

"That's because Ryan keeps them in a private file on his own system." Jane answered, "He's very protective about that sort of thing and only Lola, his assistant, can give you access to those. You'd have to seek his permission first."

"Oh..." That was unusual, but not unheard of. "And do you have any idea when he will be coming in today?"

She checked her watch. "It's already nine am; does he come in this late?"

"To be honest, he may not come at all." Jane sighed and shook her head. "He hasn't exactly been regular in the office, sometimes, he stays away for days at a time, so your guess is as good as mine."

"I see." No wonder things had gotten so bad. The man was obviously one of those over-pampered playboys who abused the privilege of having everything handed to them on a silver platter.

She pulled up a folder on her desktop and glanced through. The folder contained everything she'd been able to discover about Ryan Silverton from her research. She was a firm believer in gathering as much information on the people she would be working with and from the minute she'd accepted the job, she had started a dossier on every employee of the division.