The Billionaire's Triplets (A Steamy Contemporary Romance Novel) by Mia Caldwell

scowled. “I didn’t—”
    “Tina, despite your low opinion of me, there are people in the business world that like me—enough to tell me how you ran to them with those lies and insinuations. If you didn’t think they’d be more than happy to repeat the rumors along with the information that it came from you, then you aren’t very clever.”
    Tina scowled. “It’s business to run down the competition.”
    “It might be your way of doing business, which suggests you leaving to start your own company is a very good idea. I suggest you start now. I had your computer locked and I’ll change all the passwords and key locks. Take whatever is in your desk that’s yours. I have to assume you’ve already stolen anything of value to you before showing your true colors, but even with the horse gone the barn door should probably be locked. I might have another horse one day, after all.”
    “What barn?” Tina asked.
    “It’s a metaphor. Now get your ass out of my building.”
    Tina stood stiffly and walked out of the inner office and straight to the front door. As she’d guessed, Tina had already cleaned out her desk. Telling Lissa had been nothing but a formality and a chance to gloat. Angry with herself for not seeing Tina’s greed sooner, she picked up the phone.
    “Hello Abby, it’s Lissa. Yes, I’m back. How would you like to work for me again?”
    “I won’t work for Tina.”
    “She’s gone. You’d work for me.”
    “I don’t know about being a secretary again. It’s a thankless job.”
    “No, I’ll need you to hire a secretary. I want to give you Tina’s job. That’s even more thankless, but it pays better.”
    She could hear the woman breathing. “I can hire our secretary?”
    “Right. When can you start?”
    “It’s Friday. I can start Monday.”
    Lissa smiled to herself. “Monday would be great. See you at nine.”
    When she hung up after talking to Abby, hearing her cheerful voice, she felt that she’d turned a corner, shed some baggage. It was time to hit the street and let the world know she was back and fighting. She looked at her watch. The day was kind of a bust, and she didn’t have much heart for putting on a superhero costume and spending Friday afternoon righting the wrongs of the business world. She picked up the phone again.
    “I didn’t expect you to call,” Joan said.
    “How is it going?”
    “It’s quite a learning experience. For instance, I’ve learned that with three boys, I’m going to need a larger diaper allowance. And I’ve learned that providing the three with proper care requires perpetual motion, but we are all doing fine and I’m getting back in shape.”
    “Would it be interfering in your new career path and turf if I wanted to come home and spoil my children for the rest of the day?”
    Joan laughed. “Since they don’t have grandparents to do that, someone needs to pick up the slack. If you were to bring lunch from a deli, you could consider me appeased.”
    “Now there is something I can do.”
    Thinking of the children made her feel deliciously happy, although as always, her happiness was tinged with thoughts of the elusive Julio. What the hell had happened? It still hurt to think of him, and it launched her on an emotional roller coaster that took her brain traveling along an endless loop of angst, disbelief, and self-pity—the last was the most unpleasant of all of those feelings. None of them were profitable. As she always did, she allowed herself a moment of self-indulgence and then shrugged it off. She had the boys and she had Joan. On Monday, Abby would be back and fitting into her new role. In the glow of hindsight, she knew that getting rid of Tina and promoting Abby was a change she should have made long ago. With her in place, she had a team good enough to take on any opposition, and she’d find out more about what Tina had been up to while she was in the hospital.

CHAPTER SIX
    Julio wasn’t in the best of moods. He’d been