Free Exposing the Billionaire (Corporate Affairs, Book #1) by Andi Alexander Page B

had some, especially the billion dollar ones, and they all kept the evidence close to the vest. But that was okay. Getting at that kind of secret information was Kate’s specialty.
    “That’s about it, Ms. Kaufmann,” Clarice said, finishing their little tour. “Feel free to direct any of your questions to me—no need to bother Mr. Blaine.”
    If the woman had been six foot two with bulging biceps, she would have made a great body guard.
    “Thank you, I will,” Kate answered demurely.
    When Clarice left, Kate took a seat behind her desk, getting acquainted with her computer and the phone system, which was a headset instead of a receiver.
    It all seemed pretty straightforward. Now she just had to do her job well enough to not get fired before she got her story.
    Oh, and not let anyone know she was an undercover reporter looking to take down one of the biggest corporations in the nation.
    Instead of panicking or worrying over the pressures surrounding her, Kate smiled and leaned back in her chair. She lived for this.

Chapter 2
    K ate’s second day of work started out with a stack of papers that required filing, organizing, and copying. She was hoping that she would get lucky early on and find something incriminating, but they mostly constituted contracts and financial agreements. Not being a lawyer, it was hard to tell if they were legitimate business arrangements, but they looked pretty sound to her.
    Several of the documents required signatures and she was hopeful that they would give her an easy way into Blaine’s office. The downside to that was, of course, that he would be in his office at the same time and it would be pretty hard to do any snooping. But that was okay. She could do some recon first, getting an idea of the layout of his office so she knew where to look when she could get in without him around.
    “Okay, copy machine first,” Kate muttered to herself.
    She gathered several of the documents; these had already been signed and only needed to be copied and sent out to the appropriate partners. Down the hall and to the left was the copier. She could still see her desk from the room and with the headset, she could still answer the phone from wherever she was.
    This was going to be a breeze.
    The machine was industrial sized, a little different than anything Kate had had to use before, but how hard could it be to figure out? The big green button was clearly the on, there was an in box to be filled with paper, an out box where she would find her copies, and a top lid with a scanner beneath where she would place her documents.
    Simple enough.
    Half an hour later, she was swimming in copies, couldn’t find the original documents, and couldn’t even figure out which papers belonged to which contracts.
    “Shit,” she said for the hundredth time.
    “What is going on in here?” demanded the cool voice of Clarice Adams.
    Kate looked over her shoulder to find the woman standing in the doorway—in another grey suit, this one pinstriped, with four inch heels—her hands on her slim hips.
    “Um,” said Kate, embarrassed at being caught fighting with something as simple as a copier. She quickly picked herself up off the floor, straightening the pencil skirt she wore. “I was having some difficulty with—”
    “Yes, I can see that.” Clarice raised a single carefully drawn eyebrow, her lips puckered in a frown. “I wouldn’t think that someone with your resume would be plagued by a simple copier .”
    Kate winced. That stung. Worse, it was sort of true. Kate was a highly qualified individual, but she had never worked in a high powered office setting like this before. The trick was, her resume said she had.
    “It’s a slightly different model,” Kate began, but Clarice just waved her hand impatiently.
    “I don’t care if it’s a NASA copier meant for the space shuttle Columbia. It’s still just a copier.”
    Feeling irritation and frustration building inside her, Kate tried to keep her cool and