Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 129980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
“We are not. I’m not risking my job, and you have a bad reputation with women. I’m sorry to say this, Alan, but you’re never with a woman for more than five minutes. Gorgeous women. Models. Actresses. You date celebrities and heiresses. I’m none of those things. They couldn’t keep your wandering eye from straying, so there would be zero chance that I would keep your attention.”
“We’ll see.”
“We won’t see,” she corrected firmly. “You need to let me get to work. This isn’t going to be easy. If someone has begun to siphon money from your accounts…”
His dark scowl was back. “They took it. All of it. Drained the accounts. This isn’t a little siphoning off of the profits. This isn’t one of my business associates deciding to steal from me, skimming from the top. This is blatant, finding my hidden accounts and wiping them clean.”
Azelie sat very still, her mind racing. No one should have been able to find his concealed accounts. They were buried under so many layers and companies, it would be a miracle for someone, even the Feds, to find them and identify that they were Billows’.
“Alan, if they wiped out every one of your hidden accounts, they targeted you specifically. Do you have enemies? Someone who would want to destroy you and your businesses?”
He shrugged. “No one gets where I am without stepping on people. The answer would be yes, I have multiple enemies.”
“Ones capable of hiring someone elite with a computer?”
“Yes,” Billows said. “Strange thing is, they didn’t touch my legal business accounts, only the ones where I stash the money from illegal businesses.”
She dropped her forehead into her palm. “I’m not elite on a computer, Alan. I am with numbers, but not with tracing someone that good. We should find someone to help us.” Deliberately, she aligned herself with him in the hopes he wouldn’t go ballistic on her and insist she could find the culprit. She could not. Whoever had done such a thing was far, far better than she was on a computer.
She dared to raise her gaze to Billows’ face. He was beyond an ordinary storm and had gone straight to a level-five hurricane. His face was flushed, eyes dark and scary, and he was actually gritting his teeth.
“That’s bullshit.”
Azelie knew she had to make him understand, even if it meant his wrath would descend directly on her head. She feared it already had with the way he was looking at her.
“I wish it was, Alan. There are some very gifted individuals who stay in the shadows. They don’t work for the government or anyone else unless they are paid a great deal of money. They have skills far beyond what I have. Sometimes their skills exceed anyone the government employs. They hack their way in and out of very secure websites. At times they work together. Again, I don’t have those kinds of skills and I never will have them.”
“You fix the books and come up with solutions in the shortest amount of time possible. I’ve never seen anyone with your skills.” He was back to pacing, quick angry steps, his glare directly on her. “When there were shortages before, you found how much and where that leak was coming from.”
She shook her head. “I’m telling you, it isn’t the same thing. I have a gift for numbers. I can see patterns in the numbers that make sense in my brain, but I don’t have an affinity with computers. Some people are good on a computer. A few are great, even rarer are the ones who can do just about anything on them. Whoever did this to you is one of those people. I’m not one of them. If you have enemies, they could have hired the person or people. It wouldn’t be cheap. It’s possible I can start looking into some of those you say are out to harm you. I might see payments going out to someone.”
“You do that,” Billows snapped.
“Just know it’s possible someone hacked your accounts on their own. These people like challenges, and they like to see if they can do what might be considered impossible.”
“I don’t care how it was done. I want the money back, and I need to know who my enemies are. Find them.”
Azelie knew there was no making him see reason. He was incensed over the loss of his money. She couldn’t blame him. He thought his ill-gotten gains were safe in anonymous offshore accounts hidden beneath layers of companies and misdirection. The money should have been safe, and most wouldn’t be able to trace it back to Billows. She had a sinking feeling whoever had taken the money knew exactly who they stole it from. The fact that they hadn’t taken a cent from his legitimate businesses was worrisome to her. She was surprised Billows hadn’t questioned that further himself.