Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
He waves at me, and when I nod my head for him to come in, he does. He takes one look at me holding Briar in my arms, and I see all the questions forming.
“Give me a second,” I say quietly because I’m pretty sure Briar has passed out already.
When I get her into my room, I place her on the bed and remove her shoes. The kittens meow to get to us, so I go over and unlock the baby gate, and they rush to Briar. Even the grumpy cat follows at a safe distance and then curls up at the end of the bed.
“I’ll be right back,” I whisper to Briar before I brush a kiss over her lips. She hums in pleasure, and I watch her sleep for a moment longer before I force myself from the room.
“Hey,” I call to Heath, jogging down the stairs and meeting him in the living room. “What’s up?”
“Why were you carrying her?”
“She took a swim in a neon pink martini, and I had to fish her out.” He chuckles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ve had a breakthrough on the embezzlement case.”
A few weeks ago, we got the death certificate from a client’s estate, but when we pulled the files, we saw that money was being siphoned out of his account long after the client died. That was a huge red flag, so we hired a forensic accounting firm to comb through our books and look for any other irregularities. We also hired a private investigative team to find out who in the company would have a motive to do something like steal from our clients.
That was how Heath and Meadow reconnected. She was part of the company we hired to go through our books, and they are well known for being the best in the business.
“The last time we talked about this, our investigators were digging into Lionel Jenkins,” I say, and Heath nods.
“Yeah, and after what Nelly found, Jinx is the prime suspect.”
Nelly and her husband Dave were suspicious of the accounts manager everyone calls Jinx. Heath and I were skeptical because he worked for our dad for decades before we took over the company, and he’s a close family friend.
“How? He’s in France right now, isn’t he? I remember hearing him say they were going on vacation.”
“Nelly somehow had a friend track his movements while he was there.” Heath pulls out his phone and pulls up an email. “You weren’t in the office today, but look at this.”
Heath passes me his phone, and I scan the document from Nelly. In it, there’s a detailed list of everywhere he went, including photos of him outside several financial institutions. All of which she says don’t report their client funds to the United States.
“What the fuck?” I scan the document a couple of times while Heath paces.
In the beginning of this, I gave Heath the reins to pursue this since Nelly and Dave didn’t need the two of us in their faces all day. I knew that Heath would let me know what they found out and if anything important came up. It also gave him the perfect excuse to work side by side with Meadow, so the whole thing really hasn’t been at the forefront of my mind.
And maybe my obsession with Briar has distracted me, but I’ll keep that little detail to myself.
“Look, I know he’s close friends with Dad, I mean, fuck, he’s supposed to be at my wedding.” Heath runs his hands through his hair. “But this looks bad, Mace. Really bad.”
“The head of our client accounts runs to France during an internal investigation and visits how many different banks? Yeah, I’d say a few offshore accounts are enough to sound the alarm.”
“Fuck, we’ve got to talk to him.” Heath looks stressed and worried, and I know this is coming at a terrible time.
“Let’s wait until the wedding,” I deadpan, and Heath rolls his eyes.
“I’m glad this is funny to you.”
“Sorry, just trying to help you relax a little.” I go over and squeeze his shoulder as I look into his eyes that are identical to my own. “Hey, we got this, all right?”
“Yeah, I know.” He lets out a deep breath and nods.
“Why don’t we set a meeting for when he gets back? I’ll have his secretary let me know when he lands. He’s always talking to Pamela about when he’s in and out of the office, so she’ll know.”
“Good idea.” Heath takes his phone back from me and sends a few texts.
“Oh, and since the girls are dress shopping tomorrow, I made an appointment to have our suits fitted.”
“Sounds good.” He nods and then looks up the stairs. “So are you going to tell me about Briar?” He waits, and I see the mischievous smile he’s trying to hide from me.