Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers 4)

At least he reacted well. He could have tossed me out and told me to make an appointment. Instead, Mr. Freeman, who was not the silver-haired, stern-faced man I was anticipating and rather a perfect vision of a Greek god with dark kempt hair and captivating eyes of the same color, made me coffee and gave me the floor to tell him what was going on.

I took a deep breath and dove in.

“When my mother died a few years ago, she left me an inheritance. It wasn’t a massive fortune or anything, but it was her entire life savings. She had been putting it aside for me throughout my entire life. I was her only child, and we spent most of my life just the two of us. She worked extremely hard to provide for me, and she made the account to make sure I would have something to build a future on,” I said.

“I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” Nick said, catching me off guard with his compassion.

“Thank you,” I said, stumbling slightly over the words. “After I got the account, I made the decision not to touch it. I didn’t want to live off that money or use it on anything frivolous. I wanted to keep it aside as a nest egg so I could use it for a house, a big important expense, or emergencies. Something other than just siphoning off of it when I wanted extra money.”

“That’s a very wise decision. Did you ever consider investing it?” he asked.

“Well,” I said, “that’s actually what I’m getting to. Since I had no intention of using it, I didn’t check on it regularly. I didn’t think I needed to. But then I found out my ex had somehow gotten a hold of the account and drained all the money out of it. He invested it without telling me and managed to lose it all. I spoke with some other investors, but they all told me the same thing. Essentially, there is nothing I can do short of reporting my ex and getting him arrested. But that’s not going to get me my money back. So, that’s why I came to you, Mr. Freeman.”

“Call me Nick. And you are?” he asked.

Heat burned across my cheeks as I realized I hadn’t even bothered to introduce myself to him when I came barging in. “Bryn. Bryn Stephens.”

“Good to meet you, Bryn. So, why is it you came to me exactly?” he asked.

“Because you’re basically my last hope,” I said, choosing honesty over smoothness. “A friend of a friend told me you are pretty ruthless when it comes to business. That’s exactly what I need. I am at the end of my rope here. That money was everything I had to build my future. It was my connection to my mother. And he stole it from me. Every cent of it. I can’t just let it go.”

Nick folded his hands on the desk in front of him and nodded, the look in his eyes thoughtful. I stayed quiet, wanting to see if what I’d heard from Trish was correct. She’d reassured me Nick Freeman was the guy I needed. He was fierce and smart and didn’t take crap from anyone. Considering that I had gotten into this mess because I had apparently taken too much crap from Justin, that characteristic was appreciated.

Letting Justin get away with what he did wasn’t an option for me. I didn’t know what I was going to do about it. The other investors I spoke with didn’t give me any hope at all. Even when they admitted what he did was shady beyond belief and also illegal, there was hesitation. It was like they could absolutely admit Justin did something very wrong and left me in a bind, but they didn’t see much hope in there being a resolution.

That was what brought me to Freeman Investments. I wanted an expert who would be able to look at exactly what happened and give me an honest, no-bull assessment of exactly what Justin did and what could be done about it. So, I sat and waited while Nick seemed to process through everything he told me. Finally, he gave a nod.

“Give me everything you have. All the information you found and anything else that might be applicable to the situation. Make sure you include the name of the investor he went to,” he said.

I reached down into the bag I put at my feet when I sat down and pulled out a manila folder. Setting it down on the desk in front of me, I slid it across to him. Leaning down like that brought my face close to the mug of coffee, and I inhaled a deep breath of the sweet fragrance. It smelled amazing, and I took a sip.