Smokescreen

He’s thousands of miles away in South America and all I want is to feel his arms around me. It’s been almost two weeks since he left for New York and then the factory and it’s been chaos.

Once his picture hit the internet walking out of the Humane Society with Scout—what we had now named Brutus—every non-profit wanted a photo op. After we finally sent the picture of the three of us to the Brag Wall, it got worse. Jake’s job became a bit harder once I was recognized. He actually moved into my guest room, at Max’s urging, until he could get home.

Laci, Landon, Ryan, Chris, the McCoy family, and even Dana stopped by the office or my house often to hang out and discuss the progress with the factories. Unfortunately because of the schedule and workload, Max and my conversations are short but informative. So everyone relies on my updates.

We had a situation last week that caught Dana and me off-guard. When Landon tried to deposit the check from Hurst & McCoy, it was voided. The account it was written from had a stop payment flag. When I called Dana, she looked into it and saw the invoices had been moved and there was no record of payment. She was livid and explained that Edward had stopped the original payments from coming to me and Max overrode his decision. We both decided not to bring it up until Max was home. I needed the money, but my reserves were holding out well, especially with new client retainers coming in.

Pedro has become a huge asset to Max and JOS. He’s increased his hours to a manageable schedule while Max is in town. I get email updates daily with pictures of all the changes. Although I had nothing to do with the actual factory renovations, pride still surges through me.

“Yoo hoo! Earth to Stella!” Landon sashays into my office with an overly dramatic flair. “We are going out celebrating! Tonight. You get to tell Jake.”

“Really, what are we celebrating?”

“I got a call from the bank to verify our business account information. Apparently thirty-five thousand dollars has been transferred and they have fifteen more on hold for twenty-four hours.”

“What? Did they verify it was from Hurst & McCoy?”

“Not in so many words. Just said it was for services rendered. Asked if it should go into your personal account, but I confirmed it was business.”

Why would they ask that? Before I can ask him more, my phone rings and Max’s face pops up on the screen. Landon nods and walks out.

“Hi, sweetie.”

“Bella,” he breathes into the phone. “God, I miss you.”

“I miss you too. How’s your day?”

“Busy, dirty, exhausting. Sunday can’t get here soon enough. What about you?”

“Busy, some calls coming in about helping every charity in town. I’ve got a few meetings set up next week for groups that need the publicity being new and underfunded. But that’s boring. Let’s talk about my amazing, generous, and sneaky boyfriend.”

“Keep going, I’d like to know more about this guy.”

“Max, don’t play coy. The bank just called. The fifty thousand dollars will be all deposited by tomorrow. With all the problems, I can only assume you’re behind that. Bet Edward didn’t like that too much.”

The line goes so silent I have to look at the screen to see if there’s still a connection. “Max?”

“What are you talking about? What problems? What fifty thousand?”

“The money for the outstanding invoices. After the check was rejected—”

“What the fuck!?” he roars into the phone and I hear him typing.

Jake appears in my doorway with his laptop and phone in hand.

“Baby, put me on speaker, tell me everything. I just emailed Jake because something isn’t right.”

With a shaky breath, I tell him about the check and Dana’s findings.

“Have Laci get Dana on the phone. Tell her to go to my office on a private line and call in.”

“Laci!” I shout.

“On it, heard him.”

“While we wait, get Landon in on this conversation and someone go lock the front door.”

Jake moves quickly and the lock beeps and alarm sounds. The noises add to my rising anxiety. What the hell is going on?