Money Man (King Maker 1)

This was all too much.

I stepped back. “It could never work. When would we see each other?”

“You could come to Chicago.”

I gaped at him. “We barely know each other.”

“I’ve known you for years,” he said, his hands finally dropping to his sides.

“Not this way.”

There had been that one kiss. I closed my eyes, trying to forget. Then I moved to the door.

“No,” he said, giving up way too easily. “You take the bed. I have a feeling I’m not going to sleep for a while anyway.”

It suddenly felt weird between us.

I shook my head. “It’s your room.”

“No. It’s yours,” he said, sounding a little sad.

He bent and grabbed his duffle before leaving the room. And dumbly I wondered if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. I knew Matt, and there was an attraction between us. Yet, I didn’t want to move to Chicago. Kalen was a total mystery and had made no move to see me again. Why couldn’t I be the girl who just looked for fun and not a happily ever after?

I flopped on the bed and pushed all thoughts of Kalen out of my mind. As I began to drift off to sleep, I remembered my phone. Had he texted me back?

Thirteen

Sleep had been fleeting. I gave up on it around dawn and got ready for work. I slipped out of the apartment and took the subway across town.

As I sat, I pulled up the one sentence reply Kalen had texted. It had played over in my head the entire way to work. I wasn’t sure what I’d wanted him to say. But what I got was exactly what I’d expected.

In order to stop thinking about it, I immersed myself deep in work. Since I was the first to arrive, there were no distractions to keep me from my goal. Something was wrong with the bank accounts and I was determined to find it.

I didn’t notice when Scott arrived until he leaned down and whispered in my ear, making me jump.

“You wanted to talk?” he asked.

I did. “Outside.”

For some unknown reason, I didn’t want to discuss it in front of the group.

I followed him out.

He folded his arms over his chest and stood there like the self-righteous prick he was.

Inwardly, I breathed. “I think I might have found something.”

He dropped his hands, surprised at what I just said. “What?”

I explained how there were mysterious transfers of money in the tens of thousands of dollars, which in the scheme of things was nothing. They had been recorded as transfers to investment accounts. So far, I hadn’t found the account where the money was going.

“This is a big company with many different corporations within the conglomerate. Maybe the money was transferred to one of the other corporate investment accounts,” he explained.

“Maybe. I’ll ask the accountant to show verification that it went into other company bank accounts.”

“The amount is immaterial, right?”

Thousands were nothing compared to hundred million dollar balances.

I nodded. “But it adds up.”

“At this point, it could be nothing. Finish the bank confirmations and don’t focus on this. The amounts are recorded?” I nodded. “Then let’s assume they are verified transfers. Add it to the list of questions we ask when we do the interviews with the staff.”

As a part of the audit, we were required to perform short interviews with the staff to verify procedures and separation of duties.

“Fine.”

Before I could go in, the damnable man asked again, “The ring?”

I didn’t bother to look back and said, “Still looking.”

Though he reached for me, I’d slipped inside before he could stop me.

It was later in the day that I received another text which outweighed the I’m glad response I’d gotten in response to my delicious dinner message. I’d thought that was the end of it. The end of us, not that there had been an us. But the meet me for dinner, 6pm text suggested he wasn’t.

I got up from my seat and headed for the restroom. Once there, I glanced under the doors to see if I was alone before calling Lizzy.

“Must be important if you are calling me at work,” she said.

“He asked me out again.”

“Not exactly a shocker.”

“It is when he only responded with a I’m glad text to my message about dinner last night,” I said.

She sighed. “I was afraid of that. We are dealing with a man used to control.”

“What do I do?”

It wasn’t like I wanted to play games, but I also didn’t want to get hurt. Lizzy blew through guys like her heart was made of ice. I’d like to think I was strong, but the truth was, I wasn’t.

“What do you want to do?” she asked.

I wanted to lie to myself, but I didn’t to her. “I want to go,” I admitted.

There were moments when he made me feel like the most desirable woman on the planet. I craved that feeling.