Money Man (King Maker 1)

Accessories for your lingerie. K—

After checking the sizes on the garments and shoes, I wondered again how he’d know the right ones. Dumbly, I hadn’t asked in our text conversation. I’d been flustered. But I wasn’t this morning.

I didn’t dress in his offerings. I put on a white button-up shirt and simple black pencil skirt I’d gotten on sale at Ann Taylor. Then, I slipped on a pair of black Nine West pumps. Yet another sale item. I smiled a little as I left for work, knowing Griffin would be waiting for me. I hoped he reported to his boss that I wore a version of what he’d bought me that cost a fraction of what he’d probably spent.

Griffin was, in fact, there at the curb waiting to open the door for me. I’d agreed to the rides because Kalen had convinced me that maybe I was in danger. I was beginning to think the only person I was in danger from was Kalen himself.

But it was the folded piece of paper I found in my conference room chair that unnerved me.

Twenty-Nine

A red octagon that took up most of the eight-by-ten sheet of paper glared up at me. Immediately, I looked around, the stop sign symbol an obvious warning. But the only people around were my co-workers.

“Did you guys see this?” I held it up for Kevin and Jim to see. Anna hadn’t arrived yet. Both shook their heads as Scott walked in.

“What’s that?” Scott asked.

I shifted so he could get a better look.

“I don’t know. It was in my chair.”

“It’s just a paper. The cleaning people could have left it,” Scott said.

Annoyed, I said more firmly, “But it was in my chair.”

“It doesn’t have your name on it or anything, does it?” Scott asked.

I grimaced and let the paper crumple in my fist because what could I do? Call the police and suggest that someone was threatening me with a stop sign? There was no writing to suggest this was directed at me, nor any hint of a repercussion. The cops would think I was crazy.

Instead, I got to work matching the information that King’s accounting department provided for the weird wire transactions.

Just before lunch everything fell into place.

“Scott, come here, please.”

Aggravation contorted his features as he said nothing in front of the team and stepped over.

“What is it?” he asked.

“See this.” I pointed on my screen to the list I compiled. “They claim most of the wires are partner distributions from their private equity firm, but the wires I’m questioning aren’t happening when the main distributions are made. They’re either days before or days after. I think we should compare with the list of partners.”

“I have that,” Jim said. “I confirmed contributions and distributions. All of the latter happened on the same days.”

“See,” I said to Scott. “Something is going on here.”

“Good job,” Scott agreed, and stood straight as if he planned to walk away.

“What are we going to do?”

I made the mistake of grabbing his forearm. His smile warmed, but it made my skin crawl. I let go.

“We are going to do nothing. We aren’t forensic accountants with the FBI or SEC, Bailey. I’ll bring it to the partner’s attention. We will include the finding in our opinion.”

“That’s it?” I asked, feeling my blood boil. “What if this is fraud? Shouldn’t management be notified?”

“I’ll handle it,” Scott said with finality. “Anna is out with the flu. If you are finished, work on completing Anna’s open items. We need to wrap this assignment up in the next day or two.”

Through gritted teeth, I said, “Sure,” as pleasantly as I could muster.

It felt wrong that management wouldn’t be notified of fraud until our firm issued an opinion on the financial statements. The partner-in-charge would review everything. It was unlikely that would happen in a day.

It was possible my next move could mark me as a troublemaker. I sent an email directly to the partner regarding my findings. If I lost my job, I could always go home, but with my head held high. That could be the sign that I wasn’t meant for the secular world.

I’d just walked outside at the end of the day when my name rang out. I turned and sidestepped pedestrians on the sidewalk to find Scott.

“Bailey,” he said and cupped the side of my head.

Before I could stop what was happening, his lips were on mine. I took a giant step away from him, angling to better face him. It left me staring between him and the doors I’d just come through.

When Scott grinned, my heart sank. I turned and locked my gaze with Kalen’s stormy one. I drifted on watery legs with the need to say something despite all that had happened between us.

“Kalen, I can explain,” I said when I reached him.

He stood in tailored clothing like a man ready to conquer the world and used his fingertips to silence my lips. He shook his head and opened the door. Heart thudding in my chest, I got into the car without protest, knowing we could talk on the ride.