I glared at both of them. “I’m going to a hotel.”
“You afraid of sharing a bathroom with me?” Easton asked. “I never imagined that’s what you’d be scared of.”
I wheeled around. “I don’t want to. See the difference?”
“Not really.” He stretched out on the mattress and put his hands behind his head.
“How could you do this to me?” I asked Stone. He was family. He should’ve been on my side.
“We did it for you,” Muriella said. “We’ll let you two get settled in.” She backed out of the room and shut us inside before I could protest.
“For the life of me, I can’t believe you of all people would want to live with me after what you found in your truck,” I said, abandoning my suitcase and kicking off my boots.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said, rolling on his side. “After I had a minute to cool off, some things clicked into place.”
I opened my duffel bag and rooted around for my sweatpants. “Should have been pretty clear before that.”
“Those aren’t your pregnancy tests.” I dropped my elastic ponytail holder from my fingers at his conclusion. “Is Leona all right?” His concerned tone deflated me.
“I hope so.” I kicked the ottoman away from the oversized chair so I could sink into it. “She’s too young to be dealing with shit like that.”
Easton sat up. “Why did you let me think they were yours?”
I propped my feet up on the ottoman and crossed my ankles. “She’s my niece and those tests were private. I didn’t have to tell you she’d thought she was pregnant. Surely you understand that. She’s a good girl. I’m not letting something like that ruin her life.”
“Children aren’t a curse.”
“I never said they were, but she’s got plans.” I leaned my head against the back of the chair. “She trusted the wrong person. She shouldn’t be punished for that.”
“Where is Leona? I thought she was coming to New York until New Year’s.”
“She said this morning she wanted to hang around Burdett.” I shrugged, though I was proud. I didn’t know if she planned on seeing that Green boy or not, but either way, she wasn’t running from her problems. A lesson I could learn.
His phone buzzed, and he checked it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when lines creased his forehead.
“Drew said he needs to talk. He’s helping me look into some things.” His fingers hovered over the screen. “Do you think Stone and Muriella would mind if he comes here?”
“You’d have to ask them, but I don’t think so.”
An hour later, the three of us were settled in Muriella’s study, me behind the desk and Easton and Drew in the two chairs in front of it.
Drew glanced over at me and then back to Easton. “Some of this is personal.”
“I trust Mulaney,” Easton said.
Drew quickly smoothed the annoyed expression from his face. “More money is gone from Mom and Dad’s account.”
I straightened. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“One of their personal accounts has been drawn down significantly over the last several months,” Easton said.
“Is it the medical bills?” I stood, unable to sit any longer. Were the Carters in trouble financially? I would’ve helped them. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There really hasn’t been an opportunity,” he returned patiently. “And we’re not sure why they’ve taken out the money.”
“So you think this sale happened because of that,” I concluded.
“It’s possible, but we’re not certain.”
“They’re down to three grand,” Drew said, a bit panicked.
I planted my hands on the glass surface of the desk. “Three grand? Is that everything or just the one account?”
“The one, but it’s the one they live off. A few of their other accounts appear to be intact, but I couldn’t get access to everything.”
“This information didn’t come from Mr. Carter confiding in you.”
“Have you met our father?” Drew asked. “He’d rather die than ask for help.”
I lowered back into the chair, knowing full well that was true.
“I’ll take care of it. If you get me account numbers for their bills, I’ll pay them from here on out,” Easton said almost robotically.
“Whatever I can gather, I’ll get to you tonight.”
Easton pushed from his chair. “I just don’t understand this.”
“I have more.”
Easton paused. “Do I need to sit down for this?”
He did anyway before Drew spoke again.
“All those figures, you know I don’t have much of an idea of what I’m looking at. How do you do it, man? I never realized how much there is to keep track of.”
I tried not to gape at Drew. Was this his version of ass-kissing?
“Maybe I didn’t have as good of a handle on it as I thought,” Easton returned sullenly.
“One person couldn’t possibly oversee everything coming and going out of Carter Energy,” Drew insisted.
“I’m supposed to.”
Easton had a team around him, yet he felt everything was on his shoulders when it wasn’t.
“I wrote more code to search for discrepancies since all those numbers were blending together. I haven’t had a chance to run it for every facet yet, but so far, every sector of the company has something that doesn’t add up. Some numbers were off by only a few pennies, but others significantly more.”
“What numbers are you comparing?” I asked. “There should only be one set that counts and that’s what’s in our holdings.”
“We have a system that auto-generates a transaction report at midnight that pulls from the bank,” Drew said.
“No bank is going to let another company’s system into theirs. It’s too much of a security risk.” I moved some papers around on Muriella’s desk, noting the Christmas photos lined up along the back of it. There was already one from this year of everybody who was at the ranch. She really was a good fit for Stone. For all of us.
“It’s no different than a person logging into the account, only it’s our system,” Drew corrected.
“Fine, but that sounds like a security risk for us and the bank.” I leaned back in my seat, annoyed that Drew was attempting to school me. We’d been like oil and water for as long as I could remember. I didn’t like him. He didn’t like me. But we tolerated each other because of his family.
“The department with one of the largest differences of what was on the report versus what is actually in the account was yours.” He sniffed. “I guess technically they were all yours since you were CEO, but I meant the exploration division.”
Silence descended after the accusation. Easton adjusted in his seat, jaw hard set. “What are you getting at?”
“Plain and simple? There’s a lot of money that should be in that account that’s not there.”
“Are you trying to say I did something? Every dime I spend I get approval for. Every. Dime.” Thank God this desk separated me from Drew and his smug-ass expression.
He held up his hands. “I’m not saying anything other than your figures don’t add up to the tune of several hundred million.”
“Several hundred million?” I shouted, bolting to my feet. “That’s impossible. You should check that code you wrote for errors.”
“I did,” he returned calmly.
I paced in front of the windows.
“I want to see everything you’ve found. There has to be some mistake.” Leave it to Easton to defend me blindly.
“Initially, I only looked at the difference in the balance. The lump sum was what was a red flag. After further investigation, the withdrawals have been in smaller increments over the last few months,” Drew said.
“Define smaller,” I demanded.
“Some are in the thousands, some in the hundreds of thousands, and only one or two in the millions range.”
“Then it
would take a hell of a lot of withdrawals to add up to several hundred million,” I spat.
“I’m sure once we go through all your projects, everything will align.” Drew folded his arms over his chest, sounding pretty sure we wouldn’t find that very thing at all.
I didn’t take money without approval, but if Drew’s information was correct, the numbers wouldn’t lie. I wracked my brain for how this possibly could’ve happened and came up empty. Had I somehow caused Carter Energy to be in the position we were in?
“Give me all the information. Maybe when I see the amounts it will trigger something.”
“It should all be easy enough to trace since you say you got approval for everything. You keep copies of all of that, right?” Drew asked.
“The balance sheet is what seems to be off. I’ll check it against my own reports, but that binder is in Houston,” I said, irritated I’d left it behind. I wanted answers now.
“I should have an electronic copy of everything.” Easton looked at me with absolute trust as if he knew I’d be vindicated.
Drew stroked his chin. “Didn’t you go ahead on that project in Ector County you found without consulting anybody?”
Easton and Mr. Carter had been out of town, and I’d needed to move fast. We’d needed that lease, and I’d been burned before by waiting too long. How the hell did Drew know about that anyway?
Easton’s brows pulled together. “What is he talking about?”
“I couldn’t reach you or Harris. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, and it’s a damn good thing I didn’t. That well has turned out to be the most profitable we’ve drilled this year.” I pointed at him. “You signed off on it when you got back.”
“I did no such thing. The only property we have in Ector County that I’m aware of is a track of about one hundred wells in the southern part. I think I’d know about our most profitable asset for the year.”
Drew clapped his hands. “Since you say Easton signed off on it, there’s no issue. Unless you’re counting that it happened after the fact.”
“I didn’t have time to wait,” I insisted again.
“I guess you didn’t have to since you were CEO,” he said acidly.
“I continued to operate the same way we had been because it worked. And I certainly didn’t abuse my power.”
Drew and I glared at one another.
Easton rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. “If that’s all, I’ve got a lot of data to wade through.”
“We’re good for now.” Drew handed him a thumb drive. “Here’s what I’ve gleaned so far. I’ll have more for you later. I’m going to pull the files and run the code again. It should be the same, but I’d rather check twice.”
Easton stood and slapped his shoulder. “Thanks. Send me that bank account number. I need to deposit some money before Mom and Dad are overdrawn.”
“I’ll text it to you soon.” He turned to me. “It’s good to have the whole gang here.”
“If your father were here, then the whole gang would be together,” I said.
“Right. I’ll see myself out.”
Chapter Twenty
Easton
“I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Mulaney grabbed my arm as soon as she caught me in our room.
I spun, clutching the thumb drive with evidence I wasn’t so keen to look at. “How could you not tell me about a big project? You always come to the three of us for everything. Or at least, I thought you did. It has nothing to do with approval and more to do with being a team. A family. We’ve always had each other’s backs.”
“I’m not the only one,” she shouted.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Her slender face turned a shade of red that didn’t look healthy. “You waited weeks sometimes to sign off on projects. I lost out on a huge deal in South Texas because of it, so you can’t blame me for taking matters into my own hands on a few occasions.”
“I’ve signed everything that you put on my desk, and nine times out of ten I did it before whatever else was waiting. If I questioned anything I immediately came to you, so I’m not sure where you get off accusing me of holding you up.” I loosened the top buttons on my shirt. “And I did sign the papers for that South Texas project.”
“A week later,” she cried, throwing her hands up.
“Bull. I signed them as soon as I saw them,” I said. “If I was holding you up, why didn’t you ask me about it? Since when have we had a communication breakdown?”
“You know when.” She looked away, her temper curbed.
“Apparently it was better for you to lose a project than have to talk to me.” I unzipped my suitcase to keep myself busy so I didn’t feel how much that stung. “I couldn’t have signed the papers any faster. I’m telling you, I did it as soon as I had them.”
“I thought you were punishing me,” she said quietly.
I balled a pair of flannel pajama pants in my hands. “Is that how little you think of me?” The jabs just kept on coming to the point I wasn’t sure how many more times I could duck to avoid them.
“This wasn’t the first time you’d done something like this.”
I yanked on my hair. “Mulaney, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She bristled. “Never mind. Let me brush my teeth, and then we’ll go through what Drew found to see if we can make sense of it.”
She grabbed her toiletry bag from her suitcase and disappeared into the bathroom. I finished unbuttoning my shirt and shrugged it off before doing the same. Her eyes flared when she caught sight of me in the bathroom mirror.
“Ever heard of privacy?” The glob of toothpaste sitting on her brush fell into the sink.
“Nope.” I unscrewed the cap on mine and replenished hers. She shuddered as my chest grazed her back.
“I’m outta here first thing in the morning.” She tried to escape but I didn’t move.
“I know. We’re going to work.”
“I meant this living arrangement.”
“If that’s what you want.” I shrugged as if indifferent, but I’d do what it took to keep her here. I had no clue she’d missed business opportunities, especially from me not signing off on anything. Our issues ran deeper than I’d imagined.
She paused brushing and our eyes met. This woman stirred something in me no one else ever had, and the years had done nothing to diminish it. I was irritated, a lot of it directed at her, but my strong feelings for her cut right through my annoyance. She resumed brushing her teeth, her strokes more aggressive.
“This is cozy, isn’t it?”
She choked, spitting toothpaste in the sink. I smiled innocently at her before shoving my toothbrush in my mouth.
Heartbreaker glared at me with an intensity I’d only ever seen in her.
“This is temporary.”
“Guess so since you’re headed out in the morning,” I said around my toothbrush.
“It’s my brother’s apartment. You should be the one to go.”
I spit. Like hell I was going anywhere. “I’m not gonna be the one to hurt Muriella’s feelings, but you go ahead if you want to.”
“You’re forcing me to.”
“You make your own decisions, my wishes be damned.”
Her jaw worked. “We don’t always get what we want. I’m living proof of that.”
“I had exactly what I wanted for about eight hours. I don’t recall having a choice about it being snatched away from me.”
“If you think cornering me into sharing a room will change anything, think again.”
I rinsed off my toothbrush, splashed my face, and dried it with a hand towel. A few droplets of water cascaded down my chest, Mulaney’s eyes following the movement with precision.
“All I wanted was a nice place to stay and maybe have some decent food. From what I hear, Muriella can cook like nobody’s business.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “If you expect me to believe any of that—”
“I don’t give a damn what you believe, Heartbreaker.”
At that, she looked chagrinned. I edged past her out of the bathroom and stopped in front of the chair where I’d abandoned my pajamas.
“You beat all,” she said.
I turned, my fly undone and gaping. Her gaze darted down, and I followed it before returning to her face with a smug expression.
“Can you do that in the bathroom?” She waved her hand around, eyes still riveted on me.
I tapped my lips. “Nope.”
She yanked her sweater over her head, turning the tables. Crimson lace. It was all I could focus on. That was the poorest excuse for a bra I’d ever seen. It supported all right, her breasts high and full, but that fabric might as well not be there. Pert nipples pointed at me.
She dropped her jeans, and all my blood went south. That was the poorest excuse for underwear I’d ever seen. A scrap of matching crimson lace, which should have been described as a thong, revealed the smooth skin between her legs.
“What’s the matter? Red not your color?” she goaded, knowing damn well any lace on her suited me.
“Right now, it’s my favorite.” Eyes up, stud. I struggled to keep focused on her face, but somehow managed. “It’s been a while,” I said through my teeth. “But you know that.”
Her smug expression dropped. She shed her bra and pulled on a long-sleeved T-shirt in record time, much to my disappointment. For such a tough exterior, her delicate skin was a contradiction, one I wanted the chance to further explore.
Mulaney pulled on a pair of fuzzy Christmas socks, yet another enigma, before she jabbed her legs into a pair of sweatpants. This look was a far cry from the underwear, but if anything, I grew harder. She collected her hair and secured it on top of her head.
I couldn’t stop staring.
She punched me in the chest. “You’ve had your eyeful.”
I grabbed her by the waist, hauling her against me. “Not even close.”
I released her, and she stumbled into the bathroom. Quickly, I changed pants, forgoing a shirt.
I settled into the armchair about the time she wandered out of the bathroom, her face free of what little makeup she’d worn. Opening my legs, I patted the ottoman. She eyed me warily.
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