“I think we’re done here,” Detective Grant said. “I’ll walk you out to the lobby.”
I handed him back the file folder and we left, walking side by side down the dirty hallway.
“I assume you had your own accountants look at this already,” I said.
He nodded. “We did.”
“Why ask me to look at it? It’s not like I’m high on the hierarchy in the department.”
“That’s why we asked you. Our accountants said that someone in a higher position could be involved, but someone in your role unlikely has the access to the software program needed to pull something like this off. Plus, your name was on one of the estimates, so we knew you would be familiar with enough of it that you might have new information. Which you did.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
He pushed through a heavy door at the end of the hallway, and I could hear Jason’s voice.
“You can’t just walk into my building and arrest my employees!”
He was angry, his face reddened with emotion.
“Sir, if you would just—”
“I’ve got it,” Detective Grant said to the desk sergeant as he approached Jason. “I’m afraid there was a misunderstanding,” he said, touching Jason’s shoulder to encourage him to turn and see me standing just a few feet to his left. “Ms. Forman was not arrested. We just needed to ask her a few questions.”
The relief on Jason’s face was nearly palpable. I smiled softly, as much to reassure him as to convey my own reaction to his. It was nice to know that he cared enough to be that relieved to see me. On some level, I still couldn’t believe he even knew my name, let alone wanted to spend time with me. It made me feel more than special. It made me feel wanted.
Jason’s eyes moved slowly over me for a long moment. Then he turned and focused on Detective Grant.
“Are you the one handling the theft at my company?”
Detective Grant inclined his head. “We are still investigating. But we hope to go to the DA this afternoon and he’ll contact you after that.”
“Thank you.”
Jason turned to me and gestured for me to head out the door. As we approached it, however, it opened and Frank Thomas walked in with a couple of guys in suits. Lawyers, I assumed. They just had that look about them.
Frank looked at Jason. At first his eyes narrowed with something much deeper than simple anger. And then they began to dance with sinister amusement.
“That was some picture on the internet this morning, Jason,” he said. “I’m sure Mommy and Daddy found it illuminating.”
Jason pressed his hand to the small of my back and guided me around Frank. However, Frank wasn’t going to be ignored. He grabbed Jason’s arm and tugged him close, whispering something in his ear that I couldn’t hear. But I felt the tension rock through his body and saw the tightness on his face, so I knew it wasn’t a friendly comment. Then Frank laughed, as Jason continued to guide me outside.
We didn’t speak as we made our way to the parking lot. Jason helped me into the passenger seat, slamming the door a little too hard before moving around and gunning the engine as he started the car. We moved into traffic quicker than we should have—especially sitting across from a police station—and maneuvered through the streets as if we were running a race. I was afraid to look at him, let alone ask him what Frank had said. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel, his jaw tight and his lips pursed as he stared ahead.
But when we pulled into the parking garage below the office building and slid into his parking spot, he shut off the engine and turned to me, cradling my face gently between both his hands.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“What did they want with you?”
I shrugged. I wanted to move into him; I wanted to press my forehead to his shoulder and forget about the entire morning. “They asked me about the same estimates and bills you showed me in your office the other day.”
“Anything else?”
“Not really. I explained to them how our process works and the flaw in the software—”
“Flaw in the software?”
My eyebrows rose. “You don’t know?”
He shook his head. So I explained it to him the same way I had the detective. The tension filled his face again with every word that fell from my lips. He cursed when I was done, even though his hands were still gently holding my face, his thumbs caressing the curve of my jaw.
“They’re gonna go after Fredericks next.”
I nodded.
“Who else knows about this?”
“Everyone in accounting. I don’t know who else.”
He groaned as he pressed his forehead to mine. “I can’t believe I’ve been such a blind fool about my own company.”
“It’s not your fault if your department heads aren’t reporting to you properly.”
“Yeah, well, I shouldn’t have been so complacent with Frank. I knew he was screwing up, but I felt like I owed him something.”
“I’m sorry.”
He groaned again before pressing his lips to mine. I moved into him, opening to his touch with the readiness of a starving man welcoming the first bite of a steak. I slid my hand over his chest, my fingers playing with the gap between buttons, my skin barely grazing his. He smelled so good, felt so good. I wanted to crawl into his lap and forget everything that was happening around us. I was pretty sure he wanted the same thing.
His hand slid down over my hip, his palm pressing against the side of my ass for just a moment, then moved lower down, sliding under the hem of my skirt. My thighs loosened at his touch, ready to give him access to everything he wanted at a second’s notice. But his hand stopped moving even as he pressed his lips even harder against mine for a brief moment.
“There’s something you should know,” he said slightly breathlessly.
“What?”
He hesitated, his lips brushing mine again. And then he tugged his phone out of his hip pocket and pulled up something on the internet.
I didn’t understand what it was I was looking at with my first glance. But then I recognized the shape of his car, the angles of his face. I sat back and held the phone for a long moment, studying the look of ecstasy on his face in a picture that I finally understood had been taken the night before—outside the bar where I worked—a picture of the two of us making love in the backseat of this very car.
“Who took this?”
“I don’t know. I suspect Frank had something to do with it, but I can’t really prove it.”
“Why?”
Jason took the phone from me and slid it back into his pocket. “He’s angry. He wants to hurt me, and he knows that damaging my reputation won’t only hurt me, but it’ll hurt my family.”
“But this is 2016,” I said. “How damaging can a photo like that be to you and your family?”
“You’d be surprised. Most of my parents’ friends and business contacts are ultra-conservative. They see something like this, and then they begin to think my parents can’t control their children. Then they think that if they can’t control their own family, how good will they be at controlling their business interests? And then it snowballs from there.”
He sat back in the driver’s seat and dragged his fingers through his hair. “My brother once got arrested for smarting off to a cop during a traffic stop. Even though the charges were dropped and everything smoothed over, a few of my father’s business associates turned their backs on him and he lost a few million in revenue that year.”
“Really?”
He glanced at me. “And I’m the good brother, so this…I don’t know what kind of consequences it’ll have for my parents. But I know it could lose a few clients for JB Graphics. No family-based business is going to want to do business with someone who can’t control himself in public.”
“But this was taken out of context.”
“Was it?” He turned into me and stole a kiss. Then he
pressed his forehead to mine for a long moment, a sigh finally escaping his lips. “I have to make this go away.”
“What can I do?”
He pulled back just enough so that I could see his eyes. “I was going to ask you this anyway, but…my parents raise money for this community center they sponsor and tonight is this silent auction. I’m supposed to preside over it. I thought that if I were to show up with a respectable girl, it might smooth a few ruffled feathers.”
“I’m supposed to work at the bar tonight, but I can call in a favor with one of the other girls.”
“I’d really appreciate it,” he said with a soft smile.
At that moment, I would have done just about anything to keep that smile shining on me. I just nodded because I was a little breathless, a little incapable of making my mind form one, single, coherent thought. And then he kissed me, and all thought just disappeared like a wisp of smoke.
We moved into each other for a long moment, his hand sliding right back under my skirt. And then he slowly, almost reluctantly, moved away.
“We should go in before we present any more photo opportunities for Frank’s friends.”
He walked me to the main elevator banks and held my hand until the last second, our finger tips lingering in that way that made me sick to my stomach when I saw other people doing it, but which made my heart skip a few beats when he did it. When the elevator doors opened on the accounting floor, there was still a smile glued to my lips. But it began to fade as I felt everyone staring at me, openly wondering how I’d managed to be released from police custody so quickly.
Lesley was waiting outside her cubicle when I rounded the corner.
“Hey! You’re back.”
“I’m back.”
“What happened?”
I shook my head. “They just wanted to ask a couple of questions.”
“About Fredericks?”
I didn’t say anything, just slipped into my cubicle and fell into my chair.
Lesley must have realized I didn’t want to talk and, to her credit, she didn’t ask anything else. But she handed me her cellphone with the photo of me and Jason pulled up.
“Looks like you’re not the only one in trouble today,” she said.
Is it stupid that it was at that moment that I realized I had absolutely nothing to wear to this party tonight?
Why the hell had I agreed to go?
Chapter 14
Jason
I managed to get the photograph taken down. It was posted on a site that didn’t allow nudity. I convinced the person on the other end of the phone that Joanne’s naked back was enough nudity to get the photo removed. It took a lot of convincing, and I almost felt dirty as I laid the charm on thick, but it worked. One obstacle removed.
And then my mom called.
“You do realize that we have the internet here in Paris,” she said as way of greeting.
“I do, Mother.”
“Mother? Is it that bad?”
My mom always had a way of seeing right through me, even from several thousand miles away. She and my dad went to Paris for a conference three months ago and decided to stick around a while longer and have a long overdue vacation. I’ve never known my parents to vacation. It was strange, but I was happy for them.
“I’m dealing with it.”
“Make sure you do,” she said in that tone she used to use to get me to finish my homework. And then in a softer tone, she said, “Who’s the girl?”
“Mom—”
“Are you seeing someone, or was this just a…what do you kids call it? A one-time thing?”
“You sound like Justin.”
“Oh, God forbid that I sound like your brother. But, really, is she someone special?”
“Her name’s Joanne.”
“That’s nice. Old fashioned.”
“And that’s all you get.”
She groaned. “Come on, Jason. Tell me about her. How long have you been seeing her? Is it serious? Will we get to meet her?”
I smiled despite myself. Like Justin, my mother has been pushing me to settle down, meet a girl, and spend a few evenings at home instead of the office. I listened to her advice a little more than I did my brother’s, but it’s not as if just telling me to enter a relationship will make the perfect girl materialize right in front of me. I wasn’t even sure Joanne was the perfect girl. I was hoping, but it was still too soon to know for sure.
That’s why I changed the subject and forced my mom to focus on the silent auction tonight instead of my love life.
“We’ve got a couple of big donations: a trip to Cabo, a dinner with some young, up-and-coming singer, and a Tiffany’s necklace.”
“That should bring in some good money,” my mom said.
“That’s what we’re hoping. Justin’s already planning to bid on the Cabo trip.”
“That’s one way to get him to give money to a good cause.”
“I’m just curious how he’s planning on pulling that off with a new baby at home.”
“There are these people called nannies, my darling.”
“I’m not sure Sara would let him get away with that.”
“Speaking of Sara, will your young woman be attending the party with you tonight?”
I groaned. “You have a one-track mind.”
“I’m just interested in what’s going on in my sons’ lives. I want to know how you’re doing. As disappointed as I am to see a picture like this on the internet, I’m relieved to see you’re doing something besides working twenty-four-seven.”
“What? Me? Where would I have learned that sort of work ethic?”
“Yes, well, your father and I worked hard, but we always made time for each other and you children. You should learn from that, too.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I hung up a few minutes later and sat back on my chair, feeling as though I’d already put in a full day—despite the fact that it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. I wondered how Joanne was doing downstairs. Were her coworkers causing her trouble for being led out of here by a cop? And then I found myself thinking about what Frank had said as I was leaving the police station.
“I know you, Jason,” he’d said. “And I know how to hurt you the worst.”
What did that mean? What was that man up to now?
Frank was…he was once a friend. We were roommates in college. We partied together, double dated together. We were the big men on campus. And when I started this company, as an art major, too, Frank was thrilled to come join us. The first few years were good. He was reliable. Without him, we would have missed all kinds of deadlines and been lost. He was what I needed. But then…I don’t know when things changed. The company grew. I put him in charge of the creative department. I thought that would make him happy. Instead, he turned into this over-privileged jackass. He stopped showing up to meetings, stopped arriving at work on time. She started taking excessively long lunches and then charging them to his expense account. And then the thefts.
I guess he thought I wouldn’t notice because I didn’t review that accounting department as closely as I should have. I had no idea there was a flaw in the software that could be exploited; I had no idea that Frank was good enough friends with the head of accounting to convince him to overlook that flaw and cheat the company out of thousands of dollars.
I should have known.
I couldn’t let this happen again. I had to make changes. I just wasn’t sure in which direction those changes should come.
He wanted to hurt me. For what? I gave him a good job, gave him responsibility, and paid him a salary that was far above the average. And he stole from me.
He was wrong. He was the one who would hurt. I would make damn sure he was prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.
Chapter 15
Joey
“You’re going to what?”
I dropped a bag filled with groceries on the kitchen counter, quickly shoving the fresh vegetables into the fridge, trying to find
a safe place to put them around the cakes that were waiting for Rosie to decorate.
I had three jobs. JB Graphics. A bar called Nico’s—an odd name for a honky-tonk, I know, but the owner was a bit of an egomaniac. And a cake decorating business with my sister. I baked the cakes, she decorated them. But, lately, she’d been letting the business slide a little because she’d been spending too much time with her boyfriend, Jackson.
“I’m going to a party,” I repeated, as I grabbed a carton of eggs from the grocery bag and mumbled something a little indelicate when I found fondant in the egg compartment of the fridge.
“With whom?”
I shook my head, not really in the mood to get into the whole thing with Rosie. I was so worried about what I was going to wear. I had nothing that was really appropriate to wear to a huge party like this one. And I didn’t want to disappoint Jason. I’d been going over my wardrobe in my head all day, such as it was. I haven’t gone clothes shopping in two or three years because I was using my money to buy books at school and to pay off the loans that paid my tuition.
My goal was to be debt free by the time I turned thirty. At the rate I was going, I wasn’t quite going to make it. But it would be close.
But that left me with an old, chiffon dress my mother once gave me, or a black shift I wore to work all the time. Not great choices for evening gowns.
“Jo,” Rosie said, reminding me that she was still there. “What about the bar?”
“Kelly’s going to take my shift tonight, and I’m taking hers on Sunday.”
“But I thought you got the majority of your tips on Fridays.”
“I do. But Sunday isn’t awful. There’s a few…”
“This guy must be really important.”
I shoved a new bag of flour into the cupboard and wiped my hands off on a dishtowel.
“It’s an important party, and I have no idea what I’m going to wear.”
“Well, maybe the box that was delivered a while ago will help.”
I looked over at her. “What box?”
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