by Nella Tyler
“You’re right. I have no idea. Please, let’s talk about it.”
“I’m done talking, Evan. I’m going home.”
She raised her hand into the air as she left the apartment building and just like magic there was a cab there for her. It was truly poetic how quickly she could get a cab at any hour. My theory was that it was a combination of her being a sexy woman, her red hair, and just pure luck.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said as she got into the cab.
Although I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be answering any call from me anytime soon.
I went back up to the dinner party and was faced with three women who looked very disappointed in me. Even Roberto, who didn’t speak English, looked at me with disappointed eyes.
“What?” I said as I sat back down at the table.
“Did you just accuse her of money laundering?” Natasha said with a chuckle.
“No, I said I thought it was a stupid idea to hire the same guy she used to have working with her. Especially considering he had been charged with money laundering.”
“Was he charged or was he arrested and released?” Darla said.
Something in her eyes made it clear that I was wrong.
“He was arrested and released, but that doesn’t matter. He was obviously doing something illegal if they arrested him.”
“Didn’t they arrest Alicia also?” Natasha asked.
“Yes, but she wasn’t involved so they let her go.”
“Hmm, and they also let her VP go,” Natasha added with a shrug of the shoulders.
“It doesn’t really matter if he was involved or not. You are basically telling her she’s a bad business woman. No woman in power wants to hear that from someone,” Darla chimed in.
“What? You want me to just let her whole company get ruined again because of this guy?”
“It’s her company,” Darla added.
“I have thousands of dollars invested into her company,” I added.
“Then sell off her stocks. There is no reason you need to be involved in her business at all. You told her your concerns. You have to let her handle things now.”
“Oh, Natasha, it’s not that simple.”
“Why?”
“I care about her.”
I saw the surprise on her face. She had never heard me say such a thing about a woman that I had dated. In fact, she probably hadn’t actually seen me date many women at all. The whole situation was unusual and I felt really out of place.
“Then you definitely need to step back. She won’t consider dating you if she thinks you don’t trust her business sense. She’s a strong woman, you need to let her find her way with this business,” Natasha said and gently touched my hand.
I hated it, but I thought she might be right. If I kept pushing Alicia she would surely pull away and I would never get to have a relationship with her. As much as it was going to kill me, I needed to just be supportive of her and not let her know just how much research I had done on her company.
I decided not to confront Alicia with any more information, but I wasn’t going to stop investigating. If I found some solid proof, only then would I bring it to Alicia.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I had new information and I wasn’t ready to stop my investigation just yet. I grabbed Michael the first thing when I got to work and sat in his office to discuss where I should go next.
“So the dinner didn’t go well?” he asked with a smile.
“It could have gone better. First time I have been slapped in a very long time, though, that was fun.”
“Really, I would have thought you were getting slapped a lot more often,” Mike laughed.
“I know, me too.”
We moved into my office and Natasha was there with some coffee and the day’s numbers. But I wasn’t interested. My whole mind was consumed with trying to figure out just what was going on with Alicia’s company. Only if I could get the evidence I needed would I be able to confront her again.
I had become obsessed with the mystery of who was stealing from Alicia. Even if she was going to be angry with me, I was determined to figure out what was going on.
My entire life had been a weird combination of me giving up on some things without trying at all and then hyper focusing on other things until everything in my life had been forgotten. I didn’t understand enough about myself to know why I was able to so easily give up on some tasks but yet be consumed by others. But Alicia and her company were certainly something that I was consumed by.
“Let’s look at what we have on this Bill Yobi guy so far,” Mike said as he took out a piece of paper and started to take notes.
“Well we know he was arrested with her last company,” I said.
“We know he’s overly protective of her, based on how you said he acted at the stock exchange.”
“Yep,” I said as I remembered him chasing Alicia and I down the hallway.
“Is he her father? A boyfriend? Some other close relationship?” Mike said. He clearly had the same thought process as I did.
“I asked about him being her father. She laughed and said no. I mean I think she would have told me if he had some sort of other relationship with her.”
“Well how long have they worked together? Maybe she just really trusts him?”
Mike was again thinking the same as I was. Alicia had worked with Bill for well over five years; he had been her advisor in the clothing world ever since she first started. Perhaps there was a dependency on him because he was the only person she knew for such a long period of time.
I personally felt like there was some sort of fatherly guidance that Alicia got from him, but I couldn’t understand why she was so loyal to him. She obviously didn’t want him to control her and I had seen that the day we ran away from him on the stock exchange. But maybe that was just some childish game to Alicia and not actually something that was important. I didn’t know what the conversations were like between them. It was entirely possible I knew nothing about Bill at all.
“I think you’re right. I think she has just known him so long that she trusts him. Maybe I’m wrong about the guy. But there is just something that I don’t like about him. I wonder if we delved into his personal finances if we could see what else might be going on. I mean if money is being stolen from her company by him, we should be able to find it somewhere. Right?”
Mike didn’t answer but went right to looking for the financial we had on individuals that worked at ALL Warren Clothing. We didn’t have much, but it was a good placed to get started. The good thing about financial information was even when you tried to cover it up in one location; it usually showed up somewhere else. You couldn’t cover up every purchase or bank account. You could only minimize the trail towards them.
I had the address of where Bill lived which was the first thing to catch my attention. He lived in the upper east side of New York where pretty much any apartment was well over a million dollars.
“Look up his address, Mike; I think I know where this is.”
I watched as Mike pulled up a real estate website and typed in the address. We both sat back in awe as we saw a multi-million dollar penthouse come up on his laptop. I couldn’t afford a place like that and I knew Bill shouldn’t be able to with his role in a new start up company. It was an immediate red flag.
“This isn’t possible. I can just show this to Alicia. She will know that something is wrong,” I said.
This was the information I needed to convince Alicia. Obviously he couldn’t pay for such a lavish lifestyle with the money he made from working with Alicia. I got excited with the thought that I would be able to show this to Alicia and she would forgive me.
Having Alicia so angry with me felt horrible. My insides felt like a school girl who had been turned away by her boyfriend. I was usually the person who caused this kind of chaos in others. I wasn’t the person who had these feelings.
Most of my adult life had been spent avoiding deep r
elationships. I hated this feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like how out of control I felt when someone left me. That was why I was always the person who left others. Or I would get into relationships that were specifically set up to end after one night.
I was in new territory and it was doing quiet the number on my body. I felt nauseous and out of control and I needed to do something to get back into control very quickly.
“Evan, there is no real information here yet. Maybe Bill’s rich grandmother died. We have no idea where the money really came from you can’t just go and confront her again. You’re likely to get slapped.”
“Hey, guys, can I help you with the research today?” Rebecca said from the doorway of my office.
Both Mike and I stopped and stared at Rebecca as she stood in the doorway. I didn’t want her to be involved at all anymore. I knew I was going to have to be firm with her this time. I hated this part when it came to women I had fucked.
“No thanks, Rebecca, we have this,” I said to her.
“Come on, I’ve been helping all along,” she said as she came in and sat down.
I just looked at Mike with wide eyes and tried to figure out a way to nicely tell her to leave. I wasn’t in the mood to pretend to care though.
“No, Rebecca. We don’t need your help on this.”
Here face went red and I could tell she only held back her anger because Mike was in the room.
Rebecca stood up slowly and put on what looked like the worst pretend happy face I had ever seen. She obviously didn’t want to show how disappointed she was to Mike, but she couldn’t hide it. I felt like she would have bit me again right then and there if Mike had not been in the room. Luckily for me, he was there.
“Alright guys, I’ll talk to you later,” she said with a smile as she left.
I jumped up and locked the door after she was gone. I didn’t want her barging in again.
“Wow, that was a little creepy, Evan.”
“I know, like seriously she was super cool before and she’s turning into some sort of stalker or something.”
“Her eyes went totally weird when you told her no,” Mike added.
“I know. I tell you she totally bit me on purpose the other day. Like straight out Dracula shit.”
Mike just laughed.
He was used to me and my women troubles. Mike found humor in all my situations. Including the time I got arrested because the woman I was with had actually robbed a bank earlier in the day. I still hadn’t lived that one down. Luckily I had a great alibi for earlier in that day and the woman confessed and said I didn’t know anything about it. Mike gave me quit the lecture about choosing my women more wisely.
“Do you think I should go check out his place? See what else I can find?”
“No, Evan. If you want to know what I really think, I think you should sell off your stock and give up on the whole thing. I think you’ve got yourself in way over your head and you don’t need to be involved with this girl. There are plenty of other women who don’t have these kinds of issues.”
“I’m not giving up, Mike. I’m so close.”
Mike just shrugged his shoulders. He knew better than to argue with me when I had decided something. We had known each other for too many years for him to argue with me about things that I decided to focus on.
I think he was just as confused as I was about the things that I was willing to let go of and the other things that I focused on. But Mike seemed to just let things roll off his back without a worry.
“No reason to go over there, Evan. We can see that his place is expensive. It was last sold for thirty-two million dollars back in 2005.”
“I just need more. I need to find out for sure if he was the one who purchased the apartment. He seems like a smart man, I’m not sure he would be dumb enough to purchase that expensive of a condo with money he stole from Alicia’s companies.”
“You’re right. It does seem a little obvious. I think I have a guy that can help us find more information. You should try and make up with Alicia though or all of this is going to be for nothing.”
I knew he was right. No matter how much I wanted to figure out what was going on with her company, if she was pissed at me it didn’t matter at all.
“Ok, I’m going to work on her. You work on finding the financial proof I need to blow up Bill Yobi’s lies. I need real proof though. I need his name on some documents so I can show Alicia he is using her.”
Mike and I ended our day of investigation and he went off to try and find the answers I needed. I went home and tried to figure out what I could say to Alicia that would bring her back to me. She was pissed, but hopefully not too angry to forgive me.
I had never worried so much about a woman and her dislike toward me. Something about Alicia had drawn me in though. I was hyper focused on her and there was no way I was going to give up until everything had been settled.
I was committed to making sure I helped her figure out who was stealing from her and I was going to have to deal with the consequences if she continued to hate me. I really hoped when it was all done she would be able to forgive me, though. It made me physically ill to think that she might not ever be willing to forgive me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I stood at the window in my apartment and stared out over the city. It had only been a few weeks before that I had a hot blonde bent over right there and fucking her. I didn’t have the urge to go get a woman from the bar though, instead, my mind was consumed by thoughts of Alicia’s warehouse.
It was a huge building in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t even seem like a good choice for someone who wanted to store large amounts of cash. You could do that anywhere in the city if you had to. Simply rent an apartment and keep the money there. Why did they put the money into a warehouse? Why did they choose a place so far away from everything else? There had to be significance to the location.
“Alicia, I know you’re pissed but I would really like to talk to you. Please come by my apartment anytime or the office,” I said into Alicia’s voicemail.
I gave my address and then hung up. I hoped that she would be willing to stop by so we could discuss what was going on. If she was really involved then she wasn’t going to call me back. If she was really involved she would cut off all communication with me and try to hide out.
I hoped she would call. I hoped she wasn’t involved at all.
My mind raced with the thoughts of everything. What had started as a plan to just get research on a company had spiraled out of control now. I was in much deeper than I ever thought possible. My life was wrapped up in Alicia and her company and I wasn’t going to be able to move on until I figured everything out.
I felt the pressure of the situation and the uncomfortable nature of what was going on. I was Evan Gade, my life didn’t get mixed up with women like this. My life was about work, making money, and fucking hot women. Something had gone wrong with my plan and now I wasn’t doing any of those things. I had stopped being able to work efficiently, stopped making money and I certainly wasn’t fucking anyone lately.
Sleep found me late into the evening.
In the morning, I felt more exhausted than usual. I really wanted to get everything figured out with Alicia but I might just have to give up. I couldn’t go around being exhausted forever. Sooner or later I would have to get back to my normal life.
My mood was glum as I headed into the office and waited for Alicia to contact me. I would give it a day or two and then if she hadn’t reached out to me by then I would have to move on.
“You look like shit, Evan,” Natasha said as I came down the hall toward my office.
“Thanks.”
“I take it you weren’t able to get Alicia to forgive you yet?”
“No answer when I called.”
“Well you need to get over it. You have a fucking job to do Evan. Your clients need to make money and they need your full attention.”
Natasha was right. Something had take
n me over and I didn’t have enough energy to concentrate on Alicia and do my work. Something was going to have to change. I wasn’t about to risk losing my clients over this mess. If I had to see off the stock to ALL Warren then that was what I was going to have to do.
“You’re right Natasha. I’m going to focus on work today.”
The best way for me to focus was to spend the morning on the stock market floor. There was no better way to refocus my energy on investments than to be smack dab in the middle of all the excitement.
From the newbie’s to the old pro’s the stock market floor was where it was at when you needed to get back into the game. I loved it on the floor. It felt like home to me.
The buzz of the trades, the loud yelling of the traders: it was intoxicating. Similar to the high I felt when I took a new woman home or had fun with her in some random location; but the stock market didn’t require emotions. In fact, the best work traders were able to separate the emotion of the trades from the logic of the deal.
I had lost my focus. By getting involved with Alicia, I had done exactly what I shouldn’t have done. I had made the investment into her company something more personal than it needed to be.
By the end of the day, my focus had returned and I was in full on trading mode again. I sold off some stock that I didn’t think was helping the portfolio grow and I had started investing in a couple new companies. It was a very productive day, except for one thing; I hadn’t made the decision if I was going to sell off the ALL Warren stock or not yet.
“Mr. Gade, there is a Ms. Warren here to see you,” Natasha said over the speaker phone in my office.
My stomach dropped and I jumped up. Hopefully she hadn’t come with the intention of slapping me again.
“Hi, Alicia,” I said as I opened my door.
She sat in the chair next to Natasha’s desk and looked visibly upset. But she didn’t look angry, instead she looked very sad. Her eyes were puffy like she had been crying and I just wanted to sweep her up into my arms.
“Hi, Evan,” she said as her eyes met mine.
