by Lisa Oliver
Jon and dragon shared a long look. “The challenge is over,” Jon said firmly. “Dirk is the winner. The consequences of that can be discussed in private. For now, Dirk needs to dress and I am sure you all have work to do. Samuel and Byron, if you can report to Dirk’s office in fifteen minutes, I know Dirk would appreciate it. Nice to meet you all.”
“Did I do okay?” Jon whispered wrapping his arms around the dragon’s neck as the others left the room.
“The only thing I would’ve done differently is changed that appointment to thirty minutes’ time, not fifteen,” Dirk growled as he shifted into his two-legged form. “For some reason, the thought of you being so incredibly smart when it comes to finance makes me hot.”
“Hold that thought,” Jon said, dropping a kiss on Dirk’s cheek and Dirk felt the tantalizing warmth of Jon’s body before he moved away. “We can’t let one of your brothers marry Celine without telling them about the baby. What is your father up to?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jon didn’t blink when Dirk pulled over the chair he’d been using so it was closer to his mate’s desk. Protectiveness, concern, and a spot of aggression emanated from Dirk’s shoulders, although the aggression was aimed at Byron who was kicking his foot against the desk leg. Samuel looked lost and confused, appealing to Dirk in what could only be described as a frantic manner.
“I don’t want to marry her. I don’t want to be forced to marry anyone. But Father said….”
“When did he say this?” Dirk interrupted him. “Did he come here?”
“No.” Samuel shook his head. “He’s respected the company laws regarding that at least, but he’s been hounding my phone and driving me nuts with this. He’s made it plain that if Byron won’t step up, then I have to or he’ll disown me.”
“You should be grateful Father even considered you for such an important merger,” Byron spat. “You’re the youngest and weakest. I don’t even know why father even mentioned it to you.”
“Because you’re not answering your phone. How is that being respectful?” Samuel didn’t take the attack lying down, Jon noticed. For all his caution, Samuel wasn’t scared of his brothers and that was a positive.
“Father had more important things for me to do.”
“Yes, like challenging me,” Dirk said firmly. “And now that didn’t work, what’s the next plan? Lure my mate away somewhere and shoot him?”
Byron’s face flushed red but he kept his lips firmly pressed together. Jon wondered if that was because he’d already pulled the man up for lying once and that was just since the meeting started.
“What am I going to do, Dirk? I don’t want to be kicked out of the family,” Samuel pleaded.
“You’re a grown man,” Dirk said, but his tone softened. “Did I want to go against Father after all he’s done for me? No. But he completely ignored the fact I’d met my true mate and tried to force me to marry anyway. He sent killers after Jon. I had no choice. I run the clan here now and you’re welcome to stay.”
Jon felt a tingle as though the dragon was cuddling him. Clearly, there were some things the big red beast didn’t like to think about.
“Marrying Celine wouldn’t be that bad,” Byron said suddenly. “If my damn dragon would hurry up and get his head straight, I’d do it.”
“Even knowing she was pregnant with another shifter’s child? A half-breed child?” Jon and Dirk discussed it before the brothers arrived. As he was the one who scented the pregnancy, Dirk felt it was he who should broach the subject.
There was a stunned silence. Byron broke it first. “Does Father know? I mean, I’m sorry she’s in this condition, but why doesn’t anyone know about this before the wedding? Surely, then the groom can make an informed choice about it.”
“I don’t think Father cares. He’s more worried about getting his hands on her dowry. Although, I doubt he’d accept a half-breed child as a suitable Hollingsworth heir so goodness knows what would happen when he found that out. If Celine marries into the family and the child is revealed as an afterthought, well, you can imagine how that would look to our snobby European counterparts.” Dirk held out his hand and Jon took it, linking their fingers.
“The dowry. That’s why he’s pushing the marriage.” Samuel leaned forward. “There’s been rumors. The European branch hasn’t been doing well with the economic crisis over there.”
“Would your father have invested any of his own money to help bolster the company?” Jon asked, not liking the idea percolating in the back of his head.
Samuel glanced at Byron and then they both looked at Dirk. “It’s possible,” Byron said reluctantly. “The European branch has been running a lot longer than we have. Over the years they’ve invested money for some of the wealthiest and most prominent families across Europe. There’s been nothing on the news about anyone tied with Hollingsworths losing money as a result of the economy, but if it’s true, then the dividends would have to have been paid somehow otherwise it would be all over the papers.”
“How long do you think your father’s hoard could support the company? Do any of you know?” Tugging his hand away from Dirk’s Jon reached for his laptop.
“There’s no way of knowing,” Dirk explained. “A dragon’s hoard is a private, personal thing. We tend to get a bit protective and secretive about the things we treasure.”
He winked and Jon felt his cheeks heat as he tapped into his analytical programs. A quick trace showed the money stolen had been moved and Jon didn’t have the means to know where it had gone unless he did a spot of old fashioned hacking. But he could do a check to see if there were any changes to the code that was siphoning the money in the first place. He clicked a few more keys and got his program going. Ooh. Someone had tweaked the code. He started to run the analytics to see when it’d been done.
Suddenly aware of the silence, Jon looked up to see everyone watching him. “Sorry, did I miss something?”
“I told my brothers about the missing money in this company and what you do,” Dirk said grimly. “If I’d known about the European issues, I might have seen a link. Is there any way you can run your programs through my father’s system without him knowing about it?”
“If someone can provide me password access to it, yes. I can do that from here. I understand your suspicions regarding your father, but remember, the code in your system was planted by someone in this company. It was done through one of the computers in your IT department.”
“And they don’t know you know about this code? Why haven’t you disabled it? They’re stealing from us and some of that is my money.” Yes, Byron had every reason to be upset, but he could stow his freaking attitude. Jon didn’t like the man’s tone.
Jon rested his laptop on Dirk’s desk and crossed his arms. “If I disable the code, then whoever is doing this will know we’re onto him. However,” he added, looking sideways at Dirk, “we’re going to have to do it soon unless you can come up with some plan to find the people responsible quickly. Someone adjusted the code yesterday and the percentage of money stolen has gone up another five percent overnight.”
“Why didn’t they just take it all?” Samuel asked. “I mean, if you have access to billions of dollars, and you know you’re going to get caught sooner or later, wouldn’t you just clean out the accounts and jump ship?”
“Not if you were just siphoning off enough to keep another company going. Think about it.” Jon was pleased even Byron looked attentive. “If you knew you were about to come into a large sum of money, but needed smaller amounts in the interim, you’d keep the thefts small so it was unlikely they’d be noticed. The windfall comes in, the debt problem is solved, the code is removed from this system, and no one is any the wiser and they attribute the losses to an accounting error.”
“The expected windfall being Celine’s dowry.” Dirk shook his head.
“Exactly, and as we already know, your father was determined to get that
money, which is why he’s so insistent on you marrying her despite learning about me.”
“Why is Celine’s family paying a dowry, anyway?” Samuel asked. “It’s not as though she would need it, and neither would her husband.”
“You were privy to those arrangements more than I was,” Dirk cocked his head at Byron. “Do you know why the dowry was insisted on?”
Byron looked as though he’d seen a ghost. “Father said…fuck this. I agreed to challenge you but this is going too far.”
“What are you talking about Byron?” Jon said quietly as Dirk growled and Samuel just kept looking between them with a worried look on his face.
“The original clause in the marriage agreement insisted on a dowry for Celine, to be held by Father in the event anything happened to you.”
“Yeah, so? Why couldn’t Celine manage her own money?”
“She can, that’s not the point. The point is, after your mate attacked Father yesterday, he called me and told me to challenge you for the company. He said…he said a lot of things,” Byron looked positively shamefaced, “but the gist of it was…fuck, he set me up to kill my own brother.”
“The challenges are to the death?” Jon quirked his brow at Dirk who was watching Byron intently.
“Not as a rule, no. A dragon is shamed, banished, and they forfeit their hoard if they lose. What are you talking about Byron?”
“I wouldn’t have done it. Everything he said,” Byron hid his face in his hands. “He was going on about how Dirk had dishonored the family. How we’d be the laughing stock of all the clans. He said the only way to protect our reputation was for Dirk to die. He was worried no one would do business with us. Our hoards would be depleted and we’d lose our position among the clans. He went on and on about how true mates were just a myth and that Dirk had been mind-washed or be-spelled. The way Father put it, I was doing you and all of us a favor by killing you. I…I…fuck. I didn’t think Father would go that far.”
“And yet you challenged your brother anyway.” Jon let out a long breath. “And did your father also mention that if you’d gone through with the challenge and killed Dirk, my response as his mate would’ve been to kill you?”
“He said you were a dog shifter. If my dragon can’t take out an ordinary canine, then I don’t deserve to be a dragon.”
Tempting though it was, Jon kept his smart retort to himself. Instead he looked at Dirk. “You have a big office; do you mind if I show them what’s happened to this dog since you and I mated? That’s if I have your dragon’s cooperation, of course.”
“Be my guest,” Dirk grinned. “You see, Byron,” he continued as Jon started stripping off his clothes. “Not only does Jon’s wonderful dog spirit allow him to act as a lie detector, my dragon is seriously taken with him and gifted him powers during the claiming. Go ahead and show him, my mate, and Byron, remember, this is what Father saw and what he knew you’d be facing if you’d hurt me in any way.”
The scale against Jon’s heart heated as he shifted. All at once his view changed and he looked down to see Byron and Samuel with their mouths wide open. He sniffed, the smell of fear and wonder filling his nostrils along with the intoxicating scent of his mate. He growled and curled his lips back, laughing inside as Samuel and Byron pushed back their chairs, before shifting back and reaching for his pants.
“And, I’m impervious to dragon fire,” he added as he zipped himself up.
“He didn’t care if I died too.” Byron was shattered and Jon felt almost sorry for him. Almost.
“Well, he’s going to kill me too once he learns I’m not marrying Celine,” Samuel said. “What the hell are we going to do now?”
“We find the person responsible for placing the rogue code in the system,” Jon said as he undid his pants again. “I’ll pick up more scents in my normal dog form this time.”
“Are you sure?” Dirk looked like he was going to object.
“Unless Samuel tells me Celine’s his fated mate, I don’t see we have any choice. Killing me didn’t work. Coercing Byron into challenging you was a bust and I think we both agree he’s just a pawn in a far larger plan. If we can find who’s responsible for the thefts on our side of the ocean, maybe we can get enough proof to confront your father and…and…what do you do with dragons who’ve gone off their rocker?”
“Considering nothing like that has happened in five hundred years, we may have to come up with a new method,” Dirk said grimly. “In the past, we used to decapitate them.”
And a simple iron cage wouldn’t do instead? Jon shifted.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dirk tried to loosen his shoulders. Their tightness was causing an unpleasant pressure up his neck, but he couldn’t shake off his anger and dismay. In all the years he’d worked at the company, he’d never felt anything but pride in being part of such a financially successful firm. Yes, money was important to dragons but it was more than that. The Hollingsworth name was respected far and wide in both paranormal and human communities. Every cent Dirk made he added to his hoard and by the time his father finally stepped down, Dirk was confident he could handle anything that came his way for the next century or more.
And now his father was trying to sabotage the entire premise of Hollingsworth in an effort to hide his mistakes and protect his reputation. Not the company’s. Dirk was under no illusions about that. Despite stepping down from the American branch, his Father still believed he was the only one worth bearing the Hollingsworth name – as evidenced in his behavior over the past few days. Dirk wondered how long his father had been stealing from the American branch and vowed to ask Jon when the man was on two feet again.
At the moment, Jon was a lightly panting shadow keeping pace with his long strides as Dirk strode around the building. The plan was simple enough. Dirk would question every employee about whether they’d been in the IT office within the last three days. Jon would bark if the reply indicated a person was lying. So far two people had been caught out, but further digging revealed assignations with IT staff. No wonder someone could fiddle with the code, Dirk thought as he stopped outside the IT office. Everyone in here’s too engrossed in their sex life.
“Okay, different set of questions obviously, but as this is the last office left, it stands to reason the culprit has to be in here.” Dirk smiled at his patient mate. Jon’s tail wagged softly and he seemed to be smiling. On the other hand, Samuel, who’d insisted on accompanying them, radiated tension but then Dirk reasoned, it had been a trying day on all of them. Personally, he was ready to head home and curl up with his mate. But his problems weren’t going to disappear just because he wished it.
As he went to push open the department door, Samuel stopped him. “Dirk, please don’t do this.”
“Do what? Question my staff?” Dirk’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know something about all this? Do you know who’s been stealing from us? From all of us?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Samuel wrung his hands together. “Please. I didn’t think it was important. But….” He looked at the large mottled glass door; IT Department, Private, etched in black on the glass. “Can we go somewhere else and talk about it first?”
Jon barked softly and Dirk’s eyes widened as Jon’s nose disappeared in Samuel’s pants pocket, pulling out his phone and nudging it into Dirk’s hand. “I’m not going through my brother’s phone.” Dirk stared at his mate, wishing things like a Jedi mind tricks were true.
Jon shook his head and tilted his head at Samuel who was leaning against the wall, his face all red and blotchy as if he was about to cry. Then he lowered his nose, watching the IT door.
“Ah, I get you. No alerting possible suspects, right?” Dirk’s face was grim. “Come on Samuel, let’s get this over with. If I find out I could’ve saved an hour and a half’s fucking time and me and Jon traipsing over every damn floor in the building because of you, I’ll be pissed off.” He strode off down the hall to a vacant conference room, wishing he’d thought to bring Jon’s clot
hes with him.
As soon as they were inside, doors firmly closed, Jon positioned himself in front of it, presumably to listen for eavesdroppers. Samuel slumped into the nearest seat, his face in his hands, rocking gently. “I didn’t think it was a big deal,” he cried.
Dirk sighed. His brother was a hundred years younger than he was and was still considered by many to be the baby of the family, even though he’d been considered a legal adult for decades. “Why don’t you tell me from the beginning?” he suggested.
It was a simple enough tale. A hidden affair between Samuel and the IT supervisor, a cocky wolf shifter who lured him with false promises of a mating claim, yet forced him to keep his distance with threats about going to their father. Dirk already knew Merv was a player, but he failed to see what any of Samuel’s confession had to do with stealing from the company.
“Do you have any reason to think he’s the thief, or he’s working for father?”
“No. But if you go in there and question him then he’d tell you about us and…and…I love him. I don’t want to lose him.”
Gods save me from romantic fools. “Does he feel the same way about you?”
“Of course, he does. We’d be mated if Father accepted mixed matings. He’s just scared he’d lose his position.”
“Er…Samuel, is this Merv you’re talking about?” Jon’s voice came from the door and Dirk turned to see his mate in all his naked splendor. Well, the sexy bits were blocked by a chair, but the effect was just as stunning. All of Dirk’s blood headed south.
Managing to swallow his drool, Dirk asked, “Did something about Merv come up in your investigation?”
“You could say that. Samuel, how long have you and Merv been seeing each other?”
“Eighteen glorious months.”
“And he told you that you were exclusive and he definitely wanted to claim you?”
“Yes, I told you. If it wasn’t for my damn father’s prejudices we’d be mated already. I’ve got texts from him and everything.”
