25. Twenty-Five

25

TWENTY-FIVE

“ A re you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Zach implored as he watched me spread the piles of paper I’d been working with regarding the casino finances across the floor. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

I gave him an amused look. We’d spent the day and a half following the croquet tournament in a protective bubble, just the two of us. He’d suggested we head out to camp again, but it didn’t seem worth the effort when we’d only get about twenty-four hours of bliss. It was a lot of work to set up the tent and haul everything to our spot from the car. Instead, we’d camped in his bedroom, although he’d started referring to it as “our” bedroom. Almost all of my stuff was in there, except for the stack of romance books I’d kept around to annoy him. They were still stacked on the nightstand in my old room.

“We didn’t even get dressed yesterday,” I reminded him as a knock sounded on the door. “Aren’t you sick of me yet?”

“You would think I would be,” he replied. “Not even a little, though.” He strolled to the door and opened it, surprise registering on his face when he realized it was Rex. “Hey, man.”

“Hey.” Rex gave Zach a fist bump, a holdover from when they were kids. “What’s the haps?”

I glared at my brother. “That is the most ridiculous saying,” I complained. “It’s so … eighth grade.” I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

“Aw. Are you feeling left out?” Rex strolled over to me, kissed the top of my head, then made a fake farting noise with his butt near my face before throwing himself on the couch. “Happy now?” he asked as I debated how many different ways I could kill him and get away with it.

“You’re the worst,” was all I managed.

“You love me, and you know it.” Rex turned his attention to Zach, who was dressed in one of his masters of the universe suits. “Where are you going?”

“It’s a lunch with the department heads,” Zach replied. “I can’t get out of it.” He was back to staring at me. “I was trying to get your sister to go with me, but she declined. I guess the romance truly is dead.” He mock clutched at his heart.

“No offense, but why would I possibly want to sit through lunch with your department heads?” I asked. Something occurred to me and I slid my eyes to Rex. “Aren’t you a department head?”

“Ah, I can see why you would think that,” Rex replied. “I am a very important figure in the casino, but I technically report to the security head, John Bishop. He’ll be the one at the lunch. I’m off today. I thought that’s why you wanted me to come over and help you.”

I made a quick slashing motion across my throat to silence my brother—I didn’t want Zach to know what I was up to just yet—but I had to stop mid slash and pretend I was scratching my throat when Zach slid his eyes to me.

“What do you need your brother’s help with?” Zach asked. His tone wasn’t accusatory, but there was a question in his eyes.

“Manly stuff,” Rex replied as he grabbed the remote control for the television. “She wants me to move furniture and stuff.”

Zach glanced around. “Where?”

“He’s making that up,” I replied. I didn’t want to lie, but I wasn’t prepared to tell the truth just yet. “He’s helping me with a project. It’s not something I’m ready to talk to you about just yet. You’re going to have to suck it up and wait.”

Zach’s eyes went to the piles of paper on the floor. “With that?”

I hesitated. “I know this is going to sound weird.” I chose my words carefully. “I need to bounce some ideas off someone who has a general understanding of the hotel operations, but who isn’t the guy who signs off on everything.” This conversation made me distinctly uncomfortable. “I just… I might have an idea. It’s something I have to work out in my own time, though.”

“And you need your brother for that?” Zach didn’t look hurt as much as curious.

“He’s familiar with how my mind works,” I replied.

Zach considered it a moment longer, then nodded. “Okay.” He moved over to me and leaned over so he could give me a kiss.

From his spot on the couch, Rex made gagging noises.

Zach punched him in the thigh when he pulled back from me, but his gaze didn’t go to my brother. It remained locked with mine. “When you’re ready to talk about your idea, I’ll be here.”

I let out the breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding. “I know. I think I’m going to have something soon.”

Still dubious, Zach gave me another kiss. Then he moved toward the door. “Don’t be mean to your sister,” he said to Rex. “If you make her cry, I’m going to make you cry.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Rex haphazardly waved him off. He’d found a game and had it playing on the huge television. “Just know that you can’t interfere in sister-brother stuff. It’s against the law.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re making that up.”

“Nope. It’s totally the truth.”

Zach opened the door and made a startled noise. There, her hand poised to knock, Tallulah jolted.

“Hey,” she said when Zach just stood there like a statue. “What’s up, Buttercup?”

That was enough to jolt Zach out of his reverie. “Are you helping with whatever project Livvie has going on too?”

“Apparently so.” Tallulah patted his shirt as she passed. Her long auburn hair was twisted into a fat braid that hung over her shoulder. “I was simply told that my services were required, so here I am.”

Zach’s eyes flicked back to me. There was a question there.

“Just trust me,” I pleaded. “I need to work a few things out. Then I’ll talk to you.”

Apparently—and what a miracle it was—that was enough for Zach. “Okay. Try not to get in too much trouble. If you go out, don’t let Rex pick the destination. He finds trouble.” He paused before letting the door fall shut. “Don’t let Tallulah pick either.”

“In other words, I’m the only one you trust,” I teased.

There was no hesitation when he responded. “Yup. With absolutely everything.”

I didn’t have a lot of time to ponder his response before the door fell shut.

“You guys are absolutely disgusting,” Rex complained when it was just the three of us. “We need to talk about some rules if you two are going to stay together. I’m grossed out. I can’t watch you fawn all over each other.”

That was enough to snap me back to reality. “Nobody was fawning over anybody.”

“Tell that to my upchuck factor.”

I smacked his knee.

“Ow!” Rex murdered me with a glare. “This penthouse is brutal. What did I do to deserve this level of abuse?”

“I believe you were your true self.” I sent a smile of thanks toward Tallulah as she joined Rex on the couch. “So, I’m guessing you’re wondering why I asked you here.”

“Yes,” Rex replied.

At the same time, Tallulah shook her head. “I figured you were finally treating me to a spa day since you get all those free passes now that you’re married to the boss.”

I froze. I’d forgotten about the passes. “I will definitely reward you with as many of those as you want if you help me with something first,” I assured her. “We’ll make a whole day of it. I need help with this before we can do that, though.” I gestured toward the stacks of papers.

“What exactly is this?” Rex asked. For the first time since entering the penthouse, he was interested in something more than the television.

“This is my accounting problem. Or, more accurately, it’s Zach’s accounting problem.”

“You’re still working on this?” Tallulah’s eyes were wide as she shook her head. “You’re like a dog with a bone sometimes, I swear.”

“There’s something wrong with these books.” I was adamant. “Zach’s instincts told him there was something wrong, and there is. Even the new reports we got supposedly explaining the discrepancy aren’t right.”

Rex muted the television. He looked interested despite himself. “You know what’s going on?”

“I have a hunch,” I hedged.

“What sort of hunch?”

“So, in one of the line reports, I found something called the Infinity Group.” I kept my tone measured. “It apparently does about five-hundred-grand of work for the casino every month.”

Rex nodded. “Okay.”

“Zach doesn’t know what they do. He just said they’re consultants.”

“Livvie, there are all different kinds of consultants hired by the casino every month,” Rex argued. “There’s even a consulting firm that has to go through the casino and see what needs to be redecorated next so we can always say that there’s some sort of upgrade happening. I think the pool cabanas are next.”

“Yeah, that’s Lincoln Design. I know what they do. There’s nothing in the files saying what the Infinity Group does.”

Rex opened his mouth, then shut it. He seemed to be absorbing the information. “Like … there’s not even one line anywhere saying they’re the dice and chip manufacturer or anything?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Wait … you have a company that’s entire job is to handle the dice and chips?”

He nodded. “And cards.”

It was something that hadn’t occurred to me. “Well, that’s … interesting. I don’t think the Infinity Group is doing that.”

“No, that’s the Mackenzie Group,” Rex agreed. “I wasn’t suggesting that this Infinity Group was doing it. I was just pointing out that we literally have consultants for everything.”

That took a bit of wind out of my sails. Still, when I thought about it, I remained bothered. “Can you help me anyway?”

Rex must have read the earnestness permeating off me, because he just nodded. “Sure. What do you need me to do?”

“Well, you’re head of security. You can run the Infinity Group, right? You can tell me what they do.”

“I can. I’m going to need a secure computer.”

“Zach has one in his office. Can you use that?”

“Sure. I’ve used it before.” Rex stood. He looked thoughtful. “Livvie, what is it that you think you’re going to find here?”

“I don’t want to tell you just yet.” I reached for a smile, even though it was wan. “I have a theory, but I need more to go on than just my feelings. Can you just run the group and tell me what you find?”

“Yeah. Let me grab the computer. I can do it out here.” Rex headed toward the office, leaving Tallulah alone with me.

“Why am I here?” she asked. “I’m gung ho for anything—you know that—but this feels as if it’s above my pay grade.”

“You’re here for emotional support,” I replied. “There’s a chance I might need you to lean on if I’m right.”

Tallulah’s brow wrinkled. “I’m confused.”

“You won’t be for very long. Trust me. For now, just help yourself to whatever food and drinks we have on hand. I don’t think it’s going to take Rex long to find what I’m looking for.”

Tallulah hesitated, then she nodded. “Okay. I can’t say I’m not intrigued. I’ll wait it out, though.”

“Thank you.”

DIGGING THROUGH THE LAYERS OF SECURITY that had been set up for the Infinity Group was more difficult than I envisioned. I thought Rex was going to be able to type the name of the group into some search feature only security chiefs had access to and things were going to come together in a matter of minutes.

I turned out to be wrong.

“Unbelievable,” Rex muttered under his breath as he started typing again. “This is just … there’s no way that nobody found this company shady.” He was talking to himself more than me, but it was impossible to miss his frustration.

“Tell me what you have,” I prodded for what felt like the tenth time. Rex had taken to ignoring my requests. It was starting to grate.

“Well, you were right, Livvie.” Rex’s gaze was serious when he lifted his chin. Normally, my brother could find the joke in anything. Not today, though. “There’s no way this company should’ve passed muster as a business partner for the Stone Group.”

“And why is that?” Tallulah asked. She was resting on her back with a peeled orange on her chest watching us work. If she was bored, she didn’t show it. I knew she wouldn’t make it much longer without some action, though.

“It’s a series of shell corporations,” Rex replied. “Infinity Group only exists on paper.”

Still on the floor—my tailbone was really starting to hurt—I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Break it down for me.” I needed to see it in my head. “What are we dealing with? Just go step by step.”

“Okay, Infinity Group has a P.O. Box. No physical address, which is suspect. When I run that P.O. Box, it says it belongs to Hamilton Corporation. Now, the thing about Hamilton Corporation is that, at one time, they sold merchandise. We’re talking one of those places that screenprints standard items like shirts, hats, ashtrays, etc. for certain businesses.”

“Like casinos?” I asked.

He nodded. “At one time, Hamilton Corporation did the printing for a lot of area casinos. The thing is, when I ran the business, I found it’s been defunct for about five years.”

“What happened to it?” Tallulah asked.

“I pulled the financial declarations to take a look, and it seems, every year, they were getting less and less business,” Rex replied. “I know that some startup company came in about that time and took a lot of the business. I can vaguely remember it being something everybody talked about. I obviously wasn’t privy to what happened back then. I’ve only been head of security for two years. Before that, I was just a member of the team.”

“I guess I kind of forgot you weren’t always large and in charge,” I teased.

Rex flicked my ear. “I’m very large and very in charge.”

I made a face.

“Yeah, I’ll save that declaration for somebody who isn’t my sister,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “What were we talking about again?”

“Hamilton Corporation,” Tallulah replied.

“Oh, right.” Rex went back to looking at his computer. “As far as I can tell, Hamilton Corporation doesn’t manufacture anything any longer. They haven’t gone bankrupt. They’re still technically operational. They just don’t do anything.”

“Is that uncommon if a company goes out of business?” I asked.

“Yeah. Normally, all that stuff goes through the courts for bankruptcy declarations and everything. There’s none of that here.”

“You said there were like four shell companies,” Tallulah argued. “That’s only two.”

“Well, when I couldn’t find anything about Hamilton Corporation going bankrupt, I dug further. Hamilton Corporation is owned by Midas LLC. Midas LLC is owned by Coronation Alley.” He pulled up short here. “I’m running Coronation Alley now. Basically, what we’re looking for here is an active corporation or individual.”

“Why would somebody create a company and hide it under this many layers?” I asked, already knowing the answer. I just wanted Rex to confirm it for me.

“There’s only one reason, Livvie.” Rex’s affect was flat. “Somebody is embezzling that money. At this point, I have no doubt that Infinity Group is getting five-hundred-thousand dollars a month to do nothing. It’s just a big fat embezzlement scheme.”

“So, we need to find out who is running it,” I surmised.

“Yeah, it’s going to be someone high up.” Rex was grim. “Only someone on the board could’ve hidden this for so long.”

My stomach twisted, but I nodded. I already knew who it was. Deep down, I definitely knew. I wanted to be wrong, though. When Rex’s computer dinged, I held my breath.

His eyes scanned the screen, and when he lost all color, I knew I had my answer.

“It’s Ryder, isn’t it?”

Rex blinked rapidly as he raised his eyes. “How did you know?”

“He has a watch with an infinity sign.” I held up my own wrist to indicate the location.

“You did all of this digging because of a watch?” Rex was incredulous.

I shook my head. “It never made sense to me that Ryder would take the investigation away from Zach. Why wouldn’t he use that as a test to see what Zach’s capable of? Instead, he said he would hand it off to specific people … and never did. Addendums were sent in to try to cover the theft but they weren’t done very well. It was a hastily covered thing.”

Tallulah rolled to a sitting position. She was now firmly involved in this. “Why would Ryder Stone steal from his own company?”

That was the question. I could only think of one answer. “Zach mentioned that he thought there was a chance Ryder was messing around with his secretaries. They keep changing, and they’re all young and not really qualified for their positions.”

“Yeah, that’s been a running joke between Zach and me for years,” Rex confirmed. “Do you think he knocked one of them up?”

“Maybe he has a long-term mistress or something.” I held out my hands. “Either way, he’s putting this entire company at risk.”

“What are you going to do?” Tallulah asked.

I thought about losing my job, what might’ve happened if I hadn’t said anything. Could I do that? Would it be better for everybody if I kept my mouth shut?

Ultimately, I turned grim. “I guess I’m going to have to ask for a meeting with Ryder.”

Rex immediately started shaking his head. “That’s a very bad plan.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

He opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked a little green around the gills when he shook his head.

“I can’t do nothing. Zach has to know he was right about this,” I said.

“And what if Ryder turns it around on you and Zach sides with his father?” Tallulah challenged.

“I guess that’s something I’m going to have to risk.” I was resigned. “I have to do the right thing here. I’m just not built to do the wrong thing.”

Rex nodded. “I’m going with you.”

“No. You can’t. You’ll lose your job.”

“You’re more important than my job.”

“You can’t.” I was not going to give on this. “I can handle myself. Ryder isn’t going to kill me. He might blow up my marriage, but he isn’t going to physically hurt me. Just … let me handle this.”

Rex looked pained. “You’re my baby sister, Livvie. It’s my duty to take care of you.”

“Yes, and you’ve done a fabulous job. This time—just this one time—I have to do this on my own.”

Rex pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. “I don’t like this.”

I didn’t like it either. I knew what had to be done, though. There was no choice in the matter.