Chapter 11

CHAPTER11

“The board started looking for my replacement,” came the quietly murmured words that had Andi looking up from the file on her lap to find Devyn sitting next to her, looking lost in thought and-

What time was it? Andi couldn’t help but wonder as she glanced past Devyn and realized that it was pitch-black outside. Frowning in confusion, she glanced down at her watch and felt her shoulders slump when she saw how late it was only to realize what Devyn had just said.

“What are you talking about?” Andi asked, tossing the file on the coffee table as she shifted on the couch so that she was facing him.

“Carta Hotels’ board has decided after careful consideration that it might be in their best interest to find someone who shares their vision,” Devyn said, looking lost in thought as he absently drummed his fingertips against the armrest.

“Wait. Why would they do that?” she asked, somehow resisting the urge to reach over and trace his jaw with her fingertips, hating to see him this upset.

“Hillshire Hotels,” Devyn said, looking lost in thought.

“How did you find out about this?” Andi asked, needing something to do, she reached over and took his hand in hers and pulled it onto her lap.

“Lucas paid me a visit and after he left, I made some calls,” Devyn said, watching as she played with his fingers.

“That doesn’t make sense. The project wasn’t even your idea,” she said as she looked up and found him watching her as she debated the best way to tell him what she found.

God, she really didn’t want to be the one to tell him.

“It doesn’t matter,” Devyn explained, slowly exhaling as he pulled his fingers free so that he could take her hand in his and absently rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

“What are you going to do?” Andi asked because that didn’t make any sense. Then again, none of this made any sense.

“I have no fucking idea,” Devyn said, dropping his head back against the couch with a heavy sigh.

“What did Lucas say?” she asked, watching his thumb gently caress her hand.

“That I should do whatever it takes to keep them happy,” Devyn said dryly, looking exhausted as he tried to figure out how this happened while she sat there, amazed by just how much she liked it when he touched her.

It just felt…right.

There was no other way to explain it. She liked the way that he touched her, the way that he’d held her those nights when the pain became too much, and that was the problem. She didn’t want to notice how handsome he was or how much she liked it when he touched her. She just…

She just wanted to finally figure out what she was supposed to do with her life.

“What are you going to do?” Andi asked, allowing him one last caress before she pulled her hand away and grabbed the notebook that she’d been working on all day off the coffee table.

“Honestly? I have no fucking idea,” Devyn said, laying his arm across the back of the couch as he drummed the fingertips of his other hand on the armrest.

“Can you talk to them?” she asked, absently toying with the cover as she debated waiting until she went through the rest of the files before telling him.

“That’s not an option,” Devyn said absently as he got to his feet and headed to his desk.

“Why not?” Andi asked, frowning as she watched him rub the back of his neck.

“It’s complicated,” he said, picking up a file only to toss it back on his desk and go still when she blurted out, “I have to tell you something.”

“What is it?” he asked, throwing her a questioning look as she swallowed hard, debating double-checking everything before she said anything only to feel her shoulders drop in defeat when he said, “Andi?”

“Someone’s been embezzling, but I don’t know how much yet. So far, they’ve managed to steal over ten million dollars,” she mumbled hollowly.

“Are you sure?” he asked between clenched teeth.

After a slight hesitation, she mumbled, “Yes,” watching as Devyn slowly nodded as he took that in and-

“FUCK!”

-grabbed his chair and sent it flying across the room.

* * *

Just one more fucking time.

That’s all he needed, Devyn told himself as he struggled not to fucking lose it, but God, he was so fucking close to-

“So, I have an idea,” the only thing that was stopping him from losing his fucking mind said as she grabbed the chair that he’d thrown across the room and pushed it back to his desk.

“What’s that?” Devyn asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he watched her hop onto his desk with a satisfied sigh and her iPad.

“A way to fix this,” Andi said, making him chuckle without humor because there was no fucking way to fix this. He’d been fucked over for this project and he had no idea why, but he knew one thing.

He was going to find out.

“And how are you going to do that?” Devyn asked, only to bite back a sigh when she gestured for him to have a seat.

“Okay, so no one knows that we know that there’s money missing, right?” Andi said, shifting to get more comfortable on his desk.

“Right,” Devyn said, leaning back in his chair as he tried to figure out how he was going to fix a mess this fucking big in four months. Hillshire Hotels’ CEO wasn’t talking and their fucking lawyers were already giving them the fucking runaround, making it impossible to find out what the fuck happened.

“Whoever has been doing this is really good,” she started to explain, only to wince when he drawled, “Just what I wanted to hear.”

“Sorry,” Andi murmured with an apologetic wince.

“Keep going,” Devyn said, sighing heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face, wondering when this nightmare was going to end. He’d been so fucking close…

“Well, from what I can tell, they’ve managed to move money that had been allocated for this deal around, blending the external transfers together to cover what they were doing. I missed it at first, but once I knew what to look for, it became easier to spot,” Andi explained with a helpless shrug.

“Where’s the money going?” Devyn asked, praying like hell that whoever did this was stupid enough to transfer the money into their own accounts, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be that fucking easy.

“That’s where it gets interesting,” Andi murmured as she shifted so that she could reach over and bring up Carta Hotels’ homepage on his computer. “They transferred the money back to the hotels,” she said, making him frown until she added, “They’re funneling the money through the hotels and then removing the money on the first and fifteenth of every month, making it look like the money is going back to corporate except for this month, which is weird because the money should have been taken out the day after the papers were supposed to be signed.”

“Fucking hell. We need to find out which hotels are being used and make sure that they stop the money from being transferred,” Devyn said, shoving his chair back and moving to stand up, needing to put his fucking fist through something only to sigh heavily when the small woman that was slowly destroying his will to live with every word that left her mouth climbed off the desk and onto his lap, giving him no choice but to wrap his arms around her and wait for the next blow.

“I already took care of that. So far, I’ve found sixteen hotels that were being used to filter money and I’ve alerted their accounting departments,” Andi explained as she swiped through her notes and before he could open his mouth to say anything, she added, “Don’t worry. I told them that it appears that we had a mix-up in the accounting department here and asked them if they could please hold it until further notice since it appears that the money has been transferred to old accounts.”

Nodding, Devyn said, “I need to-”

“Alert the accounting department here? I already did that and told them that you were doing an early audit in preparation for your meeting in May. I also sent Lucas’s team an audit for the Hillshire Hotels project, which is just a precaution at this point since it appears as though they’ve stopped for the time being, most likely because they know that you’re trying to find out what went wrong with the deal,” Andi finished with another swipe and a firm nod.

“Are you planning on getting off my lap anytime soon?”

“Are you planning on putting your fist through a wall anytime soon?” she countered, throwing him a questioning look.

Grinding his jaw, Devyn bit out, “Maybe.”

Nodding, Andi went back to what she was doing with a mumbled, “I’m good where I am.”

“How much is left in those accounts?” Devyn asked, slowly exhaling as he told himself that it wasn’t too late to fix this.

“A little over six million dollars,” Andi murmured as she continued scrolling through her notes.

“That’s something at least,” he said, absently caressing his thumb over her soft belly as he sat there, making a list of everyone who had the authority to authorize those transfers from the hotels and-

It was a short fucking list.

“Lucas?” she asked, not bothering to look up from her iPad and correctly reading his thoughts.

“Doesn’t have the authorization to do any of it. Everything over a million dollars had to be pre-approved by the board,” Devyn said, relieved that he didn’t have to worry about his best friend fucking him over.

“Who does?” she asked, throwing him a questioning look.

“Everyone on the board, Carta Hotels’ President, Vice President, and about ten other executives,” he said, slowly exhaling before adding, “and me.”

Nodding, she went back to work as she said, “We need to get our hands on the authorization forms.”

“You should be able to see the authorization noted in the transfer,” Devyn said, taking the iPad from her only to bite back a curse when she took it back from him and quickly swiped to a transfer record and-

“It’s missing,” he said, frowning as he reached over and swiped to the next record, noting the same thing.

Shaking her head, she said, “No, it’s been tampered with. I’m guessing that they did the same thing that they did with the Hillshire Hotels records and made two sets, altering this one, which means-”

“That we need to find the original records,” Devyn murmured absently as he thought it over. “What about the bank records? They should have everything that we need.”

“They should…” Andi hedged with a wince.

“Fuck,” he said, closing his eyes as he dropped his head back against the chair, wondering just how fucking bad this was going to get before it was over. “The bank will only transfer for authorized users.”

“Which is where James Jamerson comes in,” Andi said, immediately grabbing his attention in a big fucking way.

“Who the hell is James Jamerson?”

“Carta Hotels’ VP of Acquisitions and the man that I fully expect to find listed on the original files once we get our hands on them,” she said, sighing heavily as she swiped to a financial form and held it up for him to see.

“They created an authorized account,” he murmured, tightening his hold around Andi as he moved his chair closer to his desk.

“Looks like it,” Andi said as Devyn accessed Carta Hotels’ employee database and typed in the mystery employee’s name and…

“And there he is.”

“Now, we just have to find out who our mystery man really is,” Andi said with a satisfied sigh.

“And how do you propose we do that?” Devyn asked, looking over Jamerson’s employee record, noting that his office was listed on the tenth floor, which, if memory served him correctly, was the janitor’s supply closet.

Nodding, Andi said, “Which is why we’re gonna have a closer look.”

He needed to go to the board with this, but…

He was done playing by their rules.