5. Savannah
When I woke, it took me no longer than a split second to remember where I was, who I was with, and why I needed his help.
Damn it.
“Tik Tok”, the song that had been a hit a decade before the app had taken off, played on the radio. Mai and I had memorized all the words and screamed them at the tops of our lungs as we’d driven around town, she the queen of our high school and me, an unlikely princess created from her reflected shine. If the song meant anything to Ben or if he was even listening to it, he was doing an excellent job of hiding it. He focused on the road, seemingly unaware of anything but the long, slightly curved ribbon rolling out in front of us.
“You feeling okay?” he asked without so much as glancing in my direction.
I jumped up in my seat only to be yanked back down by my seat belt. I laid my hand over my pounding heart. “How did you know I was awake? You weren’t even looking at me.”
“I can see you.” He still had his gaze straight ahead. “And your breathing cadence changed.”
“You could hear that over the song on the radio?”
He raised his eyebrows. “That song you and Mai used to torture Michael and me?” he said, referencing his younger brother. “Yes. There are some sound gaps. It’s easy to hear you breathing then.”
“Wow.”
Had he always been this still, silent, observant? Yes, I decided, he had. Maybe his years in the Army had honed his natural tendencies to a fine point, but there were definitely parts of the boy I’d met when he was only thirteen that I could still see in this man who was now almost thirty.
“You should hydrate, and there are some snacks in the front pouch of my backpack.” He inclined his head toward the back seat. “Help yourself.”
Now that he mentioned it, I was starving. I’d been surviving on adrenaline, caffeine, and dry toast for the better part of the two weeks since Devlin had disappeared. I’d barely noticed hunger, thirst, or exhaustion. Now that I’d stopped running, or more precisely, had let someone take over the task for me, all those needs crashed over me. I finished off the bottle of water, then rummaged in Ben’s backpack and pulled out a handful of snack options. I ripped open a high-protein bar package because the picture on the wrapper looked like a candy bar.
Ben, eyes still forward, said, “That might not taste like you expect,” as I bit into the bar.
Chewy cardboard with an odd tinge of sweetness filled my mouth. I snatched a tissue out of my backpack and spit the gross bite into it. “That is vile.”
He shrugged. “It serves its purpose.” He was still practical as ever, too. “I’ll take the bar. The crackers are probably a better option for your stomach anyway.”
I handed him the bar and opened a pack of saltines for myself. I went through one pack, then a second, then a package of orange-dyed peanut butter crackers. I washed it all down with another bottle of water.
“Better?” he asked.
I hesitated, knowing his next question would be about the shitshow. “For now. I wouldn’t mind a real meal soon.”
“We’ll stop for dinner in a couple of hours, then get some rooms at a hotel. If you need a bio break before that...” He glanced at the thick trees on either side of the highway.
“I’ll let you know,” I said, but I planned to hold it. I was not a pee-in-the-woods kind of girl.
He pulled off his sunglasses and laid them on the console between us. He glanced sideways at me. “Are you ready to talk?”
I looked forward again, watching the blacktop, the trees and brush lining the road, the darkening sky, and the swirling flock of birds that rose out of the woods to our right. I’d thought about nothing but the mess Devlin had made of our business for the past two weeks, but sitting beside Ben as the sun set behind us and my unknown future stretched out ahead of me, I didn’t know what to say. At least, I couldn’t come up with words that didn’t make me sound like an idiot. How could I have trusted the guy for all these years?
“Does the guy in question have a name?” Ben asked.
I startled, unaware I’d spoken out loud. Oh, well, it was a place to start. “Yes. Devlin Masters. My business partner for more than six years now.”
“Then you started the business right after you finished your degree.”
“A couple of months later. We worked at the investment company together, the place where I’d interned that...” That summer, I didn’t say. “Around the holidays, we’d gone on a distillery tour with a group of coworkers, and I mentioned my idea to tap into the boutique whiskey business. A few months later, he approached me with a business plan. The plan was sound, and he already had some financial backers in place.”
“And six years later, you’ve built a thriving business.”
“Are you guessing?”
He frowned. “Mai keeps me up to date on you. On people. Things from home. She admires you.”
“Oh.” I was proud of what I’d accomplished, but it paled in comparison to Mai’s heroics. I couldn’t imagine why she would admire me. “The company is doing well. Or it was. We have a staff of twelve in our home office, a handful in our satellite office near DC, and contracts with warehouses and delivery companies across the country.”
“So what’s going on, Sav?”
Him using my nickname made a lump rise in my throat. I swallowed hard to clear it. “I wish I knew.” God, how stupid did I sound right now? And the more I told him, the more oblivious I would sound. But Ben was literally driving my getaway car, so he deserved to know as much as I did. “Two weeks ago, Devlin stopped coming to the office. He didn’t answer calls, texts, emails. After two days, I called the police and asked for a wellness check. He wasn’t in his house.”
“Bastard went to ground without even giving you a heads-up?”
“I didn’t realize it then, but yes. By day three, I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I called one of our IT specialists into the office at five in the morning to help me access Devlin’s files. While she worked on that, I dug deep into the financials.” I shivered as I remembered the moment all the pieces had snapped into place. “For more than a year, big cash deposits have gone into our accounts, and even bigger disbursements have gone out.”
“Not what you should be seeing in the accounts?”
I shook my head. “I’m not an accountant, and business financing can get tricky, and Devlin’s been known to be...creative. But things looked off. And things only got worse when I tried to contact the accounting firm.”
“Why? What did they tell you?”
“Absolutely nothing. I’ve been calling day and night, leaving messages. No one has gotten back to me. They’re an East Coast company, so it’s not like I could walk into their offices and demand a meeting.”
He furrowed his brow. “But your main office is in California, right? Why hire an East Coast firm?”
“We didn’t, at first. The original firm was a small shop, but they were good, honest. And their offices were just a few blocks away from ours.”
“When and why did you change accountants?”
I scowled. It was all so obvious now that I’d been a patsy. “While I was in Maryland, taking care of my mom—a couple of months before she died—Devlin told me our accountant’s dad had died, and his mother needed his help. He had to cut back on clients. A week ago, I confirmed that was all a lie.”
“Oh, my God. Devlin turned your real-life pain into a made-up story about the accountant? Why?”
I shrugged. “Because he knew I’d feel the guy’s pain, respect his privacy, and not ask questions. That left Devlin free to hire the new firm.”
“How long after that did the strange deposits and payments start?”
“As far as I can tell, a couple of months.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “But things are so convoluted, I’ll need a forensic accountant to help figure it out.”
“We’ll find one,” he promised. “Does your staff know what’s happening?”
“No, I covered for Devlin.” At least I’d done that much right. “I told them he extended his vacation, and last night I called Josie Tyler, my VP, and told I her I’d be taking over some meetings he had scheduled on the East Coast. Josie’s great. She’ll keep the day-to-day operations running.”
“Good,” Ben said. “You made a good plan and you have good people in place. We’ll figure out the rest.”
“I wish I could believe that.” I rubbed my temples, trying to stave off the familiar headache that threatened to return. “I fucked up. I don’t know how, but I fucked it all up.”
For the first time in longer than I could remember, my shoulders shook, and tears welled in my eyes. Ben squeezed my shoulder with his large, strong hand. I took some breaths and choked back sobs.
“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this. This is on your asshole business partner.”
“It’s on me, too, especially financially. I had to cover last week’s payroll for our office staff out of my personal account.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
“I can’t do that many more times before I’m wiped out. And business loans will be out of the question if they take a hard look at our financials, which, of course, they’ll do, and—”
“Sav, slow down. Back to deep breaths. We’ll figure out all of that later. Right now, I need you to focus on our immediate problem. What made you go on the run?”
Thinking about the past twenty-four hours, as scary as they’d been, was easier than contemplating the demise of my entire life’s work. “Because this happened.” I reeled off my text exchange with Devlin, which was burned into my brain by now.
Ben let out a low whistle. “That fucking guy.” He wrinkled his brow, then shook his head. “Devlin. Unusual name. Why does it sound so familiar?”
I slid down in my seat. I’d hoped he wouldn’t remember. “Because you met him. The summer you and I... We ran into him.”
His face darkened. “Wait, is that the asshole who hit on you at that club while you were literally sitting in my lap?”
I sighed. “That’s where you met him, but I wouldn’t say he was hitting on me.”
“Dude wanted to fuck you, and he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it. I had to have words with him when you went to the ladies’ room.”
My cheeks burned with embarrassment. In seven years of working together, first at the consulting company and then in building our own business, Devlin had never once mentioned that conversation. Even when we’d crossed the line and become more than business partners, he hadn’t told me. All that time, he’d kept the secret that my boyfriend had marked his territory like some sort of alpha male protecting his female in heat.
“What, exactly, did you say to him?” I asked.
He glanced at me and shrugged. “Not sure I remember the details, but the gist of it was that he should piss right off because you were taken.”
I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. It shouldn’t have amused me that Ben had gone all caveman on Devlin, but after what that spoiled golden boy had put me through these past two weeks, I was glad someone had dressed him down at least once in his life. I also pressed my legs together and shifted in my seat. As a kick-ass-and-take-names woman, who usually took care of myself, thoughts of the confrontation should not have made my lady bits tingle.
“Are you telling me he never made a pass at you in all the years you worked together?” Ben asked.
And just like that, the tingle evaporated. “He didn’t start a company with me to get into my pants,” I snapped. Just because I’d slept with Devlin for a few months after years of working together didn’t mean I’d slept my way to success. I wouldn’t let Ben think that for even a minute. “The investment company hired me full time that fall while I finished my degree, and I earned two promotions long before Devlin approached me with the business plan and investors. And I’m the one who brought in clients and made it all work. I busted my ass for years.”
Ben gently touched my arm. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t insinuating anything about you or your success, I swear. I guess some part of me is still a stupid kid with a jealous streak.”
I snatched my arm out of his grasp and leaned against the door. A kid. Is that how he saw himself that summer? Because I’d sure as hell seen him as a man. “At least we can agree you were stupid.”
He grinned. “There it is.”
“There’s what?”
“Your fighting spirit. I saw a glimpse of it in the parking lot.”
“After you manhandled me.”
“After I helped you.”
“Let’s agree to disagree, especially since you’re going out of your way to possibly aid and abet a felon.” I said it lightly, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, their weight settled over me. “Shit, Ben, what if I’m a felon?”
“Nope. We’re not going to expend precious energy on that right now. We need to focus on getting you safe.”
I turned toward him. “Why are you doing this? I mean, I know Mai asked you, but you didn’t even question me or ask about the trouble I was in or how it might affect you before you agreed.”
“You really don’t know?” He sighed and shook his head. “Shit, Savannah, because it’s you. It’s always been you. No matter where either of us goes or what we do in our lives, on some level, in some way, it’ll always be you.”