Chapter 43
COLIN
Jane sat next to me, looking like a stone-cold killer with her hands folded neatly on top of a yellow legal pad and her face perfectly straight. She was just as pissed off as I was, though. I just wasn’t as good at hiding it.
We sat together on one side of the conference-room table, a pair of federal agents on the other. Last week, they’d raided our office building and now they were here to apologize for the mess they’d made, both in the office and publicly.
Nothing they could do would fix it, though.
They’d strutted in with a warrant tied to what they’d called, an active investigation into hidden funds connected to Mallory Foundry’s dealings with Thayer.
Naturally, even though they hadn’t found a single thing, the damage had been done.
Our stocks had fallen, reporters had camped outside our building for days, and our employees would have to spend at least another week putting thousands of documents back where they belonged after agents had emptied most of our filing cabinets onto the floor.
Thankfully, Alex and the Westwoods had managed to redirect the media circus before it could completely consume us, spinning the narrative away from the Thayers, but still. We’d taken a hit and these two agents were trying to do everything they could to appease us.
“We regret any inconvenience caused,” one of them said. “I’m sure you understand that during the course of our investigations, we have to diligently pursue any lead.”
I arched an eyebrow at them. “Raiding a publicly traded company in the middle of the workday, in order to pursue an investigation into funds a former employee may have stolen from us, after she’d already stopped working here, was you being diligent?”
Jane nudged my shoe beneath the table, silently warning me to behave, but I ignored her.
“Seriously, you do realize that the person you’re after didn’t hide that money in our offices.
She’s never even been back here since it went missing.
The money was stolen. From us. We’re the victims here, but you’ve turned us into the perpetrators in the eyes of the public. ”
“I understand your frustration,” the older agent said. “We apologize. Sincerely. However, we do have a duty to carry out, and while it wasn’t our intention to cause you or your company any harm, we know we?—”
“I turned over everything you asked for,” I cut in, fuming as I stared at the man I’d personally handed over a mountain of documents to. “You said you wanted everything, our financial records for the past eight years, and I gave them to you. Willingly. You had no need to make a show of it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If there was anything else you wanted, you could’ve asked.
Hell, you could’ve sat with me and asked me to explain every dollar I’ve spent or earned in my tenure as CFO, but you didn’t do that.
I have assistants picking up copies of tax returns from five years ago in the hallway.
Sensitive financial information that spread all over the damn building because your people decided to turn over cabinets and sprinkle the documents around. ”
Jane finally exhaled. “Let’s just move forward, shall we? You said your financial review of the documents Colin provided was complete. Did you find anything?”
“No,” the older agent said on a soft sigh, sliding a report across the table. “There was nothing amiss during those years. From the moment your brother took over as CFO, not a single penny has been unaccounted for. Taxes have been paid in full and on time. Our analysts were impressed.”
I hadn’t expected praise from the federal government, but while it felt pretty good hearing it, I didn’t let it show. They’d still screwed us with that raid. Hard.
The younger agent glanced at another page of the report, looking up at me instead of Jane. “The only surprise was your compensation package, Mr. Thayer. It’s remarkably modest for a man in your position. No noteworthy bonuses either.”
“Do you find that suspicious?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “Or are you simply curious?”
The older agent immediately cut in. “Neither, Mr. Thayer. We don’t suspect you of anything and it’s none of our business. My colleague was simply making an ill-advised comment.”
He shot the younger guy a scathing look, but I leaned back in my chair and shrugged. “Damn straight, it’s ill advised, but if you really want to know, my employees have mouths to feed. They matter more to me than whether I can buy a new boat to go with a new house in Florida.”
Jane let out a tired sigh. “Drop it, Colin.”
“No,” I said. “Why? He brought it up. I’m just saying that it’s no secret we’ve had some rough years, and what he’s implying is that they’re surprised I didn’t bump up my own paygrade just so I could live better even if that would’ve meant other people, loyal people, who stuck by us, would have to suffer. ”
“Hush. I’m sure that wasn’t what he was implying.”
“I’m making a valid point. It’s?—”
“You’ve made it.”
The older agent coughed into his fist, either hiding a laugh or choking, but then he closed the file and his expression became serious again. “Regardless, there have been substantial developments in our case against Ms. Foundry.”
“Excuse me?” Jane blinked hard. “I thought that…”
When she trailed off, the man shot her an actual, gentle smile. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen an agent look so understanding when dealing with our family, but I supposed he did owe us for how they’d conducted that raid.
“We’ve successfully traced the offshore account, Ms. Thayer. It does belong to Mallory Foundry after all. To her and an unnamed man who is currently being sought overseas.”
Jane collapsed back in her chair. “So it is hers. I knew it.”
“Once Ms. Foundry’s criminal trial has concluded, and assuming the court rules accordingly, the funds will eventually be released back to the rightful owners. Your family.”
“How?” she asked quietly. “How did this happen?”
“I’m afraid that’s part of an active investigation. We can’t share any more details at this time.”
After a few more profuse apologies, the agents shook our hands and left, and Jane sank down into her seat once more. “I don’t understand. Just last week, Richard told us that Mallory would probably walk and now, suddenly, she’s facing prison time over this one account. What happened?”
“Oh, uh, I might know,” I said.
Jane looked over at me, her jaw slack and her eyes shining with tears. “You figured it out, didn’t you? You’re how they finally connected her to the account.”
“Sort of. Well, it wasn’t just me. Actually, it was Andrew who fessed up.”
“Andrew?” Her entire face contorted into a scowl-frown-glare thing that could’ve brought entire armies to their knees.
“God, I should’ve known he was somehow wrapped up in all of this.
” She smacked a hand down on the table so hard that it trembled.
Then she brought both hands to her face and covered her eyes.
“Fuck, I can’t believe I didn’t see it. Of course, it was him. What did he do?”
“It turns out that Mallory convinced our dearest uncle after Dad’s arrest that she was pregnant with another little Thayer.”
“But the DNA tests proved?—”
“That was way after this,” I said gently. “I’m talking about in the early days. Long before we finally got concrete evidence that baby Court Thayer isn’t a Thayer after all.”
Jane shoulders were trembling with shock as she peeked at me through her fingers. “So Andrew thought he was helping Dad’s baby?”
I nodded slowly. “She convinced him that child needed protecting, so he decided to create what he thought was a trust fund.”
“Our uncle set up an offshore account in a fake name? He can barely reset his phone.”
“Exactly.” I let out a tired laugh. “He genuinely believed he was protecting his future nephew, so he dipped into a few reserve business accounts that were already almost tapped out, transferring small amounts in multiple transactions from each account. There was no huge, lump sum transfer.”
“So nobody noticed,” Jane finished for me, groaning into her hands again. “Oh, Andrew.”
“I eventually managed to trace the payments to the account number she gave him. After that, Mallory took over. Within days, she’d transferred every cent into another offshore account with her boyfriend at the time, and then, as far as I can tell, he locked her out of the account almost immediately. ”
Jane’s eyes widened. “She couldn’t access the money?”
“Nope.”
“So she stole it and then got robbed herself?”
I shrugged. “Personally, I’m finding it remarkably difficult to feel sorry for her.”
“I think I may have the same problem.” She held my gaze. “How the hell did you know where to look?”
“I didn’t. I spent two days tracing money from the operating accounts to Andrew’s original account, then from there to the supposed trust account.”
A slow smile spread on my sister’s lips. The relief pouring off of her was palpable. “They can prove Mallory was behind it all. She lied about Court Jr., manipulated Andrew, and transferred those funds with her boyfriend.”
“Exactly. She orchestrated it, so they’re charging her with extortion, fraud, money laundering, and tax offenses at the very least. Along with whatever else the US Attorney wants to stack onto the indictment.”
“What about Dad?” she asked after a few long seconds of just staring at nothing. “This doesn’t clear him, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t. This part was all Mallory and Andrew, but Dad’s sentence is up in three years anyway.”
For almost a decade, every decision I’d made had somehow led back to cleaning up after my father, but as of today, there was nothing left to clean. I let out a slow breath as I finally leaned back in my chair. “It’s over.”
“Our side of it, anyway.” She refocused on me after another moment. “Are you going to Mallory’s trial?”
“No. I have absolutely no interest in seeing her ever again.”
Relief flickered across Jane’s features. “Okay. If I hear anything else, I’ll keep you updated.”
We were interrupted by a soft knock on the door and one of the executive assistants cracked it open a moment later. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but there’s someone here asking for Colin.”
I frowned. “I don’t have any other meetings today.”
“I know, sir. They don’t have an appointment.”
Jane raised an eyebrow at her. “Who is it? You should tell them?—”
“It’s fine,” I said, pushing my chair back and standing up. “We were done here anyway and my ass is numb. I could use a walk.”
My sister laughed but nodded. “For the record, I never need an update about the state of your ass, but okay, let’s go.”
I walked out of the boardroom and into our reception, but my footsteps faltered when I saw Deja standing at the desk. She had her suitcase at her side and her camera strap over one shoulder, and the moment our eyes met, my entire world brightened.
Jane was somewhere behind me, but I didn’t give a shit. I just broke into a jog and pulled her into my arms. Laughing against her hair, I lifted her clean off her feet. “How are you here?”
She hugged me just as tightly, even wrapping her legs around my waist right there in our executive reception area.
“This is where I’m supposed to be right now.
” She looked into my eyes, then smiled and brought her lips down on mine, murmuring between kisses.
“Everything else can wait right now, Colin. This is the only place I want to be.”