Hearts and Holdings Boxed Set Books #1-4

Chapter 1

ALEX

Alex Stone ran a shaky hand through his hair as his jaw tightened to the point of pain. He stared down at the text beaming from his screen until the display dimmed and finally died. Just like his hopes.

He had always expected it. But he still hadn’t been prepared for it.

He drummed his fingertips on the glass desk that sat in front of the massive window in his office. His stomach twisted into a knot as he considered his response, his jaw clenching tightly.

Why had he come to the office today, of all days? It seemed like a cruel joke now. He rarely bothered to show up here these days. After building StoneCorp into a multi-billionaire dollar company, he didn’t feel the need to bother keeping normal business hours.

He’d made his fortune, and he continued to build it—usually from the comfort of his home. It figured the one day he’d decided to make a reappearance would be the worst day of his life.

Why had he thought this wouldn’t happen? Why was this coming as such a blow?

He tapped his phone, bringing it back to life. His trembling fingers hovered over the virtual keyboard. Before he could type a response, he shook his head and turned off the display, shoving it away.

He flicked on his screen, trying to focus on the document shining from it. Another problem.

He stared at the numbers filling the screen but found himself distracted. Instead, he toggled into another program, his frustrations pouring out through his fingertips as he pounded the keys. Characters filled the screen as he worked feverishly.

The lines of code that scrolled past on his screen provided a soothing balm for his soul. The kinks in his muscles and his mind began to ease away as he continued to labor.

After several minutes of typing, he slapped the enter key. His code processed, the machine in front of him being broken down into bits and broadcast through cyberspace until it found its mark.

The window on his screen, green characters glowing against a black background, melted away, replaced by something else.

He leaned forward as he studied the image forming on the monitor. The corners of his lips tugged up as the image of a woman filled his massive, curved screen.

She stared at her monitor through a set of tortoise-shell computer glasses. She didn’t need them, she just loved the way they made her look smarter, and how they made people take her more seriously.

After a moment, she shoved them up onto the top of her head, nestling them in her blonde hair before she tossed a lock over her shoulder and leaned back in her chair.

He traced the curve of her jaw as she stared blankly at the screen before shifting her gaze to the phone lying next to her keyboard.

She sighed as she toggled off the display, pressing her lips together. She was waiting for a response. A response that wasn’t coming yet.

She settled back in her desk chair, her features turning pensive. She reached back to rub her neck. He leaned closer to the screen, tapping a few keys to zoom in on her hand. His eyebrows squashed together before he zoomed out, studying her face again.

Alex’s office door swung open, and his CFO strode inside, folders piled in her arms. He stiffened, tapping the escape key to melt the image on his screen.

The woman wobbled forward on her heels as she juggled the folders. “I pulled everything you asked for, Mr. Stone–”

Her words cut off as the folders toppled from her arms and spilled across the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, stooping to pull them back into a pile.

He kicked back from his desk and skirted it to help her. “Alex, please. Mr. Stone was my father.”

“Thank you,” she said with a coy smile as she glanced through her eyelashes.

He backed away, stuffing the papers into the folders. “You can leave these with me.”

“Oh, uh, I’m happy to go over the material with you.

I…feel like this is my fault.” She plopped into the chair across from his desk, her cheeks puffed out with a sigh.

“And I do have experience with this. I’ve seen it before in my previous position.

I’ve even done some financial investigations with the FBI. ”

Alex flicked his eyebrows up as she dropped the professional tidbit. “It’s hardly your fault. You brought it to my attention.”

“Far too late,” she said as she smoothed a lock of her shoulder-length bob behind her ear before she shook her head.

“Better late than never,” he answered as he tried to recall her name. Not coming to the office for a few years had really taken a toll on his ability to know his employees’ names. “Miranda, right?”

“Yes,” she answered, the smile spreading across her face again. “I hope you don’t just know my name because you’re looking to fire me.”

Alex narrowed his eyes at her. “Do I need to be considering that?”

“No,” she said with a shake of her head, the hair behind her ear popping free. “I mean, I don’t mean to tell you how to run your business. You’re obviously very good at what you do, but…I wouldn’t fire me.”

“Good to know,” Alex said as he slapped a hand against the folders.

“What I mean to say is…I may have found this too late, but I found it. And I’m committed to searching through the evidence to find out what’s happening here.”

Alex flicked the folder open and stared at the spreadsheet inside. “All right. Make sense of this to me. What am I looking at?”

She smiled as she sucked in a breath and leapt from her seat, circling the desk to hover over his shoulder. “Okay, so this is a spreadsheet from the twenty-eleven tax year.”

“And why am I looking at a decade-old spreadsheet?” Alex asked.

“Because this is an overall analysis of our company’s assets and liabilities. But there are expenses here that don’t make sense.”

He stared at the numbers, automatically crunching them in his mind. “This all seems to add up.”

“It does, but what is Project Phoenix? I couldn’t find any record of that anywhere.”

“Projects change code names all the time,” Alex shot back. “It could be anything.”

“Fine, but there are too many like that. And there’s more.” She leaned closer, the scent of her perfume tickling his nostrils. Her hand casually brushed his as she reached across him for the mouse. “Excuse me.”

He rolled back a little as she toggled on the monitor and clicked around in search of the appropriate spreadsheet.

“Ah-ah-ah,” he chided. “Delicate programs there. I’ll handle the clicking, thank you.”

“Of course,” she said with a nervous chuckle as she stepped back and adjusted the hem of her skirt. “I’m sorry.”

He cleared his throat, carefully avoiding the computer monitor camera he’d hacked moments earlier. “Here we go, twenty-eleven’s spreadsheet.”

“Okay, now, look at the accounts.”

“I’m looking,” he answered. “What am I looking at?”

She leaned closer again, the floral scent of her hair floating through the air as she shifted her gaze from the computer screen to him. “See this value? Look at the cents in particular.”

“Okay,” he answered, noting the account ended in eight-six cents.

“Now…” she said as she pawed through the papers in the folder. She flipped the pages until she found the account. “Here is the paper copy.”

“It’s different,” he said, “but only by a few cents. Rounding error or…”

“Or skimming.”

“Pennies? To what end?” he asked.

“To thousands or maybe even millions of dollars,” she answered. “There are hundreds of accounts here. If this happened even a few cents on each one–”

“It would add up, yeah, I get it.” Alex rubbed his lips as he stared into space. “But why?”

“That’s a good question,” she said, spinning to sit against the desk. “I would recommend a complete review of the books, possibly going back to the start of StoneCorp.”

“That’s almost two decades,” he answered.

She raised her shoulders, her earrings swinging as she shook her head. “Yeah, it is. But we need to know when this started. It may provide some clue as to who did this and why.”

His mind worked to assess how long the process might take.

“I’m willing to put the extra time in. I’d like to get this done as quickly as possible. If I could get permission to take the best people from the finance team to work on this solely, I think we could get this done in a few weeks and maybe have some answers.”

Alex narrowed his eyes, his mind churning. Someone at StoneCorp had done this. Who? And why? It didn’t sit right with him.

He tightened his fingers into fists.

“Mr. Stone?” Miranda asked.

“Don’t do anything yet,” he said as he stared at the screen.

She stiffened, her forehead creasing. “But, sitting on this could–”

“I understand,” he answered, holding a hand in the air. “Just…give it a day or so.”

She fluttered her eyelashes as she shifted, her fingers tightening around the desk’s edge. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”

“It is.” He twisted back to his computer his mouse hovering over the webcam again. He snapped his gaze back to her. “That’s all.”

She offered him a fleeting, awkward smile. “Right. Of course.”

She began to collect the folders when he stopped her. “Leave them.”

With a nod, she dropped them back onto the glass top and stood.

He slid his eyes sideways to her, his gaze questioning. “Is there something else?”

She winced as she clasped her hands in front of her. “I would just advise in the strongest of terms that we move on this. If you want to be discreet, I can do that. I can–”

“Do nothing. Just leave it for a few days.”

She gave him a tight-lipped smile before she finally stepped around the desk.

“Oh, Miranda!” he called after her.

She twisted to face him, a hopeful expression on her features.

“Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”

“Got it,” she said with a nod. “You can count on me.”

The echo of her high-heeled footsteps disappeared as she stepped from his office and pulled the door closed behind her.

His eyes fell to the folders splayed across his desk. His life was a mess on all fronts. He didn’t like messes.

With a deep sigh, he minimized the spreadsheet he’d opened minutes ago and restored the webcam footage. An empty chair stared back at him.

He settled back in his own chair as he bit his lower lip. A second later, movement fluttered on the camera. The woman settled back into her chair, phone in hand. “Yeah, I’m doing great.”

He leaned closer as she chuckled, smiling when she smiled.

“No, not yet,” she said to her mystery caller.

“I will…I just…I’ve been trying to get a few things done.”

She balanced the phone against her shoulder as she narrowed her eyes at the screen. Another laugh bubbled from her lips. He wrinkled his nose at the happiness flowing from the screen.

“Well, I do have deadlines. I work, too, remember?”

She chuckled again as she grabbed hold of the phone. “Okay, I will. I love you, too.”

The final words wiped any smile from his features as they burned through him. The woman ended the call and tapped on her phone. Her shoulders slumped before she set it aside and refocused on the screen in front of her, her fingers deftly flying across the keyboard.

He grabbed his own phone and toggled it on. He stared down at the message glowing from his screen, rereading it over and over until he’d practically memorized it. Hey Ace, guess what? I’m getting married! Side note, I’m gonna need that divorce we never got around to getting.

She ended it with a winky face, indicative of her playful personality. But he found the message anything but playful. In fact, the message crumbled his world. His wife of nearly two decades had finally said the words he’d always expected but hoped never to hear.

His mind regressed to the first time they’d met. She’d questioned his coffee order as he’d picked it up. He’d asked about her presence as the only female in their computer science course. They’d become fast friends.

His mind flashed forward to their wedding. Simple, impromptu, but devoid of the typical emotions that went along with such a ceremony, their marriage had been an arrangement designed to secure his inheritance from a father who saw him as less than stable when it came to decision-making.

They’d married in the courthouse instead of at an altar. She’d offered him a soft smile as he slid the ring onto her finger. It had been an easy decision between them. They’d been best friends.

But after the wedding and the founding of StoneCorp, they’d grown apart, pursuing separate lives in separate locations. He’d immersed himself into building his company in the billion-dollar business it was, and she’d thrown herself into building her career.

He’d never said a word to her about how he felt, too afraid opening up would cause him to lose her. If she didn’t feel the same way, she may prefer to end their relationship entirely. And he didn’t want that.

He’d kept quiet and they’d remained in touch. Some may even describe their relationship as close, but they hadn’t ever lived as a married couple. And now they never would.

He flicked his gaze back to the face on his screen. She’d finally moved on. Ava Collins was actually leaving him. And she was the love of his life. Could he fix this problem?