Chapter 5
ALEX
Alex eyed Ava as she strode toward his office in the brand-new duds. Had the gifts made an impression? Had they reminded her of all the good times they had together?
Had the sports car given her a taste of the life she could have with him if they moved forward together?
As he shoved his hands in his pockets and veered toward the finance offices, his mind turned to her conversation earlier. Even with just one side, he could see the difference in her.
Tense, high-strung, anxious. All things that Ava Collins experienced when she wasn’t being herself. The question was why was she hiding her true self from this man?
His lips tugged into a frown as he bypassed a conference room filled with people brainstorming the next big app.
Still, she had said she loved him. The words stung him, twisting a knife deeper than he’d thought it could go.
He’d wanted to say more to her, to delve deeper into the relationship between her and the annoying architect, but the warning glances she’d shot him made him back down.
He needed to gather more information, to bolster his case before Ava shot him down immediately, telling him he didn’t know anything about their relationship.
But he hadn’t liked the look of the bothersome builder from the time he’d seen his smarmy picture plastered across his screen.
A quick hack into a few law enforcement agencies hadn’t given him enough information for a takedown, but he’d come away with the distinct impression that Chris Maxwell was not the man for Ava Collins.
But maybe he was biased.
He reached the CFO’s office, finding it empty. He wrinkled his nose, stepping back to ask the assistant where she’d gone.
“Mr. Stone, hi,” the woman said with a smile. “She just stepped out. I’m not certain, but I think she may have gone to see if you were in yet.”
“Thanks,” he said with a tight-lipped smile as he spun on his heel and shuffled away, snaking back toward his office.
He stepped through the door into what looked like a showdown between Miranda and Ava. He pulled his lips back into a wince. If he didn’t intervene, this wasn’t going to end well, most likely for Miranda.
“Miranda,” he said as he stepped inside, a nervous grin on his face. “There you are.”
The brunette’s bob swung as she twisted to face him before she replaced the receiver onto its cradle. “Oh, Alex, I’m glad you’re here.”
The arched eyebrow Ava shot her was terrifying.
Miranda flung a hand toward Ava. “I found this person in your office looking at the financial statements. I know I don’t need to remind you of the sensitive information in those files. Not just anyone should be looking at them.”
Ava shifted her gaze from Miranda to Alex, her expression a mix of amusement and triumph.
“Yeah,” Alex said as he slinked his way across the room to stand beside Ava. “Ava’s here to help.”
Ava lifted her chin as he snaked an arm around her shoulders.
The expression on Miranda’s features turned penitent as she spotted his hand on her shoulder. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I hadn’t realized you hired someone from the outside to help with this.”
“Uh, Ava’s not a hired hand,” Alex said.
The woman shifted her gaze between them before the corners of her lips turned up just slightly. “Oh, your sister. I can totally see it now.”
The expression of Ava’s face twisted into a glare, and she lifted her left hand in the air. The lights caught the huge diamond as she wiggled it. “Try his wife.”
The words said with such conviction brought a smile to his face.
Ava reached forward and snatched the folder from the woman’s hands with enough vigor to startle even him. It wasn’t a wise move to cross her.
“Wife,” Miranda repeated. “Sorry, I hadn’t realized. I’ve never seen you before.”
Ava twisted the picture on the desk toward her. “You’re not very good with details, so it’s a good thing I’m here.”
Miranda’s jaw flexed. “I am not in the habit of perusing Alex’s office and going through his things.”
Ava heaved a sigh, and he squeezed her shoulder in a silent plea to allow him to handle it.
“It’s fine,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, I was just about to find you to go over some of these details with Ava.”
Miranda offered him a sweet smile. “I would be happy to try to explain this to your wife…if you think it may be helpful in some way.”
Ava’s muscles stiffened under his grip. She anticipated being underestimated, and she was ready to pounce. He’d witnessed it countless times before, and the people doing the underestimating usually regretted it.
“You don’t need to try,” Ava shot back. “From what I saw before you tore the folder from my fingertips, this looks like a classic case of penny skimming. Though I understand there is more at play that needs to be delved into.”
Miranda’s chin lifted slightly as she fluttered her eyelashes at Ava’s matter-of-fact assessment of the situation.
Alex’s eyes shifted back and forth between the two women as the fiery exchange took place, a mix of awe and nostalgia washing over him.
That same unyielding spirit, challenging every obstacle head-on, had been one of the reasons he’d been drawn to her all those years ago.
It reminded him of why he’d nicknamed her Sparky, and why, despite everything, he couldn’t imagine a life without her.
“So, Alex has explained it to you,” Miranda responded.
“Actually,” Alex said with a faltering grin, “that was all Ava. I didn’t tell her anything so I could get a fresh take. Ava has done a few forensic fraud investigations with the FBI.”
That wiped any of the pleasant look off his CFO’s face, her voice turning fake as she offered a comment lacking veracity. “Oh. How lucky we are to have your help, then. I’d be happy to share the details–”
Ava waved a dismissive hand in the air. “I’d rather take a look at this myself. If I have any questions, I’ll give you a buzz.”
She plopped into his desk chair and rolled closer to the folders.
He offered Miranda a pleasant smile. “Thanks, Miranda. We’ll let you know if we have any questions.”
“Right,” the woman answered, hovering for another moment before she finally spun on her heel and left.
Alex spun and leaned against the desk. “Me-ow, Avs. Retract those claws.”
She shot him an unimpressed stare before she flicked open a folder. “I don’t like her.”
“I noticed. But outside of her…fatal mistake of underestimating you, Miranda is exceptional at her job.”
The way she slid her eyes sideways to glance at him betrayed her disagreement with the statement. “Miranda, huh?”
“What?” he asked with a shrug.
“You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking.” She traced her finger down the financial report before she flicked her gaze to the computer.
“Ugh,” he groaned, “you’re not serious.”
She flicked her gaze to him, her eyelashes fluttering as her voice took on a mocking tone. “Oh, Alex, I’m glad you're here. I found this person in your office. Be careful of that one, Ace.”
“She’s not interested in me.”
“Debatable,” she answered, whisking a pen out of the cup on the desk and jotting down a note. “But she is definitely interested in your money.”
“Uh, yeah, she is, because she’s my CFO. If she wasn’t interested in my money, she’d be doing a really terrible job.”
“Very funny,” she said, the familiar crease forming between her eyebrows as she continued scanning the materials. “I’m serious. Have you looked at her?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “I mean, she’s somewhat cute. Hardly stunning–”
“At her background, Ace.”
“Oh, right. Umm, yes-ish.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she gave him a pointed stare. “You didn’t.”
“I mean, I haven’t kept a ton of tabs on every employee at StoneCorp.”
There was that arch of her eyebrows again that set his heart thumping harder. “But you had time to hack law enforcement to find out Chris has an unpaid parking ticket. Oh, Alex.”
“I will check out her background while you do your number crunching.”
“Before you do that, you may also want to check out this.” Ava jiggled the mouse before she flicked a finger toward his screen.
An ominous warning beamed from the screen.
He wrinkled his nose. “Be careful who you trust?”
His lips tugged into a frown as he pounded against his keyboard. “Where did this come from?”
“Good question.” She rose from the chair, collecting the folders before she skirted around him.
He sank into the chair, his mind whirling as his fingers deftly floated across the keys in an attempt to track down any information about the anonymous message using the company’s internal messaging system.
“That’s it,” he said with a slap of the enter key. “No more anonymous messaging at StoneCorp.”
“No way to track it at all?”
“No,” he said with a disgusted sigh.
She glanced up from the papers. He leaned back in the chair, one corner of his lips tugging up as he drank in the sight of her, curled on the couch, her shoes kicked off and her legs tucked under her.
“You really allow untraceable anonymous messages in the company’s message system?
What if someone…uses it to harass people? ”
“That’s never happened, and it’s designed to allow people to send messages to superiors regarding inappropriate behaviors but who are afraid of retaliation. I programmed it myself to be completely and totally untraceable. People don’t, in general, take advantage of it.”
“Until now.”
“Until now,” he repeated with a sigh. “But…we can rule out Miranda because she was here harassing you. So she couldn’t have done it.”
The fake smile she shot him made it clear how she felt about the comment.
He offered her a coy grin back before he twisted back to his computer. “I’ll just check out her background while you work on that.”
His fingers swept across the keys again, any trepidation about their relationship momentarily put on pause as he worked to fill the screen with characters that would unlock secrets he shouldn’t have access to.
His eyes slid sideways, peering at her curled on the couch, pouring over the information. The corners of his lips tugged up again. So far, he’d won. She was committed to helping him. Now, all he had to do was make sure she was committed to him, and his life would be complete.
He focused on the characters flying across his screen again, tempted to revise his latest attempt to dig into Chris Maxwell’s background again. Something felt off about that guy.
Or was it just his jealousy playing up?
He slapped the enter key and let his program loose to do its digging as he leaned back in his chair, his mind planning his next steps to convince Ava not to divorce him. The statement she’d made when he’d given her the car still gnawed at him.
He settled his gaze somewhere in mid-space as he wondered if it would be too much to plan a romantic dinner on the beach.
He had to handle this delicately. Not only had he never actually told her his feelings, not to mention the fear of rejection that was tearing up his insides, but her being engaged made it all the more risky.
They’d fallen back into their usual comfortable rhythm, but this time she held something back from him, unusually quiet about her new relationship. Was that because she was uncertain about it or because she was more certain about it than others in the past?
Ava’s clearing of her throat drew him back to reality. He twisted to find her offering him an unimpressed stare. “Seriously?”
“What?”
She slid her eyes to focus on his computer screen. He turned to glance at it, a wince twisting his features as he chuckled. As his mind wandered to Ava, he’d accidentally typed Chris’s name instead of Miranda’s, pulling the man’s background onto his screen.
“Oops. Just checking on that parking ticket.”
“I am going to pay that parking ticket for him so you can stop worrying about it.”
“Bad move, Avs,” he answered as he tapped out a new search. “You could be an accessory to a crime then.”
She waved a finger toward his screen. “Just focus on finding out if Miranda is an accessory to a crime.”
“I’m on it, boss,” he said as he submitted his latest request, and the details began to fill in on his screen. “Here we go.”
Ava shifted the paperwork off her lap and crossed to him in stocking feet.
He shot her a triumphant glance as he tilted away from the computer as she leaned closer. “Clean.”
“Too clean.”
He couldn’t hide his amusement over what he hoped was a flicker of jealousy from his wife. “Maybe she’s just innocent.”
“And maybe she isn’t.”
“She didn’t do this, Avs. Why would she bring it to my attention if she’s guilty?”
“For this very reason,” Ava said with wide eyes. “No one will suspect the whistleblower.”
He pressed his lips together, shaking his head. When Ava felt strongly about something, she wouldn’t back down.
“Let’s just keep her on our suspect list,” Ava said. “And by the way, where is our suspect list?”
“Ahhh…” he murmured.
She fluttered her eyelashes. “You mean Miranda, patron saint of whistleblowers, didn’t provide you with a list of everyone who has had access to these files over the years? Or at least during the years affected?”
“I probably can pull that information for us.” He gave her an awkward smile before he returned to his keyboard.
“Here we go. Anyone who has worked in or around finance for as long as this company has been a company.” He leaned back in his chair with another proud smile.
“Print it,” she answered.
His nose wrinkled. “On paper?”
She crossed back to the couch, gathering the folders. “Yes, Ace, on paper. I want to look at those names, study them, search for any abnormalities.”
She neatened the folders into a stack before she waved them in the air. “These files tell a story. A story of millions of missing dollars.”
“Millions?” he repeated, a knot twisting his stomach. While it was a tiny chunk of his billion-dollar bottom line, it still sliced at him.
“By my calculations, yes. Millions.” She slid into her shoes and crossed to the printer that spit out two sheets of paper. “And we’re going to track it down.”
She waved the sheets in the air. “One of these people is a thief. And we’re about to find out who.”
Alex stared at the names listed on the pages, wondering who had betrayed him. Who had stolen millions of dollars from StoneCorp right under his nose? And would they be able to find the culprit?