Chapter 6
AVA
Ava’s eyes narrowed at the list, still warm from the printer, clutched between her fingers. Someone here had made financial transactions that had robbed StoneCorp of what could amount to millions of dollars.
Her money was still on Miranda, though, much as she hated to admit it, the fact that she’d brought this to Alex’s attention did suggest she hadn’t been the culprit.
Or had it been brought to her attention by an underling, and she had been forced to present the information to him? She needed to delve deeper into the timelines and pinpoint exactly which forms of fraud had occurred before she moved on to check the long list of names.
Alex rose from his seat behind the desk and approached her, scanning the employees listed. “I can’t believe someone would do this to me.”
“I doubt it was you, Ace. It was just the money.”
He frowned, letting his gaze slide to the floor.
She tore her eyes away from the paper to glance at him. The money was a sore spot with him. He’d been closed off even before it, never readily accepted by even his computer science peers, and extremely sensitive about that.
After he’d made it big, he’d been even more closed off. The money, he’d learned, could buy him friends, but none of them cared much about him, just about the lavish lifestyle he could afford them.
An attack like this would feel extremely personal to him. And she hadn’t meant her words to sound so dismissive. “I just mean don’t take it personally.”
“I’m not,” he answered, still looking glum.
This must have been the source of his consternation since she’d returned to the Hamptons. He hated feeling used, and this had to be a huge slap in the face. It was likely the reason behind the flickers of tension she’d noticed.
“We’ll find them,” she promised, her voice softening as she patted his chest.
He grabbed her hand, squeezing it, his fingers lingering on her skin for longer than she’d expected. “Thanks for your help.”
“Of course. You know I’ll always be here for you.”
“Unless Blueprint Bill won’t let you.” The look of disgust mixed with a glimmer of fear flashed across his features.
She smoothed a lock of his sandy blonde, shaggy hair away from his eyes. “No one tells me what to do, Ace. You know that.”
With a grin, she let go of his hand and crossed to the couch to gather the remaining folders. “We should take these home and go over all the details this weekend.”
“Yeah, sure,” he said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “But, uh, Avs, it kind of sounded like our favorite architect was a little controlling based on the conversation this morning.”
The statement floated across her mind, sticking out as odd coming from Alex. “Chris can be a little…uptight. But he just found out his fiancé is married. It’s fine.”
“Is it? I half expect him to issue a summons for you to return home before we sort this out.”
So, that was what he was worried about. “Alex, he’s not going to stop me from helping you. We’ll figure this out, I promise.”
“But, Avs–“
She slapped another stack of folders on top of her previously neatened stack before she whipped to face him. “Not going to happen, Alex. I always have your back. You know that.”
He sucked in a breath, his eyes rising to the ceiling as he processed the statement.
She cut off any response before he said it, pushing to move on from the topic. She didn’t want to get into a conversation about Chris. “I need to ask your CFO a few questions before we go. Why don’t you shuttle these to the car?”
“Okay,” he said with a nod, the worry etched into his features easing a little. “And then how about a nice late lunch at an exclusive beachside club?”
“Late lunch? Try dinner, Ace. By the time we get back, it’ll be well after five.”
“Fine, dinner then,” he said with a shrug and a smile. “Whatever wifey wants.”
He slid a stack of the folders into his arms and crossed to the door before he swiveled back to face her. “Oh, try not to get into a catfight with Miranda if at all possible.”
She rolled her eyes at him, a playful smile curling her lips as she followed him to the door. “Whatever hubby wants.”
They parted ways as he headed to the elevator, and she veered off to snake her way back to the financial offices. She stepped inside the main office, her head on a swivel as she found the door marked with Miranda’s name.
She pounded her way back to the door, letting her footsteps announce her arrival well before she stepped into the woman’s office.
Miranda glanced away from her computer screen to Ava as she hovered in the doorway. “Mrs. Stone. Can I help you with something?”
Ava’s lips curled slightly with disdain at the woman’s words, dripping with antipathy.
“Ms. Collins, actually,” Ava said as she stepped closer to the desk, “and yes, you can.”
“Oh, my apologies,” the woman answered with a flick of her eyebrows. “I hadn’t realized you chose not to take his last name. I just assumed any woman who married him would have been happy to.”
The dig didn’t go unnoticed. “Never assume a woman would give up her identity for a man. And my husband has enough respect for me to support my choice.”
The woman offered her a fleeting, disingenuous smile before lifting her chin. “What can I help you with, Ms. Collins?”
The way the woman repeated her name as though it distanced her from Alex made her curl her fingers into fists. Too bad Alex had specifically told her not to slap the woman silly.
“Who found the discrepancies in the financials?”
The woman’s lips formed a smirk. “I did.”
“Randomly?” Ava questioned, her features pinching.
“I was doing a review of the company’s financials over the years and identified it.”
“I see.”
“I went to Alex immediately with the information,” she added.
Ava stuck her purse under her arm, tracing the diamond on her left hand with her thumb. “Of course, you did. That’s all I needed to know.”
With a fleeting smile, she spun on her spiked heel and crossed to the door.
“Ms. Collins?” Miranda called.
Ava stopped, pausing a moment before she shot a glance over her shoulder. “Yes?”
“If Alex needs any help with the data, please tell him I’m available…anytime.”
Ava offered her a satisfied smile as she uttered the words, “He won’t.”
With her jaws set, she stormed out of the office and made her way to the elevator. Her foot tapped on the floor as she waited for it to arrive, annoyed with the woman’s behavior. The doors whooshed open and less than a minute later, she strode to the pink convertible.
Alex eyed her. “I don’t see any defensive wounds, so either you kicked her butt, or you didn’t get into a fight with her.”
“I didn’t get into a fight,” Ava promised as she fired the engine. “But my opinion of her didn’t change much.”
“Did you get the information you wanted?”
“I did,” she said as she backed from the space and aimed for the exclusive beachside Hamptons club. “According to her, she found the discrepancies.”
“And then reported them. If she was the guilty party, she probably wouldn’t have done that,” Alex pointed out.
She didn’t answer, still unconvinced of the woman’s innocence, but uncertain if it was a twinge of jealousy she felt or just a strong desire to protect her friend from a woman she saw as a barracuda.
“Let’s forget about her,” he said when she didn’t respond.
“Good idea,” she said.
By the time they arrived at the club, the tension from her confrontation with the CFO had melted. She tossed her keys to the valet before she slid her arm around his and followed him into the soft lighting of the ritzy restaurant.
“Mr. Stone,” the host said with a broad smile, “I have your table already, sir.”
He led them to a round table overlooking the sand and ocean before he displayed the bottle of champagne that already sat on ice. “Pour away, my good man,” Alex said as they perused the menu.
The man delivered two sparkling flutes of champagne to them before he left them alone.
“Cristal? What’s the occasion?” Ava asked after they placed their order.
“Do we need one?” He grinned at her over the glowing candlelight. “The Ava of old would say she’s worth it no matter what.”
“Oh, right. And we’ve resurrected that Ava, so I guess I’m worth it, once again.”
The smile never left his face as his eyes lingered on her. “How about a picture with this beautiful backdrop?”
Before she could answer, he was already out of his seat with his phone in hand. He pressed closer to her, shifting the camera to capture the colors of the sky and the orange reflection cast in the water as the sun set opposite it.
He snapped a few pictures before he took his seat again just in time for their food to arrive.
“Send me those,” she said as she dug into her meal.
“Of course.” He tugged his phone from his pocket and fired them off to her. After another few pokes at the screen, he set the device aside to focus on his food. “So, Avs–”
The shrill ring of her phone interrupted his statement. She pulled it from her purse and checked it. “It’s Chris. Sorry.”
She swiped to accept the call and pressed the phone to her ear. “Hey, hon.”
“Hi,” he answered. “Just checking in while I grab some dinner…alone.”
She raised her gaze from the white linen tablecloth to Alex who offered her that goofy grin she’d loved since they first met. “Well, I hope at least it’s a good dinner.”
“Oh, it’s very tasty. It’s just…lacking the normal beauty I’ve grown so accustomed to.”
“Flatterer,” she said with a soft smile.
“So…I don’t mean to push but…”
Her muscles tensed as she realized exactly where the conversation was headed.
“Have you worked everything out?”
“Umm, we spoke, and we’re just…working on it, yep.”
“Working on it? I thought this was a marriage of convenience. It should be pretty clear cut, no?”
She pressed her lips together, her fingers tangling with the napkin on her lap. “Uh, it’s a little more complicated than I expected, but we’re making progress.”
“Okay.” His voice betrayed his displeasure but hinted that he was making his best effort to be supportive.