Chapter 8
8
JACKSON
I stare at the man standing in front of me, not bothering to hide my contempt for him. I want him to read every bit of disgust I’m certain is now lining my face. I curl my lips into a sneer and gaze at him with narrowed eyes.
Beads of sweat run down his dark brown face despite the circulation of cool air from the central AC. If I stare hard enough, I recognize the familial resemblance between him and his sister. But where Langston’s Knights’ features are sharper, eyes slightly smaller, nose wider. There’s always a hint of avarice in his eyes as if he’s calculating something but now all I read is fear.
I let the silence stretch between us to rise the heighten the tension I’m certain is making his heart pound out of control. He adjusts his tie for the third time since he’s entered my office.
He’s fallen for my trap, one I’d set up so meticulously he couldn’t have possibly seen it coming. A lesser man would perhaps feel a little bit of guilt for placing him in a predicament he had no option but to fail but only a sense of triumph fills me up to know just how close I am to my goal. I don’t care that Langston Knight is on the verge of shitting his pants and that I am now the puppet master controlling his strings, making him dance to the tune I create.
“Uh, I may I have a seat?” he gestures to the seat in front of my desk.
I tilt my head to the side and deepen my glare. “No. I’d rather you stand. I’m not going to keep you much longer because I’m sure you already know why I’ve called you in.” I reach for the financial reports I’d meticulously gone over, and waved them in the air.
“Do you know what this is?”
He gulps. “I’m not certain, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
This motherfucker…
“Despite some of the dumbass decisions you’ve made since coming to work here, I don’t believe you’re a stupid man, intelligence wise. So do me a favor and don’t insult me by playing dumb. Now let’s try this again. Do you know what these are?”
He adjusts his tie again and at this point I can only assume it’s a nervous tic of his. Good, let his nerves get the best of him. I like seeing him squirm.
“I believe those are the latest financial reports from accounting.”
“Who is in charge of signing off on the month end reports?” I ask, drawing out this game of cat and mouse for as long as possible. Maybe I really can make this asshole shit himself.
“Ugh, well, Troy generally signs off on them?—”
I slam my fist on my desk to stop his prevarication. “Do I look like a fucking joke to you?”
He waves his hands frantically. “Of course not. I was just saying that Troy…”
He trails off because I’m certain he notices my balled fists and the vein bulging from my neck. He’s right to stop because if he continued, I just might have leaped over the desk and beat him to a pulp.
Sure, I’m the one who set the trap but seeing this little weasel try to worm his way out of his predicament by stalling and trying to think of an appropriate excuse, pisses me off. It especially annoys me because I know the stress it has put on his sister.
I inhale deeply and slowly release the air from my lungs to calm down. The last thing I needed was to lose control of the situation and end up with a completely different scenario.
“Care to run that by me again, Knight?”
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and reaches for his tie, yet again. “While Troy has been absent, I’ve been the one to sign off on the reports.”
I point to the reports in question. “Go ahead and take a look through the last three months. I want you pay special attention to the budget versus profit lines for each department and explain the discrepancies to me.”
He eyes the reports on my desk before looking at me as if needed additional permission.
“Go on. Take them.”
He approaches my desk and picks up the documents with trembling hands. Langston then makes a show of flipping through the pages as if he’s actually going through them with some precision even though I see the panic in his eyes and sweat gleaming on his forehead.
The rapid rise and fall of his chest indicates he’s on the verge of breaking and I’m enjoying every second of it.
“Well, if you look at last month’s quarterly report, you’ll see that everything balances out. One of the other accountants must have made a miscalculation that I must have missed when I looked over the reports and I take full responsibility for that. I should have brought this to your attention when it happened but I didn’t want that person to get in trouble, or worse lose their job.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and squeeze my eyes shut because I’m on the verge of popping a blood vessel. Just when I thought it wasn’t possible for this asshole to dig himself deeper into the hole, he’s already in he does. I’ve underestimated the depth of his self-preservation skill.
How he’s related to someone as selfless as Zora is beyond me but then again, we can’t choose the families we’re born into. No one understands that lesson better than me.
“The only job you should be worried about is your own, Knight. In fact, you should be worried about your freedom as well. Usually, I’d have our HR Department handle this matter but I’m the one responsible for bringing you on. You clearly took me for a fool if you thought you could get away with this.
“Wait a minute, what do you mean, my freedom? If we go over these reports together, I’m sure I can explain everything to you.”
“There’s no need. The forensic accounting team I’ve hired will be able to do that. Despite this being an at will state, I can’t fire you according to your contract, without just cause but I can suspend you while an investigation takes place if malfeasance is suspected.”
His shoulders sag and he hangs his head.
Got you, motherfucker.
“I can resign. Do we really have to get the authorities involved? Once the books are audited, you’ll see that the company has been made whole.”
A smile curves my lips but I feel no humor. “You have absolutely no shame do you? I took a chance on you because I believe I saw something in you that would make you a good fit for this company. Not to mention, we have a connection of being from the same town.”
He nods his head and he grins like the fool that he is. “Yes, we’re both from Champion. I never brought it up, but you would have graduated around the same year as my sister. Perhaps you might have had a couple of classes with her, although I’m sure the two of you wouldn’t be in the same social circles, she’s not on your level.”
I jump to my feet and move around my desk so quickly, I take even myself by surprise so I know Langston couldn’t have expected my next move.
I grip the tie he’d meticulously adjusted so many times and wrap it around my fist until my knuckles pressed in the underside of his chin. “Do you think that loose connection will bail you out of trouble you’re in? I figured you were a snake, but you’re not going to talk down on your sister.”
His eyes widen. “I…I’m sorry. Please…I can’t breathe.”
“If you can talk, you can breathe. I’m just wondering what kind of person you are because you’re not a man. You steal from this company and think you can make it right just because you put it back? And what about the next time when you don’t hit at the casino or you can’t borrow money from your father you’ll probably never pay back?”
“How did you…?”
I snicker at his wide-eyed shock. “I’m very thorough when I want to find something out. Did you think I wouldn’t have you have someone investigate your background when I realized you were stealing from me? Some might say I was an idiot for giving you a chance without conducting one in the first place but like you said, we did have a connection through our mutual town of origin. However, I realize just how idiotic I was when I dug a little deeper into your past.”
“I can explain, my father hasn’t been in the best of health and?—”
I tighten my grip on his tie to cut off his circulation completely as I lower my head until our noses practically touch. “Lie to me again and I’m going to knock your teeth down your throat.”
The disgust I feel toward Langston Knight grows by the second. No longer able to be near him I release his tie shove him away from me.
He stumbles backward but manages not to fall as he gasps for air.
“Did you think my investigation wouldn’t be thorough enough to find out the reason behind your sticky fingers? How you’ve racked up thousands of dollars in gambling debt? Hundreds of thousands by my calculation.”
I cock my head to the side, watching him squirm like the weasel he is.
“For some reason, you’ve managed to win enough in the casinos to save your kneecaps from the shady loan sharks who have kept you afloat. It’s too bad you didn’t see fit to pay back your father who by the way is on the verge of losing his house. And coincidently, he seems to be a very sick man, whether you were making that part up or not.”
Langston shakes his head from side to side. “That’s not possible. My father was fine the last time we spoke.”
“When was the last time you actually visited your father?”
“I…well…I mean it’s been some time but, I talk to him often enough.”
“Does often enough mean, you only call him when you need something.”
When he opens his mouth to refute my claim I hold up my hand. “Save it. I’m not interested in anymore of your lies. And frankly, I’m tired of seeing your face. As I stated earlier, you’re suspended until a proper audit is completed. Until then, I suggest you hire yourself a good attorney.”
“Please! I’m sorry. You can fire me, but don’t get the police involved. I don’t want to go to jail.” He drops to his knees and interlocks his hands like he’s begging for his very life in front of an executioner.
Piece of shit, though he is, it was sickening to see a grown man pleading for clemency over a situation of his own making.
“Perhaps you should have thought about that before you stole from the company. Now get the fuck out of my office.”
Despite the darkness of his deep brown skin, he goes pale. The acrid scent of urine infiltrates my nostrils and a dark wet spot spreads on his blue business pants.
I snort in disgust and turn my back on him.
I listen as he scrambles to his feet with a desperate cry. He at least has the good sense to stop begging.
Langston slams the door behind him. I’m almost positive I won’t see him again for quite a while until I want to find him. Because like most rats, he’s going to flee. But it’s what I expected.
And it gives me the leverage I need.
All of my pawns were perfectly aligned to take down the queen.
I pull out my cell and dial my assistant.
“Yes, Mr. Champion.”
“I need you to book a first-class ticket on the first flight going out of town tonight. I’m going home.”