Chapter Nineteen
Liam
While GalvaTech closed over the holidays, the investment firm didn’t.
So, while the employees of GalvaTech, including Morgan, took the week off to spend time with their families, I’d been busy with Simon at our own business, hammering out details of upcoming deals and catching up on end of the year assessments, internal audits, and client updates.
Even with all the extra hours I was putting in, this schedule wasn’t nearly as relentless as my Wall Street days. Back then, work consumed every waking moment. This was just a temporary crunch. A couple of demanding weeks I knew would pass.
Still, frustration gnawed at me. I hadn’t managed any real time alone with Morgan. We talked mostly business at work, traded texts that ranged from sweet to filthy, but we hadn’t been alone together since that evening in my office over two weeks ago.
Christmas came and went, as did New Year’s Eve.
Because we hadn’t made the fact that we were dating public yet, we decided to spend the holidays separately.
But I knew at some point we’d have to face the truth.
What we were building was something real, and I needed to figure out a way to let Parker and her father know that I was fully invested in Morgan and our developing relationship, without rocking the boat professionally.
For now, I couldn’t wait to get her alone in Vegas. The office was back in full swing after the holidays, and we were leaving tomorrow.
“I’ve finalized our travel arrangements,” Morgan said, standing in my office.
Unfortunately, her father was at her side, so there was zero chance of spreading her out on my desk and fucking her the way I’d been fantasizing about after not seeing her for the past week.
“This is exciting,” Samuel said, giving his daughter’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze. “With this being the first time GalvaTech has attended the Consumer Electronics Show, I can only imagine the level of exposure we will receive.”
I smiled at his enthusiasm. “It’s definitely the beginning of a new chapter for the company.” I checked the time on my phone before lifting my gaze back to Morgan. “I’m heading out for the day. Simon asked me to meet with him this afternoon, but I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow.”
Her smile and nod were nothing but professional, but her gaze simmered with the same eager anticipation I was feeling about having some quality time to ourselves in Vegas.
I left GalvaTech, and as I walked into our firm, Simon’s newest assistant glared at me from behind her desk, frazzled and visibly irritated.
I greeted her, and she muttered something beneath her breath I didn’t quite catch, but I knew was not complimentary toward my brother.
At this rate, Simon was going to burn through every qualified candidate in the city and would have to function without help entirely.
The door to Simon’s office was open, so I strolled in to find him frowning at his computer screen. He looked up when he heard my footsteps, and a muscle in his jaw ticked.
“Is another one about to bite the dust?” I asked, jerking my thumb toward the door behind me.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, completely oblivious to the very unhappy woman outside his office.
“Your latest assistant,” I said, dropping into one of the chairs in front of his desk. “She looks like she’s about to quit and key your car on the way out.”
“She’s fine,” he scoffed.
“She not fine,” I countered. “She looked at me like you were personally responsible for ruining her life. What did you do this time?”
“I didn’t do anything,” he said defensively. “She double booked me for two separate meetings this morning, then forwarded an internal email chain, with my notes, to the actual client. Every damn comment. Including the one where I said his proposal ‘needed divine intervention’.”
I had to swallow back my laughter, because I knew this was serious stuff for Simon. I also knew he’d probably driven the poor woman to the brink with all his demands and she hadn’t been thinking straight.
“She’s been here two weeks,” he went on, scrubbing a hand over his face like the weight of her incompetence physically pained him. “She should be able to handle basic tasks by now.”
I arched a brow. “It’s not easy when you’re barking orders without so much as a ‘please’ or ‘thank you’.”
“I don’t have time for pleasantries,” he said, his tone annoyed. “This is business, not a social club.”
I huffed out a quiet breath. I’d heard this argument from him enough times to know logic wasn’t going to get through to him. “It’s also not a revolving door, but you’ve gone through, what, three assistants already in the last six months?”
“Four,” he corrected without a hint of shame. “And the common denominator isn’t me. It’s their inability to keep up. But we have bigger problems right now. We need to talk.”
The abrupt change in his tone, from irritated to concern, caught my attention. “Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about whatever this problem is?”
He turned his laptop around and pushed it forward so that I could see what was on the screen. I scanned the most recent profit and loss statement from GalvaTech. I’d already reviewed the report yesterday when it hit my own inbox, and everything seemed fine to me.
I glanced up at him, unsure what the issue was. “Okay, what am I missing?”
“Look closer,” Simon said, his tone insistent. “It’s subtle.”
This was Simon’s specialty. I was decent with numbers, but my strength was in business management and working directly with the companies we invested in. Simon, however, excelled at dissecting financials, and his keen eye had saved us from bad investments more than once.
So, I leaned in, scrutinizing the figures and finally saw the subtle decline in capital. He was right. Something was off.
I glanced back at him. “The money we invested is going out fast,” I said.
“Way too fast,” Simon agreed, reclaiming the laptop. “Based on the projected budget and allocation of funds to each department we’d forecasted, it doesn’t add up.”
I dragged a hand through my hair. “At this rate, our investment will be gone well before the launch even happens. But is this legitimate? Could it just be expenses in areas we hadn’t anticipated?”
“The red flag for me is definitely the operating expenses, which seem inflated based on the breakdown of monthly costs we were given,” Simon said, a frown pulling down his brows.
“Something isn’t right. I want to hire a forensic accountant to look over all the financial records so we have a clearer picture of what’s draining the capital so quickly. ”
“Agreed,” I said without hesitation, because our firm would be the one taking the biggest hit on any financial mismanagement at GalvaTech.
Simon hesitated. He wasn’t one to hold back speaking his mind, so this uncharacteristic pause made me a little uneasy.
“I think we need to keep this between the two of us for now,” he said carefully. “No one at GalvaTech should know we’re looking into this. Including Morgan.”
His gaze was direct and knowing. I’d told Simon about my one night with Morgan, but the fact that he’d singled her out now told me he was somehow aware of my current non-business relationship with her, which I hadn’t mentioned to him.
“You know about me and Morgan?” I asked cautiously.
He leaned back in his chair. “Remember when you forgot your phone in the conference room when you were in the office last week, when you went to grab us dinner from the deli down the street? She texted you four times while you were gone.”
I glared at him. “You looked at my phone?”
“I wasn’t snooping,” he said, sounding offended I’d even think such a thing.
“It kept going off and distracting me while I was trying to review the proposal from that health food company we’ve been considering.
I just glanced over and saw her name on the screen multiple times, and I may or may not have seen part of her texts to you. ”
I expected judgement from Simon, but his expression remained neutral. But if I recalled correctly, those messages she’d sent while I’d been out grabbing dinner had been…sexy enough to be incriminating.
“Okay, fine,” I admitted. “I’m seeing her. But it’s not affecting the job.”
“Then you won’t have a problem keeping this from her.” He held my gaze. “None of the Starlings need to know about our concerns until we have some definitive answers.”
Every muscle in my body tensed. “Morgan has nothing to do with this.”
I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I knew with absolute certainty that she’d never compromise the integrity of her family’s company.
“That might be the case,” Simon conceded, his voice firm but not accusatory. “But it doesn’t change anything. We need to wait until the forensic consultant’s results come in before we tell anyone.”
I clenched my jaw, hating the idea of keeping secrets from her.
But I understood Simon’s logic, which was frustratingly valid.
If someone was embezzling, which seemed to be a strong possibility, it could be someone Morgan knew.
Someone she trusted or cared about. Telling her now would be more of a burden on her, because it would be a secret she’d have to keep from everyone, including her family.
It was better that she didn’t know. At least for now.
“Fine,” I said, though my reluctance was clear. “I’ll keep this quiet, but this becomes our top priority. I want answers on where the money is going as soon as possible.”
Until then, I’d have to keep Morgan in the dark. For her own good. Even if it went against every grain in my body to keep something this important from her.