Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
ADRIANNA
It’s the week of the gala, and I am full of anxiety.
We haven’t talked about the bet in a long time now. I don’t even know if it’s still on the table.
It doesn’t matter, though. I already decided that I don’t want it to fail, so I’ve been putting in résumés elsewhere. I haven’t gotten a response yet, though.
Having the current CEO write a recommendation letter would help, but I wouldn’t feel right taking one from Elijah. Not when I know what his dick tastes like.
Feels a lot like using my body to get the upper hand even if that’s not truly the case. The optics are terrible. No wonder Elijah was so worried about a scandal when we met.
The whirlwind of media surrounding this case with Mr. Lind has the whole company in a tizzy. The employees have been whispering to each other for two weeks now.
The vibe is off.
It could be in my head, but I swear they are looking at me differently. Like I’m less than because of who I’m sleeping with. It’s always harder on the woman.
This won’t even touch Elijah. He will go on being the CFO of The Williamson Hotel or whatever he plans to do, while I will be stuck flipping burgers.
Will he leave me when I’m no longer able to keep a high-profile job?
Shaking my head, I walk into the conference room. It’s the last debrief before the gala.
“Mr. Samson is busy, so I’ll be overlooking the final planning stages. Someone catch me up.”
“The media campaign has been doing well even with the current coverage of the lawsuit. We have received a lot of electronic donations from people around the country. I’ll turn it over to Frank to discuss the finances,” Stacy says.
Frank clears his throat. “Thank you, Stacy. We are trending higher than we did last year. At the current rate, I would anticipate a five percent increase in money brought in. Add that to the eight percent decrease in cost, and we are looking at a thirteen percent increase in profit which will go straight to the Domestic Violence Agency of Boston.”
My heart is full as I hear this. I knew I made the right choice when I started looking for other jobs.
Elijah did well with the gala. Other than the flowers, he was able to pull off a flawless design without my input. I should be disappointed, but I’m not. I’m proud.
It’s crazy to think that just a few months ago, I hated this man with all my heart, and now I willingly handed it over to him.
I love him.
“You okay?” Francine asks from next to me.
“Oh yeah. Sorry, there’s a lot going on. What were you saying?” I tune back into the conversation.
“The photos have all been printed and look amazing. The hotel will be hanging them around the room for us. They want to know if we can be there Friday evening to approve,” Leigh says.
“What photos?” I ask.
She hands me a packet of photos.
I flip through them slowly. My eyes start to water.
I would have never been bold enough to do this, but Elijah is.
“These will be hung in the room?” I clarify.
“Yes. He felt it was important.”
The photos he has chosen are of domestic violence survivors. Half of the face is from their abuse while the other half is with them looking healthy and happy. Each has a different statement on the bottom. The one I’m looking at says “Your donation could keep her from dying.”
My hand is over my mouth as I cry. It all reminds me of my mother. Of the pain and suffering she endured until she was able to get out and break free.
“I’m sorry. This is amazing. More than I ever could have imagined.” I sniffle as Francine hands me a tissue.
“So we can go Friday to check it out?” Leigh asks.
“I’ll go and make sure it’s perfect. The flowers should be delivered the next morning, so it’ll be good to make sure everything is in place.”
“I’ll let them know.”
“Let’s adjourn for now. Everyone check in with their vendors and update me daily. This needs to go smoothly.”
Everyone agrees and heads out of the room, except Francine.
“Are you okay? I know how close this is to you.” She pats my shoulder.
“I can’t believe he went through all of this. It’s going to make a big impact,” I tell her.
She nods. “He did good. I told you he wasn’t all bad.”
She did from the very beginning. The more I learn about him, the more I believe her.
She leaves me alone in the conference room with my thoughts.
After collecting myself, I wipe my eyes and head back to my desk.
Setting my stuff down, I pivot to his office.
He’s poring over documents but still smiles when he looks up to see me.
Going around his desk, I sit in his lap. Then I kiss him.
“What did I do right now?” he jokes.
“I just really l…” I clear my throat. “Like you is all.”
Love.
I almost said love.
“Well, I really like you too.” He nuzzles my nose with his.
I laugh lightly, pressing a kiss to his lips before I climb out of his lap. “Back to work, sir.”
“I’ll spank that ass later.”
“We will see about that. Maybe I’ll spank yours.” I wink at him.
“Or maybe I’ll find another way to keep that smart-ass mouth of yours busy all night. I do love watching you swallow large things.”
My thighs clench at the thought. I really need to stop having fantasies about him when we can’t do anything about it.
“I’ll look forward to that then, Mr. Samson.”
“You do that, Ms. Baker.”
As I leave his office, my heart is full.
There’s not a doubt in my mind.
I love him.
ELIJAH
Adrianna is lying with her head on a portion of my thigh as she watches some mindless television show she enjoys. I’ve tuned it out by putting my noise-canceling headphones on. In the background, a variety of music plays, keeping my mind focused on my task at hand.
How was he doing it?
All the supplies that I suspect he skimmed from, I can’t prove. He went back and filled out a missing receipt form for each one of them.
That was pennies, though. The money being deposited into Gloria’s account was in the tens of thousands. There’s missing money somewhere.
Where, though?
A tap on my nose has me looking away from the papers. Adrianna pulls my headphones off.
“I want ice cream. Do you want some?” she asks.
I sigh. “I have too much work to do.”
She smiles. “I’ll feed it to you then.”
She jumps off the couch, heading into the kitchen. I don’t bother putting my headphones back on.
This is driving me insane. Bill is a smart man, but I never thought he would be able to hide money so efficiently.
When Adrianna comes back, she has one of my mixing bowls filled with two different types of ice cream and all the toppings in my kitchen.
“You trying to get a sugar high?” I ask.
“Nope. You need one, though.”
She dips her spoon in the ice cream, bringing it to my lips. I suck it off, licking my lips suggestively just so I can see that look in her eye.
The one that tells me she wants this too.
Yesterday in the office, I’m sure she was about to tell me she loves me. I love her too. I’m ready to say it, but she is so skittish. Half the time I think she’s waiting for me to revert back into an asshole so she has a reason to end this.
All I can do is love her through it all until she’s certain about me.
I can’t wait for that day.
“Talk through it with me,” Adrianna says, taking her own bite.
“He was stealing little bits of money via the supplies. I know this but can’t prove it. I want to know where the large checks Gloria was getting came from. I mean, one of the checks was for like twenty-four thousand dollars.”
Adrianna freezes. “How much exactly was it for?”
I frown, flipping. “Twenty-four thousand one hundred and ninety-two dollars.”
Adrianna drops her spoon into the bowl, setting it on the coffee table. “Give me your laptop.”
Pulling over the laptop from the end table, I hand it to her. She gets into the accounting program we use, typing in her credentials. She keeps working through something until she cusses.
“What?”
“I’ve been blocked from this portion of the system. I’ve always had access. Did you take it away? Back when you didn’t trust me, I mean,” she clarifies.
“No. I didn’t know I would need to. Give it here.” I take the computer from her.
I sign her out, logging myself in. I hand it back. She shakes her head.
“You have no access either.”
“Hold on.”
Pulling my phone out, I call our head of IT on speaker.
“Jack, I need you to look at my profile. Why do I have restricted access?”
“Hold on, sir.”
We can hear him typing a million words a minute, it seems. Then he clears his throat.
“Mr. Lind restricted everyone’s access to this document. I can reverse that if you want.”
“Yes, I want you to go through and give me access to every single thing we have. In fact, give Ms. Baker access as well. Do it quickly.”
“I’m on it.”
The phone clicks as Adrianna refreshes the page. Then she turns it to me.
On the screen is a check dated for the same time as the deposit into Gloria’s account. The amount matches exactly.
“How did you figure it was this?”
“I remember when we got the check. Look, they spelled the foundation’s name wrong. I remember thinking it was weird, but Mr. Lind said he would handle it. It looks like he endorsed it from the foundation to Gloria and had it deposited into her personal account,” she tells me.
“What was this money supposed to be for?” I ask.
“It was a donation from the Boston School System. They did a fundraiser to help children who had no winter clothes. Along with the items they collected and donated to area shelters, they divided the money up and gave it to different area charities, including us. That’s why the figure isn’t a nice, even number. ”
Of fucking course. I never thought to check money coming into the foundation. There was nothing suspicious in those records.
“Keep searching and find me more. I’m going to make coffee.”
“Why? You don’t even like coffee.” She scrunches her nose at me.
“No, but you do, and it’s going to be a long night. One that doesn’t end in sexy time for us, so you need coffee. Although if we crack this quick enough, I’ll eat that pretty pussy until you black out again.” I lean in and kiss her softly.
She rolls her eyes. “I better get working then. My boss is a real tight ass.”
She swats my ass as I walk by.
As I’m making coffee, Adrianna calls out to me.
“Forget the coffee. I found what you’ve been searching for.”
Grabbing the mug I had already made for her, I head into the living room. I set the coffee next to her, then join her on the couch.
“He thought he was so smart. Really, it was brilliant. I would have never noticed it if that donation didn’t stand out to me.
He’s been depositing checks for over a decade from the foundation.
He does one to his account and then one to hers.
He alternated and hid it by misspelling it so when someone searched for it, it wouldn’t show up. Look.”
She shoves the laptop into my lap.
“Jesus, that was quick. How did you figure it out that quickly?”
“I went back and filtered based on documents he was the last to touch. They popped right out when I noticed the spelling was off. Each one is right there, scanned in. He couldn’t make it disappear because the IRS would ask questions, so he hid it in plain sight and filed it under the foundation so it would be tax-free. ”
“My god. It’s millions.” I look over the figures.
“All of those people who needed that money,” Adrianna says, looking sad.
“Don’t worry. We will make sure justice is served. Start saving all of those. We need to make a file for the lawyer. I’m going to call Mason.”
She takes a sip of her coffee. “On it.”
Stepping out of the room, I dial Mason.
“It’s like midnight,” he answers in lieu of a greeting.
“We got him.”
“What? Repeat that.” He sounds much more awake now.
“We’ve got him. We are going to nail him to the wall.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, brother. I’m proud of you. I knew you would do it.”
“It wasn’t me. It was Adrianna.”
“Fuck, marry that chick.”
“I plan to.”