Chapter 14
TAMSIN
“How’re you holding up?”
I flashed Gavin an appreciative smile as he handed me a bottle of water. “I’m hanging in there.”
It’d been a long day, but I felt like we were finally making progress by the time the office emptied down to me, Gavin, a handful of Black Crowns, and the employees who could help explain the records.
The audit had moved beyond counting material.
We were tracing how my now proven accurate field reports were altered into final entries.
I’d confirmed that the changes became more frequent after I proposed requiring two approvals for every adjustment.
But the shared system prevented me from identifying a single employee solely from the electronic records.
Supervisors often used the same terminals, and older reports contained fewer details than the newer ones.
“You ready for Len?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Gavin sent a text to one of his guys, and the operations manager joined us a couple of minutes later.
Len sat down and treated the meeting like I had asked for a training session on something I was already quite familiar with.
“Final counts change.” He shrugged. “Gear comes back damaged. A crew finds a dud in the trailer. Somebody logs a transfer late. It happens.”
“Only in one direction?” I reminded him.
“Several of these jobs were your first solos. You were still learning the system. Easy to drop a number when you’re that young and the show’s already in the books.”
His explanation sounded reasonable, but it was really starting to piss me off that he kept drawing attention to my age.
“There’s a major problem with your theory. A real adjustment has paperwork. Damage form. Transfer. Crew statement. Something.” I tapped the stack. “These don’t.”
Len’s mouth tightened, just barely. But if I caught it, I knew Gavin had too.
Then he waved a hand at the stack like I was making a fuss over nothing. “We’re talking about a few dozen igniters. Not the end of the company.”
It took every ounce of my self-control not to visibly react. Nobody had given him that number. The revised total had come out of my private field sheets and the comparison I just finished.
Gavin met my gaze, and when he smiled, I knew he’d recognized the change in me.
“Maybe you can help me with something,” Gavin murmured, leaning back in his chair and looking a little lost on purpose. “If somebody isn’t sitting in operations, how do they even see the final totals? I’m having a hard time picturing the process from start to finish.”
Len liked being the expert, so he relaxed and talked. More than he needed to. He named clerks and supervisors who could have made changes. Described his role as general oversight. It was obvious he was trying to guide suspicion toward employees with less authority.
I watched Gavin use the same grin that had once made me think he wasn’t taking any of this seriously. He looked relaxed, but every question closed a door Len didn’t notice.
Len never even saw the contradictions stacking up, but Gavin did. Unfortunately, so did I.
“Thanks, man. That helps a lot.”
Len stood with a smile. “You’re welcome.”
After he left, I was halfway to the door before Gavin caught my hand.
“Where are you going?”
I looked at him over my shoulder. “To ask him how he knew the final count was a few dozen igniters.”
“He’ll lie,” he pointed out, squeezing my hand.
Tears welled in my eyes, but I held them at bay. “At least I’ll know then.”
“You already know, pretty girl.”
I looked at the closed door. “But I need to hear him deny it. He taught me, Gavin. He’s always been around growing up, like an uncle.”
“What do you think that conversation gets you?” he asked, tugging me close. “He isn’t going to tell you the truth because you asked nicely. You warn him, and whatever paper is left disappears. Maybe he goes after your family next.”
My shoulders slumped, but I stopped trying to pull away from him because he was right. Confronting Len would make me feel better, but it wouldn’t last long. And the confrontation would only help the person we were investigating.
Waiting felt awful. It was still the smarter choice.
I looked at the closed office door. “You’re going to watch him.”
It wasn’t a question, but he confirmed anyway. “The club is.”
“You’ll tell me if my family is in danger.”
His hand tightened around mine again. “We’ll never let that happen.”
As long as I knew the people I loved were covered, I didn’t need the details. That was up to Gavin and the Black Crowns, and they’d more than earned my trust. “Okay.”
He pulled me against his chest and we stood wrapped around each other for a few minutes while I grappled with my anger, sadness, and frustration. Finally I took a deep breath and leaned back to smile up at him. “Thanks.”
“Whatever you need, pretty girl.”
He cupped my cheek with his free hand, and I noticed his usual smile was gone.
“No joke?” I asked.
“Don’t like seeing you hurt.”
“It sucks, but this whole thing would be a whole lot worse without you.” I went on my toes to brush my lips against his. “And not just because you’re keeping my family and me safe.”
“Like I said…I’m here for anything you need, Tamsin.”
“I know,” I whispered before wrapping my arms around his waist.
His humor had never prevented him from understanding when I was hurting. And he hadn’t tried to charm me out of the feeling of betrayal. He just stayed close enough that I didn’t have to hold it by myself. And that made me fall even harder for him.
“You good?” he finally asked.
I stepped back with a sigh. “Yeah.”
Before we left, he sent a message to his president to let him know we finally had a direction. The hunt had narrowed, and Len was now the target without having any clue.