7. Reed #2
“What kind of problem, Paula?”
“One of the high rollers is demanding to cash out chips that aren’t registering in the system. When the clerk informed him that the chips were fraudulent, he started making a scene.”
“Fraudulent chips?” I questioned.
Faith’s eyes shot over to me. She looked like she had just hit the jackpot, and I was starting to think so too. What the hell was going on around here?
“Sounds like someone’s trying to launder money.”
I could see the shit storm brewing on the horizon. The last thing I needed was a nosy ass journalist sniffing around when I didn’t know what I was about to walk into. I wanted to send her home for the day, but I already knew that was out of the question.
“Take her with you,” I instructed.
Paula’s head snapped back like I had slapped her instead of making a simple request.
“Excuse me?”
“Take her with you. Talk to the clerks and let them know to cease operations until Sawyer and I sort this out. Feel free to interview the clerks while you’re down there, Faith.”
Faith narrowed her eyes. “You really letting me do this?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Mr. Fuller,” Paula advised.
“If there’s something crazy going on, I would rather for someone that I trust to discover it than some vulture looking for their next take down.”
“She literally can’t stand you,” Paula reminded me. Her comment put an immediate scowl on Faith’s face.
“Unlike some people, I don’t let my personal feelings get in the way of the integrity of my work,” Faith spoke.
I didn’t know why I was proud to hear her say that, but her words stirred something in my chest. My baby was still in there.
“I trust my little journalist friend,” I said, winking at Faith once her eyes were on me again.
“Well, follow me, I guess,” Paula said, finally conceding.
The crazy part was I wanted Faith to dig as much as she pleased. I didn’t feel like anything dirty was going on, but if there was, I needed to know. I couldn’t think of anyone I trusted more to find the answers.
I watched the two women in my life leave my office as I picked up my phone and called Sawyer.
Mostly, I hated the idea of Faith leaving my sight, but her ass looked so good in those black pants that I lost my train of thought long enough for her to escape.
Damn, Faith was really back. Now I had an even bigger problem.
Faith’s “little investigation” as Paula kept calling it, just might turn out to be necessary after all.
Fuck!
After four days of not being able to get close to Faith, I was trying not to lose my damn mind.
It took two days to get the fake chips off the floor, but Sawyer and his team were still working on finding out where they came from.
Faith had been having a field day interviewing the financial department.
Although I didn’t get close enough to touch her, I had been watching her every move, thanks to Cashville’s cameras.
I was literally geeking to be in her presence at this point. Having just a taste of Faith was worse than being starved of her for years. I didn’t like being away from her when I had just gotten her back. Well, technically, I didn’t have her back, but I was working on it.
I hadn’t expected Faith to come running into my arms wide open.
I knew I had my work cut out for me, but Faith was more than worth it.
Now, it was Friday night, and I was wondering what she was doing.
That dude that came up in my place trying to flex on me and take my baby to lunch had to go.
I couldn’t worry about who was sniffing up behind Faith when she wasn’t around me.
Faith wasn’t on social media. Trust me, I had searched for her accounts high and low over the years.
My IT guy, Psalm, hooked me up in a major way when he loaded the tracker and camera on her tablet.
It only took an hour, which was why I had to keep her close to me for so long the first day she came to the casino, not that I had a problem with that.
I never wanted her to leave. Now I missed her face and her smart-ass mouth.
I wanted to see her, but so far, my little workaholic hadn’t so much as logged on to her device.
Maybe she knew something was off about it.
Even her sisters had me blocked on all social media platforms. Thankfully, it was easy to make a fake profile, which I had been using to follow her sister Hope over the years, with hopes of catching a random glimpse of my baby love from time to time.
Those tidbits of her had sustained me for years, but now it wasn’t enough.
Hope Washington:
Dragging my sisters out of the house to see what The Crown Club is hitting for.
According to Hope’s most recent post, they were hitting up one of the new clubs in the city.
She even recorded a live video of herself getting ready for the club.
I couldn’t see how people wanted to broadcast their every waking moment to the world.
I couldn’t do it. No matter how much of her own life Hope displayed to the world, there was no sign of her sister.
If I wanted to see her, I knew exactly where I had to go.