Chapter Twenty-Six
ROME
Icould admit, the entourage following Bec around was amusing.
The five men that I had handpicked to be her newest bodyguards were all former soldiers I had worked with in the past. They were competent in what they did, and most importantly, they had no ties to Bly Enterprises.
Their current employment wasn’t even through the company, but directly with Bec herself.
Keeping the new bodyguards separate from the company meant that the people within the company who were working against Bec, would have a harder time getting to the men to try to flip their loyalty.
They had no ties to anyone at this company, besides me, and were being paid more than enough to keep them loyal to her.
It was a foolproof plan to keep Bec protected.
That and I had stashed a new bear spray in her purse.
She had mentioned she typically carried it around, but lost it at some point.
I had also sewn a knife in the liner of her purse. It was a trick I had learned in the Army years ago. I had done the same with many of my clothes, though it made washing them a bitch.
Andi knocked on my open door, one of the towering men following her. “Is this really necessary?” She asked while white-knuckling today’s mail.
Andi wasn’t a fan of the new bodyguards.
They were impeding her work, adding an extra level of difficulty to get through her tasks, so I could understand the frustration.
Prior to their involvement, she’d held a level of control over Bec’s schedule that was no longer possible.
Every meeting, appointment, and phone call was now monitored and approved by one of the men.
This level of security should have been given to Bec far earlier.
With her position, her wealth, and her fame, Bec needed additional protection.
For as long as I had known her, she was against any bodyguard.
Hell, it took months for her to warm up to me.
Hiring these men would have been one of the first tasks I completed when I’d started, if she had let me.
I had given up on trying to convince her after only a few weeks.
It seems it took a kidnapping attempt to finally convince her.
I shrugged as Andi scowled, her arms crossed in front of her.
“I know they’re making things more difficult, but they’re imperative to not only Bec’s safety but the company’s as a whole. Including yourself,” I tried to placate.
“They went through my purse,” she complained and leaned forward. “They saw my tampons. It’s embarrassing.”
“Ma’am,” the bodyguard following her interjected, “I have a teenage daughter. I’ve dealt with my fair share of tampons.”
Andi scrunched her nose and dropped the mail on my desk before turning and leaving the office. She knocked into the guard on her way out, but her small stature made the action more amusing than anything else.
I chuckled, “Thanks, Fynn.”
He shrugged, clearly unperturbed. “I’m escorting mail. This is the easiest job I’ve ever had.”
He followed Andi out, closing the door behind him.
While most of the floor had gotten used to the new bodyguards, many even befriending them, Andi was having the hardest adjustment by far.
Well… besides Bec. She was putting on a brave face for me, but it was obvious she hated it.
She wasn’t a people person, and I knew being around them all day was draining for her.
It had been a couple of weeks, and she was doing better each day.
It helped that once the day was over and we were at home, they were nowhere to be seen.
They were taking shifts staking out the house, and there were at least two within a quarter mile of her at all times, but… out of sight, out of mind.
I started rifling through the envelopes, looking for another letter that I could give my sisters when my door flew open, bouncing off the side wall from the force.
Livia was on the other side, breathing heavily. Her pink hair was a mess of a bun on the top of her head and her eyes wide. “Oh my God, I figured it out.”
“Hello to you too,” I remarked and motioned towards one of the spare seats on the other side of my desk. “Why don’t you take a seat? And maybe a breath?”
Livia closed the door behind her and then the blinds on the glass door… and then the window blinds. “Does this lock?” She asked while pointing at my office door.
I laughed lightly and nodded before fishing the key out of my pocket and handing it to her. She locked the door quickly and finally dropped into one of the seats in front of me.
“So…” I trailed off, “anything new you would like to share, or are you just dropping in for a casual visit?”
Livia rolled her eyes, cleared my desk, and finally dropped a stack of papers on top. It was financial records, William Bly Sr.’s records, to be exact. “Holy shit, how did you get these?”
“Your contact called the house. She sent them over,” Livia explained. “She couldn’t find anything fishy, but wanted to send them your way in case you could find anything.”
“So you decided to give it a stab?” I asked, a hint of amusement in my voice.
Livia waved me off, “I’m in between jobs and bored as hell. This is the most interesting thing to happen to me all week. Go to page three.”
I complied and flipped through the pages. I scanned it quickly, “He sold his stocks in Bly Enterprises?”
Livia nodded, “Which wouldn’t be too weird. I mean, the share price on them is astronomical. You could be set for life with the amount he sold. But it didn’t make sense to me… why would he sell every single one? I mean, he should be a billionaire, right?”
I nodded.
“Wrong!” She exclaimed. “He was a billionaire—past tense. Years ago, he set up trust funds for his kids. Those are protected. The money his ex-wife got in the divorce was also protected.”
“Protected from what?” I asked.
“He tried to start another company,” Livia explained and pulled out a paper from the stack, putting it on top.
“He invested a ton of money into this shell corporation about ten-ish years ago. Around that same time, he even registered a business license. It was some crypto thing. It was doing well, and he kept investing more and more money into it.”
“Okay…” I murmured. “Where are you going with this?”
“The company was doing well. It had an upward trajectory, and then William Sr. retired from Bly Enterprises. He handed the company to Bec,” Livia continued.
“And then he went to this other company and invested basically everything he had. With how the business was doing, it should have worked in his favor. It was risky, but he expected it was a risk worth taking. And then boom!”
Livia made an explosion noise and threw the papers in the air as she stood.
“You’re cleaning that up,” I scolded.
She waved me off, “Rome, he lost almost everything in a matter of weeks. I don’t know what went wrong, but something did.
Bec’s dad has nothing left. The trust funds and money for his wife are both safe, but his accounts are drained.
The few personal properties he has are being foreclosed on…
he is leveraged up to his eyeballs. He isn’t just out of money, he’s now in serious debt and owes money to the IRS for back taxes…
or something. I’m not an accountant; you should have someone legit double-check my work. ”
“That sucks that he lost so much, but I don’t know why this is important?”
She sat back down, “Okay, this is pure speculation, but hear me out.” I motioned for her to continue.
“He sold his stock in the last couple of weeks. Why would he wait until now? His other company is never recovering unless he gets some serious cash flow soon, and his debts started years ago. So, why now?” She paused for a moment, taking a breath.
“I think he’s going to try and tank the stock, buy in again when it’s cheaper, and then build it back up. ”
I eyed her, “That feels a bit aggressive.”
Livia shrugged, “Maybe, but it explains why he put Bec in as CEO and then turned on her. I took one business class and hated it, so we should probably get Bec to chime in here, but from the little bit of research I did on this subject… any issues with a CEO can cause stock to become volatile. Between internal issues and the media campaign, I think stock prices would go down. Not astronomically, but enough to make a dent.”
I sighed and scrubbed a hand down my jaw. I stood, unlocked my office door, and opened it. “Come on. You’re telling this all to Bec, and she can explain if it makes sense or not.”
Damn, it did make sense.
Livia had explained her findings and theories to Bec. She’d also locked Bec's office door and closed the blinds on every single window. She was oddly convinced she was going to be sniped or something for her findings, as if we weren’t the tallest building around.
Bec tapped her fingers on the desk. “The stock reached its highest in the last quarter, but in the last three weeks it has gone down substantially.”
“Is that bad?” I asked.
Bec shook her head, “Not necessarily. It’s the way the markets work.
If there were a massive and unexpected change in leadership, or something to that effect, I could see the stock dipping even lower.
It would take something drastic to cause it to plummet.
It’s not unheard of, but unlikely. However, it does seem like my dad could be trying to manipulate stock prices to make some money. ”
“Do you really think he would go through all this trouble for a few million dollars?” I mused.
“Oh, with how much money he made selling the stocks, if he reinvested the funds and the price went back up, he would make more than a few million dollars,” Livia interjected as she peeked out the blinds.
Bec nodded in agreement, “He would be able to make enough to get him out of his debt and continue his lifestyle for a while.”
“So all of this—the letters, the kidnapping attempt, the rumors, maybe even the stories in the media—are in an attempt to make your position unstable, and thus manipulate stock prices?” I asked.
Bec shrugged, “It’s plausible.”
A knock sounded on Bec’s office door. Livia went sprinting, peeking through the blinds quickly, turned to us and whispered, “It’s Andi.”
Bec laughed, “Let her in.”
Livia saluted Bec and opened the door.
Andi glanced at Livia with curiosity, which honestly… valid response. Her pink hair was a vibrant mess, and she was dressed in overalls with patches sewn on, along with matching Converse. Livia definitely made an impression.
“What’s up, Andi?” I asked.
Andi brushed her hair behind her ear and blushed as I spoke, “I got a call from Bec’s penthouse. The security there said they received a note, like the ones we’ve been receiving here.”
I turned to Bec in surprise, “Have you received one there before?”
Bec shook her head, “Maybe it was sent there when I was still out of the office. They knew I wasn’t here and sent it to the only other place they assumed I would be.”
“Isn’t that where you’ve been?” Andi asked in confusion.
Livia shook her head, “Bec here has been shacking up with Rome at our house. The two are living in sin.”
I rolled my eyes at my sister's dramatics, “Don’t listen to her, she was dropped on her head as a child.”
Livia flipped me off. Bec just laughed.
Andi looked between Bec and me, “Are you two… actually together now?”
Bec sighed and smiled emphatically at Andi, “Yes. I should have told you. It was still really new, and then the incident occurred, and I forgot. I’m so sorry.”
Andi looked between the two of us, and I could have sworn I saw a look of betrayal. “How long? How serious?”
“Not long. A couple of months now,” I explained and looked back at Bec. I couldn’t help but smile just seeing her face, “But it’s serious for me.”
Bec blushed and smiled back, “Same here, Cipriani.” She turned her attention back to Andi, “I really am sorry for not telling you sooner.”
Andi waved her off, but her eyes glistened as if she were holding back tears. “It’s fine. I just thought it was all for the media. Anyway, should I have the letter sent here?”
Bec turned to me, “Can I grab it? I have some clothes and toiletries I need from my place anyway.”
I stood and rounded the desk. “Make me a list and I’ll grab it all.” I leaned down and dropped a kiss on Bec’s cheek.
“Aww,” Livia mused and draped her arm over Andi’s shoulder, “Aren’t they just the cutest?”