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“Dude, I wish I was. I’ve spent the past hour trying to cool this off but it’s gaining traction.”
“Gaining traction where? With who?”
If the news has already spread, we’re in big trouble. Our reputation is key. If this goes public, it would be an absolute nightmare. I’ve seen companies go bankrupt within weeks for insider trading.
I run a hand through my hair. “No one on our team would do this. They’d take bullets for this company. None of them would be stupid enough to jeopardize what we’ve built.”
Noah shrugs. “Yesterday I would have agreed with you.”
“Are there any clues? What kind of details did the SEC give you?”
“They’re going to send through the full report this afternoon. We have until three weeks from Friday to respond to it and our lawyers have assured me they can buy us plenty of time. All the SEC has said is that the numbers that set off their alarm bells have to do with the Dyson Fund.”
“The Dyson Fund? The ink’s barely dry on that one.”
“Yeah. And someone who knew we were buying it has potentially leaked that info. It preemptively set off a flurry of activity. Which is serious but not necessarily conclusive. Either way, they’re considering an investigation.”
“If word gets out, we’re fucked.”
“Yep,” Noah agrees bleakly.
We’re not the only company who’s had the idea of game-ifying stocks and index funds, of course. We’ve just created the most user-friendly platform so far. But our competitors aren’t far behind us. If we’re in the headlines for fraud, users might jump ship. “We need to find out who’s responsible for this.”
“People do strange things when money’s involved. I doubt it’s personal. Someone might have seen an opportunity to make some cash, possibly very innocently. Maybe someone junior who doesn’t know the implications.”
“Everyone is junior in this team,” I say gruffly. “We’ve made it a policy to employ young achievers.”
Noah rubs his hand across his jaw. “I just spoke to Colton. Neither of us has any leads. Even if we did, it’s not the kind of thing we can accuse someone of without concrete evidence.”
My brain is lurching into disaster-planning mode. We’ll have to do some digging to get ahead of this, but how can we do that when we don’t know who we can actually trust?
I push the intercom that connects me to my assistant. “Hayley, get Colton in here, please, would you?”
Less than a minute later, Colton walks in, filling the room with his stormy energy. He’s the youngest of the four of us and has always been the most rebellious. Now that he’s 26, he’s mellowed somewhat, but he still has an insolent vibe. All four of us are around 6’3” and built. Colton has always been the fastest. He moves like an athlete.
And he’s as blasé as always. “Everyone needs to calm down. Nothing’s been proven yet. We can start by talking to IT. They’ll be able to scan for unusual activity. Emails, screenshots, that kind of thing. Everything that’s done here is on record.”
“If we go to any single person, we’re effectively tipping them off,” Noah points out.
He’s right. “We need someone we can trust absolutely,” I mutter. “Unfortunately, the only two people I trust implicitly are you two assholes and you could hardly be mistaken for detectives.”
“Speak for yourself,” Colton protests. “We don’t have to tell anyone exactly what we’re looking for. The three of us should be able to figure it out.”
I frown. “Yes, we should. But poring over every page of activity and transactions that have happened in this company over the last quarter would take weeks. Maybe even months.”
Noah’s the voice of reason, as usual. “The SEC said it was the activity surrounding our purchase of the Dyson Fund that raised a red flag. So we start there.”
My brain is whirring. “Yes. We mine the report, listing all the people who contributed or had access to it.”
“Almost everyone has had access to it, to some degree,” Noah says grimly.
Damn it. Noah and Colton have as much blood, sweat and tears invested in this company as I do. Still, if we go under, it wouldn’t be as much of a catastrophe for them. They could walk away with their pride still intact. For me, this is personal. Invested Enterprises was my idea. I’m the one who distanced myself from our father’s legacy to try to prove that I could do just as well—or better. Noah and Colton still do one day a week for Maddox Equities, where our oldest brother Alexander is CEO. I’m still on the Board, but other than that I’ve almost completely removed myself from the family business to concentrate on my own.
I’ve worked 24/7 for the past three years on this business, with no personal life and not a single vacation. I refuse to watch our company crumble to the ground because some jumped-up coding nerd thought he could get away with blue murder on my watch.
“Find out what you can today,” I tell my brothers. “Do some more digging. I’ll make some phone calls. We need to make sure this goes no further, publicity-wise.”
My brothers nod just as a knock at the door interrupts us. I glare at it, willing whoever is on the other side to fuck off. Hayley would know not to interrupt me right now.
