“Then you started the business right after you finished your degree.”
“A couple of months later. We worked at the investment company together, the place where I’d interned that...”That summer, I didn’t say. “Around the holidays, we’d gone on a distillery tour with a group of coworkers, and I mentioned my idea to tap into the boutique whiskey business. A few months later, he approached me with a business plan. The plan was sound, and he already had some financial backers in place.”
“And six years later, you’ve built a thriving business.”
“Are you guessing?”
He frowned. “Mai keeps me up to date on you. On people. Things from home. She admires you.”
“Oh.” I was proud of what I’d accomplished, but it paled in comparison to Mai’s heroics. I couldn’t imagine why she would admireme. “The company is doing well. Or itwas. We have a staff of twelve in our home office, a handful in our satellite office near DC, and contracts with warehouses and delivery companies across the country.”
“So what’s going on, Sav?”
Him using my nickname made a lump rise in my throat. I swallowed hard to clear it. “I wish I knew.” God, how stupid did I sound right now? And the more I told him, the more oblivious I would sound. But Ben was literally driving my getaway car, so he deserved to know as much as I did. “Two weeks ago, Devlin stopped coming to the office. He didn’t answer calls, texts, emails. After two days, I called the police and asked for a wellness check. He wasn’t in his house.”
“Bastard went to ground without even giving you a heads-up?”
“I didn’t realize it then, but yes. By day three, I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I called one of our IT specialists into the office at five in the morning to help me access Devlin’s files. While she worked on that, I dug deep into the financials.” I shivered as I remembered the moment all the pieces had snapped into place. “For more than a year, big cash deposits have gone into our accounts, and even bigger disbursements have gone out.”
“Not what you should be seeing in the accounts?”
I shook my head. “I’m not an accountant, and business financing can get tricky, and Devlin’s been known to be...creative. But things looked off. And things only got worse when I tried to contact the accounting firm.”
“Why? What did they tell you?”
“Absolutely nothing. I’ve been calling day and night, leaving messages. No one has gotten back to me. They’re anEast Coast company, so it’s not like I could walk into their offices and demand a meeting.”
He furrowed his brow. “But your main office is in California, right? Why hire an East Coast firm?”
“We didn’t, at first. The original firm was a small shop, but they were good, honest. And their offices were just a few blocks away from ours.”
“When and why did you change accountants?”
I scowled. It was all so obvious now that I’d been a patsy. “While I was in Maryland, taking care of my mom—a couple of months before she died—Devlin told me our accountant’s dad had died, and his mother needed his help. He had to cut back on clients. A week ago, I confirmed that was all a lie.”
“Oh, my God. Devlin turned your real-life pain into a made-up story about the accountant? Why?”
I shrugged. “Because he knew I’d feel the guy’s pain, respect his privacy, and not ask questions. That left Devlin free to hire the new firm.”
“How long after that did the strange deposits and payments start?”
“As far as I can tell, a couple of months.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “But things are so convoluted, I’ll need a forensic accountant to help figure it out.”
“We’ll find one,” he promised. “Does your staff know what’s happening?”
“No, I covered for Devlin.” At least I’d done that much right. “I told them he extended his vacation, and last night I called Josie Tyler, my VP, and told I her I’d be taking over some meetings he had scheduled on the East Coast. Josie’s great. She’ll keep the day-to-day operations running.”
“Good,” Ben said. “You made a good plan and you have good people in place. We’ll figure out the rest.”
“I wish I could believe that.” I rubbed my temples, trying to stave off the familiar headache that threatened to return. “I fucked up. I don’t know how, but I fucked it all up.”
For the first time in longer than I could remember, my shoulders shook, and tears welled in my eyes. Ben squeezed my shoulder with his large, strong hand. I took some breaths and choked back sobs.
“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this. This is on your asshole business partner.”
“It’s on me, too, especially financially. I had to cover last week’s payroll for our office staff out of my personal account.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
