I liked the idea of him being on the other side of the world. It figured that he and his boy Nicholas King would link back up for a business venture. Why the hell did they have to put their casinoso close to Lulaville? Knowing he was a short drive away made my skin crawl. How long would it be before I ran into him? Barb had just put a timeline on it.
“You see that smug-ass grin on his face? Tell me you don’t want to wipe it right off.”
“I’m not in the revenge business.”
“I’m sure you’ve never had a chance to get paid to deliver it.”
She was right, but even getting Reed back wasn’t a good enough excuse for me to see him on purpose. That was what Barbara didn’t seem to get.
I shook my head. “It’s not worth it.”
“I think it is. We have to get in front of this before the story breaks.”
As I flipped through the files, she explained how there were missing transactions, padded vendor payments, and irregularities matching the patterns from when the former partner, Darius, was skimming.
“Darius has been in prison for months.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then why are his patterns still in effect, and why hasn’t anyone else noticed besides your source?”
“Now you’re asking the right questions. Somebody helped Darius pull off his scheme. I’m willing to bet money that it was the other owners. Darius was just the scapegoat since he was the most dispensable. Word is he and King are first cousins and were raised in the same household.”
“Who else knows about this?” I quizzed.
“Just me and my source.”
“Hm,” I said, nibbling my bottom lip as I scanned the information.
The operation seemed to have started back just a couple of months after Darius went down. I hated that I was intrigued.What I hated even more was the fact that Barbara wasn’t going to back down. We had gone through this before.
The good thing was as much as I couldn’t stand Nicholas, he was the numbers guy. He was the one I needed to talk to. Hopefully, I could get what I needed with little to no contact with Reed. There was a large part of me that wasn’t sure if I could survive even being in the same space as him. At the same time, a small part of me wanted him to go down with the ship. Barbara was rubbing off on me.
“This is not about your ex. It’s about bringing the truth to the light.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“You’ll thank me later.”
“You always say that.” I shook my head.
“Hmph, yet I’m still waiting for somebody around here to show me a little gratitude.”
As I stood from Barbara’s desk, I knew that I was about to either break the biggest story of my career or walk into the biggest shit storm I’d ever witnessed. Either way, Reed Fuller would be somewhere in the equation. That thought alone had my stomach in knots.
“Ugh!” I winced as I twisted my ankle on the bottom step.
Pain seared through my heel when it hit the ground again, but I didn’t miss a beat. I was already late. If I played my cards right, this would be my biggest story of the year. The red carpet of the 3rdAnnual From Boys to Men Charity Event was sprinkled with the who’s who in the Lulaville Black elite society.
Every millionaire in the tri-county area was set to be in attendance. I was only interested in speaking to one man. As I stepped out into the press section of the red carpet for the gala, I scanned the area for my target. I checked and double-checked my camera to make sure it was all set.
A picture was worth a thousand words, but I preferred video. Pictures could be misread. Sometimes they lied as easily as word of mouth. Pictures didn’t just capture a moment. They edited that moment in real time. A recording wouldn’t be misconstrued. It was what it was.
Tonight, as I stood outside of Cashville Resort & Casino, the red carpet was littered with hundreds of cameras. The deep red carpet was flanked with velvet ropes and hungry eyes looking for their next big story.
I stood right at the edge of it all, with my press badge clamped snuggly against the front of my baby-blue peplum jacket. The matching pencil tuxedo pants were adorable with my nude pumps. Just because I wasn’t standing in front of the camera didn’t mean that I didn’t want to look my best.
As I observed my surroundings, I noted how proficient things moved. Everything was so well-rehearsed. Cashville’s staff moved like a well-oiled machine. As a matter of fact, they were too perfect. So was he.
