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CHAPTER33
“Walk me through that again,” Devyn said as he considered the man sitting across from him.
Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Thomas Brandon, assistant manager of the Carta Castle Hotel, said, “He quit.”
“I gathered as much,” Devyn drawled as he leaned back in the leather chair that had up to twelve hours ago belonged to the general manager of Carta Castle Hotel located less than ten minutes from Carta Hotels’ executive offices. “What I don’t know is why a man who’s worked for Carta Hotels for over twenty years suddenly quit last night.”
“I think it had something to do with the letter,” Thomas said, looking fucking exhausted.
“And what letter would that be?” Devyn asked, absently drumming his fingertips against the large oak desk as his gaze shifted to the large stack of files that had been prepared for him and-
He couldn’t lose her.
This job, the contract, the bonuses, none of that fucking mattered without her. None of that mattered without Andi. He loved her, more than anything and he wasn’t about to lose her because he’d fucked up and trusted the wrong person.
“This letter,” Thomas said, pulling a piece of paper out of the folder in his hands and handed it to him.
Devyn noted the familiar letterhead before he read the letter, quickly realizing that he had a bigger problem on his hands than he’d thought when he saw his signature at the bottom.
“I can see why he quit,” Devyn murmured as he placed the letter on the desk, absently adding more forgery to the growing list of offenses. “When did it arrive?”
“Last night, shortly after the email,” Thomas said, making Devyn frown in confusion, that is, until he pulled another piece of paper out of his folder and handed it to him. Devyn read through the email several times, noting the time and date before shifting his attention to the sender’s email.
It was his.
“Did anyone call my office to verify any of this?” Devyn asked, tossing the printout of the email on the desk to join the forged letter before pulling his new phone out of his pocket and opened his email, checking the sent folder and noted that it wasn’t in there.
“Yes,” Thomas said as Devyn helped himself to the laptop that his general manager left behind.
“Since I didn’t get a chance to speak with him, do you want to fill me in on what happened?”
“I believe he spoke with Mr. Jamerson,” Thomas said after a slight hesitation.
“Of course, he did,” Devyn murmured absently as he sent a quick email to the IT department, giving them the date and time of the email that had been sent from his account, giving them the task of finding out where it originated. “Do you happen to have the number that he called?”
“It’s at the bottom of the letter,” Thomas said, gesturing to the letter in question.
Nodding, Devyn picked up the office phone and dialed the number listed at the bottom of the letter bearing his signature. When the prerecorded message began to play, he entered the extension listed and waited as he was directed to a mailbox that he hadn’t set up and listened to the unfamiliar voice apologize that he wasn’t available at the moment.
At least Lucas was thorough, Devyn thought as he hung up and sent another email to the IT department, letting them know that he had one more task for them to take care of. Once he was done, he focused his attention back on the man that had most likely saved Carta Castle from bankruptcy by locking Carta Hotels from their accounts.
“What else?” Devyn asked, biting back a sigh as he went over everything that he needed to do to fix this mess and-
Once again, found himself wishing that Andi was here. She’d tear through this mess and have notes on everything within the hour, making his life easier. He should have brought her, but that wasn’t an option, not with Lucas watching their every move.
“That’s not enough?” Thomas asked, gesturing to the papers that had him wondering why the asshole was suddenly getting messy.
Up until now, Lucas kept everything hidden in the background, making Devyn wonder why he was suddenly doing everything that he could to get his attention.
* * *
Don’t set one foot outside the station.
Since she’d already left the station and was currently hiding in the old file room that Lucas’s team used for the Hillshire Hotels’ project, Andi decided that it would probably be in her best interest to ignore that text message especially since she probably didn’t have much time before Drew was done with that emergency call and discovered that she was gone.
With that in mind, Andi shifted to get comfortable as she closed the accounting file that she’d been hoping would give her answers and clicked on the next file, hoping that it would give her what she needed only to end up sighing heavily as she closed it and clicked on the next file. She would have been more than happy to do this from the comfort of Drew’s bunk, but unfortunately for her, Carta Hotels’ security didn’t recognize her IP address and refused to grant her access to the files that she needed.
“I’m missing something,” Andi mumbled to herself as she glanced from the notes that she’d made from the files that she’d helped herself to from the accounting department back to the file in question and-
Realized that she wasn’t alone.
Swallowing hard, Andi slowly looked up and found Lucas standing in the doorway, looking completely relaxed as he watched her. “What are you doing, Miss Dawson?”
“Working on audits?” she lied, knowing better than to admit that she’d broken into the accounting department and helped herself to Carta’s files with the hopes of finding something that would implicate him in this mess since that probably wouldn’t end well for her.
“Find anything interesting?” Lucas drawled as his gaze flickered to the notebook on the floor next to her and the stacks of folders surrounding her before landing on the laptop currently resting on her lap.
“The accounting department needs to use bigger fonts,” Andi said, really hoping that he hadn’t already guessed that Devyn showed her the file.
“That’s what I heard,” Lucas murmured as he folded his arms over his chest as he considered her.
“Can I help you with something?” Andi asked, going for a warm smile and most likely failing miserably judging by the way that his eyes narrowed on the move.
This wasn’t going to end well, Andi decided as she watched Lucas push away from the door and-
Not. At. All.
