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Allie laughed. “I love when people recognize our greatness.”
Sidney hooked his arm around his wife's neck and kissed the top of her head. “It's truly a wonder how you manage to be so modest.”
Allie giggled in his grasp, and that set off my own laughter.
Tension flowed out of my body the longer I stayed with them. I liked having another place to go to with people that I loved. It relieved a lot of lingering pressure and made the idea of letting my apartment go that much easier.
“I’ll probably try to sell off my furniture. Do you mind if I keep some boxes in the guest room?”
“Consider that room yours,” said Sidney. “You can keep whatever you want in there.”
I sucked back the sudden swell of emotion. I must’ve been a saint in a past life to be blessed with so many wonderful people in this one.
I stayed with them for a few hours, but as much as I loved them, I was already itching to get back to the pack. I would only have about an hour with them before I had to leave for work, but I would take any moments I could grab.
Tony was the only one downstairs on the main level when I got home. It looked like he’d already started work, sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop and stacks of paper around him.
“What are you working on?” I asked. I hooked a finger under his chin and lifted it to steal a kiss.
“Something you should probably know about, actually.” He sighed.
“Oh?”
He showed me several highlighted portions, and I read them over, letting my brain parse the information.
“None of these financials match up.”
“Exactly,” said Tony. “I’ve been tracking the finances of the city alongside the bylaws and proposals that you dug out of the archives for me. A little over twenty-six million dollars has disappeared over the last twenty years.”
My eyes widened. “What the hell?”
“It all coincides with funding that Councillor Harvey has managed to strip from projects she doesn’t agree with. And her current target is the facility where your library is.”
“What?!”
“She's been busy trying to push through a budget cut. Something ridiculous about twenty-four hour facilities breeding immorality.”
“But it's alibrary.” I gaped at him.
“Councillor Harvey is not a rational woman. Not a very nice one either. I was going to take this information to the Council.”
“That's so much money. Do you think she would get arrested?”
“I don’t know,” said Tony. “I would hope there would at least be an investigation and resignation. Unless, of course, the other councillors are in on it, and that twenty-six million has been padding their pockets.”
“Do the messed up financials match up with any of their proposals?”
“Maybe? I’ve only been digging into Harvey because she started gunning for the library.”
I nodded slowly. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Mostly confidentiality issues. No one is supposed to know about that, but now that I have actual proof that something is going on, I feel a little bit safer telling you. I wanted to say something sooner.”
I nodded again. “Okay, that's fair. Will this put you at risk? Harvey is one of your clients, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, she is. Both of our jobs are on the line if she succeeds. If she doesn’t get arrested, she’ll be pissed right off that I tried to expose her. I also don’t think she’ll stop pushing, which means the pilot project would get nuked. Success with one would probably have her targeting other twenty-four-hour facilities too.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
