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“Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice,” Wes murmured, and my stomach bubbled with uncertainty.
“I think we also need to consider something else.” Wes bit his lip, an unusually thoughtful look on his face.
I was far more used to laidback Wes, someone who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a surfboard, or at least catching some rays and watching the world go by on the nearest beach.
When he looked serious, it was always time to pay attention. He didn’t waste too much time not having fun. He always said life was too short not to enjoy every moment of it.
“What’s that?” I passed the laptop to Charmaine and she clicked a few more buttons, checking something else before writing notes on her sheet of paper.
Wes sighed. “So we’re definitely looking at something far more sinister than just a bit of profit increase going on at Gold Moon. There are too many strange things. Incomplete contracts, returning clients who came back more than once when their level of service was essentially dire, missing shipments, lost shipments…and it was all kept out of your dad’s sight, really. Until he started looking for it at least.” He took a deep breath. “Also, we need to consider that this is happening at a high level within the company. Someone with a position of power, who your dad trusted to act autonomously.” He shook his head. “It has to be someone who had enough trust that they were able to abuse it.”
“It’s certainly someone who has had the access to hide their activities for a while,” Charmaine said. “I don’t think we’ll have uncovered the majority of it yet, either.”
“Okay. Where do you think we should start?” I looked at Charmaine, but it was Wes who answered.
“Look, I don’t want to step on Charmaine’s toes — I mean, she knows more about Gold Moon Inc. than I do, but we both have your best interests at heart. And if this were my business, I’d want to know who I had working for me. I think for a start, we need to look at anyone who is in a position where they had enough access to create contracts and manipulate them to hide the actual shipments, and where they can inflate the income from them.” He shrugged. “That’s the only kind of person I think could have pulled this off, anyway. It’s as much about the access as the intent. The two have to both be present, so that should help us narrow down the suspect pool?”
“Already way ahead of you.” Charmaine grinned. “Well, almost. Okay. Some I’m not actuallywayahead of you,” she clarified, “but Joe and I were already looking at the kinds of things Wes has specified. The kind of people who are in the right places at the right times, and things like that. Joe knew that one or more of the people who he had working for him clearly had to be involved. It was why he didn’t trust anyone else to help him out without any of this. I think he only trusted me because I was so new, and I obviously had no connections to anyone else at Gold Moon.”
“So how far had you gotten?” It felt like we were finally getting somewhere this morning. We were looking at the right kinds of data and making a plan. It was so much better than things being so completely outside my control. Didn’t mean I still didn’t want to check every forward move with my dad to make sure I was getting it right, though. I missed that kind of support and agreement about my decisions.
The fact that I missed him so much, and respected what he thought, meant I really owed it to him and his memory to make this right and get to the bottom of whatever had gone wrong in his company.
“Yeah, I’ve been doing some digging in my own time, but I wanted to have something concrete before I brought it up. Even with all the way the evidence is pointing, this still feels just so…fantastic.” She stopped. “It doesn’t feel like it can be real.”
“Still. Names. That’s kind of a game-changer,” Wes said. “It gives us another starting point, along with the warehouses themselves, but it means that you also have people who are real suspects in criminal activity now. So it also means that we need to be extra careful going forward.”
“We are beingextracareful,” I reminded them. There was no way I’d put either of them in any danger. “That’s part of the reason we’re holed up here, so no one can see exactly what we’re doing.”
“Yeah.” Charmaine sounded slightly uncertain. “I just wonder how dangerous things are going to get. The more money that’s involved, the more dangerous it will be, and I don’t think we’ve uncovered all of it yet.”
“We’re not exactly alone, though.” I gestured to the window and peered out of it. “We have our very own security detail.” I frowned as another Silver Claw SUV drew up outside Mom’s house. “And it looks like reinforcements just arrived.”
Two more of Patrick’s pack soldiers hopped out, and a small shiver skimmed up my spine. What the hell were we getting ourselves into if Patrick thought we needed this much protection?
Was this situation more than a simple company-related issue, where one employee had gone rogue to make more money? At a simple glance, it looked like a crime of opportunity that had spiraled out of control. But Patrick was sending troops in like I was going to war.
26
PATRICK
I’d researched the hell out of Bane’s Garden all day. It wasn’t the kind of business I’d have wanted any of my pack to be associated with. The website and associated social media showed snapshots of half-naked women and drunk guys with too many dollar bills.
I hoped mine was the kind of pack that offered an escape to people who no longer wanted to walk on the seedy side of life. I had no doubt that most of the working women were part of the Bane’s Night pack. But the alpha obviously had some kind of hold over them because they never showed up on my radar needing any help to escape their circumstances.
Yet from the secretive eyes of some of the shifters in the photos, I didn’t believe they were all happy, either. One woman looked almost haunted. Like her soul was empty.
“You need any company later?” Jackson flashed me a lewd grin. “I mean, maybe I should be there just so I can vouch for you to Jo?”
I snorted. “You know exactly why I’m going. No vouching required. Besides, I don’t think the Silver Claw alpha and beta should show up together. It looks too aggressive.”
He nodded. “I can see that. They might think we’re launching a hostile takeover.”
I snorted again. “On that place? It wouldn’t be worth my time.”
Jackson lifted an eyebrow. “They can be pretty lucrative, from what I’ve been told.”
“Right.” I glanced back down at the paperwork in front of me. “From what you’ve been told.”
