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I can’t believe I didn’t know the whole thing. “How often was it happening?”
She wraps her arms around herself. “He would grab my wrists here and there, but it didn’t seem that bad. When I met with him to end it, he became violent. That was the worst. It was the night of the fundraiser, the one I saw you at before I left.”
I swallow.Fuck, I remember that night. I was right there. She needed help, and I let her leave with him.
“I was ashamed. Embarrassed that I let it get that far. When I was getting ready that night, I overheard a conversation with Bryan and his father. He said spouses can’t be forced to testify against each other. I knew he was up to some shady shit, but I didn’t know what. I realized that night I needed to take my life back. And I wanted to hit him where it hurt.”
Jordan’s a fearless little bulldog most days, but I recognize the bloodlust that flickers in her gaze... even I wouldn’t fuck with her.
“On one condition, I don’t want you putting yourself in danger.”
She nods. “Agreed.”
“And you tell me your plan.” I want to clear it beforehand.
She hesitates. She can pout all she wants, but she’s not doing anything without first letting me know what her strategy is.
“Remember when I was talking to your dad at Thanksgiving about Bluetower?”
“Yeah . . .”
Jordan takes a deep breath. “My job at H&H was to review contracts on the new companies they were purchasing and send it up the ladder for the head execs to gain investors. Bluetower was one of those companies, it was just some small startup acquisition.” She bites her lip. “It doesn’t exist. It’s a dummy shell corporation.”
“How do you know?”
“I had a guy look into it, he got me the documents—signed by Bryan Davenport Jr., by the way—to back it up.”
“So are they being audited?”
“An audit would take too long, and it would give him time to cover it up. It needs to be a scandal. I want him publicly humiliated... I knew the circumstances around me being assigned the Bluetower account were suspicious, it was an IT company, whereas I dealt with the healthcare sector. Something didn’t sit well with me. It was confirmed when I spoke with your dad at Thanksgiving.”
That’s why Jordan told my father not to invest. She said the returns were too high... It’s coming together now. “He’s running a Ponzi scheme.”
She covers her mouth and nods. “Mm-hm.”
“Holy shit.”
“I know. And I’d be willing to bet that he’s using it as collateral to bankroll his purchase of the Lakes.”
“Why do you say that?”
“According to the falsified R&D documentation that Bryan signed off on, Bluetower works with wireless technology, the speed test results would be a technology leap equivalent to Apple releasing the iPhone. It would create a huge disruption in the industry—meaning massive payouts. As long as he’s borrowing from one investment to pay the other. Investors don’t care, so long as they’re getting the returns they were promised. He probably offered it to your dad as some kind of poetic justice to get revenge on you as well. Use your father’s money to help destroy your career.”
My nose wrinkles. “But that’s so risky. Why wouldn’t he just use H&H Holdings to finance the Lakes buyout?”
“Because H&H is Daddy Davenport’s. He’d never let Bryan get his hands on that. It’s also probably why Bryan did it, he wanted to impress his father with some big new company he brought in. They have office buildings and everything. I looked up the employees on LinkedIn—their photos are AI generated. None of those people exist.”
“But why wouldn’t he just submit the offer on the Lakes? Why tell you to break up with me first?”
“Because this way he can take both of us down. You heard what he said, he doesn’t give a fuck about the team. It’s personal. He’d rather punish us. He likes to make people hurt. He made a grave miscalculation this time. He assumes I won’t sink that low, but I’ve been at the bottom waiting for him.”
She’s a legion of one, taking no prisoners. “So, what are the next steps?”
“An audit would take months, but there needs to be a whistle blown from the outside, it has to be an ambush. We have to leak that the funds are coming from a fraudulent shell corporation to the financial agency. Fucking up his collateralwill delay securing the loan, and he won’t be able to move forward.
“If I hand over the documents myself, they’ll ask me where I got them, and I refuse to implicate my source. I need them to come directly from Bryan himself. That part is already in the works.”
She’s going to plant the evidence.This woman’s blowing my mind. I scrub a hand down my face. Here she let me believe I was corrupting her, but she’s been her own villain all along.
