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“Like we would let him get caught,” Elias muttered with a snort.
Garrett met his eyes, a silent thank you passing between them. Ian looked grim, but he didn’t protest.
Rainer, meanwhile, was predictably worried. He yanked at the collar of his shirt like he wasn’t getting enough air.
Elias rolled his shoulders, his neck red as a brick. “I’m gonna get a refill,” he announced, waving his crystal glass before leaving them alone.
“Don’t mind him,” Ian said when his cousin disappeared. “This whole thing, seeing Fletcher attack Emma, brought back some shit he’d rather forget.”
Rainer nodded, but his expression grew speculative.
Garrett knew what Ian was getting at, but he kept his mouth shut. As far as he was concerned, Elias was more than entitled to his secrets.
Their fourth returned with a double in hand. “Given all these revelations, I think you need to call your bank like yesterday. I wouldn’t put it past Fletcher to raid the corporate accounts.”
Garrett raised a brow. “He doesn’t need to. He has enough of his own money.”
“A lot is never enough for some people,” Elias pointed out. “This is the end of the line for him. He’ll go for the nuclear option.”
A few phone calls proved Elias right.
Fletcherhadembezzled money from Next Chapter. Ten million dollars directly from the payroll and expenditure accounts.
The first chunk of money had been taken the day after he married Emma—within hours of Garrett calling to give him the news.
He calculated the full amount stolen. All the air left his lungs.
Yes, Garrett was a billionaire. But that was on paper, the wealth tied to his business. Moving all the pieces he needed to keep these accounts solvent was going to keep him busy for hours. Possibly days when he should be out looking for the bastard.
He was the closer that brought in the big business, but Fletcher was the one who dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. And his partner had been smarter than he’d given him credit for.
Garrett looked forward to shoving some of those t’s down the bastard’s throat. He just had to find some sharp enough.
This could have been worse.Had Fletcher started earlier, or had he been a little bolder, he could have entirely wrecked Next Chapter. As it was, Garrett was scrambling to meet his commitments.
“The embezzlement is not bad news,” Ian told him the next day.
Bleary-eyed from spending most of the night at his computer, he eyeballed his friend. “How do you figure that?”
“This amount of money is like a spotlight to someone like Toya who can follow no matter where he goes. We’ll trace his personal accounts too. They’re already tagged. Trust me, there’s no hole deep enough for him to hide in.”
That might have been true, but Fletcher had been his partner for the better part of the decade. Garrett was the one who knew him best—what cars he liked to drive, his addiction to hair growth elixirs, his favorite meals…
His lips parted, the memory of a whitewashed building and red-tiled awning suddenly clear in his head. “There’s a place across the border we have to check.”
Chapter Seventy-One
EMMA
Stella was playing with her dolls in front of the fireplace. Emma knew she should be playing with her, but she couldn’t. All she could seem to do was sit on the couch, staring at the carpet.
Was that indentation from when Fletcher knocked her down or when Fletcher hit the floor?
What if there was blood they couldn’t see? She should have checked with her phone flashlight. Because Elias had punched Fletchersohard.
Emma turned to George, her trepidation bleeding into her tone. “Should I be letting her play on the carpet? What if there’s evidence on it?”
George’s face curdled as she leaned forward to give the carpet a thorough inspection. “I don’t see anything. Do you want me to arrange for it to be cleaned?”