Page 8 of Edgar (Walsh’s Lair #4)

Earl watched his brother while he was in the warehouse.

He’d come home only this morning with him, and he was talking about how he wanted the business to be run better.

He couldn’t get out of him how it was going to be run better, just that he did.

As far as Earl was concerned, Tommy had been let go of the company so that he could pursue his own dreams. Whatever that might be.

“Did Tabby tell you how much we made off the day-old stuff I got for nearly nothing? Then there was the fish. I didn’t know it was salmon, but she was able to sell it all off to one person.

They knew they were getting a good deal too and bought it all up.

” Earl asked him what that had to do with running the business better.

“We could make a lot of profit off of buying and selling some of the fruits and vegetables that are sitting on the dock for too long.”

“Yes, but we make a good profit off of selling fresh too. I don’t want to be known as the man who sells old stuff when we have a business of selling good fruits.

It’s called Reader’s Fresh for a reason.

” Tommy said he wasn’t seeing the whole picture.

“I don’t think you’re seeing anything but profit, and the little bit of profit that Tabby made off of the stuff you got was because one person bought it all.

Had we had to be selling it out by a person that just happened to come by, we might well have been in the hole. ”

“I sent out flyers on the websites to all the people that we work with.” He told his brother that Tabby had had to put up with calls all day with people wanting her to sort through it all and take out the good stuff.

It interfered with her work. “She wouldn’t do it.

She told people, our customers, that she wasn’t going to go sort through the pallets to see what was out there.

That’s pretty shitty of her if you were to ask me. ”

“Why didn’t you stick around and do it for her?

You’re the one who bought the stuff. You should have been the one to deal with it if you were to ask me.

” He pointed out that she was here. “So were you, Tommy. Why did you even do it in the first place? You know that we don’t sell old stuff.

That was pretty shitty, as you said of you to drop that onto her plate when she was getting orders sorted that people pay us to do. ”

He waved him off. “Well, as of two days ago, I’m in charge of this warehouse, and Tabby is in charge of the one in Ohio.

Don’t do that again. I won’t allow you to go out after you bought it.

If you buy shit like that, you’re going to be dealing with it.

And there will be no charging things to the company again either.

We still haven’t been able to get an invoice from the company you purchased that stuff from. ”

“Dad said that I was off the hook for being responsible for the things that come and go here and there. But I’m still a working family member, Earl.

Don’t forget it.” He asked him if he was threatening him.

“I don’t think that’s the way I meant it, but if you’re going to treat me badly, I’m going to start working badly around here. ”

“Go home, Tommy.” He just sat there. “I mean it. Go home and talk to Dad about what you’ve been doing here. I bet he’ll say the same thing. Not to do it anymore so that we’re not left holding the bag—or, in this case, a lot of things that we can’t get rid of before it all goes bad.”

When he finally left after sweeping paperwork to the floor, Earl cleaned up his mess and finished with the orders that were to go out tomorrow.

They had to be at least a day ahead on the things going out and coming in, or they’d never get any work done.

Just as he was closing the office for the day, hardly realizing that it was well after seven, he got a call from his dad.

“Not that I believe him, but Tommy told me that you ran him off when he was working today. Good for you.” He said that he had run him off, but he wasn’t working.

“I didn’t think so. You’d not do that to him.

He also said that he was going to go up and work with his sister.

Tabby won’t put up with him either. He’s saying some very strange things about how Tabby works. ”

“He told me too that he’s not happy with the way Tabby handled the day-old stuff that he got for the warehouse.

He seems to think she did him dirty by not going out and separating out the stuff for customers when they asked.

I can imagine what she said to him, too.

It was his mess, and she wasn’t going to go the extra mile in doing work for him.

What’s with him lately?” Dad said he didn’t know, but he was starting to notice that he wasn’t working out very well.

“Speaking of not working out very well, I’ve fired Shamus West. He’s been telling us that he’s a shifter since he’s been working here.

He’s been lying about a lot of things about himself.

And I got rid of him this morning when I came in.

He was pitching a fit about how he was forever the only one that worked around here.

I didn’t fire him for not being a shifter but for lying all the time.

I didn’t want him in the office if I can’t trust him. ”

“Good. I know that Tabby was thinking of doing the same thing to him. Good thing that Edgar told her that he was only a human. Can’t trust people to work in the office if you can’t trust them to be truthful about what they are.

” Dad must have gone someplace quieter because it suddenly got quiet where he was.

“I have a couple of things that I need to talk to you about. Now, I’m not blaming anyone about this, but there are over ten grand missing from the ledgers from last month.

Have you seen Tommy with a lot of cash?”

“You think he’d rob us?” Earl had to sit down. To think that his own family would rob them was just crazy. “Dad, that’s a lot of money to be missing, yes, but do you really think that Tommy would take it?”

“He’s not worked any for the last eight weeks, so there was no check for him from the business.

Then, last night, I heard that he was all caught up on his rent now.

I’m not saying that he took it, but it seems suspicious that it’s missing, and he’s suddenly flush with cash.

” Earl asked him if he’d talked to him about it.

“I only found out this morning when I got back to the office. I’m worried, Earl.

Very much so. And if he took this, it’s going to look bad on him when we have to have an audit. ”

“I’ll talk to him. Usually, I can talk to him better when it’s just the two of us.

Tabby can, too, but I think she’d just come right out and tell him that he’d taken the money to see if he’d deny it or not.

” Dad laughed, telling him that she didn’t suffer fools easily.

“She barely suffers anyone easily. For someone that works in the public, she sure is a ball buster when she needs to be.”

“That she is. Reminds me of my dad all the time. He would have made Tommy confess like she would. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about your sister too. I just found out that she’s the mate of one of the Walsh men.

Edgar Walsh.” He asked if he was upset by that.

“No. I’m sort of thrilled, to be honest. She deserves happiness, and I know they’re a good family.

But he told me that he’s a dragon. I don’t know if I believe him or not. ”

“They are. I heard about them while I was up there for the dinner. Most of the townspeople know that, but they don’t care because of the help they get from them.

I guess they donate a lot of money to the schools and other charity banks.

The food that they purchased from us went to homes that could use the extra for growing families.

They even work with their local pack to help with jobs for them, too.

” Dad asked him if anyone had seen their dragons.

“I doubt they just shift into one of them without a lot of fanfare. I don’t know how big they are, but in my head, I have it that they’re huge.

I wouldn’t want to mess with any of those men, shifter or not. ”

“Yes, they do look like they bench press cars for fun.” Earl laughed with his dad.

“I’d like to see one of them. Just because you know they aren’t around where you can see them.

I mean, there used to be a story going around that the skies were black with them flying around.

I’d just like to see one up close and personal. ” Dad laughed again.

They talked for a bit more until Dad told him to come home for dinner.

After telling him that he had plans tonight, he told him that he wanted to hear from him about what happened with Tommy.

He assured him that he’d get with him afterward for sure.

But he thought maybe they should run it by Tabby, too, so she has a heads-up.

They both agreed that she needed to know as well.

Earl had a date tonight. He wasn’t looking forward to it and couldn’t for the life of him remember why he’d agreed to go out in the first place.

Donna was someone that he’d met at the bank a couple of weeks ago, and the next several times he’d come into the bank, she was the teller that he’d dealt with.

So, on a whim, he supposed he had asked her out.

Tonight had been agreed on by both parties.