I cleared my throat to let them know I was in the room. When Nick turned around, my breath caught. It was right up there with the most annoying reaction I’ve ever had to someone who was clearly my sworn enemy. Why I still found him attractive – after this last week – was beyond me, but my eyes drank in the sight of him. On the island he had worn only shorts, but now his long legs were clad in black jeans. They made him look taller somehow, and well, very hot. He also had on a grey T-shirt and gorgeous – and expensive – brown boots.
‘Abbey.’ The cold, business tone was out of his voice. Instead, he sounded excited, like the time we had gone fishing and one of the lines had started jumping. ‘I worked out how it was done,’ he said, eyes gleaming.
My heart sank. My worst fear was that I had inadvertently played a part in Eric’s crime, somehow. I mean, I signed things for him, took calls and deliveries and responded to hundreds of emails a week.
Nick was watching me and when my face fell, he rushed to reassure me. ‘No, no. It wasn’t you. I found out howhedid it. I can prove you weren’t involved.’
I didn’t fully take that in as I continued to stare at him with sad eyes, thinking about having to sign over custody of my daughter to my sister and what that would mean for Ella to have Kate as a parent as opposed to me. Would I be allowed to see her in prison?
He had a document wallet on the bench, and he opened it, pulling out four different bulldog-clipped, highlighted documents. I walked closer. He smelled like freshly showered goodness. Delicious.
The first was a general ledger segment from the Delacqua Adelaide and then one for the hotel in Sydney. Then there was a bank statement from what I assumed was Eric’s slush fund and the business account. There were several highlighted amounts circled in red pen and I picked up the pages to look at them.
‘Okay, see here. Why would he pick the Adelaide business?’ Nick asked.
I have no fucking idea.But thenI thought for a second, and there was a simple reason Adelaide differed from the other hotels. ‘Because it was losing money and had to be supported by head office,’ I said.
‘Exactly. It was already being supported so it would be easier to hide the trail. And he took money from Sydney because it had the highest profit margin. He started off eight years before you worked there, small amounts being siphoned from the transfers, first a few thousand dollars, but he gets bolder later on.’ He points to a large amount from just three months ago.
I still couldn’t understand. ‘How was it not picked up by the end-of-financial-year audits?’
‘That took a bit of working through. We’ve let go of the finance director, at any rate. It was poor management at the least, and I’m not convinced he didn’t know.’ He opened the fourth document and flicked quickly to the page he was after. ‘But Linden was quite clever. He actually has it accounted for in the Sydney P&L, but not in the head office P&L. It’s under a category that Delacqua called “projects”. There are a couple of other dodgy things too, a cleaning company that doesn’t exist and an interior-design business that pays for artwork. The company is fake and there are no artworks, there are no projects. Plus, the business was still profitable, so accounts weren’t specifically looking for it. It was cleverly done. If we hadn’t bought the business, he probably would have gotten away with it.’
‘And, my bonuses?’
‘Paid from that account, but they were also paid by payroll. We assume that every time he paid you or anyone a bonus, he would add around ten to fifteen per cent on his request, have it transferred over and then pay you the original amount from the slush fund and pocket the rest.’ He swallowed. ‘I know you didn’t do anything. I need you to come back.’
I guffawed at him and dragged my eyes away from his kaleidoscopic ones. I couldn’t let myself get lost in them and miss what was being said. ‘Why would I do that?’ I felt anger flare and could hear it in my voice.
Kate heard it too. She gave me a sharp nod and felt free to leave the room.
‘Abbey, this last week I have seen meticulous record keeping, supreme organisation and, honestly, excellent leadership, not from Eric’s desk, but from yours. You are fantastic at your job, and you have managed to do that for years without pissing a single person off in that business. They all love you. I had twenty-five emails from other employees, saying there was no way you had anything to do with any of it, including one from a guy in accounts called Mike who wrote a four-page message.’ He paused, and gave me a fleeting smile, as if he was trying it out for the first time. ‘I think Mike’s in love with you.’
Oh, being personal now, are we? Fuck you, Nick.I shook my head. ‘Mike’s gay.’ My anger burst white and hot as I remembered my ‘interview’ the other day. ‘You sat across a boardroom table from me and let that Nordic viper of yours accuse me of stealing money and fucking my boss.’
‘She was just doing her job.’ He shrugged. ‘She’s actually Dutch.’
‘Oh, howfascinating. Are you sleeping with her?’
‘Excuse me?’ he bristled. ‘Two weeks of paradise, Abbey, does not give you the right to ask those questions.’
I interpreted that as maybe they’d had sex in the past. ‘I see, but it’s okay for you to have your minions askmethat? At my place of work?’
His eyes had the grace to fall to the floor even if he couldn’t verbalise an apology.
‘I don’t think the two of us working together is a good option,’ I said, more calmly than I felt. I took a deep breath and shook my head to clear the random thought I had of him pressing me against a desk.Not helpful, brain.
‘You don’t have to work for me. It will be Oliver. The company is for him. He’s green. He could use your help. He finished his uni degree and then I had him do various jobs across the companies we own. He’s done everything from janitor work to personal valet work. Theoretically, he can run a company. But he needs experience next to him. You’re going to be that.’
‘You’re going to give a twenty-five-year-old a chain of hotels worth millions? You’re mad. Little nepo babies running the world,’ I ranted as I walked away, heading back to my bedroom.
‘He’s thirty-five.’ He followed me down the corridor and stopped when I turned suddenly, almost colliding with me.
‘Thirty-five? Shut up! Really?’ I was genuinely surprised and bewildered by that. What kind of skincare did that man use?
‘He looks like a kid still and up until a few years ago he was acting like one. But then he did something I didn’t expect him to do. He put himself through university and came to me when he had graduated with honours, asking for a job.’ Nick sounded proud.I was raised by my brother,Oliver had said.
I was still not buying his bullshit. ‘Find someone else. It turns out that being an EA for a criminal is an underrated skill. I’ve been headhunted by three other CEOs this week and one high-ranking politician.’ I spun and continued to my bedroom and started preparing for the next coat of paint.Honestly, if someone had told me it was going to take this fucking long to paint a few walls, I would have hired a man to do it.
