He answered quickly.Pool. Sunbathing at the moment.
Sounds wonderful.
It is. Kyle looks fantastic in tight, stretch trunks.
Bastard. Now that’s all I can think about.
You coming down?
In a few minutes. I’m just about to check a few things on my laptop, then I’ll be there.
Great. The pool bar has fantastic wings.
My stomach growled.I could eat.
I opened my laptop and quickly pulled up my email. At last, the one I’d been waiting for blinked at me. My private detective’s report.
I grabbed a Coke from the fridge and sat back to read all about Kyle’s pack. It only took one page of a twenty-page report to decide that pack was no good. Their past leader had been jailed on fraud charges and embezzling pack money, as well as taking bribes. Their current leader was not much better. The pack did odd things for money grabs, as well, like adopting orphans to get a shifter government payout for doing a so-called good deed then placing those orphans in uncertified homes within the pack. Homes that they could not, on paper, say were proper for raising young kids. Apparently, no one checked up on that and it was a loophole they took advantage of.
Other higher members had been in and out of prison for money laundering. Great. Were they part of some Mafia?
The turning point in the report came when it stated the pack had dealings with dragons. My flight was listed. So was my family business.
Wow, Kyle and I were connected but not in the way we might want.
I pulled up my business accounts and files then searched for the pack name. It popped up. They were investors. Big-time. But not that big.
Knowing Griffith and Kyle were waiting on me, I made a few quick calls to key people, including my dad, and told him I’d found out some things, and we should no longer do dealings with this particular pack. They were untrustworthy, possibly even dangerous.
“You have my go-ahead to cancel the contracts,” he said.
And I did. With a flick of a button on my keyboard on each item relating to the pack. I clicked right down the list. An auto-email would be sent to them for each transaction, and whatever was in their accounts returned to them. Because of the timing, that did not include any profits for the current year. It was in our contracts that we could dismiss a client at any time and profits would be withheld for tax purposes. They were going to lose a lot. At least for this year.
It wouldn’t stop them but it would sting. And it gave me great satisfaction that I was the one to make that stab.
After that, I mass emailed other dragon businesses friendly with us and sent word this pack was “dirty.”
A job well done for the day.
Closing my laptop, I sat for a moment, hand on top of it, and let the euphoria of what I’d done rush through me.
Kyle deserved this retribution. I wasn’t going to tell him, but I knew, and that was what counted. A great rush of emotion traveled through our bond. He would feel it. And maybe, just maybe, a part of him would know, too.
***
I donned my swim trunks and robe, grabbed a couple of towels, my sunglasses, and some sun block, and headed for the pool.
Griffith and Kyle greeted me, having saved me a lounge chair. It was more crowded than I’d expected for a weekday. I was grateful for the lounge.
“You look happy,” Griffith said.
“Did you like your cousin’s business enough to want to work there?” Kyle asked.
“Not really.”
Their eyes went wide.
“I felt you through our bond just a little while ago. You were feeling great. And now you look so smug?” Kyle’s eyebrows rose. “You weren’t, um, you know…”
