“Oh my God, he helped push you two together. Sir, bravo.” Grace claps and Cole tips his head to her, grinning.
“Grace, stop.” Ria grabs her hands and Grace rolls her eyes.
“This is ridiculous,” Ezra huffs.
“No, Mr. St. Claire, what is ridiculous is you thinking that I would consider working with you after what I have unearthed,” Cole roars, and his usually calm exterior has changed to a mask of fury. “It also came to my attention when I was looking into youboth that the way the directors at Peak hold themselves does not align with the morals and ethos that the directors at West Wing Hotels do.”
“I beg your pardon?” Ezra stands now, and his assistant curls in on herself.
“Sit down, St. Claire,” he demands and Ezra sinks back into his seat. “Anna, I think it’s best you leave. Shannon will look after you until we’re done,” he says softly, and Anna practically runs out of the room. “I don’t think your assistant should be here for this.” He buttons his suit jacket and takes a deep breath.
“Why is hers then?”
“I have a name, cock womble,” Grace spits and I inwardly laugh.
“You can’t talk to me like that. You have always just followed Ria around and never made anything of yourself. Just took her scraps,” Ezra spits at Grace.
“I’m sorry, but is your dick big enough to be talking to me like that?”
“That’s why. She isn’t scared or intimidated by you.” Cole laughs and Grace salutes him. “As I was saying, I am extremely thorough and I will not go ahead with anything I haven’t double- and triple-checked. Now Bright came out like I expected—no discrepancies. Everything is aboveboard, all taxes are paid and up to date, and every member of staff I spoke to are extremely happy.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ria states. “All of us have worked at all levels in the company to understand how it should be run. Nothing was handed to us.”
“And you can see that with how your employees respect you. But Peak was not the same story.” He turns to Ezra and Dale. “On the face of it, Peak is a well-run company. All financials are present and taxes paid, but staff morale is low, and you have a higher than average staff turnover which was a huge issuefor me, so I dug deeper and found a company called Sinclair Properties.”
Holy shit.
I look at Ria, and she is staring wide-eyed at me.
“You aren’t a director of this company, correct?” Cole asks Ezra who has slumped lower in his chair.
“No.”
“But you do have dealings with it, through transactions from Peak, am I right?” Ezra stays silent while Dale scowls across at me and Cole just shakes his head. “Look, Mr. Lucas, Mr. St. Claire, we both know what I found. You’ve been money laundering for years, and I have two detectives out there who are about to take you into custody. So I’m giving you the opportunity to come clean and apologize.”
“I’m not apologizing for nothing.” Dale pushes his chair back and heads toward the door but is blocked by two detectives.
“I don’t think you’re going anywhere.” I rise from my chair, and I can’t fight the grin stretching across my face as I stare wickedly at Dale. “Looks like gray may be your color, Mr. Lucas,” I quip, and he turns to lunge for me, but one of the detectives grabs his hand and slams him to the floor. He pushes his knee into his back, and his face is bright red as he squirms underneath him.
“Mr. Lucas, you need to remain still. I’m arresting you on suspicion of money laundering and fraud.” He reaches behind and grabs his handcuffs and clips them on Dale’s wrists as he continues to read him his rights.
“You’ve not got any evidence.” He still tries to throw him off but he holds firm.
“Stop resisting, Mr. Lucas, unless you want to add resisting arrest to your long list of charges.”
“I guess I wasn’t as clear as I thought when I told you I didn’t give a fuck who you are.” Staring down at Dale, still trying andfailing miserably to get out from underneath the detective, I sneer. “I told you I’d ruin you if you tried to intimidate my wife again, and your little email was just the push I needed to crush you. Your tactics backfired. It made us look just that little bit deeper, and you weren’t as fucking clever as you thought.”
“Fuck you,” he spits.
“Did they put you onto this?” Ezra grits out as he stands, trying to get into Cole’s face who just raises an eyebrow. “I knew that fucking dumb model was snooping. Just wait until I find her.”
“Don’t you dare call Trixie a dumb model,” Ria and Grace both say as they stand and round on Ezra.
“They told me nothing, and do not insult your fiancée,” Cole bites out.
“Fiancée?” he scoffs. “I wouldn’t marry her if she was the last woman on earth. I’m well rid—” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Grace rears back and punches him right in the nose. “What the fuck?” He holds his face, blood pouring into his hands. “I think you broke my nose,” he splutters.
“Well, none of these are going to do it due to professional courtesy or some shit, but I have no boundaries and have wanted to do that for fucking years. Boy, did it feel good.” She shakes out her hand. “I think you may have broken my hand, but it was worth it.”
