Building Billions - Part 2 Read online

  Plus, I wanted to wake up in Jimmy’s arms again.

  I looked up into his face and was wracked with guilt. I needed to tell him and soon. I was no closer to finding out who was behind all this stuff with his balance sheets, and someone would catch what was going on. If I wasn’t the one to tell him, then he would think I’d been hiding something from him. And I didn’t want him to think that when I was trying to help him.

  Jimmy was still asleep at ten o’clock when I got a call from the nursing home. I slipped from his arms and picked up my phone, and I could hear my mother on the other end. I put my clothes on as fast as I could and placed a chaste kiss on Jimmy’s cheek.

  I hated leaving him to wake up alone, but my mother needed me.

  I sent him a text message as I raced down to the lobby. I hailed a cab that took me straight to the nursing home. I ran into the complex and raced down the hallway, my knotted hair billowing behind me.

  “Mom? Mom, where are you?”

  I found her and the nurses in the common room, struggling to get her to stand up. She was spitting in their faces and trying to kick at them, and the scene was too much for me to take. I pushed one of the nurses out of the way and got down on my knees, trying to still my mother’s movements. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to hurt herself again.

  “Mom. Look at me. Mom.”

  “Get off me!” she said.

  “Stop fighting them, and they will,” I said.

  My mother’s eyes connected with mine, but I could tell she didn’t recognize me. Her hair was wild, her arms were trembling, and I motioned for the nurses to back off. I knew they were trying to do what was best for her, but I was beginning to question their ability to take care of my mother. Every time I came into this facility, they were either trying to control her movements or trying to sedate her with something.

  And I was getting tired of it.

  “Where’s Ashley? Where’s my daughter? She’ll know what to do.”

  I tried to choke back my tears as I slid my purse to the floor.

  “Ashley sent me,” I said. “She’s moving into a new place today, but she didn’t want you to be alone.”

  “Moving? Why the hell is she moving? She’s only a child. Get me out of here. I need to go see my daughter now.”

  “I promise you, she’s going to come see you soon, and she’s going to take you on a tour of her new apartment. She’s so proud of it. The room she has set up for you has the best view.”

  “It really does,” said a deep, masculine voice.

  I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I slowly turned around, my eyes taking Jimmy in, his long legs clad only in jeans. The simple white shirt he had on was tight around his chest, and his arms were traced with veins as he clenched his fists in his pockets.

  “Who the hell is that?” my mother asked.

  “Jimmy,” he said. “Jimmy Sheldon. I’m a friend of your daughter’s.”

  He came and stood behind me, his warmth comforting me as I tried to take my mother’s hands.

  But she wrenched them away before I could hold her.

  “We need to get you back to your room. You know everyone here loves you,” I said.

  “Then why are they trying to poke me with needles? Ashley knows I hate needles.”

  “Probably because you're spitting at them,” I said.

  “They were trying to make me move. I don’t want to move.”

  “Where were they trying to make you move?” I asked.

  “The kitchen, but I’m not hungry.”

  I looked over at one of the nurses as I rose to my feet.

  “She hasn’t been eating well,” the nurse said. “She’ll ask for something and then forgets she asked for it. Sometimes, she’ll get hungry and then forget she’s hungry.”

  “Is that even possible?” I asked.

  “When it’s this advanced, yes. With Alzheimer’s, it’s never the disease that hurts them. It’s the forgetting of basic things that does,” the nurse said.

  “Where in the world is the breakfast I ordered?” my mother asked. “I told these people I was hungry an hour ago.”

  “Then why don’t we go to the kitchen and get you settled in for a meal, huh?” I asked.

  I watched Jimmy offer his hand to my mother, and he helped her up from her chair. He offered his arm, and she took it, a smile beaming across her face. The two of them walked arm-in-arm to the kitchen, the nurses guiding them along their way.

  But the moment was short-lived.

  “Why are we in the kitchen?” my mother asked.

  “You said you were hungry,” Jimmy said. “Would you like to eat breakfast with me?”

  “I’m not hungry. I want to go sit in the sun. It’s a beautiful day today,” my mother said.

  “Will you sit with me while I eat?” Jimmy asked.

  “Why would I want to sit and watch a man eat?” my mother said. “My life doesn’t revolve around you, Leonard. When are you going to learn that?”

  My eyes widened at the sound of my father’s name as a tear rushed down my cheek.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to assume,” Jimmy said.

  “Sorry? Who are you? Leonard never apologizes.”

  My mother pulled away from Jimmy, and I stepped up to the plate.

  “Why don’t we go lie down?” I asked. “Watch a movie? Read a book?”

  But my mother shoved me away so hard, she fell backward.

  “Mom!”

  “I am not your mother! Get away from me!”

  She began flailing and crying, and I felt Jimmy’s hands come down around my upper arms. The nurses rushed to my mother, checking to make sure she hadn’t hurt herself. I looked over at one of the nurses as my mother continued to fight, kicking at the people trying to help her off the floor.

  I saw the needle in her hand, and I nodded, giving her permission to do the one thing my mother would hate me for doing to her.

  “Leave me alone! Get away from me! You are not sticking me with that.”

  I put my face in my hands as they helped my mother into a wheelchair. Jimmy’s arms were around my waist, his lips pressing kisses into the top of my head. I was shaking, sobbing, no longer trying to cover up the pain I was in.

  “Come here,” Jimmy said. “I’m right here.”

  I sobbed into his shirt. I fisted it with all my might as rivers of tears flowed down my face. He scooted me to a little alcove off to the side and held me as tightly as he could. Kiss after kiss was placed on top of my head. His hands stroked through my knotted hair as I sniffled into his chest.

  “Jimmy. I’m sor—”

  “Don’t even,” he said. “Don’t finish that statement.”

  “I should’ve—”

  “I’m here, and that’s all that matters. You texted me. You told me what was going on, and I’m here. As I should be,” he said.

  “What am I going to do?” I asked.

  He rocked me side to side, swaying me in the small closet we were cooped up in as people passed us by. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pushed my hands underneath his shirt, feeling the strength of his lower back and trying to draw from it.

  “I think a day in with your best friend might help,” Jimmy said. “Why don’t you call her and invite her over to your new place? I’ll order you guys some pizza, the two of you can unpack, and I’ll come by later tonight with dinner.”

  “That actually sounds nice,” I said.

  “Give her a call. I’ll get the pizza ordered, and I’ll take you back to your place.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Okay. Yeah. That sounds good.”

  Cass met me at Ocean Homes, and I ran into her arms. She kept shushing me in my ear as Jimmy held the pizza beside us. He walked us up to my new place, set the pizza on the counter, and gave me one last kiss before he left.

  “Fuck, that man is gorgeous,” she said.

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “What? I can comment. I just can’t touch. So,
what happened with your mom?”

  “Everything this time. She kept asking for me but didn’t recognize me. She kept forgetting she was hungry and had ordered food. She thought Jimmy was my father. It was a mess. She spiraled. She pushed me away. I had to give the nurses permission for them to medicate her so they could get her back to her room.”

  Cass pulled me to her again as my body started to shake.

  “Your new place looks nice,” she said.

  “Thanks.”

  “And that pizza smells good.”

  “It does.”

  “Why don’t we eat and then go room by room, unpack, and talk?”

  “That’s fine with me. I just want to sit down,” I said.

  We carried the pizza over to the couch and sat looking out over the expanse of Miami. It really was a beautiful view, and it was calming to sit in the light of the sun. I chewed on the pepperoni pizza as Cass held my hand, comforting me as we sat in silence.

  “Now, I’m going to bug you about this because you’re calm, and Jimmy was here.”

  “No, I haven’t told him yet,” I said.

  “You need to, Ashley.”

  “One issue at a time. My mother just melted down.”

  “And now that issue has been resolved, at least for now,” she said.

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever figure out who’s doing all of this.”

  “Not your job. You’ve done your job, and now, your job is to tell Jimmy what you’ve found,” she said.

  “I know. I hear you, and I’m going to tell him. Can we just get through today first?”

  “If you promise me you’ll tell him tomorrow.”

  “Cass.”

  “Look, people get fired over less. And if you don’t want to look like you’ve fucked your way into corporate, then you need to conduct this as if you aren’t trying to protect your boyfriend.”

  “I’m not trying to protect him.”

  “Yes, you are. You said so yourself. You don’t think he can handle another blow like this because of the PR crap in the media or whatever. But if you weren’t screwing around with him, if you didn’t care about him, would you be waiting this long to tell him? Would you be trying to figure out who this was?”

  “Fuck,” I said breathlessly.

  “It’s okay to want to protect him, but if you keep this from him and he finds out and he still keeps you around, he’s not doing it because you’re good at your job. He’s doing it because you two are an item. Talk to him, Ashley. Tell him you’ve done your job, and this is what you’ve found. Like you would do if the two of you weren’t together.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I promise I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

  “Good. Now, we’re going to finish this pizza because it’s awesome. Then, we’re going to start in your bathroom and work our way across the apartment. By the time we’re done today, your new apartment will be ready.”

  “You’re going to make me haul all the cardboard boxes to the trash compactor, aren’t you?” I asked.

  “Only because I’ll have to hang all the pictures. I love you, but you can’t hang a picture to save your life.”

  Chapter 17

  Jimmy

  “Jimmy?”

  I looked up from my desk and saw Ashley standing there with her red hair piled high on her head and her glasses sliding down her nose. No matter what she wore and no matter what day it was, she never ceased to take my breath away. She had on this flowing summer dress with matching flats and a cardigan thrown over her shoulders. But there was something in her eyes that made me nervous.

  “What is it, Ashley?”

  “There’s something I need to talk with you about,” she said.

  “Sure. Come in and sit down.”

  She stepped in and closed the door, her shoulders hunched over a bit. Nerves began bubbling in my stomach as I stood up from my chair. Was she okay? Had something happened with her mother? She turned back around and started for the chair in front of my desk, her fingers twirling in her cardigan. She was chewing on her lower lip, and her eyes were darting around the room. It was the first time Ashley had ever looked fearfully uncomfortable in my office.

  Holy hell, was she about to break up with me?

  I started panicking. I sat on the edge of my desk and tried to keep my cool, but inside, I was freaking out. If Nina had ruined this for me, I would never forgive her. I would come down on her with a fury and light her ass up. And if for some ungodly reason, Nina had pulled something to stress Ashley out from beyond her holding cell, I would make sure that woman never saw the light of day again. She didn’t get to ruin my life because she got too greedy with my money. She didn’t get to ruin the best thing to ever happen to me because I’d ended our arrangement.

  That wasn’t how this worked.

  “Ashley, you’re worrying me. What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I need to talk with you about these,” she said.

  She dipped into the bag around her shoulders and pulled out some files. The manila folders had the balance sheets hanging out of them, and I could see they were all marked up. She sat down in the chair and handed them to me, my arm stretching out for the files.

  Was this all she wanted to talk about? Why was it making her so nervous?

  “You finished them,” I said.

  “I did, but it took me awhile because of all the discrepancies.”

  “Discrepancies?” I asked.

  “Take a look.”

  Her fingers were still fiddling with her cardigan as I put the folders on my desk. I picked one up and began to flip through it, my eyes scanning all the notes. There were arrows and plus signs and minus signs and numbers. Words like “stocks and bonds” and “withdrawals” and a bunch of circles around the letters L.R. I furrowed my brow as I flipped through the pages, taking in how many notes Ashley had made in the margins.

  “What is all this?” I asked.

  “These balance sheets are from the past couple of years at the company.”

  “It looks like a whole lot more,” I said.

  “I printed them all out in a bunch larger print so I could be sure of the numbers.”

  “There are a lot of notes here. No wonder it took you so long.”

  “And I went back all the way to the start of the company.”

  I rose my eyes to Ashley and quirked an eyebrow. She had printed off all the balance sheets since the inception of the company twelve years ago?

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because the discrepancies are everywhere. Back before you promoted me, Mr. Brent had me going through all this stuff. I figured there was an issue with the algorithm in the Excel spreadsheet, so I made a note of it and sent it back.”

  “But then he brought them to you again,” I said.

  “Yes. With a note telling me there was nothing wrong with the Excel spreadsheet. So I kept digging and kept making notations, and they go all the way back, Jimmy. There are small amounts of money transferred into random stock accounts and small amounts withdrawn too. Other amounts that come out of nowhere are put into those stock accounts before they disappear. The total of any one transaction never breaches fifty dollars, and the totals at the end of the balance sheets are correct. But the actual numbers used to get to that total are wrong. I notated everything on the sheets.”

  “I see that,” I said.

  “I know it looks confusing, but if you tally all of it up, over twenty million dollars have been toggled.”

  I almost swallowed my tongue at the number.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The only connection I can find are the initials L.R. It’s attached to most of the transactions.”

  “Not all of them?” I asked.

  “No. The first three years of the company don’t have usernames attached to the transactions, but after that, L.R. starts popping up. I tried tracking the person down, trying to figure out who it could be. It was why it took me so long. I’m sorry, Jimmy.”

  “No need to be sorr
y,” I said as I picked up another file.

  “I went down to the tech department and looked through everything. The hardware’s only been updated once, and both you and Ross signed off on it. I checked all the algorithms in the software myself, and nothing was wrong. It’s not the technology, Jimmy. Someone’s messing with the company’s money.”

  “This was the source of your stress over the past week, wasn’t it?” I asked.

  I watched Ashley look down into her lap as I sighed.

  “Ashley, I’m not upset with you.”

  “I tried figuring out who L.R. could be, but none of what I found made sense. I figured it might’ve been Nina, but nothing links back to her in any way. Then, I pulled up the past and present company logs, and no one with the initials L.R. or R.L. make any sense. One worked for HR two years ago, one was Ross’s personal assistant for a few months, and the other is a child of someone in the Public Relations department.”

  “You did all of that over this past week,” I said.

  “I also have to apologize to you,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Remember when I told you something was wrong with my mother?” she asked.

  I watched her heave a heavy sigh as I grinned.

  “Your mother was fine, wasn’t she?”

  “I needed an excuse to do a little more digging. I took the balance sheets home with me and finished off the tallies. I didn’t want to worry you because this is a job I technically started before I was promoted, and I got this position because of my initiative, and with everything that happened in the press a couple of weeks ago—”

  I set the folder on the desk and pushed myself away from it. I took Ashley’s hand in mine, silencing her cute little ramble. I pulled her up to her feet, wrapped my arm around her, and pulled her to me for a gentle kiss. Her hands settled on my hips as I held her closely, allowing my tongue to swipe out and touch her lips. The way she groaned into me, melting into my embrace, it sent my mind spiraling.

  “You’re remarkable,” I said.

  “I’m sorry for lying to you and keeping this from you,” Ashley said.

  “As far as I’m concerned, you were doing your job. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”