Page 30 of This Could Be Us
Lottie:Don’t forget I need to be at the gym by 3:30 today. Coach wants to go over the new routine before next week’s meet.
Me:I got you. See you at carpool.
Lottie:And can you bring string cheese? I’ll be starving!
It’s ironic that Edward believes I have so much leisure time when it usually feels like my life revolves around my family and this house, both of which I love so much. But when is it time for me?
“Certainly not now,” I mutter, grabbing my purse and a sweatshirt to slide over my head as I run down the steps and to the garage.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JUDAH
Any update on the situation with Barnes?” Brett Callahan asks, fixing his eyes on me from the other end of the boardroom.
“He’s still in custody and not talking,” I tell the room full of directors since our CEO obviously assumes I should know. “I remain in close communication and cooperation with the Feds, but we’re pretty hands-off at this point, unless they need something clarified or to follow up with more questions. I did convey I suspected that coward had planned a way to run. The FBI followed that thought and discovered the ticket to Bali. He’s been deemed a flight risk. No bail.”
“The audacity of that motherfucker,” Delores Callahan spits from the other end of the table. “After all this company has done for him. Are they any closer to recovering our money?”
“The FBI is following every lead,” I report with a frown. “It’s harder to trace than I would expect, especially some of the offshore accounts in countries that won’t cooperate because of privacy laws. Some of the trails lead to shell companies and some just vanish. It’s actually pretty elaborate and complex.”
“We need him to talk,” Brett says. “They froze his money, right? Get the Feds to apply pressure everywhere we can. Make his family feel it.”
My teeth grind with the effort it takes not to yell that it won’t make a difference. It will only hurt Soledad and her daughters, not Edward.
“That’s out of our hands at this point,” I say. “They have frozen theaccounts by court order, but there’s not much more we can do as a company to exert pressure.”
“You’re not going soft on us, are you, Cross?” Brett booms, a crooked grin slicing across his face. “You’re usually the hard-ass of the bunch.”
“I just don’t think we should waste energy and time coming up with things that won’t get us what we want,” I assert. “Edward Barnes is a selfish asshole counting on a short sentence for a white-collar crime, after which he’ll go dig up the money he’s buried in accounts all over the world. At this point all we can do is assist the FBI’s investigation however we can.”
“We do control the family’s health-care benefits,” says Dick, one of the department heads, who more than lives up to his name. “That is one of the few places we can still exert pressure.”
Keeping my face expressionless, I grip my pen so tightly, it may start bleeding ink all over the conference room table.
“Maybe that pretty wife of his’ll buckle when she can’t pay for a sick kid or send them to that fancy private school,” Dick continues.
“Does it matter that she’s pretty?” Delores asks with raised brows, and, if I’m not mistaken, a touch of affront. “Sometimes I think I’m the only thing standing between this company and a sexual harassment suit.”
“I don’t care if she looks like the bottom of my fucking shoe,” Brett thunders, his good-natured smile replaced with a scowl on his florid face. “I want my money, and if squeezing Soledad Barnes gets it, then you damn well better squeeze, Judah. Dick’s angle on medical benefits may have some merit.”
The hell it does.
I stay silent but glance up at the CalPot CEO to at least acknowledge I’ve heard him. I’m the most logical,ruthless when I need to beson of a bitch in this room, and while I don’t think pressuring Soledad will yield any real results, I understand that is the smart play. But I can’t let them make it. I will find a way to stop them from making it. It’s irrational, this desire to shield her—to protect her from the fallout ofEdward’s actions. What if my gut is wrong? What if shedoesknow more than she’s letting on? Am I, the man who has always been impervious to distractions, being blinded by luxurious dark, amber-streaked curls, a pouty mouth the color of grenadine, and an ass that…
I blow out a long breath, forcing myself to refocus on the meeting I’m supposedly leading. “I believe if Soledad thinks of anything or finds something that will help us, will help her and her daughters,” I say, “that she’ll share it.”
“Maybe I should talk to her,” Dick drawls, his smile slipping into a leer.
“No,” I say, the word clipped and my unwavering stare flinty. “You won’t.”
I had a hard time not looking at Soledad in that gold dress at the Christmas party, but Dick didn’t even try. With his wife right beside him, he shamelessly ogled Soledad. The fuck he’s going to her house to “talk to her.”
“What I mean,” I continue, evening out my voice, “is that we should have little to no contact with Edward’s family right now.”
“Says who?” Dick demands.
“Says the FBI,” I shoot back. “One wrong word or interaction between us and them could jeopardize this case.”