Page 46 of Forever Only Once

Chapter 10

Cross

I was running late.But then again, when my head was in the game, and I was enjoying my work, I tended to be focused on only that. However, people were waiting for me. Or, rather, she was waiting for me. I wasn’t actually going to be late, but I did have to hurry up and finish what I was doing.

The project in front of me was complete, thank God. I was just going over it for anything I needed to change or work on before my clients picked it up. I felt like I’d done a good job, even if it wasn’t my most elegant piece. I was still nervous about what the clients would think of the finished product, but that was always the case. No matter what I did, I was always nervous, even if it was damn good work.

I rolled my shoulders back, gave the piece one more nod, and then went on to the next item on my checklist before I could leave.

I went to my desk rather than my workroom and opened the files on my computer.

I really didn’t want to do this, but I had to. I needed to go through every single one of my files, both those for my work and Chris’s.

I needed to dissolve this partnership, and I had to make sure that everything was sound before I did. I did not want to fuck this up more than it already was, but this wasn’t the first time I had gone over this paperwork in the past two days. Wasn’t even the second. And I didn’t like what I was seeing.

I had made a grave mistake. I’d trusted the wrong person. If I weren’t careful, I was going to pay for it and with more than just a potential ulcer, and lack of sleep.

Chris was stealing from me. There was no getting around that, not when I looked at the numbers in front of my face.

I wouldn’t have figured it out until I sat down and worked through every single error that I encountered. I wasn’t even sure my accountant would have noticed it because he wouldn’t have known that some of the items on the list were lies. He would have trusted me to make sure I sent him the right info, and would have trusted Chris to do the same. He would have double-checked everything, but there were some things that the accountant couldn’t triple-check unless he knew the specifics behind every single item.

Even I was having trouble finding the reasons for some of these things, and I should have known every single one. This was my fault. I had fucked up by not looking sooner, and now I would have to figure out what the fuck to do. Should I go to the cops? Or to the IRS?

Because if this was fucked up the way it was, it likely wasn’t the only thing. I had a feeling that Chris was fully aware of what was going on. We could potentially lose the business, and I would be the one on the hook when it came to the IRS. Because I didn’t think Chris would be the one holding the bag at the end. No, he was going to leave that with me.He’d make sure of it.

“Fuck.”

I went through the books line by line again, my back aching as I found myself twisted over my desk, wondering what the hell I was going to do. I had to be wrong.

I was just overthinking things.

“And that was how you got into trouble to begin with,” I said.

By trusting the wrong person.

I saved everything and put it in my cloud so I could show Liam later. Liam would know what to do. And even though it grated on me that I would have to ask my brother-in-law for help, I knew that Liam would know who to talk to. I was grateful that I had someone to go to at all.

But, fuck. There was something wrong with what I was looking at, though I couldn’t pinpoint the exact errors. And that meant I needed help. Because if the business went belly-up because of Chris, I didn’t want to take the fall with him. And I wanted my fucking money.

I had bled for that, worked long hours for it, put every single ounce of myself into it. And Chris was stealing from me.

“Knock, knock,” Chris said from the doorway. “You look so serious. What’s wrong?”

I fisted my hands on the desk. I knew that this wasn’t the time to go over everything. I didn’t have all of the evidence ready, and I didn’t even know what to say. Plus, I didn’t know how Chris would react. What I wanted to do was wipe that smile from his face and beat the shit out of him. And since that wasn’t the appropriate response, I didn’t say anything. But, hell, we were about to have our reckoning, and it was a long time coming.

“Just going over some paperwork.”

Was I wrong, or did I see a flash of fear on the other man’s face? Maybe it was just cunning. Regardless, I saw too much.

“Oh.” A pause. “New clients?”

Chris walked over to my side, and I closed the files, but not quickly enough.

“Accounting? That’s not your job. Were those my files, too?” Chris rolled his shoulders back and glowered. “Going over my work? Or are you just jealous that I’m making more than you?”

“We know that’s not the fucking case,” I blurted, and then could have rightly hit myself upside the head.

Hadn’t I just told myself that I was going to wait until I had all the evidence, that I was going to be cool and collected and not fuck things up? I sighed internally. I was so glad that I followed my own advice.