Ember (Constant Flame Duet Book 1)

by Christi Whitson

  But what then? she mused as she came to a stop outside of Nate’s office door. She took a deep breath, half wishing that she’d taken Owen up on his offer to be her backup. Lena knocked on the heavy wooden door and waited for an answer from within before opening it.

  “Hey, honey,” Nate greeted her, abandoning the paperwork on his desk. He looked tired but pleased to see her. “Come sit down. I haven’t heard from you at all this week. How did finals go?”

  “They went great. Grades should be posted next week.”

  “Well, I’m sure you did well,” he smiled. “You always do. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  “Um…” Lena faltered, trying to determine the best place to start. “Yeah, there’s something I wanted to discuss, and I need you to keep an open mind.” Nate glanced warily at her lap, where she was wringing her hands slightly.

  “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

  “No! Geez, Dad,” her mouth hung open with shock.

  “Sorry!” he held up his hands apologetically. “You just look like you’re facing your own executioner. What’s going on?” Lena sighed, forcing herself to focus.

  “Do you remember the assignment I had a few months ago for my Managerial Accounting class? The one I needed the sample budgets for?”

  “Yes, what about it?” Nate frowned.

  “Well… you told IT to make my permissions the same as yours, at least in terms of what I could see.”

  “Right, I figured that would be the simplest way for you to get what you needed. Why are we talking about this now?”

  “I… When I was gathering my research, I noticed something a bit odd, so I looked into it a little more. It only caught my eye because of something from one of my finance classes last year. We had to learn the red flags for embezzlement…”

  She had his full attention now.

  “You think someone’s embezzling? Why the hell didn’t you say anything before now?” Nate demanded, now leaning forward against his desk as though he was a second away from getting up to pace.

  “Because I wasn’t sure,” Lena winced. “And I’m still not. If I’m right, then the person is covering their tracks really well because it’s probably been going on for years.”

  “Who?”

  “It only stuck out because it’s someone too high up to really have a need to manage certain things personally, and most of the accounts in question are password-protected to the point that I couldn’t see them. Which would mean that you can’t see them either. And I’ve heard that the person is overly protective of their accounts, which in itself is strange, and -”

  “I want a name, Lena,” Nate insisted firmly, interrupting her rambling.

  “As soon as I tell you the name, you’ll tell me I’m being paranoid, but I don’t think I am. I checked to make sure my permissions really did match yours because I thought maybe it was human error, but it wasn’t. That means that this person has locked you out of the accounts also.”

  “I get it, Lena. I need a name.” His anger was evident in his expression, and although she knew he wasn’t angry with her, she instinctively began to shrink inward.

  “You have to understand that this person would have to be covering his tracks so well that he’s probably manipulating the internal audit data and even managing to fool the IRS…”

  “Who?!”

  “Jeff Phelps,” she sighed, her features full of regret.

  Nate closed his eyes and expelled a great gust of air as he sank back into his chair. He was silent for a moment, and in that brief fraction of time, Lena thought he might actually be considering the possibility that his friend had betrayed him.

  But then he shook his head, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.

  “That’s ridiculous,” he muttered. “I’m fully aware that Jeff handles some accounts personally, and there have never been any red flags with any of them. He’s got a better relationship with our government contacts, so it just makes sense for him to handle the larger accounts.”

  “Not all of the accounts he has locked down are military, Dad,” Lena insisted, leaning forward and raising her voice just as he’d done. “Four of the six are civilian, and three of those don’t seem anywhere near important enough to require handling by the CFO of a fifty billion-dollar corporation.”

  “That’s enough,” Nate declared sternly. “Jeff is my best friend; he’d never steal from us. Have you forgotten the fact that GC wouldn’t even exist right now if it weren’t for Jeff? Hell, just today, he saved a one-point-six million-dollar deal that I thought for sure we were going to lose!”

  “But -”

  “No, that’s enough. Lena, this company will be yours someday, and you’re going to need people you can rely on. People you can trust. Jeff is one of those people. He knows what he’s doing. Now, I appreciate that you’re concerned about the company, and I’m glad for that. It shows that you care, that I won’t be leaving my company in the wrong hands when I retire. But you need to remember that you’re still a student. You’re still learning.”

  “But why not just do an external audit? Keep him out of it completely, do it off the books so he doesn’t even know it’s happening, and -”

  “No, Lena. You need to let this go. Jeff Phelps would never steal from us. He’s like family.”

  Yeah, he’s the creepy uncle I never had, she muttered inwardly. Lena took a deep breath and felt herself deflate under her father’s authoritative gaze. This was nothing less than she’d expected. She’d known that he would respond like this, that he would tell her she’d misinterpreted what she’d found. She’d known he wouldn’t listen. Here he was, telling her to trust Phelps when he apparently didn’t even trust her. Lena didn’t understand why he would want to put his company in the hands of someone whose judgment he trusted so little.

  “I don’t understand why you’d want to make me the owner anyway, Dad,” she murmured, her eyes fixed blindly on the gleam of a silver picture frame that held a photo of her six-year-old self. “You could still be the owner and just hire me as CEO when you’re ready to step down.”

  “Because this way, you’ll have more of a stake in what you’re working for,” Nate explained. “Being the head of a company the size of GC is no small feat. I wouldn’t put you in that position if I didn’t think you were up to the task, but you’ll be more invested in the work if the company actually belongs to you.”

  Lena couldn’t argue with that logic, even if she did hate the idea. It was like an axe hovering over her head, waiting to fall as soon as she had that diploma in her hands. Granted, she knew that she would still likely have a few years of working full time at GC before her father actually stepped down, but it was unnerving all the same. Every passing day brought her closer to that reality, like walls closing in and pushing her steadily toward a pit that spelled the certain death of the dreams she’d kept locked away in her heart.

  “Now, if we’re done talking about this nonsense, I need to head home. It’s been a long day,” Nate announced, reclaiming his daughter’s attention. She nodded in defeat and rose from her chair to leave the room. “Hey, come here.”

  Lena paused and watched him walk around his desk to pull her into a hug. She remained somewhat stiff in his arms, wanting nothing more than to sprint from the room and get away from him.

  “I love that you care enough to notice when something seems off,” he said gently. “You’ll be good at this when it’s your turn. You just didn’t have all of the information.”

  She resisted the urge to point out that he’d failed to give her any new information that put her concerns to rest. Instead, she merely nodded and pulled away from him, avoiding his eyes.

  “Don’t forget about dinner tomorrow,” Nate said as she turned to leave.

  “Oh… I don’t know if -”

  “You need to be there. Trust me. You’ll be pissed at yourself if you skip out.”

  “Why?” she frowned.

  “You’ll see,” he shrugged, smiling myst
eriously. “Bring Owen too, of course.”

  Lena couldn’t bring herself to argue, saying a hasty goodbye and escaping the building as quickly as possible. As she drove to her apartment, her feeling of defeat evolved into one of irritation. She knew instinctively that she was right about Phelps, and she was more determined than ever to prove it. Lena thought briefly about Owen’s half-serious suggestion to have a hacker poke around in the system, but again she dismissed it. Even if his techy friend was a bona fide genius in the IT field, there was still a reasonable chance that he would be caught, and Lena knew that she couldn’t ask anyone to take such a risk.

  When she stepped through the front door of her apartment, she was greeted with the smell of taco meat simmering on the stove. Her brows lifted in surprise as she spotted her boyfriend putting out the tortillas, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream.

  “You cooked?”

  “I’m getting better at tacos,” he grinned proudly as she shed her coat and hung up her purse. Lena smiled too, realizing it was the first time she’d done so since setting foot in her father’s office. Owen’s next question practically erased it, however. “How did it go?”

  The look she gave him told him all he needed to know, and he frowned in consternation and surprise.

  “Seriously? He didn’t believe any of it?”

  “Pretty much,” she muttered. “He responded exactly the way I thought it would. Telling me I’m too young and inexperienced to know what I’m talking about, saying that Jeff is like family and would never steal from us…”

  Lena sank onto the sofa and put her forehead in her palms. Owen sighed, turning off the stove before coming to sit next to her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple.

  “Do you want me to talk to Declan?”

  “No,” she shook her head. “I can’t ask anyone to take that kind of risk. If he were caught, he’d go to jail. There’s… there’s nothing we can do. At least not right now.”

  “Not right now?” he echoed. Lena nodded grimly.

  “Someday, Dad will retire, and when he does, I’ll be in charge. I’ll be the owner then, and I’ll be able to pursue it.”

  “But are you sure it’s a good idea to wait that long? That’s years away.”

  “What else can I do?” she asked, feeling helpless. “Once I’m the CEO, I can pursue it, but I have no legal right to do that now. If my dad won’t believe me at least enough to look into it, then there’s really nothing I can do but hope that things don’t get worse before I can take over.”

  “Lena, you don’t even want to take over,” Owen reminded her.

  “You’re right; I don’t. But I’m not going to let a creep like Phelps betray my family this way. My dad works hard for GC, and he treats Phelps like family. That makes the whole thing even worse, and I’m not going to let Phelps get away with it.” Her determination slowly began to bleed into her tone, and he recognized the familiar stubbornness in her expression.

  “I still think it would be a good idea to talk to Sean. I could ask his advice in a hypothetical scenario.”

  “Wouldn’t it be kind of obvious which company you’re talking about though? You’re an intern at GC.”

  “I could say it’s for a school project,” he suggested. Lena was silent for a moment but eventually shook her head.

  “No, we can’t put him in a difficult position. If anything ever comes of my suspicions and it comes out that we talked to Sean, he could be forced to testify. This isn’t his fight. When we get to the point that I can really handle this situation, I’ll keep him in mind, but… not yet.”

  “So, we just wait.”

  “Yeah,” Lena sighed, leaning into him and closing her eyes. “We wait.”

  Chapter 26

  Sunday

  “Baby, if you don’t want to go, we can turn around right now. I don’t blame you for not wanting to be around your dad tonight.”

  “We’re almost there, just… Let’s just go and leave as quickly as possible. I don’t want to talk to him, so maybe you can distract him. Get him into a business discussion like you usually do. Maybe he’ll forget I’m at the table.”

  “Lena…”

  “I know, I’m sorry, that… It didn’t come out right, but you know what I mean. You guys seem to have this whole other language, and while it’s irritating sometimes, tonight I’m counting on it to make dinner pass as quickly as possible. Let’s just go, eat, and leave.”

  “Me talking to your dad about business bothers you?” Owen frowned.

  “Not really. At least not so much anymore. It’s good that he likes you.”

  Owen very much wanted to pursue the subject, but they were coming up on the turn to her father’s house. He’d picked up on her tension in the past, but once he’d learned about her unique relationship with her father, he’d assumed that it was to blame for her pointed silences and guarded expressions. Tonight was certain to be chock full of those.

  When they pulled to a stop on the circle drive, Lena gasped as she caught sight of a blue pickup. He glanced at her in concern, but the look on her face wasn’t one of alarm.

  “Oh my God! Hurry!”

  She fumbled with her seatbelt and was out of the car before he could ask what was going on. Owen grunted in confusion as he followed her, his long strides catching up easily, and by the time she made it through Nate’s front door, he was right on her heels. She sprinted into the living room and paused just inside of the door, staring in shock at the dark-haired man who stood next to her father’s roaring fireplace. He turned to her, and his face split into a brilliant smile. Owen watched in confusion and dismay as his girlfriend squealed and launched herself into the man’s open arms.

  “Logan James, you fucking asshole! Why didn’t you call me?! Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?!” In spite of her admonishments, she was squeezing the life out of him. A chuckle emanated from his chest, and he hugged her back, lifting her feet completely off the ground and swaying from side to side.

  “I’m sorry, Squeak. I wanted to surprise you.” Logan’s arms tightened around her as he felt her begin to cry, and he inhaled her scent as deeply as her constricting arms would allow. “Hey, it’s okay. Shhh. I’m home. I’m okay.”

  After a moment, he lowered her back to the ground, but Lena merely adjusted her embrace to wrap her arms around his torso. She was ruining his shirt as she sobbed with relief, but she knew that he didn’t care.

  “Told ya you’d want to be here,” Lena heard her father say smugly. She didn’t look at him.

  Owen stood awkwardly in the arched doorway, not entirely sure what to make of this development. He’d known there was a chance that Logan might be home for the holidays, but since Lena hadn’t heard from him in weeks, she’d all but given up hope that it would actually happen. Owen couldn’t help but catalog the man’s attributes with an increasing sense of unease. Logan looked exactly as one might expect an Army Ranger to look. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, with his dark hair cut in the military fashion. He wore a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved green t-shirt, which was now damp with Lena’s tears of relief and stretched snugly over his impressive biceps and pectorals. All of that would’ve been bad enough, but he’d also been blessed with a face that would put a male model to shame.

  Logan James was entirely too good-looking for his own good, Owen decided. And he still has his arms around my girlfriend.

  After another moment, Nate beckoned him into the room with a tolerant smile and introduced him to his other guest, whom Lena had completely ignored as well.

  “Owen, this is an old friend of mine, Gregory James. Greg, this is Owen Langford, Lena’s boyfriend.”

  Logan’s ears pricked up at that word, and his eyes darted to the man now shaking his father’s hand. They sized each other up as Logan continued to rub Lena’s back soothingly. Logan’s expression was unreadable, but Owen wasn’t as successful at hiding his skepticism. Lena heard her father’s introduction and finally extricated hers
elf from Logan’s arms, shaking her head at her own lack of manners.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes carefully to avoid smearing her makeup everywhere. “Owen, this is Logan James.”

  Logan extended his hand and gripped Owen’s a little harder than necessary, but both kept neutral smiles on their faces. Lena had told Logan a lot about her boyfriend in her emails, but much as Owen had decided to reserve judgment until he’d actually met Lena’s best friend, Logan had chosen to do the same. Nate and Gregory watched the silent stand-off, glancing at each other with comically dubious expressions. Lena seemed to be the only person in the room who was oblivious to the testosterone permeating the air.

  Owen suppressed the urge to flex his hand when Logan released it and silently pledged to find time to work out more. To his relief, Lena stepped toward him and wrapped an arm around his lower back. His own arm automatically draped over her shoulder, and they smiled at each other. Owen gently wiped the last of the moisture from her eye and pressed his lips to her hairline.

  “Well, dinner should be ready any minute. Let’s move to the dining room,” Nate suggested.

  As they took their seats around the table, Owen didn’t miss the fact that Logan chose the one directly opposite Lena. He assumed that Logan would have planted himself at Lena’s side if both chairs hadn’t been occupied by her boyfriend and her father.

  “So, Logan, Lena’s told me that you’ve been out of contact for a while,” Nate said as the kindly housekeeper carried in a few serving platters. Lena chuffed quietly, apparently still frustrated with Logan for the radio silence.