Penance (Oak Grove Suspense Book 2)

by Reese A. Stephens

  “Then why are you even mentioning a work around? It’s obviously something you’ve at least considered.”

  “Of course it’s something I’ve considered, because it’s not wrong. It would be a job for the company. We could give you a discounted price. It’s a win-win. We would only pay the men. I’m not trying to pull one over on you.”

  I think about that for a moment. I guess that would be legal. I’d pay the company for the work like anyone else, but the way he makes it sound is like he wants to leave it off the books. Something is going on here that I really don’t understand at the moment. My mind keeps going back to the money. I know I had it in there and I won’t rest until I find out what happened to it. Grant looks down at his phone and grimaces.

  “I need to take this. Are we cool?”

  “Sure, but I still want to check to be sure something isn’t going on with the missing money?”

  “Yeah, we’ll work on it, don’t worry.”

  He leaves. I sit back, staring at the mess on my desk and the computer screen that tells me I have a zero balance in my bonus account. It really makes no sense. I’ve never been so wrong before. I organize my desk and check into my other accounts. I can’t find that extra money anywhere. It’s like it just disappeared. My gut tells me that something is going on with Grant and he’s not being one-hundred percent truthful with me. For right now, all I can do is trust that he is and move forward until I know differently.

  Chapter Three

  Judson

  “Daddy, will you play babies with me?” Josie asks. I smile at my girl. She looks so much like her mother.

  “Of course, sweetheart. Let me change and I’ll be right there.”

  “Okay, Daddy.” She runs off to the den and I head to my bedroom to change.

  Shannon is in our room texting on her phone. She doesn’t look happy. “Hey, what’s wrong?” I lean across the bed and kiss her cheek.

  She startles slightly. “Nothing. My sister is trying to stir up trouble between me and Mom.”

  I nod. This isn’t anything new. Krissy is always trying to cause issues. She thrives on drama. “Josie wants me to play dolls with her. I’ll be in the den if you need me.”

  “Okay, I’ll start dinner in a few.” I run my finger over her pinched brow, smoothing it out. She relaxes and gives me a small smile, placating my worry.

  In the den, I play with Josie until dinner. After dinner, I go outside and chase both kids around the yard. By nine, I’m exhausted and ready for bed myself. I have a lot to do in the office tomorrow and I want to go in early. Shannon is in our room, on the phone, again. This is really starting to annoy me.

  “What’s with you and that phone today? Is Kris really causing you that much trouble?”

  “Uh?” She looks up confused.

  I try to hold my temper, but with what happened with Grant this morning it’s hard. “Why have you been on the phone all day?”

  “Kris is just really in a bad place. I thought at first she was trying to stir up trouble between us, but she’s really having a rough time with the guy she’s dating. He has a gambling problem. She’s been trying to get him to stop. I’m sorry, I’ve been so wound up with this. I was just trying to help her.”

  I guess I can’t begrudge her helping her sister. “I get it, I do, but maybe you could just tell her you’ll catch up with her later so you can spend some time with us?”

  “The kids are in bed.” She turns to her phone, typing something else.

  “What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing. I told you, Krissy needs me right now.”

  “Fine. I’m going to bed, can you do that in the living room?”

  I’m done trying to get through to her, sure I could come out and say I need her, but I don’t want to do that. I want her to choose me over her sister, which I guess is selfish. I’m just really spent right now after my day at the office. Sleep is definitely what I need. I watch her leave the room without a word or look to me. Something is definitely going on with her and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say her sister had little to do with it.

  ~*~

  “Good morning, Judson,” Kate, my receptionist, says as I enter my office the next morning.

  “Morning, Kate. Can you get Clay Barstoe on the phone for me?”

  “Sure thing.”

  I go into my office and pull out all the documentation I have for all of my accounts and everything that Grant is supposed to handle, but rarely does, for accounting purposes.

  “Mr. Barstoe is on line one.”

  “Thanks, Kate.” I pick up the call. “Clay.”

  “Hey, man. What’s going on? You never call me at the office.”

  I run my hand over my beard and take a few seconds to gather my thoughts. “Yeah, I was wondering if you could meet me for lunch. I have something I need to talk to you about. I need your discretion.”

  “Of course. You guys want to meet me at Clyde’s?” Clay asks.

  “No, just me. I don’t want Grant to know we’re meeting.”

  “Whoa, yeah okay. Why don’t you pick us up some sandwiches and come to my office? It’ll be more private.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be there at noon.”

  “See you then.”

  I hang up and blow out a deep breath as I stare at my ceiling. Clay is one of my best friends and a silent partner in our business. He’d originally offered to do all the accounting work for us, but at the time, that seemed silly considering Grant has a degree in accounting and Clay has his own business. Now, I’m thinking that having a third party involved in the daily work might have been a smarter move. Clay helped us with all the start-up, but he’s never been an active participant.

  “Hey, man. You’re here early,” Grant says as he strides into my office and sits on the chair in front of my desk.

  “Yeah, just trying to get all this mess straightened up.”

  “You’re so anal. I had it under control.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. What’s done is done. How’d your meeting with the potential client go?”

  I don’t want him digging deeper into this. I want to find out if something is up before I even ask him. I have a huge feeling he’s lying, I just don’t know if it’s about the books, or something else.

  “It went really well. That’s what I came in here to tell you. They want us to come up to the site. They have a few things that they want us to change up, and they have a couple of other jobs they want to present to us.”

  I’m impressed. He’s really done a lot to get this contract. He’s been in negotiations with Holts and Smith Lodging for months now. They just lost their contractor six months ago and have been shopping around to find builders who can match the expertise of their previous company in building log homes.

  “Yeah, I can do that. When do they want us?”

  “He said he’d like us to come up Wednesday, if we can swing it.”

  I check our calendar. It looks like today is the only day this week where we’re starting a new job. Grant and I always make sure we’re on site for day one. We go over the timeline and general information with the crew, but after that, we only spot check the site and have weekly meetings with our foreman.

  “That’s doable, I think. Let me double check with Shan.”

  “Sure. I’ll be ready to head to the site in about twenty.” Grant stands to leave. “Unless you need something else?”

  “Nope, that’s good. See you in twenty.” I gather up all the files I need for Clay and grab my laptop. I stop at Grant’s office. “Hey, I’ll meet you there. I have some errands to run around lunch.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll leave here in a few. See you there.”

  I’m glad he didn’t ask any questions, but then again, he seemed preoccupied with his phone. He was as wrapped up in it as Shannon was last night. I just don’t understand the obsession. If you have that much to say to someone, why not actually call them?

  Grant shows up to the site about
twenty minutes late, so our time with our men is very rushed. When we first started the company, Grant and I did most of the work ourselves, but that has slowly changed over the years. I don’t mind. My passion is furniture anyway. Originally, Grant and I had talked about opening up a shop for hand-crafted furniture, but the market wasn’t as strong, so we went with construction. I make furniture on the side in my spare time, it’s a great stress reliever for me.

  I arrive at Clay’s office about ten minutes after twelve. His assistant pokes her head out of the lunchroom to tell me he’s waiting for me in his office. I nod and grab our lunches, heading to the back. Clay is pretty much a minimalist and doesn’t bother with a lot of décor.

  “There you are. I thought I was being stood up,” Clay says, his jovial spirit is contagious as always. It makes me wish I was here to shoot the breeze instead of bringing the heavy.

  I laugh. “Nah, Grant was late to the site so it took us longer to get things going. I brought you an Italian with the works from Gino’s, hope that’s okay.”

  “You know it’s my favorite. So what’s going on with Grant?” He asked, digging into his sandwich.

  “I don’t really know. He’s been on his phone almost nonstop. Even during the meeting with our workers. I had to get his attention several times. Then, as soon as we were finished, he was out the door. He only stopped to ask me if I was going home. He’s been acting really strange.”

  “That does sound strange. He’s always been so collected. I mean, he’s totally irresponsible at times, but he normally pulls through. Do you think he has a girl?”

  “Maybe. I thought that, but he seems worried, and with the accounting mess, I’m wondering if he didn’t do something and is now trying to cover it up.”

  Clay nods his head. His eyes brighten and he points at my laptop as he swallows his bite of food. “Yeah, yeah, what’s going on with that? That’s why you wanted to talk, right?”

  I nod my head, swallowing my own food. “It is.”

  I take the next several minutes to fill him in on everything that I found when I came back from my trip. He asks questions that I do my best to answer. I really thought I was on top of things but now I’m questioning if I ever was. We also spend some time talking about Grant’s careless attitude towards my questions and concerns.

  “It was almost like he was trying too hard, to make it seem like I was the one in the wrong.”

  “Let me take a look at what you brought. I might need to keep it for a couple of days. Will that be okay?”

  “Well, I need the laptop, but the files yes.”

  “That’s okay. I can save your laptop files on a drive, but let me look at it while you’re here.”

  “Sure. We’re leaving Wednesday for a meeting with a big lodging company. We placed a bid to be their next builders, so hopefully it’ll go well.” I power up the laptop for him and open the program.

  “Yeah? That’s great. Let me know how it goes. You know, if you want me to step back into the company, I will. Just say the word.”

  I nod my head. I know he’s right. He helped us get off the ground, then took a back seat. It might be a smart move to have him step back in, maybe not take over the accounting, but be that third voice when Grant and I disagree.

  “I might need you. I’ll let you know.”

  I watch as he goes over the documents on the computer. He jots a few things down, but otherwise just clicks through various windows. After about ten minutes he looks up to me.

  “I don’t see anything from here, but I’ll go through everything more thoroughly this week and let you know.”

  He backs up my files to a portable drive and makes copies off all the paperwork I’ve given him. I pack up my stuff and leave the office, feeling a little better than I did when I went in. I know Clay will be able to figure everything out for me and at least set my mind at ease. I head back to the office. It’s already three and I have several things I need to do before I can go home this evening.

  “Hey, Kate. Is Grant in?”

  She smiles at me quickly before she frowns. “He is, but he asked that he not be disturbed.”

  “Is he on his phone still?”

  “He was the last I saw him, but he’s been in the office for about an hour. I’ve heard a lot of cursing.”

  “Okay, I’ll give him a few, but if he comes out, tell him I need to speak with him.”

  “Sure.”

  I look at his door for a moment before I head to my office. I put away all my files and pull out the blueprints and other materials I’ll need for our meeting out of town. We’ve mostly gone digital, but I always like to have a hard copy of the blue prints for a visual in my meetings. It’s one of the many things Grant and I disagree on, not that it really matters.

  “Kate said you wanted to see me?” Grant pokes his head into my office.

  “Yeah, I’m just getting everything set up for our meeting. Did you handle the travel arrangements?”

  “Yeah, I had Kate do that this morning. Our flight leaves at nine and gets there about ten. Our meeting is at lunch.”

  “How long will we be staying?”

  “We come home Friday afternoon. They want to drive us around to different sites on Thursday. We’ll have some downtime to explore, but they want us to come to dinner with them both nights. This is a really big account for us, Jud. We need to wine and dine them.”

  I run my hand through my hair. He knows I hate being away from my family. “I know that. I’m going, but I just hate leaving Shan and the kids that long.”

  “It’s three days. They’ll be fine. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen.”

  I grimace. “I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s just plan not to have any more overnight trips for a while. This is the second one in the past month.”

  “Agreed. I’m heading out for the day if you don’t have anything else.”

  “I’m good. I have the presentation ready. I think I’ll leave at lunch tomorrow and spend the rest of the day with Shannon and the kids.”

  “Sure. Sounds good. We’ve got this, Jud, don’t worry.”

  “You’re right.” And he really is, with all the work he’s put in already, this will be a breeze. But, I’m a worrier by nature and I can’t help but fret over every last detail.

  I’m home by dinner time. I haven’t broken the news to Shannon yet. The last time I had to go away on business she was pretty upset about me leaving. The kids are wild tonight and Shannon looks frazzled. She’s still on her phone more than I’d like her to be. Normally, this isn’t an issue. She’s never glued to it, but the past two days have been a flurry of activity. I think with Grant being on his all day and her on hers since the moment I walked in the door has really sent me over the edge.

  “What’s with you and that stupid phone?”

  Shannon looks up at me surprised. “What? What’re you talking about?” She sits there blankly staring at me for several long moments.

  “You’ve been on your phone for two days. You’ve not heard anything I’ve said to you. What’s going on with your sister that could possibly be more important than interacting with your husband and our kids?”

  She is angry. It’s written all over her face. “How dare you accuse me of not taking care of the kids? They aren’t babies, they’re five. They don’t need me on constant guard. I have taken care of them.”

  “Jay was by the road when I pulled in. I could have hit him if I wasn’t being careful.” I stare at her.

  “Did you punish him? He knows he’s not allowed by the road.”

  I shake my head. “No, I didn’t. He’s five. He knows he’s not allowed, but he still needs reminders. You should be outside with them, Shan. We’ve talked about this.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Just because we talked about it, doesn’t mean I agree with you. They are fine playing outside by themselves. I check on them every few minutes. Besides that, I’ve been sitting by the front window where I can see them. I had stuff I needed to take
care of, so I did.”

  “What stuff?”

  “My sister. I told you that.”

  “What’s really going on with Krissy?”

  She stares at me again. She slips her phone into the back pocket of her jeans, then pushes her brunette hair off her face. “I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone, including you. I intend to keep my word. Excuse me, I need to go check on my children.” She walks off.

  Growling, I shove back out of the kitchen chair making it hit the ground hard. I don’t have time for this. I follow her outside. “Shannon, we really need to talk. I don’t care if you tell me about your sister’s problems or not, but we need to talk about my trip.”

  She whirls around to face me. “What trip?”

  “Grant and I have to go out of town for a business meeting.”

  “Oh, that,” she says softly.

  “What do you mean, ‘Oh, that?’”

  She puts her hands on her hips and stares at me. “How long have you known about it and not said anything? I called the office to talk to you today and Grant said you were out on lunch. I tried your cell, but you didn’t answer, as per usual.”

  “I did have a lunch meeting.”

  “With who? Grant said he didn’t know, so it couldn’t have been work related.”

  She’s tapping her foot now, so I know she’s getting really angry. Stupid Grant. “I just had lunch with Clay. Would you like to call him to confirm?” I hold out my phone. Her ire deflates as she shakes her head no. “As for not answering my phone, I can’t answer it when there’s no call.” I scroll through my missed call list, I don’t see her name. “I don’t have any text from you either. You can check the phone if you want.” I hold it out to her again, and again she shakes her head. I know she’s lying.

  “I don’t like fighting. I wanted to have a nice evening with you and the kids before I have to head out of town. Can we just forget all this and maybe watch a movie or play a board game?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry.” She wraps her arms around me and I respond, hugging her tightly to me. I press my cheek to the top of her head.