Jack finally finished his perusal. “Come on in.”
Damien smirked and followed Jack inside.
Jack lead Damien to his office. “Eric, that’s the general manager, has some paperwork you’ll need to fill out later.” He turned to Damien. “I thought you could share Eric’s office if that’s okay with you.”
Damien nodded and Jack clapped his hands. “Okay then. Let’s do a tour first. The store’s not open ‘til ten, but I’ll show you around back first.”
By the time they had finished the tour, Eric had arrived and settled in his office. Jack went to introduce Damien. He entered without knocking. Eric quickly slammed his laptop shut when the door opened. Jack glanced at the laptop but didn’t respond to Eric’s actions. He was probably just watching porn. No biggie. He wouldn’t yell at someone for watching porn, but Eric might be embarrassed about his porn choices.
“Eric,” Jack began and pointed to Damien. “This is Damien. I hired him as our bookkeeper.”
Damien went forward and shook hands with Eric. Eric looked like he had swallowed a sour apple. “I thought I told you I wanted a PA, not a bookkeeper,” he growled at Jack.
Damien cleared his throat. “I’m just going to go grab a cup of coffee from the break room. Anyone want one?” No one paid him any attention as he quickly retreated.
“What the hell, Eric?” Jack asked between clenched teeth.
“I told you what I need, but you didn’t listen to me!”
Jack raised an eyebrow at Eric’s insubordination. “You said you needed help. I told you I wasn’t hiring a PA. You may be the general manager, but I’m the owner.”
“I have discretion over hiring and firing,” Eric leaned forward and his nostrils flared.
“Nope,” Jack shook his head. “You only have discretion over hiring and firing the store staff not the back office staff.” Jack was relieved that he and Wyatt had made that point perfectly clear when they hired Eric.
“Fine,” Eric pushed out between clenched teeth.
Jack ignored Eric’s displeasure. “I thought we could set Damien up in your office for now.”
“Great. Something else I don’t have time for.”
“That’s enough Eric.” Jack’s patience had reached its limit. “You would have to train a PA as well, you know.”
Damien returned with a cup of coffee. He cleared his throat loudly before walking through the open doorway. Jack turned to him. “For now you can work in here with Eric. He can help you get set up.” Jack pointed to a desk adjacent to Eric’s monstrosity of a workspace.
Jack didn’t bother to say goodbye and took off for his own office, annoyed by Eric’s response. Yes, Eric said he wanted a PA, but Jack had immediately nixed that idea and said he’d hire a bookkeeper. So why was Eric being such a pain in the ass now? Someone was getting too big for his britches. With a sigh, he sunk down in his office chair and opened his computer.
The door flung open an hour later. Jack looked up in surprise to see Wyatt standing there. “Hey, Wyatt.”
“Don’t ‘Hey Wyatt’ me.” Wyatt’s normally light skin was flushed red.
Jack leaned back in his chair and raised his eyebrow. “What’s going on?” He spoke slowly so as not to spook the beast before him.
“What’s going on?” Wyatt threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “You hired someone without consulting me!”
Jack sighed before standing and moving to close the office door. Maybe he shouldn’t come to the office on Mondays? “What do you care? You’re never here.”
“You used to never be here either,” Wyatt accused.
Jack shrugged. “I’ve been coming in more lately. Eric said he couldn’t handle the workload anymore so I agreed to hire a bookkeeper. I emailed you over a week ago about all this.”
“But you didn’t wait on my reply.”
Jack swallowed his irritation. He knew better than to agitate Wyatt when he was in one of his moods. “Look, Wyatt, I didn’t think you’d care. I sent that email nearly two weeks ago and haven’t heard anything from you since.”
Wyatt took deep breaths and had started to calm down when there was a knock on the door. “Come in!” Jack yelled.
Damien opened the door. He took one look at Wyatt and Jack and his cheeks flushed pink. “Shit, I’m sorry to interrupt. I’ll come back later.” He started to back out of the office.
Jack waved his concerns away. “It’s fine. What’s up?”
Damien studied his feet before taking a deep breath and speaking. “I was wondering if I could work somewhere else.”
“What’s going on?” Wyatt was immediately on alert.
Damien shrugged. “Um, well…”
“Just spit it out.”
“Eric’s not too happy right now and he’s really loud. It’s hard to get any work done.” Damien’s cheeks had turned an even darker red.
Jack and Wyatt looked at each. This wasn’t good. They depended on Eric. “Well, we don’t have another office available right now. You can work in here until we figure things out.” Jack took one look at Wyatt and knew he had some explaining to do. “Can you give us 15 minutes to get things arranged?”
“Sure.” Damien rushed out of the office.
The second the door was shut Wyatt turned on Jack. “That’s who you hired?” Jack could barely understand Wyatt; his teeth were clenched that tight together.
Fuck. Between Izzy, Eric, and Wyatt, Jack was wondering why he bothered to try. “Yes,” he nodded and responded slowly. “He’s qualified. We interviewed him last week.”
“Who’s we?”
“Izzy and I.”
“Of course, Izzy and you. Always Izzy.”
“Sarcasm is not attractive, Wyatt.” Jack planted his hands on his hips. “I told you in the email, Izzy was helping. You could have picked up the phone and asked to help, but you didn’t.”
“I didn’t think you were gonna hire a piece of man candy!” Wyatt exploded.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Are you saying that because he’s good looking he can’t do the job because that’s prejudiced and I won’t stand for it.”
Wyatt shook his head. “Seriously, Jack? You know me. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you hired some pretty boy so you could fuck him.”
Jack blinked the shock of the brutality of Wyatt’s declaration away. “What the fuck, Wyatt? Just because we were once lovers doesn’t give you the right to say things like that.”
“Once lovers.” Wyatt snorted. “We were in love and look at you now.”
Jack heard shuffling in the hallway. “Look, the office is not the place to have this conversation. Let’s go out for drinks tonight and we’ll discuss this.”
Wyatt’s dour face suddenly lit up with happiness. He nodded quickly. Oh shit. This was going to be bad.
Chapter 9
No office quickie?
Ugh! Jack moaned as his eyes refused to open and his stomach began to revolt. He had a sickening feeling that something wasn’t right. That he had royally fucked something up. His eyes were no longer necessary to confirm his fear when he felt the naked body cuddling up to him. Oh shit. He slowly turned his head and forced one eye open to peek behind him. Crap.
Jack smacked his hand on his forehead before remembering his stomach’s precarious situation. It rolled and he took deep breaths through his nose to hold the nausea at bay. When he felt nearly certain that his stomach wasn’t going to revolt, he carefully peeled the arm off his stomach and slid out of the bed.
“Where are you going?” Wyatt’s sleepy voice indicated the gig was up.
Double crap. “I feel like shit. I’m gonna head home and get some uninterrupted sleep.” And try to figure out how I ended up here.
“You can sleep here.” Wyatt’s eyes narrowed on Jack as he rushed around finding his clothes and quickly dressing.
“I prefer my own bed. You know that.” Jack didn’t bother to respond to
the sigh he heard. He just finished dressing and made his escape. He had no idea where his car was, but a ride was only a phone call away.
“Hello,” muttered Izzy.
“Izzy,” Jack whispered. “I need a ride.”
“Where are you?” She was awake now.
“Wyatt’s place. And don’t start. Just come get me and we’ll talk.” When Izzy didn’t respond right away, he added. “I promise.”
“Of course Jack. Give me 15 minutes.”
Jack sat on Wyatt’s front porch stairs while he waited for Izzy. When he saw Noel’s muscle car driving down the road, he sighed in relief. His relief was short-lived, however when he saw it was Izzy driving. “What are doing with Noel’s car,” he asked as he jumped in.
“Noel thinks it’s safer.” Izzy responded as she backed out of Wyatt’s driveway.
Jack snorted. “Has he never driven with you?”
Izzy rolled her eyes but ignored his question. “Home or do you want me to hit a drive-by for coffee and donuts?”
Jack perked up at the thought of coffee and donuts.
“That’s what I thought.”
Izzy didn’t say a word as they got coffee and donuts and then drove to Jack’s house. She merely followed him into his house when they arrived. They sat on the sofa with the box of donuts in between them.
“Why are you still drinking that horrible tea?” Jack asked.
“I’m trying to be more health-conscious,” Izzy responded as she sunk her teeth into an enormous bear claw. Jack snorted but let it go.
“Spill.” The gig was up. He was going to have to give her something for coming to pick him up.
Jack sighed but set his donut aside so he could talk. “Well, you know Damien started yesterday.” Izzy nodded in encouragement. “It was a total disaster.”
“Oh no. He seemed competent enough.” Izzy shrugged. “Maybe a bit conceited but then again with those looks how could he not be.”
“Actually, Damien was fine.” Izzy raised her eyebrows. “It was Eric and Wyatt who weren’t.” Jack fell back against the sofa and closed his eyes. “First, Eric had a total shit storm that I’d hired a bookkeeper and not an assistant for him.”
“But you told him you were going to hire a bookkeeper.”
Jack nodded but didn’t bother to open his eyes. “He was a complete ass. I put a desk in his office for Damien, but he made it impossible for Damien to work there.”
“Jerk-a-lerk.”
“Then Wyatt showed up.”
Izzy wrinkled her nose. “But he never goes to the office.” As a cross-dresser himself, Wyatt was great with selecting the inventory, finding suppliers, and dealing with customers, but he didn’t do back office work. Even at the start of the business, he left that to Jack.
“I think Eric called him or something because he knew Damien was starting yesterday. I had emailed him when we started the search letting him know what was going on, but he didn’t even bother to reply. He went totally ballistic when he saw how hot Damien was.”
“Oh shit. Does he still think he’s in love with you?”
“Yeah.” Jack groaned. “Of course, now I made it worse.”
“You slept with him, didn’t you?” It wasn’t really a question.
“Yeah, but seriously I don’t even remember it.”
“Don’t tell Wyatt that. He’ll have a complete meltdown.”
Jack nodded. “What do I do?” he whined.
“You’re gonna have to be a big boy and talk to Wyatt like an adult.”
“Crap. I was worried that’s what you’d say.”
Izzy patted Jack’s arm before standing. “I’m outta here. I promised to be at the shelter in an hour. Are you gonna be okay?”
Jack stood and hugged Izzy. “Thanks, babe, for coming to get me.”
“Anytime.”
♥♥♥
It took Jack two days to find his courage. Luckily, Wyatt hadn’t been into the office during that time, which surprised Jack. He assumed that Wyatt would be pushing him to get back together every second now that they’d had sex again. When Wyatt arrived at the office on the third day, Jack knew his time was up.
“Let’s talk,” Jack said as he walked to the office door and locked it.
Wyatt grinned when he realized Jack had locked the door. “It’s not what you think.”
“No office quickie?” Wyatt’s grin dimmed ever so slightly.
“We’re not back together.”
Wyatt’s grin was completely gone now. “But we were together Monday night.”
Jack collapsed in his chair. “That was a mistake. I’m sorry. I should have made that clear before we jumped into bed.”
“Yes, you should have.” Wyatt pouted and glared at Jack.
“Look, I’m sorry. I had too much to drink, and I haven’t been with anyone in a long time. The combination was too much for my libido.” Jack shrugged.
“You haven’t been with anyone in a while?” Wyatt raised an eyebrow at Jack. “Why not?”
Another shrug. “Haven’t felt like it.”
“Are you alright?” Wyatt’s glare disappeared and he started to approach Jack.
Jack held up his hands. “I’m fine. Just restless and bored.”
“Ah,” Wyatt nodded in understanding. “The birthday. The big 4 – 0.”
Jack groaned and planted his hands in his face. Why did everyone have to bring up his birthday?
But wait, maybe he could use this to his advantage. He shrugged. “Maybe.” There, that wasn’t an entire lie.
“Poor thing,” Wyatt looked like he was going to approach Jack to comfort him so Jack glared at him. Wyatt threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine. But this isn’t over.” He stomped out of the office.
Chapter 10
Wannabes my ass
Two weeks. Two weeks of whining from Wyatt and complaining by Eric. Two weeks of resisting temptation. And now this. Wyatt strolled into the office and collapsed in his chair.
“So, you know,” Jack stated with a sigh. Wyatt nodded. As owners of Fabulous, Darling, Wyatt and Jack didn’t receive normal paychecks. Instead, they collected monthly dividends. The amount varied somewhat based on how well the store was doing, but it had never dipped as low as yesterday’s payment. Considering the store was doing so well that Eric had wanted to hire more back office help and Damien had just started working there, things weren’t looking very copacetic.
“How do you want to handle this?” Wyatt had always left the boring business bits of running the store in Jack’s hands.
“Before we do anything rash, let’s talk to Damien. Find out why the dividend check is so low. Maybe there’s a logical explanation.” Wyatt snorted but nodded in agreement.
Five minutes later, Damien was standing in front of Jack and Wyatt looking distinctively uncomfortable. That wasn’t too reassuring for Jack.
“I imagine you know why you’re here.” Jack didn’t feel it necessary to engage in any small talk at this point.
Damien nodded. “Your dividend checks.” The man had balls. Jack had to give him that.
“Alrighty then. Why was the amount so low?”
Damien cleared his throat. “Um,” he stalled. Jack leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. “They weren’t low.”
“Excuse me!” Wyatt nearly shouted.
“I just meant that the checks you’ve been getting were too high.”
“Too high?” Jack glanced at Wyatt, who looked just as confused as him.
Damien cleared his throat, his cheeks were a bit flushed, but he looked directly at Jack when he answered. “Based on the store’s profit, the dividends were too high. I’ve lowered the amount so it correlates with the profits.”
Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “But the store is doing so well. We’re selling well. Eric is so busy he’s being an ass, why are profits down?”
Damien shrugged. “I just work with the numbers I’m given.”
Jack nodded. “Ok
ay, thanks for your time. You can get back to work. We’ll be in touch with how we want to handle this.”
Damien left, shutting the door securely behind him. Wyatt turned to Jack. “What the fuck’s going on Jack?”
“Damned if I know.” He picked up his phone and called Izzy.
“You’re calling Izzy now!” Wyatt jumped from his chair, his face turning red.
Jack waved him back down. “We can’t talk about this here.” Wyatt took a moment but finally nodded in agreement.
Wyatt followed Jack to Izzy’s house. Izzy and Noel stood on the front porch waiting for them. Jack hadn’t told her what the emergency was but, just in case, she had called Noel to come home. As a homicide detective, Noel had a sharp, analytical mind that was helpful in many a crisis.
They shuffled in the house. “Okay, Jack,” Izzy said once they were seated at the dining room table. “What’s going on?” Noel placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her calm.
Jack sighed. “We don’t know exactly what the deal is, but it’s possible Damien is stealing from us.”
Izzy gasped and looked to Wyatt, who nodded in confirmation. “But he’s only been working there two weeks.”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t know what else could be happening.”
“Start at the beginning,” Noel stated. He now stood behind Izzy in detective mode – arms crossed over his massive chest and feet planted shoulder-width apart. Before Jack could reply, the doorbell rang.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Wyatt sputtered.
Noel prowled to the front door. Behind it stood Betty and her gang. “Now isn’t a good time,” Noel said as he opened the door only a fraction. Betty was having none of that. She pushed her way past Noel, who she knew wouldn’t dare to touch her in an unfriendly manner.
Izzy stood and confronted Betty. “Seriously, Betty, it’s not a good time.”
Betty ignored Izzy as well. The other women held back, however, waiting on Betty’s command. She sat down next to Jack and snorted. “If you think there’s something wrong and we’re not going to help, you have another thing coming, missy.”
The Gray-Haired Knitting Detective Series: (Books 1 - 3) Page 19