Womanizer (A Standalone Novel) (A Steamy Alpha Billionaire Romance)

by Tyler, Nella

  It was a double edged sword. Alicia wasn’t going to trust me unless I saved her company. I couldn’t save her company unless she trusted me. I had no idea what I was going to do.

  “I have a friend with the FBI, she can help you.”

  Natasha dialed a number on her phone and someone answered.

  “He’s going to need your help. Can you come to the office and save him?”

  There was a pause and then Natasha responded and was off the phone all in the span of about two minutes.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about that. You need to get Alicia to come over here. Can you make that happened?”

  “I don’t know. She probably won’t answer her phone but I’ll give it a try.”

  “Here, call her from my number. Maybe she will answer.”

  I had zero expectation that Alicia would answer a call from me, but from a different number maybe I had a chance.

  I dialed her number and held my breath while it rang on the other end.

  “Hello,” Alicia answered.

  “Don’t hang up please,” I said softly. “The least I can do is help you figure out if someone is stealing from you. Please come to my office, I have a plan.”

  She was silent and I had to look at the phone screen to see if the phone was still connected. I knew she wanted to hang up, I just hoped she would come to my office so we could get to the bottom of what was going on.

  “Ok,” she said quietly. “I’ll be there in an hour.”

  “She’s coming,” I told Natasha as I handed her the phone. “Who did you call?”

  “I called Rosalynn.”

  I paused for a minute and looked at Natasha. Why would she of called Darla’s wife? That seemed really odd.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “She works for the FBI; she’s going to help you.”

  My mind was blown as I remembered sweet, friendly Rosalynn from the dinner party. She certainly didn’t look like someone who worked for the FBI. Or if she did work for them, Rosalynn looked more like a secretary than an agent.

  We called Mike into my office and I proceeded to explain to them about what had happened with Alicia and with Rebecca earlier in the morning. The funny thing was, neither of them seemed fazed by the news. I suspected they thought I had something like that coming for how I had behaved for the last several years with women.

  Luckily, they were both good friends and didn’t react to me or tell me “I told you so.” Although they had both, at one time or another, warned me that one of the women I slept with could go crazy on me. I never believed them.

  There was a knock at my office door and I jumped up to let Alicia into my office. Natasha and Mike had decided the best way to go about this process was that I was going to have to be one hundred percent honest with Alicia. I couldn’t hold anything back. She was going to have to see all the records I had requested. She was going to have to see all the background checks I had done. It was the only way to get her to trust me.

  Shortly after Alicia arrived, so did Rosalynn. We all sat around the table for a minute and I introduced everyone, although most everybody already knew each other.

  I took a deep breath before I continued on.

  “Here’s the deal. I’ve been reviewing your company for weeks and I know there is something fishy going on. I went out to that warehouse here in New York State and it was empty without any product in there. But what I did find was stacks and stacks of cash there.”

  Alicia just looked up at me and then over at Rosalynn. I could tell Alicia was afraid she was going to get in trouble for the cash, but I didn’t think she would. The whole purpose of her coming to my office was so we could all work together and figure out who was stealing from her.

  “Miss Warren, did you know anything about this cash?” Rosalynn asked?

  “No, ma’am.”

  Alicia looked like she was about to cry.

  “In my investigation, I found a lot of clues but no real evidence. There is an offshore bank account in Alicia’s name, but it sounds like someone else opened it. There is a second name on it, but we weren’t able to get that information. Rosalynn, maybe your contacts would have better luck?”

  “Of course, give me the information.”

  Rosalynn took the folder I handed her and went to the other end of the room to make a phone call.

  “Alicia, Bill Yobi lives in a thirty-four million dollar Upper East Side condo. Do you know how he can afford a place like that?”

  Alicia just shook her head back and forth. She looked like she was going to cry and didn’t want to try and speak because of it.

  “Evan said you thought and employee named Ryan might be involved. What’s his last name?” Mike asked.

  “Um, yes…” Alicia said as the tears rolled down her cheeks. “His name is Ryan Anderson. His girlfriend is Isabella Stern.”

  “Do you suspect these two might be involved with Bill Yobi?” Rosalynn asked as she returned to the table.

  By this time, Alicia was in full blown tears and unable to answer. I decided to try and step in to fill in the blanks a little bit.

  “Bill has worked with Alicia since she first started. Alicia told me she trusted him and didn’t think he would do anything to hurt her. She did say that he blew up and started yelling at her when she told him that I had been snooping around.”

  Alicia looked up at me and smiled. She seemed to be telling me thank you for talking so she didn’t have to.

  “Alicia, how do you feel about wearing a wire?” Rosalynn asked.

  She said there and wiped her tears and thought about the proposition for a moment. There would be no turning back after this. She would have to go through with it, no matter what the outcome was.

  “I could do that,” Alicia managed to say.

  “Who are we going to have her talk to with the wire on?” I asked.

  I was concerned for Alicia’s safety. Probably because I had been so blindsided by Rebecca just a few hours earlier. But I also thought that whoever was stealing from her company would be desperate to get away with it and might come after Alicia. It was highly likely whomever was steeling would panic if they thought they had been figured out.

  “I think we should start with Bill,” Alicia said.

  I saw the sadness in her face as she said it. She really did trust him and it obviously killed her to think that he was the one steeling from her.

  After working so hard for the last five years, Alicia couldn’t afford for there to be another scandal with her company. After going public as an IPO, it was more important than ever that Alicia keep her business operating totally within all legal guidelines.

  “Perfect. Why don’t you call him and set up a meeting at your office later today. Tell him it’s urgent,” Rosalynn said as she wrote down some notes.

  Alicia went with Rosalynn to the far side of the room and they huddled together for a minute and talked. Rosalynn wrote down some notes on a piece of paper and then had Alicia call Bill. He must have answered because I saw her talking for a minute and then she hung up.

  We all sat around the table in silence as we waited for Rosalynn to get off the phone with her superiors. She had called them to help arrange the necessary recording equipment so Alicia could get the evidence against Bill.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked Alicia.

  “Not really.”

  “Let me know if you need anything. I can get you a drink, or a sandwich, or anything else you need.”

  “Alright.”

  Alicia didn’t seem happy with me, but she certainly didn’t seem as mad as she had been before. I hoped that bringing the thief to justice within her organization would be all it took for Alicia to at least consider forgiving me.

  We all sat back and observed Rosalynn and Alicia as they discussed what Alicia would need to get Bill to confess to. They couldn’t come in and stop everything until that had all the evidence they needed. It would be Alicia’s job to insure she asked Bill
the right questions so she could get the answers a court needed if they were going to convict someone of embezzlement.

  As the two women talked, Alicia appeared to get more and more confident about the whole situation. It was nice to see because Alicia was a strong woman who had a lot going on for her. Even if she decided not to be with me, I only wanted the best for her.

  We rounded everyone up and drove to Rosalynn’s office. She had worked to get approval for us to listen to the recording of Alicia and Bill so we could help figure out if there were any other people involved in the illegal activity. The truth was, I hadn’t had time to research anyone else that had come up in discussion. Bill’s expensive condo had made him such a visible target that I had forgotten to look at anyone else.

  Mike, Natasha, and I sat in the back of the room as Rosalynn put the microphone onto Alicia.

  “You’re going to be fine. Just talk normally and don’t worry about anything else. He will incriminate himself once you two get talking.”

  “Okay, I should head over to my office now,” Alicia said.

  Before she left the room, Alicia turned toward me and I felt that electricity between us. I hoped that after all was said and done Alicia would forgive me in the end.

  Chapter 38

  Alicia was all set in her office and ready to talk to Bill. I felt like I was going to puke. Alicia was so brave to move forward with this investigation and to agree to wear a wire. It surprised me just how strong she was.

  We waited patiently for Bill to arrive at Alicia’s office. In painful silence, we all looked around the room and tired to be patient.

  “Hi, Bill,” Alicia said.

  We could hear her over the recording device that Rosalynn had set up in the room.

  “I’m sorry for yelling at you before. I’m just so tired of people thinking I had something to do with the fraud before. I love you like you’re my own daughter. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  I felt like puking as I heard Bill laying on the suck-up nice and thick for Alicia. I wasn’t sure what their conversations were normally like, but I suspected that didn’t sound anything like the one that was going on.

  “Bill, I have evidence that you are living in a multi-million dollar condo here in New York. How can you afford something like that?”

  Bill laughed and then saw that Alicia was serious because his voice calmed down right away and he answered her question seriously.

  “It’s my parent’s condo.”

  Alicia was silent. We all waited patiently to see what she would say next.

  “That’s an awfully expensive condo for your parents.”

  “My father didn’t believe in investing his money in the stock market. Instead, he wanted to have his money in real estate so when he died he could be guaranteed of the value of his estate.”

  “Oh, yes,” Alicia said. “I remember you said your mother didn’t want to live there after you father passed away because it was too big.”

  “Exactly,” Bill replied.

  There was another long silence and Alicia seemed to be stuck. She didn’t know what to say and there was no way to communicate with her.

  “Bill, someone’s stealing from me. Is it you?”

  The direct approach was something I was very fond of. Even if someone lied to you it was typically possible to see their physical reaction to the question at the very least. I hated that we weren’t able to see how Bill had reacted when Alicia asked him if he was stealing from her.

  “No, I wouldn’t do such a thing and I think you know it.”

  Again Alicia was silent as she pondered what to ask Bill next. But she didn’t have to wait long.

  “It’s Ryan and Isabella,” Bill said. “I’ve been following them. First it was because of the duplicate invoices that people were saying they had gotten. But then I wanted to see why we didn’t have enough merchandise, either.”

  Alicia was quiet.

  The silence filled the room uncomfortably and I kept looking over at Natasha to see what her reaction was to things.

  “Where are they today?”

  “I don’t know. I tried calling them and it went to voicemail.”

  I looked at Mike and Natasha, I knew exactly where those two were going if they were the ones steeling from Alicia. They were going to the warehouse. They needed to get the money and documents to hide what they at been doing.

  “Rosalynn, you have to get people out to the warehouse. That’s where they will be,” I said as I wrote down the address to the warehouse.

  She nodded and passed the information on to the young man that sat next to her, so she could continue to listen to the conversation between Alicia and Bill.

  I had to admit, Bill wasn’t sounding very guilty to me at the moment. As long as the ownership of that condo checked out, Alicia could have been totally right about him.

  Rosalynn called Alicia and told her she could let Bill leave the office. They were going to try and track down Ryan and Isabella and see if they had any more information.

  “We have a team that is about thirty minutes from the warehouse, we should know something soon,” a man in a black suit said as he opened the door to the room we were in.

  There wasn’t much talking going on as we all sat quietly and waited for Alicia to return from her office. I desperately wanted them to find Ryan and Isabella and hoped it would be the end of Alicia’s nightmare.

  Even if she decided never to talk to me again, at least I would have helped save her company. It was the least I could do for putting her through the hell I did with Rebecca.

  I told Rosalynn about the armed security guard at the warehouse and the side opening I had snuck in through. Hopefully the officers that arrived would be able to safely get into the building. I suspected that the security guard would put up a good fight, even with the FBI; he had been so insistant when I visited before. He was probably instructed that people would pretend to be law enforcement to get in. Or maybe he would just let them in without an issue.

  Rosalynn picked up her phone and I saw her face turn intense right away.

  “Be safe,” she said and then hung up. “They are at the warehouse and about to approach.”

  Just then, Alicia was escorted back into the room. She looked totally exhausted.

  There was an empty place next to me on the couch and another chair over by Mike. I expected that Alicia would choose to sit by Mike because of how angry she was with me. But to my surprise she sat down next to me and let her head rest on my shoulder.

  Again, tears started to flow and I looked at Natasha to see if she could help.

  “It’s almost over,” Natasha said as she rubbed Alicia’s back.

  We all sat there and silently watched Rosalynn as she waited for a call back from the officers who had arrived at the warehouse.

  Over an hour went by before the phone finally rang.

  “Hello,” Rosalynn said and then shook her head up and down at us all. “Wow, really? Is everyone safe? Great job. I’ll send a team out to back everything up. Bring those three in for questioning.”

  Relief washed across Rosalynn’s face and instantly across mine as well.

  “What happened?” Mike blurted out.

  “The officer’s found the security guard, Ryan, and Isabella loading bags of cash into a vehicle. There was a gun fight and the security guard was shot in the leg. Everyone else was unhurt.”

  I reached over and put my arm around Alicia and pulled her toward me in a hug. It was an instinctual reaction to the great news and I did it before I remembered she was mad at me. But again to my surprise, she didn’t pull away.

  Alicia leaned into me and let me hug her for a good minute before she pulled away. She got up and went over to Rosalynn and gave her a hug. The two women talked for a little bit while Mike, Natasha and I chatted about the news. We had all worked hard to figure out what was going on, it felt really great to know it was over.

  I was still in a bit of shock that Bill Yobi had not b
een involved. He seemed like a shady character to be for the longest time. But after hearing how he talked to Alicia with such respect, even when faced with her accusations; I had to change my opinion of the man. She obviously knew him much better than I did.

  We all stayed at the FBI office for about an hour as we talked about everything that had happened and made sure Rosalynn had our contact information so we could give statements later.

  “I can take you home if you would like,” I offered Alicia.

  “I don’t want to go home. I can’t be alone tonight.”

  “You can come to my place,” I offered.

  I instantly saw the look of disgust on her face. It was probably a bad idea to bring her back to the place that a woman had pointed a gun at us just a few short hours before.

  “Yes, I guess that will work,” Alicia replied.

  She surprised me that she was willing to go back to my place at all. The shock must have been visible on my face because Alicia made a comment about it.

  “I can’t avoid your place forever just because of the memories there.”

  “Tomorrow is a new day. We can erase the memories and start fresh.”

  ***

  We walked into my apartment and Alicia went straight up to the floor to ceiling window again. She looked out over the city for a moment and then turned on a bunch of lights in my living room.

  “Fuck me right here,” she said to me as she started to take off all of her clothes in front of the window.

  My mind went crazy as I looked at her. Who was this woman? Alicia didn’t seem like the kind of girl that would have sex in front of the window. Surely she understood that after turning all the lights on like that everyone would be able to see us.

  “You know people can see us, right?” I said and pointed to the restaurant across the street.

  “Oh, yes. I know. I once sat at those tables outside and watched at pretty elaborate scene.”

  Alicia winked at me and my face went ghost white. I looked at her and was totally shocked.

  “What do you mean?” I said as I followed her lead and started to take off my clothes as well.