Quiver & Burn: A MFM Firefighter Romance (Surrender to Them Book 5)

by Kelli Callahan

  “Do you guys know something I don’t?” Chief Johnson tilted his head to the side.

  “I don’t know.” Rand’s tone became hurried and he started flipping through the pages faster. “We have a friend—she works at Dunkirk Financial. She mentioned that one of her co-workers got fired the other day and she hasn’t been able to get in touch with her. Yeah, this has to be her—holy shit.”

  “We have to call Brylee.” I stood up and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket.

  “Hold on.” Chief Johnson walked over and put his hand on my arm. “This is a confidential matter. We have to notify the family first. That’s protocol.”

  “You don’t understand.” I looked at Chief Johnson with panic in my eyes. “This may be a big fucking deal.”

  “Yeah.” Rand threw the file down on the table. “If this is the same woman that Brylee told us about, then this may not be arson—this could be murder.”

  “Fucking hell.” Chief Johnson took a step back. “I need to notify the police. Okay, call your friend, but let her know we may need her to meet us at the police station tomorrow morning.”

  It felt like my world was crashing down around me as I listened to Brylee’s phone ring and go to voicemail. It was after hours. She wouldn’t be at work. I needed her to pick up so I could confirm that she was okay. I just needed to hear her voice—and not the one on her voicemail. I left a quick message asking for her to call me, sent a text message that said the same thing, and then started trying to call her again. My stomach twisted into a knot and I saw Rand’s face getting more worried by the second. He grabbed his phone and started calling someone, but I wasn’t sure who he was trying to reach. Brylee’s phone went to voicemail again and I immediately dialed a third time. I started to pace and my jaw clenched. My worry was growing by the second, especially considering what she told us the previous night.

  “I called Mike at the front desk. He’s heading up to Brylee’s apartment to knock on the door.”

  “Fuck, she could be anywhere.” I ended the call when it went to voicemail again.

  “If Mike doesn’t get an answer, we’ll go home. I’m sure Chief Johnson will understand.” Rand exhaled sharply and shook his head.

  “This is madness!” I slammed the phone against the table in frustration.

  “Guys, we got a problem.” Chief Johnson came running back into the common room.

  “What’s going on?” I turned towards him immediately.

  “It’s Dunkirk Accounting.” He motioned towards the trucks. “It’s on fire—you have to go.”

  “Oh my god.” Rand took a step back. “Okay, we’ll suit up.”

  “She wouldn’t still be at work—right?” I ran towards the lockers with Rand on my heels.

  “There’s no way. She’s always home by this time.” Rand grabbed his gear and started putting it on.

  “I just wish she would call.” I glared at my phone and growled under my breath.

  “Wait, my phone’s ring.” Rand grabbed his phone off the bench. “Mike? Did you check her apartment? Fuck!”

  “What?” I stared at Rand as he ended the call.

  “She’s not there.” Rand grabbed his helmet and started running towards the fire truck. “Come on.”

  The engine screamed out of the station with sirens blaring. Rand put his foot on the gas pedal and kept it pressed to the floorboard. We blew through red lights, ignored stop signs, and didn’t say a word to each other the whole ride. The silence in the cab of the truck said everything. If someone at Dunkirk Accounting was behind Dana’s murder, and they found out Brylee knew about the fraud, she could be in real danger. I didn’t want to think about the possibilities, especially when we got close and saw how bad the fire was. There was no way it was an accident. The bottom floor was completely engulfed and the building should have had a sprinkler system to keep it from spreading. I was glad several trucks had followed us because we were going to need all the help we could get.

  If you’re in there, Brylee—we’re coming for you.

  Chapter Twenty

  Brylee

  Earlier that morning

  “Has anyone seen Paul?” I walked up to Paul’s desk and looked around at our other co-workers.

  “No, I think he called in sick.” Gina, one of the women who sat near Paul, tilted her head and shrugged.

  Just like Dana? Oh no…

  “Okay, thanks.” My knees started to wobble as I walked towards my desk, and my stomach started doing flips.

  I thought about just getting my stuff and leaving once I got to my desk. There was no way Paul called in sick—unless it was a cover because he was reporting what he found. I started thinking about the discussion I had with Rand and Jett the night before. Was it possible that Dana accepted some kind of bribe to keep quiet? Was it possible that Paul was offered one too? I pulled out my phone and sent Paul a message on Facebook. He was online when I sent the message, and I got confirmation that he read it, but there was no reply. A few seconds later, he logged off. It was an eerie familiarity—it was exactly what Dana did when I tried to reach out to her. I put my phone away and tried to focus on my work, although I wasn’t sure I was going to be very productive with my thoughts so jumbled.

  “Brylee, can you come into my office for a moment?” Mr. Smith opened his door and motioned to me.

  “Yes, sir.” I locked my computer and headed over to his office.

  “Close the door, please.” He took a seat behind his desk.

  “I promise I haven’t applied for any new jobs.” I tried to force a smile.

  Not yet, but this may be my last day here, even if I don’t have a job lined up.

  “I’m glad to hear that—because we just lost Paul.” He sighed and shook his head.

  Oh shit.

  “What happened to him?” My eyes opened wide in shock.

  “Some stuff is going on and I need your help.” He leaned forward. “Please don’t ask me a lot of questions, I just need you to do what I ask.”

  “Okay…” I swallowed nervously.

  “I need you to review all of the accounts that Dana and Paul were working on. I’m afraid they may have been working together on something that could put the company in serious jeopardy.” Mr. Smith sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk. “We need to do a full review of every single account, and this isn’t just coming from me—Mr. Dunkirk personally requested that you head up this review.”

  “Me?” I blinked in surprise. “Why?”

  “You’re new here and you’re not from Atlanta. He believed you’ll look at everything objectively since you don’t really know many people in the office. We don’t know how widespread this is, but we need to keep a lid on it until we fully understand what we’re dealing with.” He shook his head back and forth. “I’m sure you understand the implications—even if I’m not being completely clear.”

  “I do—but wouldn’t an auditor normally handle something like this? I mean, this is an actual investigation, right?” I tilted my head to the side.

  “Remember what I said about not asking questions?” He tilted his head to the side. “This is the part where you just agree to do what I’m asking and report back to me with everything you find.”

  “I’m happy to help…” My words trailed off.

  “Good, I need you to get started immediately and I need a report by tomorrow morning.” Mr. Smith nodded quickly.

  “Tomorrow morning?” My eyebrows shot up and my jaw fell open. “There’s no way I can review all of those accounts before the end of the day.”

  “I know. You might have to work straight through the night, but trust me—this can’t wait.” He shook his head back and forth again. “We need to find the problem and fix it. We’ll report it and make sure the SEC is on board with every decision we make, but it’ll look a lot better if we bring it to them first.”

  “Yes sir, I understand.” I nodded and started to stand. “I’ll get started immediately.”

  I walked out of
Mr. Smith’s office with my head spinning—I was even more confused than before. If Dana and Paul were working together, why would they bring me into it? That didn’t make any sense. If Dana and Paul were bribed, Mr. Dunkirk wouldn’t be asking me to audit the accounts—unless they had been corrected. Did they know Dana and Paul confided in me? Were they having me audit the accounts so that I would be forced to testify that they were correct when I looked at them to nullify me as a witness against the company? I wanted to believe Mr. Smith and I wanted to believe that Dunkirk Accounting was a good company. The entire situation just felt wrong—especially with Dana and Paul ignoring my attempts to get in touch with them.

  I guess I don’t have a choice. Looking at the accounts will at least tell me if they’ve been corrected or not.

  I unlocked my computers and found a link from Mr. Smith in my email that gave me access to the folders where Dana and Paul kept their accounts. It gave the authority to view them, but I couldn’t make any edits. That gave me a little bit of relief since there was no way I could be accused of doing anything to them while I completed my review. I started with the first account in Dana’s folder and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The second one was the exact same way. I knew which one should be messed up though, so I just moved through them until I found the Russo account. I was nervous when I pulled it up because it was going to reveal everything. I scanned the lines of numbers quickly, highlighting each cell as I moved through the spreadsheet. Everything was perfect and all of the formulas she showed me had been removed.

  Okay, well that tells me what I need to know. They fixed it.

  After the corrections had been made, the Russo account was making a lot more money than what was shown before. That was sure to raise some red flags when they had to submit corrections on their tax returns. If they weren’t aware that the accounts were being tampered with, then they were definitely going to freak out when they saw the changes. I decided to just skip over to Paul’s folder and find the shipping company. The Russo account was enough to set alarm bells off, but if the shipping company had been adjusted as well, then I was going to be in the middle of a full-blown conspiracy. I loaded the spreadsheet and started scanning, quickly finding that it was exactly like the Russo account. Everything Paul showed me was gone, and the account was making a lot more money than it was the previous day.

  This is really bad.

  I took an early lunch even though I wasn’t hungry and contemplated what I should do next. If those two accounts were correct, then any other issues that may have existed would likely be fixed as well. I was auditing something that had already been fixed, and they knew my report would reflect that the accounts were perfect. I was stuck. I could very well be the last person at the company besides the members of management who corrected the accounts that knew there was an issue, to begin with. I began to worry that Dana and Paul had actually been paid off and decided to sacrifice their integrity for profit. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t give Mr. Smith a report that said the accounts were perfectly fine when I knew they weren’t always that way. It was going to fall on me to report the issue to the SEC.

  I need to see if I can find any hard evidence—anything that can confirm what Dana and Paul showed me.

  Later that afternoon

  I thought about all the classes I took in college as I sat at my desk and scanned through the accounts. They taught us about companies like Enron as a precautionary measure, but it was meant to be a history lesson. It wasn’t meant to be real life. There were new regulations and auditing requirements that were supposed to prevent that kind of stuff from happening again. I would have never believed it was possible unless I had seen it with my own eyes. The scope had to be wide. Someone at the company had to be involved, possibly someone as high up as Mr. Dunkirk himself, and the customers had to know what was going on if the accounts were so easily corrected. The customers were possibly even paying him to do what was commonly referred to as cooking the books. It was a lot fancier than normal fraud but it was still a way to embezzle money without paying taxes on it.

  This kind of thing wouldn’t even be possible if we didn’t rely on computers to do all the work for us.

  “Still hard at work?” Mr. Smith walked over to my desk and started putting on his coat.

  “Yes, sir.” I nodded and looked up. “Wow, I didn’t even realize how late it was getting.”

  “Make some coffee and hunker down.” He smiled slightly. “I’ll expect a report when I walk in here tomorrow.”

  “I might still be sitting here, but I’ll be working on it.” I nodded and shrugged.

  “Thank you. I really appreciate your hard work.” He walked back towards his office and pulled the door closed.

  The people at the office were starting to thin out. A few of my coworkers were working late, but I was going to be there long after they were gone. Even if I was pretty sure all of the accounts were going to be correct, I couldn’t put that in my report without checking all of them. Truthfully, I was hoping I would find one that wasn’t correct. I needed a piece of evidence that the SEC could latch onto and start their investigation. The tax fraud was probably going to be enough, but I would feel better if I had one example of the coding in a spreadsheet that created the formulas, to begin with. If I found that, I might not even finish my report. It would be enough evidence to launch a full-scale investigation with a lot more vigor than one person digging through spreadsheets.

  Surely they didn’t fix everything this fast—that would have taken a lot of work.

  I watched as my last coworker left. He was an older man named Benjamin who had worked at Dunkirk Accounting since Mr. Dunkirk’s father ran the place. He still had a couple of years to go before he retired, but he talked about it constantly. Doing the right thing was going to ruin his life. He would never have a retirement party at Dunkirk Accounting. He would have to retire early or find another job—I already knew how difficult that was. I wasn’t looking forward to becoming a whistleblower, even if I knew it was the right thing to do. The people I worked with were going to suffer after I reported the company to the SEC. I had originally contemplated an anonymous complaint, but that wasn’t going to be possible after Mr. Smith put me in charge of auditing the accounts. I would be interviewed, and I wouldn’t be able to lie.

  Is that an elevator opening on my floor?

  I had been scrolling through accounts so long that my eyes were hurting, and I wasn’t even sure how long it had been since Benjamin left. The building had been silent except for the cleaning crew, but even they were gone. I perked up when the elevator opened because I had no idea who would still be in the building. I thought my tired eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw Mr. Dunkirk himself step off the elevator. I had only seen him a few times since I started working at the company, and he usually stayed on the top floor. He rarely came to our floor at all. Mr. Smith was normally summoned rather than visited.

  “Ah, Brylee.” A smile spread across his face when he saw me. “How are those accounts looking?”

  Oh god, he wants a personal report.

  “They’re looking okay.” I felt my stomach tightening up, which was made worse by the fact I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch. “I’m still reviewing them though.”

  “No issues?” He tilted his head to the side.

  “No, sir.” I shook my head back and forth quickly.

  “Good, I’m glad to hear that. I had a feeling you would be the right woman for the job.” His lip curled slightly. “I hope you know that there will be a big promotion in line for you once you finish this report.”

  “A promotion? Really?” I blinked in surprise. “Just for auditing these accounts?”

  “This is really important and I wouldn’t have picked you if I didn’t believe there was a bright future for you at Dunkirk Accounting. This is just going to give me an excuse to put you in an office upstairs.” His nodded and his smile got a little wider.

  “I—I don’t know what to say.�
� I blinked again, still reeling from what he said.

  “Six figures.” He lifted his hand and shook his finger at me. “Plus a very nice bonus.”

  Holy shit.

  “Thank you, sir.” I was so surprised I could barely breathe.

  “Alright, I’ll leave you to it.” He nodded and headed towards the stairs.

  “Uh, Mr. Dunkirk—the elevator is that way.” I pointed in the other direction.

  “I think I’ll take the stairs.” He waved over his shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I was bewildered by what Mr. Dunkirk told me. He was going to give me a huge promotion and an office upstairs? It was a bribe. It had to be. There was no other reason for him to offer me something like that. I hadn’t done anything to earn a promotion or an office, and I certainly didn’t deserve a six-figure salary after working at the company for a little over a month. I headed to the break room to get some coffee after he was gone. Taking the money would have been easy. People sacrificed their integrity for a whole lot less. I could write a glowing report, and that would be the end of it. I didn’t have to actually call the SEC. It seemed like Dana and Paul had taken whatever deal Mr. Dunkirk offered judging by the silence I was getting on their end. I finally understood who was responsible for the fraud Dana uncovered—it definitely went straight to the top floor of Dunkirk Accounting.

  Is that a door?

  I heard something slam and stepped out of the break room to see Mr. Dunkirk walking my way. “I was just getting some coffee. I’m about to get back to work, I promise.”

  “I wasn’t checking up on you this quickly.” He chuckled under his breath. “I parked on the other side of the building. Wrong stairs.”

  “Oh okay.” I forced a smile and nodded.

  I walked back to my desk and sat down once I heard the door on the other side of the building slam shut. The conversation with Mr. Dunkirk continued to play in my head as I looked through the accounts. I was wasting my time. There was no way I was going to find anything. I was set up to find perfect accounts, write a great report, and reap the benefits for the rest of my career. I tried to figure out why they would pick me, and the only thing I could come up with was that Dana or Paul told them I knew. Perhaps that was why they refused to answer me. They knew I would be joining them in the lap of luxury with dirty money in my bank account. I wished I had no moral compass to guide me because life would have been a lot easier if I was able to just take the money. As I sat there contemplating everything, my computer suddenly shut off. A second later, the lights overhead went off too.