AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have you asked Valentina about it?” What a disloyal little prick.
“Do you actually think Valentina would embezzle money from Premier?”
“Not any more than I would,” he replies with great disdain.
Like I give a fuck that he doesn’t like me.
I tap my finger over the number on the statement. “Fair chunk of change. Bet it would buy an awfully nice art gallery.”
“You haven’t gotten over that yet? Fuck you. I don’t need Valentina’s money. I earn a good salary, and I have a substantial trust—it’s more than enough for us to live on. I never asked her to buy that gallery,” he sneers.
He has a trust, although substantial is a relative term. I won’t rub it in his face, because I’m done here. Anything I say now will only make the fallout with Valentina worse.
“This is exactly why she chose to marry a cultured man instead of a brute like you and her father, always swinging your dicks around like they’re something special.”
You might be cultured, but you’re not much of a man.
“You know, Marco, you’ve had a lot to say since I walked in. But you know the one thing you haven’t mentioned? Huh?”
“What?” he snarls like a churlish teenager.
“Does that account mean trouble for Valentina? Or, Is Valentina in any danger? Or, Should I increase Valentina’s security?”
“You haven’t asked about her well-being at all.” Antonio’s deep voice booms through the speaker. “At least not that I or my swinging dick heard.”
Marco pales, and I try hard not to smirk. He doesn’t have to see my ugly face except at family functions, but Antonio is Valentina’s father, and he’s not an easy man to ignore. Especially if you’re on his bad side.
My phone pings with a text from Tamar: It’s not him. We’re in the interior conference room.
Not exactly news. The second Marco saw the account, he knew he was in the clear. And I’m sure everyone watching did too.
“We’re through,” I tell him, standing. “I’ll have one of the guards drive you home. They can stop for a binky so you’ll have something to suck on until you can cry to your wife.”
Most men would take this as a challenge not to blab to their wives, so as not to look like a coward. I doubt it’ll be enough to keep his mouth shut, but I can’t threaten to murder him if he talks. If Valentina hears that, there’s no hope she’ll forgive me. Not that I have much hope as things stand now.
“You’re a dick,” he sneers.
I put my hands flat on the table and lean across until I’m six inches from his face. “And you’re a pussy. It’s a shame,” I taunt. “We could be such good friends, if only we got along.”
* * *
When I get to the conference room, the whole crew is there, aside from Antonio, who I spoke with on my way up. He agreed that Marco looked too damn relieved when he saw the account to have had anything to do with setting it up.
“While you were with Marco, the money was put back into the Premier accounts,” Zé explains.
Someone’s fucking with us, but it’s not Marco.
“You saw the feed. He’s not involved. But the money could have been scheduled, at any time, to be returned.”
“Could have been,” Lucas says, “but look.” He turns his computer screen so I can see it.
“What exactly am I looking at?”
“It appears the request for the account originated with someone from Walsh Holdings.”
“Bancroft Spirits is a subsidiary of Walsh Holdings. Elizabeth Walsh is Bancroft’s wife. He didn’t earn his wealth. He married it,” Zé adds with contempt.
Bancroft Spirits. The company that will be taking a big hit when we launch our new Port. Valentina met with that slimeball Scott Bancroft when she was in the US.
