The Vault Collection [Volume One] by A.D. Justice

Author:A.D. Justice [Justice, A.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Jillian

Meeting someone’s parents shouldn’t have been so nerve-racking, but I couldn’t relax all day. Damon left my apartment midmorning with Benny in tow to handle some sort of incident one of his construction crews ran into. I stayed busy around my apartment as much as I could, but I stopped after I’d cleaned every room twice within an hour because of all my pent-up nervous energy.

Though I wasn’t sure I could focus, I broke down and took my laptop out of my bag. If Damon had to work most of the day, at least I’d have time to try to sort out the account that was tangled worse than cooked spaghetti noodles. I’d always loved solving puzzles, finding the missing piece that made everything else fall into place. Instead of focusing on my aggravation with the poor management of the fund, I focused on how satisfying it would feel to finish that assignment once and for all.

With every piece of paper from my files strewn across the table, I concentrated on matching all the numbers—deposits, withdrawals, interest accrued—until every cent was ticked and tied. Two names kept reappearing throughout the years of financial records, but I couldn’t find any record of those names anywhere in the union’s employee files. A sickening feeling settled deep in my gut, knowing the discrepancy wasn’t an accidental omission. The transfers were too consistent and intentionally random, while still occurring late in the quarter. Without question, I had discovered a case of embezzlement.

The question was who was behind it, but that wasn’t a question I was prepared to research. I was afraid to pry too much into the discrepancies—that was a job for the FBI, not me. Whoever was behind the elaborate scheme was obviously a professional and not someone I wanted to cross. The longer I stayed off the radar, the safer I was. By the time the bank fraud investigators collected all the evidence and made their move, I’d be long moved on to another assignment.

Hours passed as I tracked every discrepancy I found and reconciled the accounts as best I could, minus the embezzled funds. I listed every transfer date, name, and dollar amount I suspected was stolen in a separate document and saved both documents to my flash drive before putting it away. Since embezzlement was always an inside job, and I had no idea who to trust and who not to, I decided to take the information directly to the FBI. Anyone at Blaine Financial Services could be behind it.

The reminder I’d set on my phone chimed, alerting me it was time to dress for the Marchetti family dinner. And just like that, the dread from discovering the financial inaccuracies didn’t compare to the terror gripping my chest from thinking about meeting Damon’s mother. A hot shower later, I stood naked in my walk-in closet, staring at my clothes with no idea of what would be appropriate to wear.

“If that’s what you’re wearing today, we won’t make it far past your bedroom door.

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