Monday at work, I avoided Ryan like a plague. If he was coming one way, I would go the other way. Judy was back at work too and I couldn’t help but feel her eyes on me every once in a while.‘Hey mama.’ I smiled at Aly’s text.‘Hey. How are you?’ I texted back.‘Aarav’s mum is driving me nuts.’ I giggled.Apparently, Aarav’s mother was staying for a few days at their place because she had things to do in the states and it just seemed more economical to stay with them.I rolled my eyes at that when Aly told me. She could damn well afford wherever the hell she wanted to stay, she just wanted to see her son really. She would wake up earlier than they did and she made more than enough noise to keep them groggy every morning.‘Sorry. When is she supposed to leave though?’ I looked at my screen briefly and minimised the tabs I’d kept open and hibernated my system.I excused myself from the office for my coffee break, almost bumping into Lilian, another coworker of mine who seemed not to li
I rubbed my eyes and looked at my phone.‘Fuck!’ I was running out of time. I had a few hours left and I felt like I hadn’t done a lot.After a short while, I realised that, the amount missing from the account I handled at work was a couple hundred million and everything surprisingly summed up to the other accounts Ryan had personally asked me to handle, the companies that seemed not to be in business.‘Were they offshore accounts, disguised as defunct companies? What account was the real one? The missing money, was it diverted into multiple off shore accounts or the money in the offshore accounts were simply sent into Marque and Co.?’ I shook my headNo, that last thought didn’t make sense. No one used an offshore account to send money into somewhere else, they were usually accounts meant to hold money.I grabbed my hair in frustration, there was no way I was going to figure this shit out before tomorrow. I slammed my laptop close in annoyance and lay on my bed.I turned to the corne
I turned to the side and I smiled at myself in the mirror, I couldn't remember the last time I dressed up because I wanted to.‘Be happy Leah Thomas.’ It took a lot of motivation to get up in the morning these days and a lot more not to look homeless. I closed the page I’d been scrolling for the past half hour shut down my laptop. I was house hunting, living in the motel had most likely depleted my life expectancy. Today was also supposed to be Tolly’s last day and I wanted to see her, at least before we finally parted ways for good, she was leaving the country to stay with her mother in Norway.“Where’s Tolly?” I asked the new guy who seemed to be arranging a few things on the desk behind him. He turned his head and narrowed his eyes at me. Had I said something wrong?“She fucking left, everything is so fucking disorganised here.” He groaned and slammed a book on the table, making me flinch in surprise.“Sorry?” I said, unsure why he’d decided to unload his frustrations on me. He j
Jared groaned as he cradled my head. "Oh my God. I am so sorry." I quickly stood up and held him up, Aarav was cackling by the side and I shot him a glare. "I didn't think you'd fall over." "You should have seen his face." Aarav slapped his knee, bent over in laughter. Aly ran down the stairs with panic in her voice. "What happened?" Her eyes went straight to Nali who was still too engrossed in her toys to notice what was going on. "Lee scared Jared and he fell. You should've heard his scream." My face reddened in embarrassment. Jared’s heart had raced twice as fast under my ears and I revelled in that moment, however how short. "I did not scream." Jared scowled at Aarav and his laughter died down. "Sure man." Aarav patted his back and picked up the boxes he'd discarded on the chair the minute Jared had fallen down. What was he doing here? I hadn't expected him to be around, especially since Aly and I were the ones that made the plan. I shot a questioningly look
Aly had left me to clean up while she went to set up for dinner. "Trust me, she knows." Aly's laughter echoed and there was a playful hum surrounding the house. I smelled my hair once more before walking into the room. I seemed fine. "Hey." I walked into the room and everyone stopped talking. Thankfully, Nali stumbled towards me, breaking the sudden silence. The innocence of a child was something to covet, really. The table was set with a lot of food maybe too much for a table of four and half. "Dig in." Aly said, motioning to the table. I wasn't hungry but I would eat for the effort put into the elaborate dishes. When dinner was over, Aly served dessert and I realised why there was flour everywhere, she'd made cake. "It is close to the end of the year. Why don't we go round the table and say a few pieces of our mind, starting with me." I gave Aly a look, wondering what she was playing at. "I'm grateful for the family that I have, Ravy, Nali, you guys..." She gave
I rolled over in my bed and stared at my box. Everything of value to me had been carefully and thoughtfully arranged inside it. Norway was quite the distance from the United States and I wasn’t sure I was prepared for it.‘It doesn’t matter.’ I thought to myself. Just like I’d adjusted to life, having travelled all the way from home to school, I’d do the same. I’d said my goodbyes, albeit very cowardly, only Jack was aware that I’d be leaving the country.I should’ve told Aly the night we had that conversation in the bathroom but it didn’t fit the theme of the night. Knowing Aly, she’d beg me to stay and I wasn’t sure what I would have said. Maybe a big change was what I needed, away from the life I almost ruined.I picked up my phone and stared at the message, it didn’t feel right. The bank was officially closed for the year and I doubted even the security men would still be around. A bank as big as Marque valued holidays and Ryan asking me to come seemed suspicious but if it was a m
I felt a kick to my head and I groaned, my head feeling like it was split open. I blinked my eyes to get accustomed to the light before trying to sit up, something I found difficult and almost impossible to do.I tried to move my body and realised I was bound hand and feet. This slowly entered my consciousness and my drug-induced haze cleared up, I was face to face with a horrid looking mask and I scrambled backwards, bumping into something that felt horribly cold to my skin, metal.The person in front of me moved back, giving me room to at least breathe.“What the hell is going on?” I looked around to see not one, like I had imagined, but four people, armed with guns. My heart started to beat faster than normal at gauging my situation and my throat felt dry. It was dark outside and I realised I must’ve been asleep for hours.I was going to miss my flight, if I even made it out alive in the first place. No one replied me and I couldn’t even make out anything with the ridiculous outfit
JARED’S POV“What are you going to do?” I flipped the documents that Leah had sent. I hadn’t had the chance to look at it because I didn’t want to, not initially. Anything involving her work place kind of pissed me off but when I finally did, I could stop the fear that ran through my bones that Leah could be in danger because of it and I needed to act fast.I looked up at Aarav whose facial expression mirrored mine. He too was very conflicted and while he trusted Leah, it would be a big move to change banks, disastrous if it was the wrong move. We had been using Marque and Co. for so long and the previous leadership had proved capable of handling our assets.This new guy, this Ryan Fisher, from the moment I first saw him, I knew something wasn’t right with him. What Leah had sent hadn’t pointed to him as the culprit but with just enough evidence to let us know that something shady was going on and we needed to act fast or we’d lose more than just money.“We should involve the cops.” I