Page 89 of Unfinished

“There are Federal Agents here.”

Why the hell would the feds be here? “Set them up in the conference room. I’ll be right there.”

Picking up the phone, I called my lawyer. Teddy would be here within five minutes. Standing I buttoned my jacket and headed towards the conference room.

Walking into the conference room, the two agents looked at me. “Good Afternoon, what is this concerning?”

"I'm Agent O’Brien. This is Agent Crowe. We're here to follow up on the fraud report your company made six months ago.” O’Brien was a tall, thin man, his hair closely shaved on his head. As he introduced himself, he showed me his badge.

My company had reported click-fraud that we'd discovered on FireX Advertising, one of the ad networks we used for ad campaigns. Advertisers pay ad networks to display their ads on websites within that network. Website owners get paid either based on impressions, which was how often an ad was seen, or based on how many times an ad was clicked. Sometimes, in an effort to increase revenue, a website owner might deploy a bot to click on ads on their website. This was called click fraud, and it was a felony.

“I don’t know what I can do for you, the ad network already has all the information I had on it.”

“Sir, we found that this is a rather large operation all coming from the same source. Do you know Salvatore Agosti?”

“I won’t be answering any questions till my lawyer is present and that is not an admission of anything, simply a precaution I am taking for my own protection. He’s on his way.”

“Of course sir, we’d be happy to wait.”

How Salvatore was connected with this was beyond me, but I’d have to be careful in what I revealed. Our ongoing rivalry would need to be kept far away from any investigation. Salvatore had been struggling lately with investigations. Which was part of why I wasn’t concerned about the threats Derek made. His connection to this, however, was a complete surprise.

Teddy, my lawyer, walked into the room and looked at the two agents. Teddy stood at a little under six feet, balding, and had what people called a dad bod. He was absolutely ruthless in legal proceedings. His firm; Reid, Taylor, and Associates, had some of the best and brightest. It was the go-to firm for crime families and businesses who might have connections with them.

Once my lawyer was all set up and had the agents' information, we began the questioning.

“Mr. Teresi, do you know Salvatore Agosti?” O’brien asked again.

“I know of Salvatore. I do not associate with him, but I’ve seen him at events that I have also been invited to.”

“Do you know anything about his business?” Crowe asked.

“Like I said, I don’t know Salvatore personally, that includes knowing anything about him.”

“We saw Derek Wright leaving your office. He’s a known associate of Mr. Agosti. Are you sure you have no knowledge of Mr. Agosti?” O’brien asked.

“Agents, Derek Wright and I are not friendly, in any capacity. His appearance here was nothing more than a rivalry between two men vying for the affections of a woman. Other than that, I don’t know anything about Derek Wright or Salvatore Agosti.” They were digging but I kept my tone firm, it seemed to satisfy their curiosity about my interactions and knowledge of the Agosti family.

“How did you figure out there was click fraud on your ads?” Crowe asked.

“My client will have the legal department send you an explanation of how they search for discrepancies,” Teddy stated.

The agents asked several more questions to which my lawyer responded and afterwards escorted them out.

I still didn’t have full confirmation on exactly how Salvatore Agosti was involved in the click fraud, but I was willing to bet he got desperate and sloppy, seeing that everything else was falling apart for him. I needed to make sure I got Hannah away from Derek quickly. If the feds knew he was an associate of Salvatore, then chances were high he’d go down for fraud of his own. This association was a perfect way to force Hannah to break up with him.

Chapter 40

Hannah

My phone rang on my desk and I answered, “This is Hannah.”

“Ms. Meyer, this is Taylor. Declan would like you to meet with him in his office,” Declan's assistant announced.

“Thank you, Taylor. I’ll be right up.”

I stood at my desk and grabbed my tablet, which contained everything we had for the project. I walked to the elevators and while on the ride up to the top floor I tapped through a few screens, reading some of the updates from my team. Exiting the elevator, I nodded to Taylor, who smiled at me as I continued down the hall to Declan’s office and knocked on his door.

“Come on in,” I heard Declan, and I opened the door and stopped dead in my tracks just inside the office as my eyes landed on Liam sitting on the sofa across from the three King brothers.

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