Page 12 of Punish Me

“Wedo, but does she?”

“She never allowed me to explain. Besides, I doubt that she’d believe me anyway.”

“It is a bit hard to believe,” Austin agrees.

I slant my gaze his way but remain quiet.

Austin sits up again. “Wait. Do you still have feelings for her?”

“No,” I lie too eagerly.

“Yes, you do,” he teases.

“No. I don’t. I just want to make amends, that’s all.”

“Yeah, tell that to someone else. You were crazy for that girl.”

“Key word is ‘were’.”

“Nah, you still are. I can tell how upset you’re getting just talking about her. Why don’t you tell her the truth?”

“She doesn’t want to hear it.”

“Not like she has a choice. She works for you now, boss man. Call a meeting and tell her the truth,” he says, standing up.

“Where are you going?”

“Like you said, I’ve got work to do. Just dropping by to see if it were true. Yeah, you’re love-struck, and I will win that pool. I was the only one betting for you, man,” Austin says, chuckling as he waltzes out of my office, closing the door behind him.

5 – AMBROSE

The last week has been jam-packed with fiscal meetings.

My head throbs with a vibrant reminder of the headache plaguing me throughout the day. A glance at the clock shows it’s already a little after four, and I want to leave early for a change.

Unfortunately, that’s not to be. As if I don’t have enough on my plate with my ex-wife, Lyndsey, blowing my phone up now I’m sitting in a meeting with Brynlee, who’s behaving like a bitch for only God knows what.

“This is the best strategy for the company, Ambrose. I wouldn’t advise you to move in this direction if I didn’t think it was advantageous for the company,” Brynlee says.

Leaning forward, I rest my elbows on my desk. “You’ve been with this company for one month, Bryn. You’ve tried to change everything about our operations in one month. We have a relationship with Brooks and Searcy that has worked for the last seven years. Why would we change that now?”

“I’ve been looking through the financial records, Ambrose, and there are several errors that the auditors have overlooked. If the feds were to come in and look at these books, though they’re not glaring errors, I assure you that they will find discrepancies that will raise concern,” she argues.

“And I’m telling you that I’m sure there’s a plausible explanation for what you’re finding. I saw the same thing that you saw. In the worst-case scenario, we’ll get penalized a small fine. That’s nothing compared to firing a company with an outstanding reputation and searching for a new one.”

She tosses papers on my desk. “Here are multiple RFPs from reputable auditing agencies that would love to take our account. Aside from those, I have connections at PWC, Deloitte, and Marcum. TT’s current auditing firm is unknown in that arena,but the company pays an astonishing sum to them to do shoddy work. I mean, come on, Ambrose. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear someone was cooking the books!” she hisses.

I sit back in my chair and cross my ankle over my knee. “You might want to watch your words,Ms. St. Clair. That’s a serious allegation.”

She sits back and glares at me. “If it’s that concerning to you, then I think you would want to investigate it,Mr. Charles.”

“I have no need. I know this firm is reputable, and anytime a human is involved, there’s a chance for errors.”

She frowns at me. “Are you in on it? Are you benefiting from this collaboration?”

I walk around the desk, and she stands up, glaring at me. I tower over her five feet at six-two, but she doesn’t back down.

“I’m not intimidated by you.”

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