Page 3 of Daddy Devious

What the actual hell just happened?

Maxwell

Such a skittish little thing. As she should be, considering she’s in possession of over a million dollars of my money.

I’d planned to wait a bit longer to confront her. But when I’d gotten the notification on my phone that she was in the building, courtesy of the next-level facial recognition software Stone Industries is currently bidding out to several governments, I couldn’t resist the urge to go to her. To see how she would react, coming face to face with the man she’d stolen from.

And she didn’t disappoint. Sweet little Victoria Finch, with her wide brown eyes in that perfect heart-shaped face surrounded by a mass of unruly dark curls, had gone white as a sheet the moment she saw me waiting for the elevator. White, and then fire-engine red after I’d greeted her by name.

Would she blush so prettily for me the first time she called me Daddy? Would her delightfully round bottom turn that same shade of crimson when I spanked her?

I look forward to finding out.

Settling in at my desk, I pull up the file I have on naughty little Victoria. The only child of a single mother, who she tragically lost a little over two years ago after a prolonged and debilitating illness that left Victoria with a pile of debt the size of Mount Everest. Which is why, despite making a decent salary as a systems analyst here at Stone Industries, she still struggles to make ends meet.

No family to speak of, as her mother had also been the only child of her now-deceased grandparents and her father was never in the picture. A few close friends, but not nearly the socialbutterfly one might expect of a pretty girl her age living in one of the largest cities in the world.

She is, to the world around her, rather invisible. The kind of girl who could disappear without making too many waves.

But she isn’t invisible to me.

It wasn’t a mistake that she received that file with everything she needed to begin her little scheme. Account numbers, transfer schedules, all of the nitty-gritty accounting details someone at her level never should have had access to. Hell, the file itself shouldn’t even exist. I created it especially for her.

My little thief.

It had taken a couple of months for her to actually act on the information I’d dropped in her lap, and I had to admit I was impressed by her self-restraint. But a sudden increase on the rent for her dilapidated little apartment, a little price gouging at her favorite local grocery store, and some very urgent calls about the credit cards she’d let lapse finally persuaded her to act.

She’d started slowly, again impressing me with how smart she was being about the whole thing. Just a few dollars here and there. Nothing anybody would miss, insignificant amounts that could be written off during an audit.

Until now.

I’m still not sure exactly what that final straw was that pushed her to go big or go home, as they say. But go big she had, at least for someone in her financial situation. For Stone Industries, a million dollars was pocket change. I could spend that—and had—in a single day without blinking.

But for my little thief, that sum of money would be life changing.

She just doesn’t know yet exactly how much her life is about to change.

Chapter Two

Victoria

I need to quit my job. Like, yesterday.

There’s no way I can take another two weeks of this. Of constantly jumping at the sound of my name, of tensing up every time those damn elevator doors open, expecting to see uniformed guards marching toward me.

Or worse, Maxwell Stone himself.

All morning he’s been on my mind. That little half-smile, like he knew something I didn’t. The fact that he knows my name. My face.

What else does he know about me?

I will be seeing you around.

Those words have lived in my head for four solid hours. Replaying over and over until I want to scream. Or march myself right up to his office and demand to know what he’s playing at.

But I know I won’t do that. Even if I hadn’t embezzled all that money, I would never have the nerve to demand anything from a man like Maxwell Stone.

I do havesomesense of self-preservation, after all.

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