Page 56 of Charming But Reckless

Then there was another clicking noise, I imagine from the device being removed.

“I'm going to head back.” Her heels softly clicked as she moved down the hall. The phone was still to her ear and on the screen, we saw her husband coming down the hallway towards her.

She was far enough away from the office that it didn't look suspicious, but from the way his face looked angry, I was worriedabout Olivia's safety. If this man was involved, she could be in danger.

Memphis muted the call and then spoke into the other mic. “Takeshi, get to Olivia. She's in the hall, and her husband looks fuming.”

Takeshi left his post quickly. Archie kept his cool, though even I could see the tiny movements that made me believe he was truly worried about his husband. Thankfully, he could hear the comms and knew exactly why he had left.

Olivia's husband grabbed her arm and pulled her phone out of her hand. He put it to his ear. "Who the fuck is this talking to my wife?"

Memphis, deciding to play the part, said, "I was simply talking to her about her health care coverage plan. It's lapsed, and we'll need to renew it."

The husband's face screwed up. "Health care coverage? She's got that through me. Why would you be calling her?"

"Well, I see here she's listed as the primary contact for your three children. Would you be able to assist me today? I would love to talk with you. It will only take about forty-five minutes."

"Get fucked," the guy said and ended the call.

Memphis growled, then focused the camera on what was going down between Olivia and her husband. To her part, Olivia didn't appear scared. If anything, she wore a bored expression.

It was nothing like the loving look we had seen from her and her family before. How quickly lies could destroy people.

“You need to be in there right now. Lots of my business associates are at that table. And if they think my wife is off doing some stupid bullshit like talking to an insurance agent, they'll think that I'm incompetent.”

Olivia tried to tug her arm free, but he wouldn't let go. “If they think that, they're incompetent. I took a call that I thought was an emergency. It's no big deal.”

She held her hand out for her phone. He placed it in her hand, though he didn't let go at first.

It was then that Takeshi appeared, his body a formidable presence. Her husband startled at his arrival.

Takeshi said nothing, though he extended his arm towards the dining room as if they were being summoned back. The husband dropped his hold on Olivia, likely from not wanting anyone else to see how big of an ass he was.

He led the way, his gait clipped. Olivia approached Takeshi and nodded gently at him.

"Thank you," she whispered, then slid him the drive so that she would have nothing on her person that would make her seem guilty.

They went back to the dining room and finished dinner like normal. Meanwhile, Memphis and Arick had begun to try and decipher the files on Varr's computer.

"It's a fucking mess," Memphis groaned as he worked. "The guy has so much dirty laundry, I don't even know what to dig into first."

Arick gave a broken sort of laugh. "Yeah, same here. I don't know how he's managed to stay in business this long."

"Money," all of us said at once.

I added, "Money is a powerful motive for people. A lot of them will look the other way."

Arick simply nodded and went back to work. It wasn't until Olivia and her children, along with Archie and Takeshi, were long gone from the massive mansion that Memphis found what he was looking for.

"Fuck," he bellowed loudly.

Several people startled, having fallen asleep, myself included. I looked at the time, then looked at Memphis.

Tank stood slowly. "Show us what you found.”

The large screen where we had been watching everything go down earlier shifted. A communication between Varr and someone else appeared. The further Memphis scrolled down the conversation, the angrier we all got.

Varr had purchased another child, and they were set to be delivered to him the next day.

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