Page 71 of Billionaire Corruption

I couldn’t believe it, that much money!

He shrugged. “We were awarding a large cleaning contract and there were several tenders. One company offered to pay me to secure the deal and I took it.”

I was stunned.

“Back then, I didn’t even think there was anything wrong with it. Everyone did it, that was how business worked. You didn’t always call it a bribe. Sometimes it was an incentive, a working trip for the family to Venice or the Costa del Sol when really, there was no business going on. Or an investment in a school or baseball club, you know.”

“And now, do you still think it isn’t wrong?”

He shook his head wearily.

“I don’t know. I brought Alana into the business and now she’s dead. I can’t get it out of my head.”

“But you fired her!”

“I was angry,” he said. “I was going to ask her to come back, I wanted to apologize. I knew she was one of the good ones.”

He told me he’d found out that Alana had been talking to the FBI. His security guy had gotten into her flat, finding her iPad, on which he could access her emails. She’d promised an FBI agent that she would try to get the documents mentioning Jerome, that I had leaked to the investigation, and which had subsequently, gone missing.

“I think she was trying to look for them that evening, when she was killed.”

He gave a deep sigh. “I don’t want to go back, but I have to. I need to finish this somehow. But I’m beginning to have a plan.”

“Good,” I said.

“If I leave Ladden, go up to Port Victoria, run that coffee shop, will you come with me?”

I guess I knew he was going to ask me.

“I might,” I said, unable to keep a small smile from my face.

Paul nodded, his eyes intense. He stayed in town a while, I took him to meet my mother and Tyler and he spent some time with us at the house, even having dinner with us. I could tell my mother was blown away by him, Tyler was a bit intimidated, but it didn’t matter.

Later, he got ready to go back to New York.

“Are you good to drive?” I asked. I worried about the road and the fact that he was making the journey twice in one day.

“It’s all right,” he said. “I need to think, to draw up my battle plan.”

“I’ve never been much good in a fight,” I admitted.

He winked. “Ah, but I am.”

“Be careful,” I begged him, and he kissed me before getting into the car and driving away.

Chapter 28

Paul

I sat across from the FBI agent, in a dingy diner I’d never been to in my life.

My stomach was in knots, but I knew I had no choice. I had thought about this ever since Don told me about the email he’d found on Alana’s tablet, which had been lying next to her bed. He’d also sent me photographs of her place, it was tidy and neat, as she’d left it, a coat casually thrown over a chair, like she thought she would need it again soon.

But she would never wear that coat again, I thought.

I couldn’t wait any longer.

I needed to wrap things up, end this chapter in my life.

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