Page 37 of The Billionaire's Temptation

Sure enough, Blaire and Chad were standing on the stone steps, their heads angled towards each other. But when she opened the door and shoved their suitcases outside, their mouths fell open. “You forgot these.” Then she slammed the door again.

Turning, she clapped her hands together, as if brushing dust from her hands.

Lance chuckled. “Excellent. How about if we change those codes now?”

For the next thirty minutes, Clarissa paid close attention as Lance updated the passcodes to the house security system. She came up with a small song to help her remember the three codes; gate, garage, and front door.

When they were done, she glanced at her watch, then admonished herself for wondering when Levi was going to come by.

When she looked around, she spotted the accounting notebook and sighed. “I need to call someone to get some help on another issue.” She looked up at the man. “I don’t know what to do with you when I’m not working on security problems.”

He laughed and folded his arms over his chest. “You do whatever you need to do. I’ll patrol around the perimeter of your house and yard to determine if there are other issues regarding the security of the house. I suspect that the previous company only installed door and window security. But I can easily install alerts and alarms around the perimeter of the yard that will let you know if someone is trying to climb over the fence.”

“That sounds…complicated and expensive.”

He shrugged. “You can handle the cost. Don’t worry about it. We’ll send it directly to your accounting people.”

“About that,” she said, hesitating. “The person I need to speak with is a member of the accounting firm. Do you need to do a background check on her before she comes over?”

He nodded. “Why don’t you give me her name and I’ll do a quick check before she arrives? We have the resources to do a fast check, and if she’s someone that will be in your sphere often, I can do a deeper dive into her background.”

“That sounds good, if a bit invasive.”

He shook his head. “The people that are going to come into your life right now, after inheriting the amount of money you have, will be the lowlifes. It’s my job to make sure that you don’t get cheated out of your father’s money. But trust me, the cheats will eventually slither away and find another victim once they realize you’re not an easy mark.”

Chapter 12

Levi muttered several expletives as he stared at the video screen. He didn’t want to deal with this crap! He wanted to get back to Clarissa. He couldn’t get the image of her hurt gaze this morning out of his head.

“What’s she doing now?” he demanded of Lance, who was on duty at Clarissa’s place until the second shift arrived later tonight.

“She’s going over information from her accounting firm with a woman that works there.”

“I thought she had a meeting with them to go over everything earlier today?”

Lance shrugged. “I think they sort of snowed over everything. The questions Clarissa is asking now are a bit more detailed, and the woman is explaining everything with more patience.”

Levi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s good. I’ll text her when I can get away from here.”

“I heard from Hendrix that there was some gossip about Clarissa the other day. Do the issues you’re trying to resolve today have anything to do with Clarissa? Is she in more danger?”

Levi pressed his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think so. Today’s problems are about the Levinthal Group.”

“There are some bad actors in that firm,” Lance warned grimly. “We’ve had them on our radar for years now, but Dash hasn’t been able to pin anything substantial on them.” He referred to Dash Phillips, owner of the security firm he worked for. Dash was recently married to a gorgeous woman with red hair and a brilliant mind. Maxine was a computer genius who had started working at DP Securities and not only transformed their background checks but also expanded the firm’s technological reach.

“I have an acquaintance in Fahre whose wife had a run-in with someone from the Levinthal Group as well.”

“I’ll let Dash know that we need to up the intensity on the investigation into that group. Maybe we can get the Department of Justice to look into them as well. But if they are international now, it might need to be elevated to Interpol. They can more efficiently disperse warnings to other countries.”

“I agree.” There was a heavy sigh, then Levi asked, “But Clarissa is safe? You have eyes on her now?”

He heard movement and Levi assumed that Lance was turning to find Clarissa. “She’s safe. She’s laughing with her accountant now.”

“Good.” Then he paused. “Wait. This new woman, she isn’t from the Levinthal Group, is she? They’re reputed to hire very charismatic people.”

“No. The woman’s name is Mandy Jamison. I ran a background check on her before she arrived. She’s clean. Works for the accounting firm that Clarissa’s father used. Apparently, the meeting earlier this morning didn’t address Clarissa’s questions. So they sent this Mandy person over.”

“The group that Art used was run by Montrose, isn’t it?”

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