No one was safe from Marcus’ ire, and even Melissa found reasons to stay out of his way, incensing him further.

“Melissa!” Marcus barked into his headset. “Where the hell are you?”

“I’m just grabbing a coffee and smoke,” she answered. “Why?”

“Why?” he roared. “Why? Because your job is to be my assistant, not sit around gossiping with Tavia and Erica all day long! Get back here!” He disconnected the call and began pacing around the office, his blood heated.

For the past two weeks, he had been certain that his true form was going to erupt from his skin on the drop of a dime, his nerves raw with anger.

I shouldn’t even be in the office, he thought. Not until I am calm and this entire mess is sorted out. I’m not doing anyone any good by being here.

It was undeniable. Someone was embezzling money from him, someone working directly under his nose.

Tatiana had laid out all the proof he needed, her eyes slits of disapproval.

“You can see that the money has come out of twelve different accounts,” she told him the Monday after Addison had left. “The forensic accountant is still going through it, and I suspect that more will be found.”

“I don’t need your suspicions, Tatiana,” he snarled. “I need proof.”

“I am showing you proof, Marcus!” she screamed at him. “Stop playing dumb! Either you or someone in your little seraglio has been stealing from the corporation.”

Marcus glared at her. “Have a little respect,” he spat at her. “These women are your co-workers.”

Tatiana snorted contemptuously. “These women are your playthings, Marcus. They do nothing but sponge money from this company, and I couldn’t care less about them, provided that they aren’t robbing us.”

“I will look into this,” he grunted, waving his hand dismissively.

Tatiana placed her fingers on his desk, leaning forward to stare at him.

“What is wrong with you today?” she asked. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“Nothing is wrong with me,” Marcus replied through gritted teeth. “Get out! I have work to do.”

“I hope that finding out what woman is stealing from you is your priority.”

Marcus peered up at her. “I thought you were accusing me of taking the money?”

Tatiana laughed, shaking her head. “You are a narcissist and a pig, Marcus, but you’re not a thief.”

Oddly, Marcus was comforted by her words.

“Thank you,” he said, and Tatiana stared at him dubiously. She spun on her heels to walk out of his office.

“Just get to the bottom of this before anyone else on the board hears about it, Marcus,” she instructed. “And take care of it quietly.”

It was his turn to be skeptical. “You haven’t told them?” he called after her, and she spun back around to gape at him.

“Of course not! I’m the CFO, Marcus, and I was appointed as such after my father died. The men already look at me like they want to fight me or sleep with me. I’d rather not give them any more ammunition.”

The words caught Marcus by surprise. It had never occurred to him that Tatiana might be struggling with her own issues within the company. She had always come across as so well put together, so sure of herself. Perhaps that was how he looked to everyone else.

“Stop staring at me like that,” she snarled. “I don’t need your pity. If I were you, I would start by considering the new one you brought in. What was her name? Addison?”

Marcus’ jaw tightened.

“Why her?” he growled, and Tatiana shrugged her shoulders.

“The rest of your posse seems to have been around a lot longer than her. It seems like a good place as any to start.”

Marcus ground his teeth together and lowered his head, his incisors poking at his gums. “She isn’t here anymore.”

Tatiana’s eyes grew large. “What happened? Replaced so quickly?”

“It doesn’t matter!” he snapped. “I said I would look into it!” To his chagrin, Tatiana stepped closer, her blue eyes piercing into him.

“Did she leave you?” she asked, a note of shock in her voice.

“Tatiana, I have work to do.”

She clicked her tongue against her teeth and shook her head.

“Well, I never thought I’d see the day when Marcus Williams would be dumped,” she chuckled lightly. “I guess you are fallible, after all.”

“Tatiana, get out!” he roared. But long after she had left, Marcus was left wondering if the reason he was so furious had anything at all to do with the missing money and everything to do with Addison Dryden. He thought there must be some connection between her departure and the missing money, but he couldn’t bring himself to put the two pieces together.

It had to be a coincidence, yet Melissa’s words still rang through his mind, and Marcus asked himself over and over just how well he knew the girl he had swept into his life faster than anyone before her.

Marcus tried to remember specific things she had said or done that could be construed as manipulation, but in his mind’s eye, all he saw was a set of luminous green eyes studying him with devotion and love.

Then why did she leave me?

“What do you need, Marcus?” Melissa asked him now, pushing her way into the office, a coffee for him in her hand. He snatched it up, sitting back to stare at her pensively.

“I need you to be here like an assistant is supposed to do,” he retorted, taking a swig of his espresso. “And I need you to set up an appointment with Darren Winters.”

Her eyebrows crinkled together as she gazed at him.

“Why do I know that name?” she asked, and Marcus scowled.

“Why do I always have to answer questions before you’ll do as you’re told?” he replied. “Just find his information and get him in here as soon as possible. Tell him it’s urgent.” Melissa nodded quickly and shifted toward her desk, settling into her chair.

Marcus returned to his work, trying to think of anything but where Addison had been the past two weeks. Had she disappeared off to somewhere he couldn’t find her with the missing money, or was she laying low? He had to find out.

Marcus’ eyes darted toward the woman beside him, his ears on her conversation.

“Yes, Mr. Winters, today would be perfect.” Melissa glanced at him, and he nodded in agreement as she continued to speak. “Four p.m., then. No, I am not sure what it is regarding, but he insists that it’s urgent… Yes, I appreciate you making the time. Goodbye.” She disconnected the call on her headset and turned to him. “He’ll be here at four.” Then her brow furrowed. “Marcus, a private investigator?” she asked. “What is going on? Who are you looking into?”

Melissa was beginning to grind on his nerves. In fact, since Addison had left, Marcus found all of them were annoying him in the smallest possible ways. Things he would find endearing about Tavia, Melissa, and Erica suddenly seemed insurmountably bothersome.

Did she always laugh like that? he would think. Why does she smoke so much?

He tried to ignore the fact that he was mentally comparing each of them to Addison. In his past, Marcus had always found special qualities in all the women he selected to be in his life. There had never been one sole woman who had been everything to him, and Marcus never really believed that such a female existed. After all, in all the centuries he had been alive, he had never met a woman he’d want to be with for all eternity. Actually, the longest he’d ever kept a woman around was fifteen years.

Then why did he feel like he had lost a part of himself when Addison had left?

Well, it didn’t matter anymore. Any feelings he thought he might have for her were now moot. She had taken the way out he had offered her a year ago, and for all he knew, she was also stealing from him.

“Melissa, go get me a coffee,” he ordered, and she pointed at the one in his hand.

“I just brought you one,” she reminded him.

Locking his eyes on hers, he put the cup to his lips, swallowing back the contents in one gulp. “Now I need another one,” he told her evenly.

Melissa’s pupils constricted as she studied his face. Marcus could see she wanted to ask more questions, but she was also reconsidering her next move.

“Melissa!” he barked. She left the office without another word, and Marcus exhaled in relief.

There are too many women in my life, he thought, and he almost laughed aloud. Never had he said those words to himself. His harem had never been an issue in the past. If they caused him the slightest bit of trouble, he merely sent them on their way. There was no need to complicate a situation that was essentially very simple.

But recently, it was becoming too much. And everyone noticed the change in him.

If he had a hard time being with his other women before, it was suddenly impossible, his ability to perform clouded by thoughts of Addison. He spent most of his nights with Tavia because she reminded him the most of her, and Tavia seemed delighted by his surge in attention.

“Hey.”

Marcus glanced up and groaned aloud, not even hiding his displeasure.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Tatiana said, glancing around the room. “I have more information about the money.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I am looking into it?” he growled, but she didn’t seem to hear him as she flopped into a chair, facing him indifferently.

“Marcus, you do a lot of talking. I am more on the action side of things,” she replied. He thought about making a snarky comment, but he waited for her to go on, folding his arms over his chest. “Where is Melissa?”

“Getting me a coffee,” he answered. “What did you find out?”

“Oh, now you’re interested?” Tatiana demanded, and Marcus felt a spark of displeasure course through him. He did not like being in the dark.

“Tatiana, you’re trying my patience,” he warned. “What do you know?”

She sighed and tossed a paper at him. He grabbed for it, his gaze lifting as Melissa re-entered the office.

“Give us a minute,” he told his assistant, and she gawked at him as if he had fired her.

“You just asked me to come back in here!” she protested.

Marcus noticed a smirk form on Tatiana’s lips.

“And now I’m telling you to leave!” he snarled. “And until your name is on the door, you’ll do as you’re told, Melissa.”

Melissa’s mouth became a line of fury, but she turned to storm from the office. Marcus returned to look at the sheet he had been handed.

“My, my, you seem to be losing control of your flock,” Tatiana told him, but Marcus realized that she was only trying to get a rise out of him. He ignored her, examining the numbers before him.

“What am I looking at?” he asked, and Tatiana sighed.

“It’s the dates and times associated with the transfers,” she explained, standing up from her seat to show him. “See here? That is when seven thousand dollars were transferred from the Pelham fund into the unnamed offshore. And here? This is the ten grand from Lingergram.” Marcus’ pulse quickened, and he glanced at Tatiana out of the corner of his eye. “Each transfer slightly more than the last. Whoever it was started testing the waters, waiting a few days and taking more.”

But it wasn’t the amounts that troubled Marcus the most: it was the dates.

“These were all done within the last month,” he muttered, and she nodded.

“Yes, I noticed that too,” she commented. Tatiana stared at him, her expression changing. “When did you say the new one started here?”

“Around the same time,” Marcus mumbled, his head beginning to swim with the evidence he faced.

“And when did she leave?”

“I get it,” Marcus said defensively. “It looks bad for Addison.”

“Just humor me, Marcus. What day did she leave?” Tatiana asked again, and he gritted his teeth together.

“The nineteenth,” he relented.

A long, red fingernail tapped at the last entry on the page. Marcus felt his blood run cold.

“The last withdrawal was two weeks ago on the nineteenth,” Tatiana said. “And there hasn’t been another transaction since.”