Chapter 1

Tim cringed at the bitter coffee in his mug. “Cold,” he mumbled and shoved the mug aside.

His assistant, Nick, always told Tim if he needed anything during the day, including a lousy cup of coffee, to page him. After all, taking care of one of the seven partners in Jones International Investment was in his job description. And he’d told Tim countless times he worked too hard and had for the last ten years, which was probably why he had developed a nasty temper. Lately, Tim managed it well, learning to control his urges to snap at those who disagreed with him or throw things at the wall. To cope, he was a coffee addict and cursed people out in his head. Nick bought him a stress ball not too long ago. It helped, sort of.

The clock already read past two, but Tim’s mind still thought it was morning. How long had he stared at the monitor, watching the latest numbers from the accounts he ran with the company rise and fall drastically? His fingers tangled in his beard as his brow furrowed. Something was wrong. He’d sensed it a few days ago when the accounts suddenly shifted, but the numbers rose back to where they’d started and IT told him it was a glitch. Now, they did the same thing, but today, they weren’t going back up. Money drained from the account right before his eyes.

“Nick!” he yelled, standing so fast he shoved his chair into the wall with a bang.

“Sir?” he asked, rushing into Tim’s office with a stack of folders in his hands.

“I think there’s a problem with the system,” he muttered, glaring at the screen as he bent over his desk.

“Funny, your partners just said the same thing,” he murmured, cringing.

“What? When?” He straightened, glancing around his assistant as if all six men and women were standing there waiting for him.

“Two minutes ago. I got a call saying they were holding an emergency meeting in the west boardroom. Something about the accounts being messed up and missing a rather large amount of money.”

“When, Nick?” he repeated with a growl, grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair.

Nick glanced at his watch and his eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Five minutes.”

“Shit,” he snapped.

Tim shrugged into his jacket, speed-walking across the office floor, and punched the up button on the elevator, nearly breaking it. His name might be on the building, but that was only because he started this company from scratch. The other partners had joined him after he’d pitched his plans to them, and they’d had more money than he did—and more sway in the business because of it. If this company went under, they would lose the most from their investments. Tim came from nothing, using only the tiny fortune his parents had amassed quietly over the years to help him when he was older. Because of the partners’ help, he turned this small investment firm into an international business. For the past seven years, the company had grown exponentially until it rivaled several other major firms on the eastern coast. His was the most powerful in Boston, and he would not let one tiny problem change that.

He hoped it was a small problem. A computer glitch, an issue they could correct in a day. Anything else was bad news for the newly made billionaire. He’d finally reached that status a year ago. Granted, his money was mostly tied up in stocks with the company, but his chest swelled with pride at what he’d accomplished.

Nick stayed on his heels, swiping his thumb over his phone, nearly running into the back of his boss when they stopped at the bank of elevators. “This is not looking good.”

“The accounts?”

“Yes, but it’s only the ones with your name on them. Tim, I’m just going to ask—you didn’t do anything, right?”

Tim waited anxiously for the elevator doors to open. “Of course I didn’t,” he snapped then sucked in a breath, working to rein in his anger. This was not his assistant’s fault. “No, I did not try to steal money from my own company.”

“Good. But I needed to double check because this looks a lot like you’re embezzling.”

Tim nodded his understanding as the doors slid open. He stepped in, dragging Nick with him when his assistant almost missed the doors closing. They rode up to the fifteenth floor and exited, turning right to storm towards the west boardroom. The four men and two women waited for Tim as he stepped inside.

“Nick, would you mind waiting outside for a moment?” Catherine asked politely, her hands folded on a stack of papers in front of her.

Nick looked at Tim, who nodded. Once Nick was gone, Catherine focused her gaze on Tim.

“We have some questions for you about several transactions that took place today,” she continued. “Actually, several transactions during the last forty-eight hours are what we’re most concerned about, though there are more. Care to explain where the money from fifty percent of the accounts under your control went?”

Tim’s eyes widened, and he fell into a chair near the table, his heart hammering and his head spinning. “Fifty percent?”

“Don’t give us that act,” Sal sighed. “We know you had a hand in it.”

“Sal, we have no real evidence Tim had a hand in anything,” Catherine corrected, and the other members nodded in agreement. “Do you know anything about these transactions that have occurred over the past three weeks?”

“Weeks?” Tim shook his head. “I only noticed them a few days ago and today. The first one was a glitch, but I haven’t the slightest idea what’s happening today. None of my accountants brought any information forward.”

Catherine slid the papers across to him. “Take a look for yourself.”

His hands shaking from pent-up anger that someone dared mess with his accounts, Tim flipped over the top sheet and stared at the negative numbers in all the accounts, money moved into an entirely new account before it too vanished. “These accounts… whose name are they in?” he asked, even though Nick had already told him they were very clearly under Tim’s name.

“Yours,” Sal informed him sharply. “Still denying your involvement?”

“Why would I steal from my own company?” Tim argued hotly. “The company I started, the company that is currently extremely profitable? I don’t even have full say in what we do.”

“Sal, if you can’t control your mouth, I’m going to ask you to leave as well,” Catherine reprimanded him. The man sulked back in his chair, glaring intently at Tim. “At the moment, all the evidence we have points to your involvement. I’m afraid, due to the amount missing, we’re going to have to bring in the police to get to the bottom of this. Whether you’re involved in the embezzlement—if that’s what it turns out to be—we need to know what has happened. I have called the police, and they will send a detective over this evening to speak with you and all of us in turn. We stand by you in this, Tim, so don’t think you face this crisis alone.”

Too bad you’re going to hold only me accountable, though, Tim thought bitterly, watching as his perfect world shattered around him. Just when he thought he’d reached the top. “Catherine, you can’t honestly believe I had anything to do with this.”

She pursed her lips. The other board members, except for Sal, shook their heads. “We don’t, but until we find out where the money went, we have to hold you responsible. That’s how it is for all of us. We’re looking at nearly five-hundred million in losses, possibly more. If we cannot retrieve this money, we then have to take from the company and pay our clients back. It will be a huge hit for us.”

Tim certainly didn’t have five-hundred million sitting around, as much as Sal assumed he did. He was worth a billion, but to have that much liquidity? Impossible. “Of course, I understand. I’ll cooperate with the detective and do whatever is necessary to get to the bottom of this,” he informed her, the words struggling to make it out of his mouth without a stream of curses following them.

“I’m glad you’re taking this so well,” Catherine said and relaxed visibly in her chair. “We also wanted to inform you, as a precaution, we are limiting your account access. Sal will take over the other accounts in your name, but only until this mess is cleared up and we find out who’s behind it.”

“Sal? You can’t give him my accounts,” Tim snapped, unable to hold back his disbelief, and his rage clicked up another notch.

“Don’t you trust me, Jones?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t. Catherine, there has to be someone else who could take them.”

Catherine shook her head. “Sal has the lightest load. Otherwise, we risk losing the accounts altogether.”

“And if I refuse?”

Sal was suddenly on his feet, leaning over the table as he leered. “What’s the matter, Jones? Think you’re better than me? You know, out of everyone in this room, you’re the only one who doesn’t belong here.” Tim ground his teeth, the muscles in his neck straining. “You’re nothing compared to the rest of us—”

Tim’s fist flew across the table, knocking Sal back. He charged at him, hitting him again before the man found his footing. Both were on the ground, tussling as their firsts flew. Catherine yelled for them to stop, but Tim was too pissed to stop. He’d never wanted Sal to work there to begin with, but Catherine had brought him on. She said he would bring a hefty amount of money with him to help build the company. Tim would have been more than happy for Sal to be a silent partner, but the man wanted to be involved.

Tim grunted when Sal landed another hit to his face, but he got him back with two more punches before arms wrapped around his shoulders and dragged him back.

“Enough!” Catherine yelled.

Tim glared at Sal, blood dripping from the latter’s nose as two other board members wrangled him in. Nick held Tim and didn’t let him go until he grunted he was fine.

“You’re going to lose everything, Jones! Do you hear me? Everything!” Sal yelled.

“I said enough,” Catherine repeated. “Sal, you will take over the accounts, and Tim, if you don’t hand them over to our choice, I will have to ask you to step down, possibly permanently. Is that what you want?”

Tim tugged his jacket down violently. Sal in charge of his accounts made him sick to his stomach, but stepping down was not going to happen. Grudgingly, he set his feet and shoved his bruised knuckles in his pockets. “Fine, if that’s what it takes.”

Sal shot him a smug smile as his nose bled all over his shirt. Tim would take it as a win, for now. “Don’t worry, Jones. I’ll take good care of them.”

“Sal, get yourself cleaned up,” Catherine ordered. “Now!”

Smirking as he walked by, Sal strolled out of the boardroom whistling. When the door closed behind him, Catherine gave Tim an apologetic stare before she resumed her seat at the table, followed by the others.

“Now then. Sal will need the files by this afternoon,” Catherine told Tim, trying to get back to the meeting at hand.

Tim wanted to keep arguing, but continuing to fight them would make the situation worse and potentially make him look guilty, which he wasn’t. “Of course. I’ll see to it the files are transferred to you today.” He seethed despite the polite smile he attempted to give her.

“Thank you, Tim. The detective will be around this evening to speak with you.”

Tim accepted they were dismissing him, and with a nod of his head, he stomped to the door, trying to hide his anger and skepticism until he was safely outside the boardroom. Nick’s face screwed up with all his unasked questions, but Tim shook his head subtly, telling him to wait until they were alone. How could they believe he had anything to do with the money disappearing? He was thirty-four and had everything going for him. Why risk ruining it all when he was close to bringing in enough to slowly start buying out the partners and make his company completely his? His shares in the company alone were worth three quarters of a billion. The second the elevator doors closed behind him and Nick, his assistant faced him with a heated glare.

“Please tell me they didn’t tell you to go home and that’s why you went off on Sal.”

“No, actually, but they’re placing the unaffected accounts under Sal’s care,” Tim grumbled. “That’s why I went after him, plus the comments he didn’t need to make.” When was the last time he’d lost his temper like that? It had to be years since he’d hauled off and hit someone. No surprise he’d lost it in front of the whole board dealing with an asshole like Sal.

“What? That moron? They do realize he might have an eighth of the amount of accounts you have under your umbrella?” Nick muttered a few curses against the man under his breath as Tim blew out an aggravated breath. “But they’re not trying to fire you or anything, right?”

“Not yet, but I’m sure that’s what Sal will drive the board to do.”

Tim glared at his reflection in the elevator doors, hating Sal. He agreed to his working at the company only because he came with Catherine who had a record of accomplishment for running successful businesses and keeping them alive even during hard times. Why she had the need to keep such an obnoxious, suspicious man as her partner was beyond him. Granted, he had a fortune he was able to throw into the company, but the man’s behavior of late was almost not worth it. Since Sal had become one of the partners, he had done nothing Tim would consider the company was unable to live without. He was dead weight, nothing more, and spent the past few years trying to get rid of Tim.

“You don’t think he had anything to do with this, do you?” Nick asked in an undertone as the doors opened and they stepped out onto their floor. “Nice shiner, by the way.”

Tim stopped, his hand gingerly touching the tender flesh around his right eye, his mind racing through the possibilities that one of the partners would sink so low as to frame him for theft from his own company. “No, I’m not going to start pointing fingers until there’s some actual evidence. That’s just asking for trouble.”

“So you’re going to point at yourself?” Nick asked with an arched brow.

“We’ll talk about this later. Right now, I need you to bring me everything involving those accounts.”

“I thought Sal was taking them over?”

“He is, but there’s a detective coming this evening and I want to be prepared for whatever questions he asks. As of right now, I’m in the dark concerning what exactly happened to the money.” Tim paused to let a few people pass by him and Nick, but started when the woman near the rear of the group suddenly glanced up, her eyes wide, and stepped hard with her heel right on his foot. The way her lips curled up, amused to see his pain, reminded him why he and Maya—the woman currently grinding her heel into his foot—hadn’t lasted long as a couple. He cursed and yanked his foot out of the way.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t you see you there, Mr. Jones,” she gasped in fake surprise.

“Maya,” he grated, his foot throbbing along with his face. “You look well.”

Her green eyes narrowed as the beautiful face Tim had once enjoyed seeing on a nightly basis scrunched into a scowl. She lifted her heel as if to stomp on his foot again, but set it back down at the last second, safely away from him. “I’m not sure why you would care how I look.”

“Are you really going to hold our failed relationship against me?” he muttered, his anger building again as she stared at him as if everything that had happened over the last few months was entirely his fault.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She grinned, but her eyes reflected hate back at him. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to get to. Nice black eye, by the way,” she added and stomped around him to join the others.

“Damn, you really messed things up with her,” Nick said, followed by a whistle.

“I wasn’t the one who decided to suddenly stop calling and start flirting with half the men in this office. It’s not hard to realize she’s testing all the higher-ups to see which one is willing to give her the most benefits. Too bad. She was good in bed.” He shook his foot, wishing the throb away, and stalked to his office. When he reached the doorway, he stopped again and tried to get his thoughts back on track. “Back to the files I need you to get. I want to see if there’s a trail I can find, maybe point the detective in the right direction and far away from me.”

“Sure thing, boss. Coffee, too?”

Tim looked longingly at the mug of cold coffee on his desk. “If you have a chance. If not, focus on the accounts. I want to know who in this company thought they could steal from me and frame me in the process.”

“You’re not a detective, you know.”

“Maybe not, but I know every account in this company. If there’s something connecting all these accounts together, a reason they were targeted I never noticed, it will give us a starting point,” he told Nick. “Just get me the files and keep your head down. No flirting around the office today. You have more important work to do.”

“Ah, but you see, flirting will get me those files much faster,” Nick said, grinning as he winked. “Tabatha down in records has a thing for me.”

“Oh, I’m sure she does,” Tim mused and slipped into his office, closing the glass door behind him.

He trudged to his desk and sat down, setting his cold mug aside as he logged into the system and worked on retrieving digital copies of the files, but his credentials were denied. He leaned back in his chair, annoyed, the leather creaking as he rocked. They’d blocked him immediately from the system, which he hadn’t expected. His gaze slipped to Nick as his assistant almost skipped across the floor, moving towards the elevator and down to the records room where he had an ongoing flirting conversation with Tabatha, the young woman who worked there. Those two had been going at it over the past few months. Tim used to find that sort of thing charming to watch, young love budding over time. Lately, though, watching the flirting and hearing about Tabatha and Nick dating only reminded him of the emptiness in his life. Maya had fill the void for a few weeks, but his relationship with her ended as abruptly as all the others had and the loneliness returned tenfold.

When he’d graduated college and had the last bit of money left over from his parents’ hard-earned fortune, he focused solely on his company, building it from the ground up and making a successful name amongst the other investment giants. He hadn’t made time for a relationship or dating. He took that route in college and found a few women he liked to spend his time with, but none of them ever stuck around long enough for him to really get to know them. Now he was a major partner in this firm, his personal life took a back seat. Maya was on a long list of women who turned out to be the same, wanting things from him he wasn’t willing to give. He doubted he would ever find time to find the special woman who completed his life, a woman who wanted to be with him because of who he was, not the money that came with him or the name becoming a legacy. The loneliness would never go away. Perhaps it was a good thing. His anger problems were still alive and kicking.

Then there was the other side of him Tim did his level best to keep hidden from anyone who knew him. If Nick knew what Tim did in the evening, watching those cheesy romance movies to simply feel something, anything besides loneliness and anger. Ending up alone was not how he wanted to spend the rest of his days.

Well, on the bright side, if you lose your place in the company, you’ll have all the time in the world to date…and be broke.

He spun around in his chair and stared out the windows overlooking the city, scratching absently at his beard. Just when everything in his life was looking up, his world threatened to crash down around him. He rubbed his bruised knuckles, imagining his chance to get a few more licks in on Sal’s face. He had an old punching bag back at his townhouse. Dusting off the gloves and going a few rounds later tonight sounded like a good idea.