Love Slave for Two

Chapter 12

Maggie taught Nevvie well in the early weeks. It wasn’t difficult, mostly keeping project files up to date. Nevvie learned data entry and basic bookkeeping when working for the hotel in New Orleans, in line for more training and a promotion when Katrina hit. She’d had a knack for it and enjoyed it.

Nevvie’s primary duties at Kinsey Consulting consisted of data entry, updating project notes with billing and invoice information, reports, permitting issues and deadlines, and related tasks. Originally split between several departments, Thomas used Maggie’s departure to restructure and streamline procedures as she’d begged him to for years.

Thomas and Nevvie rode the Harley to work many mornings if the weather looked good. In front of others he acted friendly, but professional, with her.

In private he playfully teased Nevvie, not that she minded. She played his jibes and sexual innuendoes back to him without hesitation, creating a pleasant undercurrent in their relationship.

On a Friday morning, Nevvie studied a pile of invoices for the GDK building project while updating the records and comparing them to the billing memos. Something wasn’t right. She didn’t know what, but something niggled at her intuition. As Tyler had drilled into her, never ignore your intuition.

She pulled up records for another project and studied the invoices, comparing the sub-contractors and suppliers. There were three different suppliers used for the GDK job that weren’t used for the other project. She tried another job site. Then another.

When she found a job site using those same three suppliers, she dug deeper into the project notes and found another similarity—Bruce Geller was the project manager.

She audited all of Geller’s projects for the past six months and found in every case the same three companies appeared. Even more odd, the invoices were for different services or supplies, but nearly the same dollar amounts every time. Always totaling around ten thousand per project. Each company with a P.O. box instead of a physical address, and at the same Zip Code, meaning the same post office.

None of the other project managers used them.

When Thomas returned from his meeting, Nevvie asked him into her office and closed the door. She knew Bruce Geller was a long-time employee, and what she proposed wasn’t good.

“What’s wrong, Nevvie?” He settled across the desk from her.

“How did you know something’s wrong?”

“You look sick to your stomach. Spill it, baby girl.”

“I need to ask you about these three suppliers.” Nevvie showed him the project expenditure sheets she’d printed and pointed to the highlighted items. He frowned, studying them.

“You need to tell me what you think. I trust you.”

“I could be wrong. I don’t know this business like you do, but there’s a weird pattern.” She pointed out Geller’s other projects. “No other project manager uses these three suppliers. Every job Geller manages, these invoices appear in some combination, always totaling ten thousand.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“I’m not saying he’s doing anything wrong,” she hastily added. “It could be a freaky coincidence, or a legitimate expense.”

“He bought a brand new boat last month, Nev. Told me they inherited some money. His wife doesn’t work.” He looked at the papers. “Shit.”

“Tell me I’m wrong, Tom.”

He shook his head, his face grim. “I can’t, because I don’t think you are.”

“Wouldn’t Maggie have caught this?”

“No. She’d spot obvious things, but this wasn’t obvious before we changed stuff around. Especially since she was one of several people sharing the duties. She’d have no reason to think Geller would cheat us or that those weren’t legitimate expenses. He probably spread them around to different people. If we didn’t question them at the project level, accounting wouldn’t have a reason to question them.”

He made a call on his cell, asked someone to meet him in his office immediately. When he finished he turned to her. “Make back-ups of everything. Go into the server, lock his projects down, and do a back-up, right now, in case the son of a bitch tries to delete stuff. Then get me copies of all the print outs. I want listings of all his current projects and billables, including outstanding invoices. As soon as you get the other stuff ready, bring it to my office. Come on in, I’ll be there.”

“Okay.” This wasn’t easy-going Tommy, the man who soothed her out of nightmares, took her to hockey games, or carried her on the back of his Harley. This was Thomas Kinsey, architect, and a very pissed man. From the hard set of his jaw she knew someone was getting an ass chewing—and most likely a trip to jail.

He started for the door then turned and kissed her. “Thank you, sugar” he whispered. “You’re the best.”

Unable to speak, she simply nodded.

Nevvie walked into his office thirty minutes later with everything he requested. Six men and two women sat at the conference table. She hadn’t met Geller in person, but she’d be willing to bet he was the nervous-looking man at the head of the table.

Thomas waved her in. “For those of you who haven’t met her yet this is Nevaeh Barton, my personal assistant.” She handed Thomas the papers and he motioned for her sit behind his desk. “She took over for Maggie. Today she discovered something disturbing and brought it to my attention.”

Thomas thumbed through the paperwork as he circled the conference table, stopping by the nervous man. “Bruce, can you explain this?” Thomas laid out copies of the records.

Nevvie watched the man’s face. He blinked and licked his lips, but shook his head. “Tom, you know we go through so much I can’t keep track in my head—”

Thomas slammed his fist on the table. Everyone else jumped, startled by his uncharacteristically angry display. “How long have you been false billing the company?” he shouted.

Nevvie realized she’d been the only one who didn’t jump.

Because I’m not afraid of him.

Geller stammered and tried to lie his way out of it. When the man dared shoot a nasty look Nevvie’s way, Thomas immediately put himself between her and Geller.

“Don’t you fucking look at her, you goddamned thief. This isn’t her fault. This is you getting your ass caught. I trusted you, you son of a bitch!”

“How do you know she didn’t make those up? Awful funny you get a new helper and suddenly I’m a bad guy. C’mon, Tommy, you’ve known me for years.”

Nevvie watched as Thomas clenched his fists. She thought back to the morning of the fight with Alex, when she wanted to sling the dishes at him to defend her boys.

Please don’t hit him, Tom. He’s not worth it.

Thomas finally turned from Geller. “Cal, escort him straight to his car, get his keys, his ID badge, everything. He’s not allowed back in the building.”

Geller turned red. “What?”

“You’re fired. I’ll go through your desk and box up any personal items and ship them to you. You’re not setting foot in this building again. I suggest you get an attorney. You’re going to need one.”

Cal stood and motioned to Geller, who started handing over items. Then Cal escorted him from the room. Thomas looked at the others, talked with them for a few minutes, and then excused all but two men. When the door closed, Thomas sat where Cal had been, near the head of the table, and motioned for Nevvie to take Geller’s seat.

Now she felt nervous. She hesitantly sat.

Thomas reached over and patted her hand. “Nevvie, this is Mike, and you’ve already met Kenny.” She nodded, still uncomfortable being the center of attention. “Mike’s our accountant. I need you to work with him on this, help him with the audits, track how long this has been going on and see if it’s happening elsewhere.”

“Sure, Mr. Kinsey.”

“It’s okay, sugar. Around these two guys you don’t need to be formal. They’re friends.”

She relaxed. “Okay, whatever you need me to do, Tommy.”

“You’re the first person who had all the information readily available to see the big picture and pick up on it. Geller used that to his advantage all these years. We may have to borrow you from Tyler an extra day or two a week for a while.”

“He won’t mind.”

Thomas winked. “I’m sure he won’t.”

They were the last two in the office. Nevvie assumed that after the day’s events they would work late. Thomas stuck his head in her door around seven. “Ready to blow this joint?”

She smiled then blushed, her comment bit back before she could utter it.

He grinned. “Blow something, huh, sweetie?”

She laughed. “How do you do that?”

“Because you and I are both twisted. Let’s go. I already called Tyler to meet us for dinner.” When she stood, he pulled her to him.

“Seriously, you were great today. I mean, I know it wasn’t the best of circumstances. I’m sorry if I scared you when I lost my temper.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t scare me, Tom.” She wanted to kiss him. So close, so sweet.

As if sensing her thought he brushed his lips against hers. Nevvie fought the urge to drive her tongue into his mouth.

“I’m glad I didn’t scare you. I don’t ever want to scare you. That would break my heart.” He gave her one more hug and carried her helmet. “Let’s go. Don’t want to keep Ty waiting.”

She followed him and he stowed her purse in the saddlebag while she donned her gear. He turned before swinging onto the bike, his helmet already on. She couldn’t tell if his voice sounded different or was just muffled by the helmet.

“I love it when you ride with me, sugar.”

“Me too. Any excuse to cop a feel of your abs, Tom.”

He roared with laughter, cut off by the sound of the bike’s engine firing to life. When he had it running and balanced she swung up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle. She patted him, their signal she was ready, and off they rode.

Tyler stood outside Outback Steakhouse with a table beeper in hand. He grinned when they walked up and gave Nevvie a hug. “I hear our girl was magnificent today.”

“I was doing my job, Tyler.”

He kissed Thomas. “Is she being modest?”

“Very. It looks like well over a hundred grand, and we haven’t audited previous years.” He shook his head, looking grim. “I still can’t believe it.”

The hostess showed them to a corner booth and Nevvie enjoyed sitting between her boys, comfortable with them, enjoying their easy rapport. She never sensed any unease from the men. In fact, if she tried to give them time alone it wasn’t unusual for them to draw her back into their tight triad of effortless friendship, like they’d known each other forever. A gentle ebb and flow, always in flux, but in perfect harmony with both.

She gave up trying to refuse when they bought her anything. It was far easier to let them spoil her. She didn’t know how much they were worth, but they took obvious pleasure in pampering her, so why not? It’s not like they couldn’t pay their light bill.

After dinner they made their way to the parking lot. Thomas paused at the bike. “Did you want to ride home with Tyler?”

She held up her hands. “Oh no you don’t. Don’t you guys dare ever make me choose.”

Tyler smiled and looked at Thomas then held out a closed fist. “Odds or evens?”

Thomas extended his fist. “Odds.”

“Best two out of three, right? One, two, three, shoot!”

Nevvie watched, amused, as the men played “Odds and Evens” to win the right to take her home. Thomas won, triumphantly hugging her. “Ha! I still get a little time alone with her.”

Tyler grinned. “Ah, but in all fairness I should get to kiss her goodbye.”

Jesus! Was he kidding?

Apparently not, because before she could respond Tyler grabbed her and planted one on her lips.

Thomas laughed. “You’re right, Ty, fair’s fair.”

Tyler let her go and she staggered slightly on her feet, breathless.

Clueless. Totally oblivious dumb fucks, both of them.

It didn’t matter they were gay, they were still men and completely unaware of what they did to her.

“You all right, sugar?” Thomas’ brown eyes wickedly gleamed.

She nodded and pulled on her helmet before she said something stupid like, “Can I give you a blow job now?”

Tyler kissed Thomas and patted him on the ass. “I’ll follow you home, sweet. Be careful.” Tyler tapped her face shield and winked. “You all right, love?”

She mutely nodded, his blue eyes burning a trail straight from her heart to her lower belly.