Page 2 of Billionaire Corruption
Then one day, I was called into the senior partner’s office. We’d been given the job of investigating a big multinational firm for tax evasion and financial irregularities. We would be going over their accounts, scrutinizing invoices and checking every single item. It could take months. I was offered a place on the team, but I was warned that the hours would be long, was I up for the job?
My eye fell on the open file on the desk. There were photographs of the company’s management and I immediately recognized the man from the elevator.
I leaned forward, turned the page around to get a better look.
“That’s Paul McKinney,” my manager said. “CEO of Ladden Ltd. Want to help take him down?”
I found myself nodding.
I wanted to take him down all right, but not in the way he was thinking. I was thinking things I couldn’t say out loud, things I had never even thought about before. I wasn’t that type of girl at all. I had always been good, respectable, and decent. But the things I thought about Paul McKinney were not decent, I knew. Still, I didn’t think he was involved in anything shady. I didn’t believe that for a second. I would never be attracted to someone who was involved in anything criminal or illegal. I trusted my gut one hundred percent.
I had been wrong, of course, before.
But I was certain that this time, I was not wrong.
I signed up for the Ladden Ltd. investigation and was told to report early the next morning at the company offices downtown.
I took down the address and noticed how fast my heart was beating.
I would be seeing him again.
More than a year had passed since that incident in the lift. In that time, I had often visited that building, hoping to walk into him. I’d go to the financial district over lunch, walk the pavement and try not to be too obvious. I even started talking to a guy in a food truck, a young actor called Jeremy, who after my third visit in as many days, came right out and asked me,
“Either you are addicted to my tacos, or you’ve got a thing for me. Which is it?”
Usually, I don’t talk to men I don’t know, but with him in the trailer, I felt safe.
“Actually, your food truck is parked in a really good spot,” I said, pointing at the three different buildings I could see from that corner.
Jeremy nodded, his dreads bouncing up and down.
“Got it! Stalking an ex? Don’t tell me, so been there.”
I laughed.
“Yeah, it’s a bit sad,” I admitted.
“Not if he’s the one,” Jeremy said, looking pointedly at me.
“You’re a romantic?” I asked.
He shrugged. “You gotta believe in something, right?”
It wasn’t something you heard a lot in New York, and I liked him for his lack of cynicism.
When I got the job at the accounting firm not too far from Jeremy’s food truck, I started coming by for actual lunch. We became friends. I found out about Jeremy’s struggles to land an acting job. He’d dropped out of acting school and was always talking about auditions he was going to, when he wasn’t trying to get me to come out on a date with him. I would laugh and shake my head; I had no time for dating. My life was about work, coming back to help with dinner and keeping an eye on my brother, who would soon be out of the house. My grandmother was supposed to be the responsible adult, but most evenings, her back hurt too much for her to get out of the chair and I would end up making dinner and cleaning up.
Even though I never did see my elevator guy again, I kept hoping for a glimpse of him. Every time I saw a tall, dark-haired man in a smart suit pass me by, my heart would beat faster. Then I’d start wondering if he hadn’t been shorter, or his shoulders were bulkier. In time, his face in my mind became blurry and I wasn’t seeing his features that sharply anymore. I doubted that he was as handsome as I remembered or that our connection was that strong.
But when I saw his picture lying on Mr. Henderson’s desk, I had all those strong emotions flooding me all over again. Looking at Paul McKinney’s face, I knew that that afternoon in the elevator was not a random moment after a scary event.
It had meant something.
I went home and googled him and found out that Paul McKinney became CEO of Ladden Ltd five years ago. The company had grown into a multi-national corporation over the past ten years, with a presence in several countries around the world. It was a massive retailer, with businesses ranging from furniture and transport to a shipping fleet.
I found out that the McKinney family was powerful and wealthy. There was a Frank McKinney, who was a property developer and an Agatha McKinney who was thin as a rake, with blonde hair that fell in movie star waves onto boney shoulders.
I tried to remember if the Paul McKinney I had kissed in the elevator had manicured hands or was wearing a handmade suit. I couldn’t. I hadn’t noticed any of that, not even the dark blue eyes, or the strong jaw that dominated almost every picture of his.
