Trigger Happy (Girls with Guns, #2) (15 page)

“Me too. It was my fault too. I can take some responsibility. Would you like something to drink?”

“I will have whatever you have.”

“Hmmm, white wine it is then. Help me uncork it?”

Before he started pulling away, Amber kissed him. She stuck her tongue in his mouth, devouring his lips and all of his juices.

Abruptly, she pulled away, “Let's go.”

Naked, they made their way downstairs to the bar. He uncorked the bottle she gave him, as she got two wine glasses down. He poured them both a glass.

“For tonight,” he said.

“Tonight,” she clinked her glass against his and downed a long swallow. “What have you been up to all these years?”

“Not much. Working. Trying to get ahead.”

“What about girlfriends?” Oh why did she have to ask that?

His eyebrow quirked up in that sexy way she found endearing. “After my ex-wife, I’ve tried not to have many girlfriends.” He grunted, “make that any.”

The realization that Amber didn't know him all that well struck a funny chord in her throat. “When were you married? Before or after-”

“Before. What have you been up to?”

“Nothing. My life seems to be defined by my parent’s death. Before they died and after. So before, I traveled all over Europe, some parts of Asia, Egypt – life was good. Then they got killed and I don't know what I’ve been doing since then, truthfully.”

Unexpectedly, Gage grabbed her around the waist and tugged her toward him. “You have got to let it go. That wasn't your fault. You know that, right?” He knew it wasn't the right time, but being near her, naked, had his body parts rising to attention.

“I know. I just have to start believing that.” She quickly avoided any more talk about her parents by rubbing her lower half against his erection. “Do I turn you on, Gage?”

“Yes. Let's go back to your room.”

“No. Take me here.”

Gage tilted his head to the side, his eyes positively gleaming. “The stone will be cold against your ass.”

“I don't care.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her to the edge of the counter. She squealed, as the granite was indeed cold. In one smooth move he was buried inside of her. Her legs were bent and spread wantonly on the counter while Gage pushed into her as hard as he could. In a matter of seconds, they were both sweaty and panting from their quick interlude.

“Shall we take our drinks back upstairs?”

“After you.”

In the early morning hours they both lie awake in her bed with the lights switched to dim. They just finished another go-round and it was Amber who spoke first. “You are right. I need to start believing that I am not responsible for the death of my parents. It's too hard to think I'm not though. They wouldn't have been flying if it weren't for me.”

“Yes they would have. You were their daughter. They would have done anything for you. You didn't make them do anything. The choice was theirs and theirs alone.” Gage wasn't sure why it mattered to him that she saw his reasoning, but it did. He wanted her set free from these demons. Hypocritical he knew – after his ex-wife ditched him it wasn't like he had had any real relationship with a woman. Amber was as close to a relationship as he had gotten. And that was pretty sad, considering.

“I'm sorry. Not one to talk. I haven't had a real relationship in years. My ex did that to me.” Why did he feel the need to say that? Suddenly, their whole one night of fun was turning into more than that. “Actually, never mind. Forget I said anything.”

Amber turned to look him in the eye, “Forget? No! I want to hear what you have to say. But it's not like you’re the only person who has ever told me this about my parents. Why are you so afraid of commitment, Gage?”

“I don't know. My wife left me for reasons only known to her. So I don't want to saddle anyone with my inherent relationship problems.”

She wanted to tell him that she wanted him. She would accept him, faults and all. She wanted to tell him that she would be honored, head over heels, to have and keep him. That he was worthy of love – her love. She wanted to say that she would be there for him and make him happy in bed and out. But she sensed he was freaking out by the mere discussion of things so close to the heart, so she didn't respond. She just cuddled into his side and rested her head on his chest.

Early yesterday morning Gage had been thinking about their prior rendezvous and he couldn't resist asking her now, “Have you had a lot of men, since me?”

“What?”

“Just curious. How many times have you gone to the Silver Slippers Saloon?”

“Well, I have only gone there once where I met an amazing man who did wild and crazy things to my body. And as far as men go... yeah, I’ve had a few. Mostly all of them I used to satisfy a need. What about you? You just fuck’em and leave’em too?”

“Same thing. Except I wouldn't use the term fuck’em and leave’em. They knew the rules.”

“Just like me.”

“Just like you. But with you, I get the sense you don't follow the rules much,” he pushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes, “do you, Ms. Prescott?”

She smiled, “What has following the rules ever got you?”

Gage laughed, “Not much.”

She got up and turned the lights off, “You better get some sleep. You will be exhausted tomorrow.”

He nuzzled into her neck, “It will have been well worth it. Good night, one Amber Prescott.”

“Good night, one Gage Alexander, CEO.”

Gage lay there for just a second, “Hey Amber, you were right.”

Already dozing she mumbled, “About what?”

“My sign. I am a Taurus.” He took a deep breath, her smell of hyacinths penetrating his mind. He wasn't sure what changed his mind, but after their night together, the least he could do was tell her that. Maybe it had to do with his commitment issues. If he couldn't give her that, which he knew she wanted despite what she said, he could give her this.

“I knew you were. I could feel the answer deep in my soul. G’night.”

W
ork was awful the next day. He was exhausted – as anticipated. He enjoyed being exhausted this way though. So he didn't complain about his lack of sleep. He had been irritable since Sara had questioned him about the accounting papers yesterday. The time he had spent with Amber he had done a good job of shutting down his brain but the entire evening it was like a storm waiting to explode. He had tried to put it on the back burner but that had been another thing, aside from Amber, that had plagued him throughout the night. Today, he intended to get to the bottom of it. At the very least, he was going to get some answers. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and he was usually spot-on when it came to his instincts. Fraud. That is what Gage knew in his gut. Fraud or his chief financial officer was beyond incompetent. It all could be an honest accounting mistake, too. But either way, he was trying to keep calm because the truth was, until they pulled all of the invoices and did a complete inventory on all of those invoices – he hadn’t a clue what the fuck was going on.

After he had met with Sara, he had called the Chairman of his Supervisory Committee as well as the Chairman of his board. They would be here any minute to discuss what they were going to do to get to the bottom of the accounting problem.

Logan Reeves was a general practice attorney in Windsor who worked on a variety of legal issues for people. Hence, the general practice attorney. He served on the credit union’s supervisory committee as the chairman. It was a new position he had recently acquired and was still learning and reviewing many of the credit union’s policies and procedures. Gage spotted him striding purposefully down the hallway toward his office and went to intercept him.

“Logan, how are you doing?” Gage reached out to shake the man’s hand. Logan was younger than Gage by a few years but similar in physique. They shared the same build and same height, although Logan was leaner than Gage. And where Gage was dark-haired and dark-skinned, Logan was light-haired, light-skinned.

“Great man, good to see you. Although not under these circumstances,” he winced. “Is Jay here yet?”

“Nope, you are the first. Let’s go into one of the conference rooms, he should be here any minute.”

“Sounds good.”

The men waited inside the empty conference room that was blessedly free from auditors and waited only briefly before Jay arrived.

“Sorry I’m late. Time always seems to get away from me.” He put out his hand and greeted the other two men. Jay was tall and lanky. His dark hair had begun to turn up at the ends, hinting that he needed a haircut. Jay had been on the board for four years and had held various titles but now served as the chairman. He pulled out his seat and sat down, bending his long legs to accommodate himself between the chair and table.

“You’re fine. We just sat down. I will just get right to the point.” Gage proceeded to tell the men the entire story about Sara coming into his office with her findings. “She is currently pulling all of the invoices for these dates as we speak. Once we have that we can do an inventory – at this branch and the other ones.”

“Remind me how long Echo Day has worked for you, Gage?” Logan asked.

Gage blinked, “She has been my CFO for about four or five years.”

“And you haven’t had any massive accounting errors like this in the past?”

Gage could see that Logan was following his own mindset. It was probably unlikely that it was typical accounting errors because she had been there long enough to learn and understand how the procedures worked.

“No, we haven’t. But I’m still holding out hope that something has just gone haywire these past months. After we are finished here I will speak with Echo and figure out why items have been capitalized and expensed when they shouldn’t have been.”

“Logan, why don’t you and I go find Sara and see if we can get our hands on those invoices?” Jay suggested.

The men spoke briefly before departing their separate ways and Gage made his way to Echo’s office. The accounting department had three other employees aside from Echo and he said hello to them as he passed their offices. He came to Echo’s office and knocked. Her door was ajar and he saw her sitting at her desk hanging up the phone.

“Hi, Echo. Do you have a minute?”

“Of course. What do you need?”

“The auditors pulled some accounting records and you know how they go over everything line by line? Well she noticed a few discrepancies where certain items should have been capitalized but were actually expensed.”

“Really?” she asked surprised, “I will have to run a report and take a look.”

“Could you do that right away, please? We need to figure out why there are mistakes. Sara has probably already got the invoices pulled from one of the girls,” he gestured out toward the hall.

“Yes, of course. I will get right on it.”

“Thanks. Let me know.”

Gage was getting annoyed. The workday was almost over and he still hadn’t gotten the reports from Echo. Just as he was making his way to her office for the second time that afternoon, he ran smack into Amber who was trying to come into his office.

“Whoa, what is it with you and never watching where you’re going?”

“I am watching! It’s you who is never paying attention. You are clearly on a mission, where you headed?” He was so sexy – even when he was irritable, which he was now. She could see it in eyes and the pulse pounding in his neck.

“Come in, have a seat,” he shut the door and turned. Amber fell into him, her arms closing around his neck and her lips capturing his own. His hands immediately went to her tiny waist and he kissed her back. His lips were soft and his mouth was warm as her tongue slid inside. Do this much longer and she would have to release the temptation she was feeling low in her tummy. She broke away, “you looked like you needed that.”

Gage laughed, “I did actually. I have auditors here and they found a bunch of shit that isn’t how we normally do things. So now we have to pull all of our accounting records and do an inventory on all of the invoices. It’s a pain.”

“Ah, well at least you’re smiling more these days. You didn’t smile much when I first started coming around.”

“You are right. That’s because I knew you would be a pain in the ass,” jokingly he added, “and I was right.”

“Please,” she rolled her eyes. “Before I forget, here are some documents for you guys for my closing. That is why I stopped by in the first place. Not to be a pain in the ass.”

“Thanks.”

With Amber gone, Gage tried to focus. What was it about her that had him wishing he were anywhere but here? Her scent continued to linger in his nostrils even though she was gone. He had to admit, once he let go of the fight to avoid her, he liked being around her. She was funny, light-hearted and an overwhelming bundle of energy. She brought sunshine to his often-gloomy days.

Sitting at his desk, he checked his email for the thirtieth time that day to see if Echo had gotten back to him. Finally! She had. He opened the email expecting to find some answers:
You had someone in your office so I didn’t bother you. My daughter had to be picked up from school. Unavoidable - the flu! I can pull the information that you requested tomorrow when I get in. Sorry! See you tomorrow! ~Echo

Seriously? Ahh, this irritated him to no end. How come she didn’t do as he asked right before she left? How hard is it? Especially since she knew, she knew, that the auditors were here requesting information. He stood up. He began pacing back and forth, coming to a decision. Brian Kemp, his IT director, would most likely have a record of the invoices he gave to Echo to be turned in for payment. That would be one way he could see what had all been purchased at least. It would make him feel like he was getting something done. It wouldn’t explain why there were discrepancies with the items that were expensed and not capitalized. But it was worth a shot.

Brian’s door was closed. He knocked and opened it. Brian turned in his desk.

“Hey Gage, how are you today?”

“I’m okay. I’m a little irritated because I asked Echo to pull some information for me but her daughter had to be taken out of school because she is ill. Now, I’m here to see you. The auditors pointed out a lot of items you have ordered in the past year have been expensed when anything over twenty-five hundred should be capitalized. Can you give me a report of items you have purchased?