Embrace My Heart(55)

“Well, your math and social skills are what got you this job, you know?”

Will’s grin took on a devilish tint. “Thought I got the job because of my lifesaving act of valor on a sandbank a few years back?”

Grinning as well, Qasim stood as Will took a seat in one of the leather box-style chairs that flanked a matching sofa. “It didn’t get you the job, but it’s the reason I’ve kept you around as long as I have.”

Will’s easy expression betrayed signs of strain at the edges. He served up no rebuttal, however.

Qasim passed the chair his old friend was occupying. Along the way, he dropped the folder he’d been studying into Will’s lap. “You don’t really have to read that,” he said. “My guess is you’re pretty familiar with it, anyway. It’s more for me so I can keep it all together, especially when there’s so much of it and it’s been going on for so long.”

Will managed a curious laugh and checked the contents of the folder. Qasim watched the expressions change on the other man’s face and smirked.

“You notice the docs in that folder date back almost two years—about ten months after you came on board as the foundation’s business director.”

The folder tumbled from Will’s hands.

“Couldn’t you have at least given me a year, man? Just one year before confirming what I suspected about you from the first day we met?” Qasim asked, walking back to his desk. “I actually doubted myself.” He tapped his palm to the front of the vest he wore over a dark shirt. “It’s not every day I doubt myself, but, well...you did save my life and all.”

“Sim—”

“I’m real big on oversight committees, Will. They do more than point out mistakes. They keep people honest...most of the time.”

Qasim strode to the front of his desk. “You were good. The folks on that committee are no slouches, but you managed to keep them three steps behind. I had no reason to doubt you.” He perched on a corner of the sectional desk. “I mean, you did save my life and all.”

Qasim’s repetition of the fact made Will flinch as though the words were a slap.

“I wouldn’t buy it when they came to me with their suspicions,” Sim continued. “I got pretty upset. It wasn’t a good scene. I told ’em to leave it alone, but oversight committees...” He winced. “They don’t always listen. As you can see—” he nodded toward the pages scattered at Will’s feet “—the docs in that folder look like duplicates, and they are—invoices of charges connected to foundation events. Only one shows the charge actually quoted by the vendors minus the little service fee you quoted to us. They got us to take another look at those exorbitant rates quoted by our usual hotels. Turns out they didn’t go up nearly as much as we first thought—or were told.”

Will moved to the edge of his chair. “Sim—”

“Save it. They asked me to fire you not long after I hired you, but I let you stay because I wanted you in jail and suffering in all those ways they love to make you suffer there.” Qasim left the desk and began to prowl the far side of the office.

“I knew your ego would get the better of you and we’d be on our way to having you good and tight once you had that signing doc, but then Minka figured your act. And then you had the nerve to threaten her.”

“I never—”

“And I couldn’t have you stick around after that.” Qasim scratched the whiskers shading his jaw. “Your office is being cleaned out. Everything will be stacked up nice and neat by the time your lawyer gets you released.”

“Released!” Will bolted from the chair, sputtering the word.

“Don’t worry. You won’t be in there nearly as long as you deserve.”

“Sim—”

“Get out of my sight.”

A hard knock followed the order. Two uniformed guards looked into the office.

“You done, sir?” one of the men queried.

Qasim threw up a hand. “Completely. Thanks, guys.”

Will jerked off the hold when he was secured. Qasim raised a hand to stay the guards.

“You owe me, Sim!”

“What? A job wasn’t good enough?”

“For what I did? No way!”

Qasim smirked. “So why didn’t you just ask me for money instead of taking money from those kids? I’d have given it to you.”

“Self-righteous idiot.” Will sneered. “You probably wanted to crap bricks when I saved your life. A nobody like me.”

“We were all nobodies.” Qasim gave a mystified shrug. “Why’d you track me down? Was it really the hard-luck story you gave me two years back, or did you just want to bring me down a few?”