Princely Passions 2(117)

For a moment, Alicia looked at me with puzzlement. Then delight. And then happiness, satisfaction, and love.

The weather was perfect and it was only 11 am in the morning. A perfect day in a perfect park in the perfect city with the perfect girl.

“Oh my God Derek Lowell,” Alicia said, a broad smile lighting up her face. “I love you so much!”

She brought herself forward and wrapped her arms around me as we kissed for a long moment on the park bench.

When we finally disengaged she looked at me and wrinkled her nose. “And if you ever do something like that again to scare me, I’ll … break both your arms!”

I laughed. We had talked earlier of going to Paris and she had told me she really wanted to see the Venus de Milo more than anything else.

Eventually we began to walk back to my apartment.

“So, do you like your oysters raw or fried?” I found myself asking her.

Yes. I was really in love.

Let's hope she stayed in love with me after this was all over.





176





Alicia





You know, whoever said balancing a career and a love life was easy never probably went up against discovering that the guy they had fallen in love with was involved in an international money laundering conspiracy.

I mean, I'm just saying that if those career women who have time for kids and a love life with their husband every night like they write about in all the magazines ever had the mental worry and anguish I'm going through, they'd either be career-oriented spinsters, or happily married and unemployed.

I mean, I'm sitting here, looking at these trades.

There is no doubt about it. No hiding from the fact.

There is someone at Carter Jeffries or acting for Carter Jeffries that is executing orders from Derek's account moving vast sums of money around the globe to countries and entities that violate so many different laws that it's not even funny.

It's no wonder that whoever has done this hasn't been caught. Derek is a high net worth private client, and the bank has a strict policy on confidentiality. I had to basically get promoted to get special access to see his account.

And had this been in the normal database, what would've happened?

Oh, I dunno ... like 18 different law enforcement agencies would have gotten red flags most likely. They probably would have swarmed our offices with SWAT teams and taken all of our computers.

I need to figure this shit out. I need to tell someone. I'm too pretty for jail. I'm still an ass virgin. I was thinking maybe giving it up to Derek on our wedding night. You know, like a wedding present because obviously I'm not a virgin or anything. That ship sailed a while ago.

But then, what do I do?

I could lose my job, my license, and be forever barred from working on Wall Street if I get tagged as an accessory to this. I mean, you read about it in the Journal every day nowadays. Conspiracy to commit fraud and launder money. And I'm sorry babe, but just knowing about it and not saying anything is enough to make you part of the conspiracy.

But who do I go tell? Nadia?

She'll probably let our Legal and Compliance folks know. They'll investigate and then they'll alert the FBI, Homeland Security, the SEC, the Department of the Treasury, the IRS, and who knows who else.

Jesus Christ, it's not like there's a witness protection program for whistleblowers. I mean, what do I even say to qualify? Please hide my identity because he's my boyfriend?

Derek will probably never talk to me again much less have sex with me.

And look at what he's done to me! I'm thinking about his fat cock inside of me when I should be thinking about my career.

I'm thinking about how his arms feel wrapped around me as we lie in his bed and look over at the city.

Yeah, girl you best check yourself before you wreck yourself, huh?

I need to stop.

I lean back and stare at the ceiling.

So, I can't tell Derek anything because I would be violating the rules of the Firm by disclosing proprietary technology and secrets. And I can't tell Nadia anything because I'd be betraying the man I love.

So there's only one thing to do.

I'm actually surprised I didn't think of it sooner.

I mean, what can you do when you can't tell each side what you found out separately?

You tell them together.

That's right.

I'll go through my findings and let both Derek and Nadia connect the dots together.

And then whoever has the questions will ask them. And whoever has something to hide will have to explain all this illegal shit or basically, I dunno, go to jail?

I get to work, quickly shooting off an email. I've never written with such authority before, but I go ahead and state that I request the presence of Derek Lowell and Nadia Moore this coming Friday to go over an analysis of the Lowell Private Client Account. The reason for this walk through is due to the fact that after a thorough analysis I have some questions that need to be clarified and answered.