“She works for the marketing firm?” Callum asked.
“The very one stealing from us. That is not all. Simone Allusifa is the daughter of the man you’re currently fighting with over a certain area of land.” Cole took another bite of his toast.
He read through the file in his hands. “This doesn’t mention her father.”
“No, I had to do more digging. I don’t know why people don’t put two and two together with the last name.”
“Do you think she was some kind of plant?” Callum asked, feeling sick. Malcolm was known for using everything at his disposal. Simone hadn’t seemed like the type of women to fuck a man for her father.
“Nope, I don’t.”
His anger rising, Callum glared at his friend. “Just tell me what you’re keeping secret.”
“Well, what I’ve dug up about your little one-night stand is this. She doesn’t speak to her father because of the way he treated her mother. From my sources, she hasn’t spoken to him in years—we’re talking since she was six or seven years old. She can’t stand her father, and I think someone at her workplace is trying to frame her for the theft of your money but doesn’t know she’s pretty much loaded herself,” Cole said, taking a drink of coffee.
“How do you find this stuff out?” Callum was always amazed at how easy Cole made it seem.
“You come up with the ideas for the business, and I don’t ask how you do it. This is what I do.”
“And you’re damn good at it.” Callum gazed at her photo. She’d left her mark on him last night. Callum wanted more of her. One night with her hadn’t been enough. He needed more.
“She’s going to be in for a shock when you see her on Monday morning.”
“I know. I can’t wait for Monday to come.”
He finished off his breakfast, reading the whole file on Simone. Cole had made two files, one of her employment record and one with her father. He read both absorbing every bit of information he could.
“She must have been a good screw for you to be paying this much attention,” Cole said.
Callum looked at his friend. “You’d like her, Cole.”
He’d been trying to get his friend back into the sack. There was a time when they’d shared a woman. He loved watching a woman come apart under his friend’s touch. Cole had refused every woman he brought home.
“She’s your woman, Callum. Don’t get me involved.” He watched Cole stand and leave the table. Minutes later he came back carrying a heap of files. “These are the people involved in our company. All of these people could have access to our accounts.”
“I guess our weekend is filled with info gathering,” Callum said.
“You don’t like going into a meeting being unprepared. This allows you the opportunity to take all the members out of their comfort zone.”
There was only one woman he wanted out of her comfort zone, and that was Simone Allusifa.
Callum sat at the table reading through each file and gathering knowledge on every single employee. Cole did the same. He lingered over Simone’s file, and Callum watched him rub her face. His friend deserved some happiness. He wondered if Simone could be the answer to their problems.
****
Cole knew Callum was watching him. He didn’t like feeling of being under a microscope. Simone was an attractive woman, and the more he learned about her, the more intrigued he’d become. She was a little fighter. Her love for her mother was something to applaud. When she’d finished college she’d refused an internship at her father’s company.
She’d gone to the advertising agency and had made a name for herself. Her job was in the finance department. She made sure the money that she made with the clients, always turned over a profit. Someone had to be messing with the numbers. Her reports were spotless, but the numbers didn’t add up.
“Stop looking at me,” Cole said.
“I remember a time when we use to share everything, Cole.”
He closed his eyes. There was also a time when their sharing had ruined a woman. Cole threw the image out of his mind. He didn’t want to think about the past. Callum had told him it wasn’t their fault, even though he knew it was.
Rachel had accused him of being half a man. If a man couldn’t get off without his friend then he wasn’t a man at all. Cole couldn’t argue. He knew he wasn’t a full man.
“Who do you think the crook is?” Callum asked.
“I have no idea. I want to meet the whole team before we start making assumptions.”
The day passed with him assessing each file wondering who could be trying to take their money. Whoever it was they were trying to frame Simone. He didn’t like it. What was more, he didn’t know why he cared so much about her being framed. He didn’t know her. He had only heard her cries of pleasure.