Brazen Read online

  Brazen

  M. Malone

  Nana Malone

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  More from The Malones

  About the Authors

  1

  Oskar

  “Are you sure you want to handle it like this?”

  I grinned at my partner. “Sure. Come on, kid, why not?”

  Matthias Weller shook his head at me. “Maybe because Gemma has been asking why every time I go out with you, I come back with blood on my clothes.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That thing with the prince. You didn’t come back with blood on your clothes because of me. It turned out Prince Lucas was kind of a handful.”

  Matthias nodded and considered that one. “True. All I’m saying is maybe a private meeting would have been a good idea.”

  I grinned. “Nope. It’s better that it’s all out on the table, and then no one has any time to make up lies and come up with excuses and reasons. This is for the best.”

  The kid just shook his head. I would have sworn, since he got engaged, he’d been extra careful. Noah had kept him away from a lot of the violence before, but recently he’d mellowed, which was fine by me. It was good to see the kid a lot less stabby. He no longer seemed to have a death wish, or rather a kill wish. Rafe and the new kid, Tyse, rounded out the crew at the Stanley Co. meeting.

  The new kid was untested, so he’d be shadowing one of the best of us for at least another few months.

  Rafe cracked his neck. “If you two are done discussing china patterns, can we get this show on the road?”

  Tyse said nothing, just shrugged, ready and willing as always.

  Benson Grove, the CEO of Stanley Co., had called Blake Security because he was getting death threats. Two point five million had vanished off the books. And he swore up and down he hadn’t taken it.

  From what I’d seen of the company books, he hadn’t. The problem was someone had tried to kill him over it. That was when he’d called us. The good news was I knew the truth about who had taken the money. The bad news, for him, was that the truth was going to hurt.

  When we walked in, Benson stood up. “Mueller.” He greeted me with a nod. He nodded at the others, but I was his main point of contact. The CFO stood as well, as did the VP and a couple of their executives.

  I admit, at the beginning, I hadn’t bothered learning their names. If they didn't show up in my financial investigation, I really didn’t care.

  When everyone sat, I stayed standing. I had my presentation all ready. I almost looked profesh. Little did these guys know that I’d been born a thief, had grown up a thief, and until recently had I turned into, well, not a thief. There once was a time when it came to hiding money, I was your guy. I could find every single loophole so that rich assholes didn’t have to pay any taxes.

  I also had a knack for making money too. Some of the less than savory people I used to work with called me Midas. I was the expert at money. Just like when it came to hacking, Matthias was the best there was.

  “Mr. Grove, I hope you’ve been happy with the work that Blake Security has done for you so far.”

  Benson nodded. “Yeah, it’s been fine. Great. I hardly knew you guys were here most of the time, but then every time I’d so much as sneeze, one of you would appear out of the shadows. It’s eerie, but good work.”

  I gave him a wan smile. We didn’t need a pat on the back; we knew how good we were. Frankly, if he’d noticed Tyse as his security detail, I’d be all over Noah to fire the kid. “Great, great. Well, the good news is you will no longer need us.”

  Everyone looked around.

  “I know. Surprising. But it’s completely unnecessary. No one is going to kill you. No one was ever trying to kill you. Someone just wanted you scared enough to change all the security protocols.”

  Benson frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  This was my favorite part. Where I got to shine. “Well, it’s pretty complicated, but it has to do with the access codes you use for your upper level accounts. The person who stole from you only took two million to see if they could get you to change your protocols. And when you did, thanks to some hacker friends of theirs, they were able to quietly siphon off another fifteen million that you wouldn’t have noticed for at least another few months.”

  Benson stood. “What the hell are you saying?”

  I had to try not to be so smug. No one liked a showoff. Didn’t matter how awesome I was. I flipped on the projector, showing a whole bunch of numbers, graphs, and spreadsheets. I knew to most people these were boring, but to me this shit was almost as good as an orgasm. Almost. It didn’t make sense, really, the way the numbers spoke to me, considering I was so affable. They made the most sense to me than people. And while I didn’t generally like to lie, if I needed to lie, the numbers could help me.

  I pointed at the projector screen. “Do you see that right there?” I pointed to a highlighted line. Then I scrolled the pointer down to another highlighted line and repeated the process for about five records. Finally, I pointed at the account number, matching the transactions. “That account number right there is at Allied Financial Bank.”

  Benson’s brows rose. “I don’t know that bank.”

  I shook my head. “You’re not expected to.”

  “Okay, I don’t understand.”

  I shrugged. “Well, Allied Financial is in the Caymans. They’re not supposed to tell you who their clients are. And in some cases, they don’t even know. But thanks to my boy Matthias—” I clapped Matthias on the shoulder and he lifted a brow. Sometimes I forgot about the whole it’s still not a good idea to touch him unexpectedly thing, but this time I didn’t even see any hint of the monster. He was relaxed, and cool, and mellow.

  “Like I was saying, thanks to my boy Matthias here, we tracked that account number to another account, here in the good old US. And the best thing about having a bank here in the US is that it requires a name, or a corporation name, which was attached to that account number. But you know, unravel the thread a little bit more, and it turns out the person taking shots at you, the person who embezzled the seventeen point two million from the company, was none other than your CFO.”

  Royce Blanchard’s face went ashen, and he sputtered. “But, b-b-b-ut—”

  I shook my head. “It’s all here.” I flipped the screen in the projector to show how we’d traced the money right back to Royce, and his face went sheet white.

  Rafe leaned over to Matthias. “A hundred bucks says he bolts.”

  Matthias shook his head and whispered back, “That wouldn’t end well for him. He knows that. I’ll take that bet.” They shook hands on it.

  Royce looked at the other executives sitting at the table in silence. Then he shoved away from the table, making the chair scrape back as it hit the ground, and he ran for the door.

  I just sighed and watched in annoyance as he interrupted my stellar presentation. The other executives in the room were shocked and grabbed their things to keep them from clattering off the desks at the commotion. Royce was headed straight for the exit as if there were anywhere he could really run.

  But that was the thing about panicking. A brain in crisis couldn’t think, couldn’t process. It couldn’t walk through all the rational rea
sons for why it was so dumb to do something. Nope. Instead, fight or flight would kick in. At that point, you would no longer be thinking clearly because your normal synaptic functions would be fuzzy from the shot of adrenaline. It was pure instinct.

  Well, it turned out that for Royce, his instincts willed him to run like the wind. And run he did.

  Unfortunately for him, he didn’t calculate on Tyse, who had been stationed at the door right outside to make sure that nobody went in or out. From my angle, I could see everything. The door opened. Tyse leveled a simple arm bar, and Royce went down like a sack of potatoes.

  One blow. Not bad.

  I shook my head.

  Matthias frowned. “Ugh! Bollocks.”

  Rafe just chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll give you until we get back to the penthouse to pay up.”

  I muttered, “Rafe, notice how the kid took him out without having to actually kill him?”

  DeMarco rolled his eyes at that. “Oh my God. You try and kill a guy one time, and they never let you forget it.”

  “Yep. Like Benson here, I’m always going to remember the motherfucker who tried to kill me.”

  That happened way back when Rafe hadn’t always been on our side. He came around eventually, but before that, he had tried to kill every single one of us. Which was a shame really, because I was fucking delightful.

  Jonas? Now he maybe deserved to get a bullet every now and then, but me? I was awesome.

  Benson stood. “I-I don’t understand. So it’s over?”

  I nodded. “The reports have already been emailed to you, along with your bill.”

  He blinked rapidly. “I can’t believe it. Royce and I started this company together. Why would he do this to me?”

  I shrugged. “Oh, you know, greed? There’s always someone who thinks they got the bum end of the shaft. Or whatever the expression is.”

  I could have made some inappropriate jokes right then, but I left it. Besides, it’s not for us to determine why someone did something; we just find out who did it and stop it from happening again.

  Matthias stood. “Are you sure you weren’t supposed to be a performer? You seem to actually like that.”

  “Yeah, well, you know, sometimes catching the bad guy is fun.”

  He laughed. “Oh, only sometimes?”

  I shrugged. “Sometimes being the bad guy is fun.”

  “Oh, you miss your life of crime?”

  I thought about it often. That lifestyle almost got me killed. Even worse? I’d almost lost someone I cared about because I was careless and greedy. When Noah had offered me a way out, I’d taken it and never looked back. Well, almost never. Sometimes I missed the rush of knowing I’d gotten one over on someone. That shit was awesome. But that was the old me. The new me was one of the good guys.

  “Nope,” I lied. “Not at all.”

  Hailey

  I bounced my knee up and down as I mentally ran through my game plan. Next to me, my father clapped his hands. “Hailey. Enough. It’s going to be fine.”

  Yeah, says him. He’d long ago handed off the reins, so it was up to me to please my mother. The launch of the new perfume was just around the corner, and I was drowning. But it had to be perfect, because if it wasn’t…

  God help us all if it wasn’t. I knew what Livingston Perfumes had accomplished over the years. What our name meant in the industry. My nose was mainly responsible for getting us where we were, actually.

  “It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

  He chuckled beside me. “You always say that when things aren’t fine. Are you sure you didn’t get overwhelmed? I promise you, it’s going to be great. Your mother loves you no matter what. This does not have to be perfect.”

  “Yeah, says you, Dad.”

  I needed to approve the final samples of the latest line. I’d been working on Miriam for over a year. A year of my life with the same scent on my nose.

  It was the signature scent that I’d been trying to chase for God only knew how long. Quintessentially my mother. There were hints of bergamot and orange. But it had been the mother of uphill climbs to capture this scent based on the mother I used to know, because Lord knew I didn’t recognize her these days.

  When the car rolled up to the office, we were driven to the underground entrance. One of the office security guards, Marlon, opened the door for me. “Good morning, Ms. Livingston. Mr. Livingston.”

  “Good morning, Marlon.”

  He beamed, which meant I’d gotten his name right. Thank God. I didn’t always pay attention, because I had my nose buried in a book, or was researching something, or was chasing a scent. So sometimes the interpersonal stuff eluded me.

  My father stopped in the elevator. Dad and I rode together, but I headed off to the labs on the third floor while he continued to the executive offices. “See you later, sweetheart. Remember, enjoy. Relax. You have accomplished a lot.”

  I gave him a wan smile even as I waved and walked out. Yeah, perfect. I’d hear about it over and over again.

  Relax, it’s just perfume.

  Yeah, but it wasn’t just perfume to me.

  She’s your mother. She’ll love you regardless.

  And that was the rub. My mother was difficult at the best of times, and loving me regardless of whether or not I succeeded… well, she wasn’t exactly that kind of mother. Not anymore. I pushed open the doors to the lab. I was immediately greeted by the fresh, clean scent of nothing.

  God, it was so relaxing to walk in and not have the usual scents assailing me. Most everyone at Livingston Perfumes knew better than to actually wear anything scented when they were going to be working with me. But every now and then someone slipped up and wore a bit of perfume. Sometimes it was so overpowering that I wasn’t able to work at all.

  As Vice President of Product Development, my nose was a huge asset. My father even had it insured. And then of course, well, I hadn’t realized how important my nose was until several competitors attempted to poach me in the most bizarre ways possible. I was only twenty-five years old, and already, I’d made a name for myself.

  Yeah, but at what cost?

  Most of my contemporaries were living a booze-filled, sex-chasing existence. Not me. I had my career established, and I was making amazing strides.

  Yeah, but you’re lonely, and let’s not talk about how your vagina is desolate.

  Nope, I was not thinking about my vagina right now. I had work to do. With a smile and a wave to everyone, I walked back to my office, slid off my coat and my shoes, and grabbed my slippers.

  Yes, I knew it wasn’t professional. But honestly, it was a lab. I didn’t need to look fancy down here. Besides, when I went to the antechamber, I needed a fully clean environment and my slippers helped. Of course, everyone followed suit with those little booties on their shoes, so there were no contaminants when I went in to smell.

  Once I finished getting ready, I went into the antechamber and smiled at Derrek Jacobson. “Hey Jake, are you ready to do this?”

  He grinned. “Yeah, I think this is it. At least I hope so.”

  “You’re a star. Seriously, amazing. How’s the baby?”

  He grimaced. “Since I was up, I decided to come into work.”

  “I’m sorry, but at least you’ll get some peace and quiet to work here.”

  He chuckled beside me. “That doesn’t make me feel better. I’d give up a kidney for a full night of sleep at this point.”

  I laughed. The problem was I didn’t really understand what he meant. I’d rather work than sleep any day.

  But you also have no life. No reason to want to be home.

  Something caught my attention, and then I noticed the two people not wearing lab coats in the corner talking to one of my lab technicians.

  My brother, Evan. Oh God. What was he doing here?

  It’s not that I didn’t love my brother, but he made it very difficult to like him most of the time.

  What the hell was that smell? Too sweet. Pungent. I’
d say it was Axe body spray, but I’d pretty much banned it from my brother if he was coming into the office.

  God, the overdone citric acid in the solution made my nose burn. Shit. I’d never be able to get that out of my dress. Even the ground coffee beans I’d sniffed wouldn’t be enough to clear this out. Shit. I would lose a whole half a day.

  “You guys, is someone wearing perfume?”

  I was met with silence.

  “I’m serious. I get it if someone made a mistake and forgot, but I need to know so I can have you leave and go use the shower upstairs.”

  Nobody fessed up. Damn it. I needed that person out. If I wanted to get any work done, I couldn’t be around them.

  My brother rolled his eyes at me. “There goes Princess Hailey, being melodramatic as usual. I swear to God, you make everybody’s life so miserable because of that oh-so-special nose of yours.”

  “Evan, shut up. In case you don’t know, I have to do work today. My nose will be ruined for the day if I can’t get this person out of here.”

  He had a very curvy blonde with him. I ignored her.

  “Guys, please. Someone admit it.”

  Again, no one fessed up, so I was forced to walk around the lab, sniffing my employees. Yeah, that’s something you don’t hear every day.

  Table by table, I slowly approached the fifteen that were in there. It was none of them.

  Yeah, because they know better.

  “Where is that smell coming from?”

  My brother came up to me. “Hailey, stop the nonsense. If you just—”

  It wasn’t him; he knew better. He’d been trained over the years by my father and my mother. Perfume, cologne, and aftershave were only worn in the evening when it couldn’t interfere with anybody’s work.