Chapter 5 : Anything for You

Sharon, Andre, and Raven all arrived at work around the same time, just after sunrise, one week after Raven had started her new position.

“Morning,” she smiled genuinely at them as they approached.

“Morning,” Sharon echoed back, holding out the coffees she’d brought for Andre and Raven.

“Is it Friday yet?” Andre fake-whined dramatically, making the two women laugh.

Raven liked her coworkers very much, and she had the strong impression they liked her too. Already, they’d fallen into a comfortable pattern with each other, arriving around the same time in the morning and sharing a quiet warm-up to the day, chatting and getting themselves situated.

Then the real work of the day began, and they buckled down in their separate offices until the catered lunch was delivered. Their relationship was less as casual coworkers and more as comrades in the trenches. The work they were doing was serious; they all knew that.

At the same time, they all understood that they were under the same level of pressure and secrecy. Andre was the group's joker, poking fun and chattering about his boyfriend, while Sharon was more of the mom figure. She was a few years older than Raven and Andre, and somehow juggled her own work while keeping an eye out for the other two.

Raven was surprised at how well she fit in after only one week.

Megan, Kade’s assistant, brought them all the recent cases to focus on first thing in the morning, at 7 am sharp. Today, Raven set herself down with the new file she’d been assigned, as always. It was a gray and dreary day outside the window. Raven liked the city like this, all cool, steely blues and shadows. It felt pristine, and the weather put her in a good mood as she opened the case file.

But in the next few minutes, her brow was furrowed, and all her good morning energy was transformed to razor focus.

It was painfully obvious, at least, why the file was assigned to her. The data was neatly organized, but something about it stank as if the numbers were arranged to LOOK neat. In other words, to purposely disguise something.

Raven gulped the rest of the coffee and leaned into the work.

She barely noticed when lunch arrived. Sharon had to knock on her door to get her.

“You coming?” Sharon asked lightly. “Andre’s going to steal your sandwich if you don’t hurry.”

“What? Oh, yes. On my way,” Raven answered.

Raven closed her computer, her head spinning as numbers danced before her eyes.

“Oh, I know that look,” Andre greeted her through a mouth full of food in the suite’s communal space. “You look like you’re on a hot trail.”

“Yeah. Just digging in…You know when data’s just too neat? When it feels propped up?”

“Oh yeah.” Sharon handed her the last sandwich. “Sometimes it’s just the sign of a good accountant at the subsidiary’s end. Or it’s something rotten.”

“That’s the thing though… It’s not a subsidiary.” Raven hesitated, then confessed. “It’s one of our associates. A senior one.”

“Oh, shit.” Andre stopped chewing. “That’s what Megan gave you? Just after week one? That’s intense.”

“It speaks very well of how Mr. Sinclair thinks of you.” Sharon was looking at Raven levelly now. “Megan delivers cases specifically at his instruction if he’s got something he wants us to look into.”

Raven wasn’t hungry, but she unwrapped her sandwich. “How does he choose?”

“Who knows? Who knows how that man thinks about anything,” Andre said. “He’s a locked vault. The handsome, dark, and mysterious type.”

“Andre,” Sharon said warningly. “Let’s keep things professional. He’s our boss.”

“I know he’s our boss. Doesn’t stop him being hot as hell. Nobody seems to know much about him, even though he and his family have been in the spotlight for ages. His father started this company — but you probably knew that. Ran it right up until he died, then passed it on to Junior.

“Anyway. To answer your question, Raven, I think he has a good sense of what we’ll sniff out individually. Like, I’m good at tax stuff and liability in steering acquisitions. Sharon’s more forensic, like you. She hunts down the rot in new acquisitions, ensuring they’ve got all their ducks in a row and running a tight ship, et cetera. And you — seems like you’re picking up on the subtle stuff, the stuff folks have worked hard to hide. Like that Dotara exec who was laundering a competitor’s money.”

“Oh yeah!” Sharon smiled warmly. “Well done on that! I mean, the way it ended was ugly, but…”

“What?” Raven said, surprised. “How’d it end? I gave Mr. Sinclair my findings at the end of my first day, but I never heard how it went.”

“Well, suffice it to say you were completely right. Mr. Sinclair confronted the exec, Tim or Todd Richard-something, and the guy cracked right away and admitted to all of it. But — well, here’s where it gets sad. Apparently, the guy was drafting suicide notes for months. And… well, this pushed him over the edge.”

“Oh my god,” Raven breathed. She pushed away her sandwich; she was not hungry anymore.

“That’s not on you!” Sharon said quickly. “Oh, I shouldn’t have told you… The people who you’re going to be researching, they’ve got skeletons in their closets. Sometimes they can’t stand letting their skeletons into the light of day. When your skeletons are laundering a huge amount of money… I mean, that’s got to be something that was eating at him for a long, long time.”

Andre cut in. “Do you need a hug, Raven?”

Raven smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Andre. I appreciate it. But I’m good. I should have understood before this that this isn’t just an exercise… That there would be real consequences when these things came out. But somehow, I thought — I thought he’d be fired, or arrested, or…”

She shook her head, refocusing.

“Sorry, guys. Didn’t mean to bring the mood down. I should just get back to work.”

***

By the time the day was winding down, Raven knew something was very, deeply wrong in the file she’d been given. The senior associates within Sinclair and Associates themselves were massively endangering the company. This couldn’t wait. She stood up from her desk and headed for the elevator.

She hadn’t put anything in writing. She couldn’t leave a trail — not before she knew that wouldn’t further jeopardize the firm in an already delicate situation. She kept it all locked up in her head. And Kade had been right — to keep the ship afloat, you had to report emergencies straight to the captain. No point in delaying or hand-wringing.

Sharon and Andre must have seen her going, but neither tried to stop her, especially when they saw the up arrow glow on the elevator bank.

Raven approached Megan’s desk outside Kade Sinclair’s office door. The C-suite was, as usual, very quiet. She thought Megan would surely be able to hear her heart hammering against her ribs.

“Is he available?” asked Raven without a preamble.

Megan looked up from her computer screen, utterly calm. “Is it urgent?”

“Yes. Definitely.”

Megan punched a button on her desktop. “Mr. Sinclair. Miss Cannon is here to see you from—”

“Send her in.”

The steely tone of Kade Sinclair’s voice was flat and cool as the gray city outside.

Megan released the button and nodded at Raven pointedly.

Raven took three deliberate, steadying breaths before she stepped into the CEO’s luxurious office.

There, behind his desk, just as before, was Kade Sinclair, somehow even more darkly handsome than she’d remembered. There was something in the immediacy of his presence that couldn’t be replicated in memory.

“Well?”

He didn’t even look at her, focused on the blue glow of his computer screen. She didn’t waste a moment. She knew he wouldn’t stand for it.

“We have a problem. I haven’t recorded anything for security reasons. But Leo Bragh is running a very aggressive advance fee fraud, accepting ‘investments’ for compensation in insider tips.”

Kade’s eyes flicked up to focus on her, the full weight of his attention weighing on her all at once. She felt herself waver but gathered herself quickly.

“Proof?” he said flatly.

“It’s — I know I need more. But his numbers are too neat. I saw that he was hiding something right away. He’s reporting just enough of the influx…”

She explained as briefly as she could. It sounded thin to her even as she said it: a suspicion rather than a fact. But as she outlined the details by memory, she saw that she was holding Kade’s attention.

Finally, she stopped, trying to disguise her deep breath as clearing her throat.

“There is a reason I gave you his file,” said Kade, unmovable as always.

What did that mean? Was he interested? Dismissive? It was impossible to read this man.

“Should I continue?” she asked, trying not to sound clueless. She had determined she would be equal to him, and she would.

“You’re good at what you do.” He said it emotionlessly, and it took her a moment to register the praise. “You should be able to determine that for yourself.”

She raised her chin. “Would you prefer that I record my findings? Or not?”

“Not at this time. Verbal reports will suffice.”

“Understood.”

There was a beat of silence between them, and she felt the agreement settling between them. He would acknowledge nothing, tell her nothing. This was too fragile a situation. But it was clear he wanted more. He clearly didn’t think she was on a wild goose chase.

She seized her advantage and took a chance. “I appreciate your taking my report seriously. I know it’s very early in its development.”

“Miss Cannon, do not fish for compliments.”

She was taken aback, but she didn’t let it show. “I’m not fishing, trust me. I’m only voicing my appreciation. I can imagine how a less shrewd supervisor would react to this report.”

“You mean your previous supervisor downstairs?”

He remembered. Of course, he did.

“Yes,” she said.

He pressed the call button on his desktop, pinging Megan, who appeared at the door behind Raven just a second later.

“Megan,” he instructed tonelessly. “Please notify Mr. Jameson, Miss Cannon’s previous supervisor, that he is being let go. He will, of course, receive severance.”

“Reason?” Megan said, not skipping a beat.

Raven opened her mouth to protest — this wasn’t at all what she’d wanted! But she shut it again, recognizing the gesture for what it was: a sign of trust. He was taking her evaluation extremely seriously. And he’d just ruined a man’s livelihood to demonstrate it.

“Incompetence,” said Kade shortly. “Phrased differently, of course.”

“Of course, sir. Right away.”

Megan was gone as suddenly as she’d appeared, and Raven was left alone with Kade and the intensity of that dark, dark gaze.

This was the pivotal moment. The moment she could demonstrate, in turn, that she knew how this game was played.

“Thank you, Mr. Sinclair.” Raven kept her voice absolutely level. “As I said, I do appreciate your close attention.”

“Do not disappoint me, Miss Cannon.”

“I won’t,” she said, with cool on her side now as well. She was learning from the best, after all. “You can count on it.”

Was that the barest shadow of a smile? Was it possible?

“Thank you, Miss Cannon. That will be all.”

Raven nodded, turning to go. She kept her shoulders back but relaxed — pretending not to feel the intensity of his gaze following her.

Outside, she nodded to Megan and headed to the elevators. She waited until the doors closed behind her to let her breath out in a heavy rush.

She fully intended to keep her promise to Kade: she wouldn’t disappoint him. But to do that, she needed more on Leo Bragh, Senior Associate. She couldn’t do that in the office — not without being obvious about stepping across a line.

A risk analyst specializing in financial misdeeds would raise the alarm and rob her of any chance to corner Leo. She needed to do this outside of work. To make this personal.

This wasn’t the time to back down, she knew. She’d get Leo and the proof of his crimes too… for Kade. For his approval, for his trust, she’d do anything.