Page 29 of Ferocity

Dave sat back in his chair and blew out a breath. When approached Timothy about the job, one he knew the guy would take the job and two when Timothy started digging, Dave knew the man would find the missing money, how much, would be the main question. Yet, as of that particular moment, Timothy had only found three hundred and thirty thousand which meant there was more hidden. So, it begged the question, where did the remainder of the money come from and where in the ledgers was it hiding?

“Shit man,” Kenny spat. “Didn’t you think to, I don’t know, keep an eye on the accounts or something?”

Benji shrugged. “Why would I? Look at it from my perspective, no one said there was an issue until this moment. Should I have maybe dug deeper? Sure, possibly, but the bank also handles accounts for other businesses as well.”

“I need everything going back from the beginning. How long do you think that will take?” Dave folded his hands on the table.

“Tomorrow morning? I have to do this without anyone knowing, I would assume?” Benji cocked a brow.

“The quieter the better,” Dave answered. “I’ll be your contact since I’m the lawyer for the sanctuary, andIshould have been called when all this shit started. My job, Benji, is to protect not only the Leon family legacy but also the animals sent to live with Scarlett and Maisie. At this point, I've failed both. I don't like being a failure."

"I'll have them for you." Benji pushed the conservatorship paperwork along with the will and power of attorney across the table. "Take these, for now, maybe they'll help you more."

They would. They were the starting point of all of this. If he could figure out who the doctor was that gave Maisie the conservatorship over Scarlett, he could also hand that to his friend in the District Attorney's office. "Thanks."

Kenny leaned forward. Rage burned in his eyes. “If we find out you breathed a word of this, friends with Dave or not, you will go down just like Victory. Don’t fuck with us.”

Benji blanched. “Never. I-I swear.”

Kenny wrapped his knuckles against the table. “Okay. Then we’ll expect the rest of the information by the morning.” He motioned to Dave. “We should go. Don’t need people talking.”

Dave agreed. “See you soon, Benji.”

****

Scarlett sat across from Dave, Kenny, Edward, and Timothy. The conference table between them had been covered in documents, some of which, she'd never seen before. Plus, she was still in shock. When Dave arrived back at her apartment with the conservatorship file along with the new will and power of attorney, she was devastated and although she knew they were forgeries, she also realized there was no depth to her sister's depravity.

If anything, she was in for a showdown with her sister. However, the battleplan was still a work in progress. “So, where do we go from here?”

“I have a meeting with my friend this afternoon,” Dave said. “Afterwards we’ll know if everything we have is civil or criminal.”

“Criminal,” Timothy said, without looking up from his computer. “Embezzlement is a crime.”

Scarlett gave a soft chuckle. She liked him. Though they’d only known each other for a little while, he’d grown on her. “We’ll go with criminal then.” Timothy glanced up at her and smirked, before going back to whatever he’d been working on. “I don’t recognize any of this stuff. I don't know the doctors or psychologists. My parents never sent me to one after the attack. I guess it was some punishment for being on the wrong side of the fence."

“That’s fucked up,” Edward said.

She shrugged. “Can’t say I knew any better either. I made the choice to run headlong into the area knowing full well what the ramifications would be. So, if I had an occasional bad dream, well, it was my penance.”

“Fucked up, is what it is,” Dave muttered. “If it hadn’t been for my father insisting you be added to the will and the ownership ofHearts and Paws, I’d hate to have known what would’ve happened to you the day they died.”

“Thrown out with the trash,” Scarlett said. “I’m not even being dramatic about it. I know the truth about this place. I hate to admit it, there have been more times than not where I’ve wanted to leave.”

The lingering guilt and how much she despised her parents due to how they treated her after everything happened ate away at her for a long time. It’d been a chore to be there. To see everyone come and go from the animals she loved, yet she couldn’t. And, even when she got up the mental strength to do so, her body shook so bad, she’d been rooted in place. The first time she’d gone into the enclosure after the incident had been with Kenny when he showed her the new additions.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Scar,” Dave said. “You had every right to pack up and leave this place and never come back.”

“I couldn’t do it,” she whispered. “It’s quite obvious who cares for the big cats and who doesn’t. Then there’s Samantha.”

“You’ve got more compassion than I do,” Timothy said. “I would have cut ties and not looked back.”

She tilted her head. “Would you have?”

He nodded. “Don’t know what these guys think, but it sounds like your sister hates you so much, she’d rather have you dead than alive. Or if she can’t kill you, she’d have you committed.”

Observant.“Well, she didn’t kill me, and I’ve not been committed yet.”

“Yet,” Timothy said. “I believe she set you up that day in the enclosure.”

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