Page 22 of Courting the Consequences

Johnny nodded at her, and she turned away from him quickly.

“Hello, Princess,” Derrick greeted.

“Derrick.” She smiled and rolled her eyes as she led the way to the elevators. He too had a black work shirt on and blue jeans with boots, but his long brown hair was loose around his shoulders, a full mane of silky, beautiful hair that begged for her to run her fingers through it. His thick beard was neatly trimmed, and his green eyes were mischievous as he took her in.

She wore clean boot cut blue jeans that hugged her body and a maroon silk shirt that had billowy sleeves. No suit jacket today. She was the most dressed down she got in the office. A pair of six-inch booties completed the look and dressed it up a little more. She also let her hair down a bit. She had straightened her crazy curls and pulled it up halfway, leaving it down in the back. Straightened, it almost reached her ass.

The four rode up together in the elevator. Derrick kept eye fucking her the whole ride up. She eyed him with an amused smirk but mostly ran her eyes over Kevin.

Johnny had kept his eyes straight ahead and his jaw clenched. When the elevator doors opened and she stepped out, she saw Kevin clamp his hand down on Johnny’s shoulder, squeezing measuredly. He clearly hadn’t been doing well since his father had been arrested, she assumed on Tuesday, when they left in a hurry after that phone call.

They took the chairs in front of her desk, and she pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. When the three men were settled before her, she finally asked Johnny to explain. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He cleared his throat and started talking. “FBI picked up my old man Tuesday. The warrant was for racketeering, embezzlement, money laundering, and fraud. The feds say he was embezzling money using a shell company. Case Holdings. Apparently he owns it. I don’t know,” Johnny shook his head. “He doesn’t even know how to work a computer. Not really. Not to be the tech genius he’s being accused of being.”

Kara felt the blood drain from her face as Johnny spoke. Even her best court mask wasn’t enough for the heart-wrenching anxiety that flooded her. Case Holdings. She knew that name. She had seen the records that someone at Carmichael and Associates had been paying them for years.

“Can you gentleman write down your numbers for me please?” Kara asked, grateful that her voice came out strong and not as shaky as she felt, passing around the notepad and pen.

She watched Johnny and Derrick quickly jot down their numbers. Derrick gave her a sexy smirk that would have had her melting had the circumstances not been so dire. Once she had their numbers, she quickly pulled out her own phone and opened a new text message and started a group chat.

“I am so sorry to hear that Mr. Taylor,” she spoke louder and more clearly than she usually would in her office, all while typing out a message. “I won’t be able to help you, I’m afraid.”

Johnny glared at her. “What was the point of even bringing us up here if you weren’t going to help?”

She quickly sent the message.Meet me at Sullivan’s Bar on Bright Street in an hour.

Derrick caught on before Johnny and pulled out his phone. He quickly read the text and showed it to Johnny. Johnny read it before looking back to Kara with a slight nod.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Taylor,” she said again, standing this time. She glanced at Kevin, who nodded, before she turned back to Johnny.

“Yeah, thanks for nothing.” Johnny rolled his eyes and headed toward the door.

“I do hope everything works out for your father,” she added as she followed them toward the door.

“Thank you for your time, Miss Carmichael,” Kevin said before he followed after Derrick and Johnny.

Kara sighed when they were out of sight and closed her door. Her secretary barely spared her a glance. Kara’s heart was racing. Her anxiety was on high. Case Holdings was something she had been looking into as discreetly as she could for the last year.

Even though her father had retired a year ago, he still had many of his minions walking around with their hands in everything, her father’s hands in everything. Anytime she felt like she got close to finding out about Case Holdings, files suddenly were moved or corrupted.

She had mentioned the name to her father once over dinner, and he had quickly brushed her off and swept it under the rug. “Oh, don’t worry about the miscellaneous accounting. We have some of the best accountants and forensic accountants on the payroll. Let them do their jobs so you don’t have to,” her father had said.

She had dropped the subject then.

Now it was suddenly popping back up? With an outsider involved—a contracted company that her father had hired personally three years ago? None of it made sense. She couldn’t go to her father about it, but she might be able to go to Johnny and maybe his father to learn more. She would find out what was going on one way or another.

Johnny and his brothers rolled up to Sullivan’s on their Harleys, in full colors, an hour later to meet Kara. The bar was not quite a dive but not as upscale as he would expect someone like her to frequent. It was also far enough from Carmichael and Associates that they shouldn’t have to worry about anyone from there overhearing.

He had been angry when she first told them she couldn’t help, but when Derrick had shoved his phone in front of Johnny’s face in her office, he was intrigued. There was something going on, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

They found her already seated at a high-top table in the middle of the semibusy bar.

Johnny stopped when he saw Kara. Her blond hair was up halfway, like she’d it in the office, but the blouse was gone. Instead she wore a black tank top with a skull and bright red roses on it. She had on cutoffs and flip-flops.

“Hot damn,” Devil breathed next to him.

“Fuck me,” Johnny groaned. Even from a distance he could make out the bright red ink contrasted against the black and her pale creamy skin. Full sleeves never looked so fucking hot.

Kevin laughed and pushed past them, taking the lead toward Kara.

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