Page 26 of King of Cruelty

I grimaced, stomach churning. “Fucking hell.”

“Yeah, fucking hell!” he cried, spinning back the other way to resume his pacing. “The company paid out millions to buy them all off and get them to sign NDAs. And then if that wasn’t enough, we were forced to recall the entire summer line because the bitch-ass textile company used Class Three fabrics to undercut the price.”

“Class Three fabrics are flammable,” I told Sunny, seeing his confused frown. “Highly flammable. As in, ‘cannot be used for clothing under any circumstances’ flammable.”

“I see,” Sunny replied. “But what I don’t see, is what the fuck that has to do with my family. We didn’t cause the pandemic, or hire a pedophile to run your fucking Paris house,orset supermodels on fire!”

“No, you just embezzled enough money from us to buy a fucking country!”

Sunny blew back. “Embezzled? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Don’t give me that!” Vance picked up his desk clock and flung it at the window, shattering it on impact. “The numbers just weren’t adding up. Caddell House Cinco City is the flagship branch, but somehow, we were bleeding money worse than anyone, and we have been for years since before I took over.

“We didn’t understand it until I finally hired a forensic accountant to go over the books. That’s how I found out about your little fucking scam.”

Sunny and I traded looks. He’s just as confused as me.

“What scam?” he asked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but just because you weren’t the Merchant in particular who embezzled from us, doesn’t mean one of your felon brothers and sisters didn’t.”

“Dude, enough with the accusations and just explain what you mean,” I snapped. “Why do you think the Merchants embezzled from Caddell House?”

“I told you,” he hissed. “We figured out the scam. It wasn’t right away or even noticeable at first, but one day, we woke up and found out our expenses had tripled. The price of fabrics, buttons, buckles, sewing machines, you name it! Our individual suppliers kept raising the costs, and when we finally confronted one of them to tell us why, the truth spilled out,” he spat, lips curling. “You, or one of your fucking family, threatened them all one by one. You told them to inflate their invoices, charge us more, and then giveyouthe cream off the top. If they didn’t, they’d regret it.”

If possible, Sunny’s “what the fuck?” face got even more screwed up. “What the hell? No, we didn’t.”

“Yes, you did! I have proof—”

“You have proof that we both got played and you fucking fell for it. The Merchants don’t go after legitimate businesses or innocent people—period. We fuck sure don’t intimidate random button-sellers!”

“You don’t go after innocent people? Ha!” Vance barked, making me jump. “Don’t make me laugh. What do you call what you’ve been doing to Caddell House for years! You’ve been treating us like your fucking Green Mart!”

Sunny’s eyes narrowed to slits. “The deal our family has with Caddell is legitimate. My dad gave him a straightforward,legalinvestment with alegalcontract that wasn’t signed under duress. It was your original boss who offered our family a discount for life, and he did that of his own free will to say thank you. Don’t you fucking dare turn a gift into a bribe. The Merchants have done a lot of fucked-up shit, and I’m proud as hell because we’ve only ever done it to people who deserve it.

“We didn’t embezzle a dime from Caddell House, dumbass, so you better show me what proof you think you have saying otherwise.”

Sunny advanced on him, blowing away his promise not to get closer. Vance scrambled to pick up the gun. Snapping up, he pointed it at Sunny just in time for my man to smack it away.

“Stop playing with that before you hurt yourself.” Sunny plopped in Vance’s armchair. “Well? Hurry the fuck up and show me this frame job.”

Vance blinked from him to the gun lying across the room, and then he blinked at me like he expected me to tell him what to do.

“All of this is a huge, terrible misunderstanding, Mr. Hollywell,” I offered. “Show us the accountant’s supposed evidence so that we can figure this out.”

“I... uh... okay.” Never has a man been so defeated, and Sunny didn’t even lay a finger on him. Vance flicked on the desktop and navigated to a folder tucked in a folder tucked inside another folder as I came closer, peering over Sunny’s shoulders.

“All of our vendors and suppliers were given this account name and routing number to deposit the money.” Vance clicked on a jpeg and the image filled the screen, blasting the slip of paper with the account name for all to see. “Do I need to read what it says to you, or do you want to confess now?”

“Confess?” Sunny forced through gritted teeth. “What I want to do is punch you in the fucking face, Hollywell.”

“What?” Vance cried, jumping back. “It says right there! The account belongs to Bellisario Holdings!”

“Exactly, you dumbass! What kind of fucking idiot slaps their real name on an account full of stolen money?” Sunny stared at him in true disbelief. “What the hell is wrong with you? Did you spend too much time playing with your sewing machine in college, you forgot to take an actual lesson?”

“But—but—but— I—I—I—” Hollywell was well and truly broken.

Still, I had no sympathy for him. I shook my head, giving him the same disbelieving look as Sunny. “Come on, boss. Plain old common sense should’ve caught this one. Of course, the Merchants don’t own this account. They’ve been ruling the city for decades. You don’t stay on top for this long by being that stupid.”

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