Page 193 of Toxic Temptation
I let out a stunned breath when I see the balance in Shana’s personal account. She could buy a small country with that kind of cash. Maybe a large country.
As a board member and practicing physician, Shana makes good money. Excellent money, even. But notthismoney. Not enough to justify the obscene balance staring back at me from the screen.
I know I should stop looking. Close the laptop. Pretend I never saw any of this.
Instead, I scroll down.
The deeper I dig, the worse it gets. Shana hasn’t just been skimming from the hospital budget—she’s been hemorrhaging money from it. But according to these records, the hospital doesn’t generate enough profit to account for what she’s been taking.
Which means the money is coming from somewhere else.
At the bottom of the page, I find a line item that makes me shiver.
Profit X - $3.4M
Three point four million dollars in profit. From what? What the hell is “Profit X”?
“Vesper.”
My hand freezes over the trackpad. I don’t look up. I don’t need to see his face to know I’ve been caught red-handed.
“Hi,” I say weakly. “I was just… admiring your desktop wallpaper.”
“You’re snooping.”
It’s not a question. Kovan’s voice is calm, almost amused, which somehow makes this worse. I’d prefer anger. Anger is something I could handle.
“I didn’t mean to.” I finally look over the top of the screen to face him where he’s standing in the doorway. “I saw Shana’s name and?—”
“And you couldn’t help yourself.” He crosses the room slowly. When he reaches the desk, he places one hand on the back of the chair and leans over my shoulder to look at the screen. “Curiosity killed the cat, Dr. Fairfax.”
The heat from his body warms my back. I can smell his cologne. Under normal circumstances, having him this close would make me forget my own name.
These are not normal circumstances.
“I shouldn’t have looked,” I admit. “But now that I have, I need to know what this means.”
To my surprise, he chuckles. “Of course you do.” He straightens up and comes to sit on the edge of the desk, facing me directly. “What do you want to know?”
“You’re investigating Shana?”
“I’m investigating all the board members. Due diligence.”
I gesture at the ridiculous numbers on the screen. “Do they all have bank accounts like this?”
“Jeremy and Shana are the big earners. The others take smaller cuts.”
“How is the hospital still operating? How are we not completely bankrupt?” I can hear my voice rising like a boiling kettle, but I can’t stop it. “Where is this money coming from?”
Kovan’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. A muscle ticks near his temple.
“Kovan…” I scoot forward in the chair. “What aren’t you telling me?”
His green eyes study my face for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is carefully neutral. “There’s more than one way to make money in a hospital, Vesper. Saving lives is noble work, but it’s not the most profitable line of business. If you’re willing to abandon your ethics, there are… other ways.”
The bottom drops out of my stomach. “What does that mean?”
“It means your corrupt board members have been very creative about generating revenue streams.”
