Page 18 of The Money Man
“Yeah, she reminded me of that.” Derek rubbed his forehead.
“Hey, Killion, I’ve got this,” Leland said, the lean angles of his face softening. “Your plate is overflowing right now. KRG needs your mind on Argon. After all, those numbers are just slightly larger than BalanceTrakR’s issue.”
But the size of the numbers didn’t matter to Derek. That was just a matter of some extra commas. Strangely enough, the BalanceTrakR problem was more of a challenge.
Leland continued, holding up his hand to ward off Derek’s objections. “I promise to keep your bookkeeper out of it.”
“As you pointed out, it may not be so easy to do that,” Derek said. Although Leland’s southern drawl often disarmed people in a way Derek couldn’t imitate. Maybe his partner would succeed in keeping Alice away from trouble where Derek met with resistance. He frowned, not liking the thought of Leland manipulating Alice, even for her own good.
But Leland was right about Argon. Derek owed his full attention to their new client and he wasn’t giving it to them. His team had gathered and analyzed the data he’d asked for. Now he needed to synthesize the solutions and present them to Argon. He knew the drill. He’d done it many times before. And maybe that was the issue.
Alice’s problem might be small, but it was a novel challenge. It took him down into the trenches like the old days.
And then there was Alice herself. He rubbed his forehead again. He’d never had a problem focusing on what was important before. What the hell was wrong with him?
When he’d been engaged to Courtney, he’d been able to keep his mind on his job. That had been her biggest complaint about their relationship.
“Why are you so concerned about Alice?” Leland asked in an unnerving echo of Derek’s thoughts. “You don’t have the same qualms about our own consultants.”
“They’re trained and experienced, and they have KRG at their backs. Alice is a single-practice bookkeeper who doesn’t understand how ruthless business can be.”
“You’ve said that she’s very intelligent.”
“Of course she is,” Derek said, irritated by his own inability to separate personal from professional. “But she also believes that if we inform BalanceTrakR about their software glitch, they will thank us profusely and fix it immediately.”
“Naive, indeed.” Leland steepled his fingers. He was the only person Derek knew who didn’t look affected when he did that. “Now I see why you worry about her.”
What worried Derek even more was that he wanted to keep Alice’s crazy beliefs intact. Because when he viewed the world through her eyes, it looked like a better place.
Chapter 6
Alice pulled out her credit card to pay for her Monday lunch of takeout at the Sushi Shack. Sylvester and Audley would be thrilled by the sashimi she’d included for them. When she added a small tip and handwrote the total on the bill, she frowned down at the slip of paper.
This was the one paper trail she hadn’t checked—the actual credit card receipts from her clients. She hadn’t considered it before because one of the nifty features of BalanceTrakR was that it had an automated integration with the major credit card companies. It didn’t seem possible that there would be any problem with that interface, especially such a small, sporadic one.
Maybe she needed to take a closer look.
The only client she could be sure would still have the paper receipts was Natalie’s Mane Attraction because it was the most recent to have the problem. Alice had asked Natalie to retain every bit of hard copy for the month, just in case.
She winced when she thought of how many little pieces of paper she’d have to organize and compare with the automated system to see if there was some flaw.
The beauty salon was closed on Monday, so Alice dialed Natalie’s cell phone. “Hey, I need to get all your charge slips from last month. If I bring you some sushi, will you meet me at the salon?”
“I don’t need sushi if you tell me that the reason you’re still obsessing over last month’s numbers is because of the gorgeous Derek Killion,” Natalie said.
“Maybe a little,” Alice said. “But I have a new theory that I want to explore.”
“So you’re still working with him?”
“And his partner. I even went on an investigative mission to the hotel. I think I would make an excellent spy.”
Natalie laughed. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. And I changed my mind about the sushi. I’d like a dragon roll and some edamame, please.”
When Alice arrived at the Mane Attraction, Natalie was leaning against the reception desk, looking almost like a teenager in her day-off attire of slim jeans, pink T-shirt, ballet flats, and minimal makeup. She gestured to a bulging envelope lying beside her hip. “Here are the receipts but you don’t get to grab them and run. Sit down and eat lunch with me,” the salon owner said. “I want to hear about your espionage.”
They settled in the staff break room, a tiny space crammed with a round white Formica table and four pink plastic chairs. It was odd not to hear the buzz of hair dryers and hum of voices sharing salon gossip.
Alice described her foray into undercover work and sighed. “But Derek is ticked about it. He’s afraid someone from BalanceTrakR will get upset and do something nasty, like destroying my business reputation. I personally believe they’ll be glad to know they have a bug, so they can fix it.”
