Chapter 2 - The Stranger in My Boardroom
Maya turned.
Nobody admitted speaking.
Dominic did not take his eyes from her.
“Sit.”
Maya normally hated being ordered around.
Today she sat.
Charles Mercer remained standing.
He had been Maya's boss for four years. He was polished, charming, and relentlessly careful about appearances.
This morning sweat darkened his collar.
Maya looked at the document again.
“That isn't my authorization.”
Charles cleared his throat.
“Maya, perhaps you should let Mr. Romano explain.”
“I don't need him to explain my own signature.”
Dominic slid the page toward her.
“Then explain it yourself.”
Maya studied it.
The signature looked perfect.
Too perfect.
She checked the transaction code.
Her stomach dropped.
It had been processed through Halcyon Freight, a subsidiary Maya had audited six months earlier.
“I flagged Halcyon.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“For what?”
“Duplicate vendor payments.”
Charles interrupted.
“A routine discrepancy.”
Maya looked at him.
“No. I recommended a forensic review.”
Silence.
Dominic's gaze moved to Charles.
“And was that review conducted?”
Charles adjusted his tie.
“We determined it wasn't necessary.”
Maya remembered the meeting.
Charles had personally removed Halcyon from her portfolio three days after she submitted the report.
At the time, he said senior management wanted her focused elsewhere.
Now she understood why.
Dominic opened another page.
Then another.
$2.1 million.
$7.3 million.
$900,000.
Every authorization carried Maya's employee credentials.
Every transfer went through companies connected to Romano Global Logistics.
It looked like theft.
It looked like Maya had done it.
“I want the system logs,” she said.
Charles shook his head.
“That's company property.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Give them to her.”
Charles went still.
“This is my company.”
“No,” Dominic said calmly. “Your company owes mine sixty-two million dollars.”
Maya stared.
Sixty-two million.
This wasn't accounting manipulation.
It was a pipeline.
Someone had used her identity to move a fortune.
Dominic closed the folder.
“Everyone except Mercer and Bennett leaves.”
Nobody argued.
Within seconds the boardroom emptied.
The bald bodyguard from the previous night entered as they left.
Maya almost laughed.
Of course.
Dominic noticed.
“You remember Luca.”
“I don't remember being introduced.”
“You weren't.”
Luca gave her a small nod.
Maya returned it.
Charles paced toward the window.
“This can be resolved privately.”
Maya looked at him.
“Why would it need to be private?”
Charles stopped.
Dominic answered.
“Because someone has been stealing through your company for eighteen months.”
“And you think it's me?”
“I think someone wants me to think it's you.”
That surprised her.
“Why?”
Dominic studied her.
“That's what I intend to discover.”
Charles suddenly slammed both hands against the table.
“This is absurd. Maya had access. Her credentials were used. Her signatures are there.”
Maya stared at him.
He was trying too hard.
Dominic saw it too.
“Interesting,” Dominic said.
Charles frowned.
“What?”
“I never said her credentials were used.”
Silence.
Maya's blood went cold.
Charles had just revealed information Dominic hadn't disclosed.
Charles realized it.
Too late.
Dominic stood.
“You're going to give Ms. Bennett access to every accounting record associated with Halcyon Freight.”
“No.”
Dominic's expression remained calm.
“That wasn't a negotiation.”
Charles looked at Luca.
Then at Maya.
Finally he nodded.
For the next six hours, Maya worked in a secure conference room with copies of the accounts.
Dominic stayed.
That annoyed her more than it should have.
“You don't trust me,” she said.
“I don't trust anyone.”
“Healthy.”
“It has kept me alive.”
She looked at him.
He didn't smile.
Maya returned to the numbers.
The transfers followed a pattern.
They weren't random theft.
Money entered shell companies, moved through consulting contracts, then disappeared into freight invoices.
Someone was laundering it.
But one detail made no sense.
Every third transfer returned a tiny percentage to a separate account.
Maya wrote the account number down.
Dominic saw it.
“What?”
“I've seen this.”
“Where?”
She searched an old folder.
There.
An invoice from eight months earlier.
The account belonged to Mercer Strategic Holdings.
Charles's private investment company.
Maya looked up.
“Charles.”
Dominic's face hardened.
But Maya kept reading.
Charles wasn't alone.
Another authorization appeared repeatedly.
Initials only.
D.R.
Maya's eyes moved toward Dominic.
He saw the page.
For the first time all day, his composure cracked.
“That isn't me.”
Maya leaned back.
“Convenient.”
“You expect me to believe someone stealing my money also sends it to me?”
“I don't know what to believe.”
Dominic came around the table.
Maya stood.
They were suddenly too close.
Last night flashed through her mind.
His hand at her waist.
His mouth against hers.
She hated that she remembered.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“Whatever you think you know about me, forget it.”
“That's difficult when your initials are on dirty accounts.”
“My family has enemies.”
“So do accountants, apparently.”
That almost earned a smile.
Almost.
Then Luca entered.
“Dominic.”
Something in his tone changed the room.
He handed Dominic a phone.
Dominic read the screen.
His jaw tightened.
“What happened?”
Luca looked at Maya.
Dominic handed her the phone.
It showed a photograph.
Maya leaving the bar the previous night.
Another photograph showed her entering her apartment building.
A third showed her arriving at work that morning.
Someone had been following her.
Beneath the photographs was one message.
STOP THE AUDIT OR SHE TAKES THE FALL.
Maya stared.
Dominic took the phone back.
“You're not going home alone.”
“I absolutely am.”
“No.”
“You don't own me.”
“I know.”
“Then stop talking like you do.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“This isn't about ownership. Someone used your identity to steal sixty-two million dollars, and now that person knows we're investigating together.”
“We are not together.”
His eyes dropped briefly to her mouth.
“That's not what half the bar thought last night.”
Maya flushed.
“This isn't funny.”
“No. It isn't.”
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED THE SAFE FRIEND.
Maya's face drained.
Dominic read it over her shoulder.
Then another message appeared.
A photograph.
Maya recognized the room immediately.
Her apartment.
Taken from inside.
May you like
Someone was standing beside her bed.
And on her pillow was the blue dress she had worn while kissing Dominic.
