Page 103 of Earned Husband

I arched an eyebrow at them. “Raiding a publicly traded company in the middle of the workday, in order to pursue an investigation into funds a former employee may have stolen from us, after she’d already stopped working here, was you being diligent?”

Jane nudged my shoe beneath the table, silently warning me to behave, but I ignored her. “Seriously, you do realize that the person you’re after didn’t hide that money in our offices. She’s never even been back here since it went missing. The money wasstolen.Fromus. We’re the victims here, but you’ve turned us into the perpetrators in the eyes of the public.”

“I understand your frustration,” the older agent said. “We apologize. Sincerely. However, we do have a duty to carry out, and while it wasn’t our intention to cause you or your company any harm, we know we?—”

“I turned over everything you asked for,” I cut in, fuming as I stared at the man I’d personally handed over a mountain of documents to. “You said you wanted everything, our financial records for the past eight years, and I gave them to you. Willingly. You had no need to make a show of it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If there was anything else you wanted, you could’ve asked. Hell, you could’ve sat with me and asked me to explain every dollar I’ve spent or earned in my tenure as CFO, but you didn’t do that. I have assistants picking up copies of tax returns from five years ago in the hallway. Sensitive financial information thatspread all over the damn building because your people decided to turn over cabinets and sprinkle the documents around.”

Jane finally exhaled. “Let’s just move forward, shall we? You said your financial review of the documents Colin provided was complete. Did you find anything?”

“No,” the older agent said on a soft sigh, sliding a report across the table. “There was nothing amiss during those years. From the moment your brother took over as CFO, not a single penny has been unaccounted for. Taxes have been paid in full and on time. Our analysts were impressed.”

I hadn’t expected praise from the federal government, but while it felt pretty good hearing it, I didn’t let it show. They’d still screwed us with that raid. Hard.

The younger agent glanced at another page of the report, looking up at me instead of Jane. “The only surprise was your compensation package, Mr. Thayer. It’s remarkably modest for a man in your position. No noteworthy bonuses either.”

“Do you find that suspicious?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “Or are you simply curious?”

The older agent immediately cut in. “Neither, Mr. Thayer. We don’t suspect you of anything and it’s none of our business. My colleague was simply making an ill-advised comment.”

He shot the younger guy a scathing look, but I leaned back in my chair and shrugged. “Damn straight, it’s ill advised, but if you really want to know, my employees have mouths to feed. They matter more to me than whether I can buy a new boat to go with a new house in Florida.”

Jane let out a tired sigh. “Drop it, Colin.”

“No,” I said. “Why? He brought it up. I’m just saying that it’s no secret we’ve had some rough years, and what he’s implying is that they’re surprised I didn’t bump up my own paygrade just so I could live better even if that would’ve meant other people, loyal people, who stuck by us, would have to suffer.”

“Hush. I’m sure that wasn’t what he was implying.”

“I’m making a valid point. It’s?—”

“You’ve made it.”

The older agent coughed into his fist, either hiding a laugh or choking, but then he closed the file and his expression became serious again. “Regardless, there have been substantial developments in our case against Ms. Foundry.”

“Excuse me?” Jane blinked hard. “I thought that…”

When she trailed off, the man shot her an actual, gentle smile. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen an agent look so understanding when dealing with our family, but I supposed he did owe us for how they’d conducted that raid.

“We’ve successfully traced the offshore account, Ms. Thayer. It does belong to Mallory Foundry after all. To her and an unnamed man who is currently being sought overseas.”

Jane collapsed back in her chair. “So it is hers. I knew it.”

“Once Ms. Foundry’s criminal trial has concluded, and assuming the court rules accordingly, the funds will eventually be released back to the rightful owners. Your family.”

“How?” she asked quietly. “How did this happen?”

“I’m afraid that’s part of an active investigation. We can’t share any more details at this time.”

After a few more profuse apologies, the agents shook our hands and left, and Jane sank down into her seat once more. “I don’t understand. Just last week, Richard told us that Mallory would probably walk and now, suddenly, she’s facing prison time over this one account. What happened?”

“Oh, uh, I might know,” I said.

Jane looked over at me, her jaw slack and her eyes shining with tears. “Youfigured it out, didn’t you?You’rehow they finally connected her to the account.”

“Sort of. Well, it wasn’t just me. Actually, it was Andrew who fessed up.”