Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
If they didn’t kill him first. “Have you got anything?”
“Of course I have something. I have several things, since you and Livie seem determined to fund my life this month. I need you to understand something, Garrett. I’m strictly behind the scenes. My partner got her ass shot doing work for Olivia’s brothers, and I’m not making the same mistake.”
“Shot?” He thought the whole PI gig was mostly from afar.
“Yeah. It’s okay. She survived. Got a pretty cool scar out of it, but I like my skin the way it is,” Ruby explained.
“I will do my best to ensure you don’t get shot. What have you found out?”
“Do you want the business stuff first or do you want the fun, gossipy stuff?” Ruby asked.
“Business, please.” He needed to get back to Olivia. Maybe he could convince her to go home. He missed their play time. He knew there would be plenty of nights where they wouldn’t spend hours in a playroom, but he wanted all the time he could get.
She sighed. “All right, let’s talk about Gladen. He’s definitely skimming somewhere. I need his records, though I’m sure those look pristine. But I did get his personal financials, and something is not right. He’s bought a couple of large purchases he shouldn’t be able to afford, and apparently he did it with cash. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“His ranch has been underperforming on paper for the last two years. Jack even gave him a low-interest loan to fix a couple of things on the ranch that seemed to be holding them back.” Once he’d studied the relationship through the focus of legal documents, he could see Barnes-Fleetwood did everything they could to help Gladen get into compliance with the processes.
“I read that contract,” Ruby said. “It was for an irrigation system and barn renovation. It was eight hundred thousand dollars.”
He knew that particular sum. “He’s been making the payments, though he complains about it.”
Ruby hesitated. “This is where I think Olivia is right. He’s been making the payments, but I’m not sure he had the work done.”
Frustration welled through him because he had already checked. “I have the invoices.”
“Ah, you have printouts he gave you, but I attempted to match those to the companies he claimed did the work, and they don’t show anything like what he documented,” Ruby replied. “As for him cutting corners, I’m pretty sure we can prove he’s been using non-organic feed. I found a couple of his ex-employees who are willing to state that he has them clean the place up when he knows someone from the home office is coming out. You should know one of the guys I talked to mentioned Olivia. Apparently she and Gladen went out to dinner a couple of times. I suspect she would have called it business, but he told everyone he was dating her. Now he seems to be telling the story that he rejected her and that’s why she’s causing problems.”
He felt a growl stick in his throat, but he held it there. “So he’s going to accuse her of unprofessional behavior.”
“I think he’s going to use the possibility to get out of the corner he’s rapidly finding himself in,” Ruby agreed. “He’s got his story lined up. I think he’s planning to use this to try to sue the cooperative and get out of his loan obligations. He thinks if Olivia is on the line, her father will do anything he needs to in order to protect her.”
“He doesn’t know Olivia. She won’t let her father sign away a bunch of money to protect her from something she didn’t do.” But he should have expected this. He should have known that Gladen would use Olivia’s aggressive stance against her. He’d kind of told her. Well, at least he could spank her for it. That would be fun. Dealing with her dad would be less fun. “Send me everything you have.”
“I’m worried about this guy. I think he might owe some money, and Olivia threatened him.”
“She didn’t threaten him,” Garrett countered. “She found out he’s cheating on his contracts and explained that he couldn’t do it anymore.”
“Well, I think he sees her as a threat to whatever he’s doing, and he needs her scared.”
And they were back to the real problem at hand. “Do you think he would slash her tires?”
A long sigh came over the line. “I think that asshole would do anything, but it does seem a bit common for him. It also does nothing but make her more suspicious. Now I worry that there is someone who would think that was badass and a way to get a man back.”
He groaned. “Who? We met up with one of those a few nights back. Olivia’s high school boyfriend decided it was time to try to marry for money. Unfortunately, his current girlfriend disagreed and didn’t mind taking the whole argument public.”