mothers. It was a perfect scene, Mitch thought. Far from war and pain and anything ugly.
“Maybe you should talk to someone,” Arturo said without looking at him. “A professional. I know you won’t tell me everything. I can’t understand and you wouldn’t want to burden me. But you need to talk, Mitch. It starts the healing.”
“I’m doing okay.” He rubbed his leg. “It barely hurts anymore.” Which was almost true.
“I’m not talking about the outside. You need to talk to someone.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said, and wondered if they both knew he was lying.
CHAPTER NINE
TRISHA, THE FOUNDATION’S chief financial officer, had requested a meeting. Skye found herself dreading it, knowing there was unlikely to be good news.
Garth’s attacks came from every direction and without warning. He was smart, determined and apparently unconcerned about the consequences of his actions. He wanted every Titan taken down. She was starting to wonder if he would get his wish.
Trisha arrived at her office exactly on time and closed the door behind her. The knot in Skye’s stomach doubled in size, then hardened into an uncomfortable rock.
“You don’t look happy,” she said, studying Trisha’s concerned expression. “I guess we should sit down.”
Trisha moved to the small round table in the corner and spread out several sheets of paper. Skye joined her.
“It’s bad,” Trisha said bluntly. “Our internal investigation shows many members of the senior staff were paid huge bonuses. In a few cases, the amount given them exceeds their annual salary.”
Skye felt her mouth drop open. She had to consciously close it. “That’s not possible. We don’t do that. You know we don’t do that.”
“I agree,” Trisha told her. “Nonprofits are held to extremely high standards. There are regulations in place. There is also an unwritten code of ethics.”
Her tone sounded a little preachy, which Skye didn’t like. “Trisha, you know me. You’ve worked for me from the beginning. You know how I feel about the foundation. I’ve poured myself into it and I would never do anything to jeopardize our mission. We don’t pay bonuses. Ever. That’s a very clear policy.”
“I know, but they’re in the system.” Trisha pointed to several columns. “I’m very angry and upset about this. As CFO, I have tremendous exposure on this. I’m ultimately responsible for the money. These payments didn’t come through my department. I’ve been over the accounting books and I can’t find their origin, but they’re there. It’s almost as if there were a second set of books this entire time and they’ve somehow merged.”
A second set of books? Is that what people were going to think? Skye wanted to pick up a chair and toss it through the window.
“That’s not possible,” she said.
“Then how do you explain what’s happening?”
Garth, she thought grimly. This was so him. But how had he done it? How had he hacked into the foundation’s computer system and screwed around?
“How secure are our electronic records?” Skye asked.
“Very. The firewall is state-of-the-art. If you’re suggesting someone broke in…”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. We have to be able to trace these entries, work backward and figure out when they were first put in the system.”
Trisha looked doubtful. “I’ll have to work with the IT guys and see if that’s even possible. You’re talking about finding a few dozen data entries in a list of possibly millions. All our records are on computer.”
“I think it’s more than a few dozen entries,” Skye told her. “I think there are probably a few hundred. I think someone hacked into our system and planted a lot of false information.”
Trisha nodded. “There are checks made out to you. Lots of them, in huge amounts.”
Skye hadn’t thought it could get worse, but she’d been wrong. “What?”
“Nearly a million dollars.”
“No. That’s not true. I don’t even take a salary. I’m the one who put in the money to start the foundation. I don’t take a penny.”
Trisha wouldn’t look at her. “A few people have hinted that you’ve been having investment trouble. That you needed the cash to cover some debts.”
“That’s not possible,” Skye said, getting angry and having nowhere to put her temper. “My portfolio is extremely healthy. I live at Glory’s Gate, where I have virtually no expenses. My car is two years old, I don’t buy jewelry or horses or even take vacations beyond Erin and I going to Disney World.”
She shouldn’t have to explain herself. Not that it would matter. Once the rumors started, people would believe what they wanted to believe.
“I’m just sharing the talk I hear.” Trisha finally looked at her. “This is getting out of hand.”
“I know,” Skye said, wishing she had an answer. “We’re risking our tax-exempt status. Worse, we’ll have to divert money from the food programs to deal with this. I want the IT guys on this for however long it takes. I want to find out how this happened. I want proof that we’re being set up by someone with a personal vendetta.”
“We’re a nonprofit. Why would someone want to hurt us?”
Skye wasn’t willing to tell her just yet. So far only her sisters and Dana knew about Garth and his plans for revenge against the family. While she was desperate for advice, she needed it to come from someone who wasn’t closely tied to her business. Someone who could look at all sides of things.
“We have to solve the problem,” Skye said.
“All right. I’ll get on it. I’ll do what I can from my end.” Trisha collected her paperwork. “You’re going to lose some people over this. Not just supporters, but staff.”
Not exactly news, Skye thought sadly. “Will I lose you?”
“No. I was there when it started. I understand the dream, and I know you, Skye. I know you wouldn’t do this.”
“Thanks for that.”
She appreciated the support but wondered how long it would be until Garth turned everyone away from her.
SKYE WAS STILL UPSET when she left for home that afternoon. She hated problems with no solutions and so far she hadn’t figured out how to fix this one. About two miles before the turnoff to Glory’s Gate, she saw a truck coming in the opposite direction.
She recognized the vehicle and the driver. Mitch.
They hadn’t seen each other since the night he’d been drunk in the barn, when he’d infuriated and disappointed her in equal measures. She knew the changes in him were because of what had happened to him. What she didn’t know was if they were permanent. Would the man she’d known and loved ever make an appearance or was the bitter bully the new and not-improved Mitch?
As her car drew closer, she saw him slow. Instinctively she did the same, rolling down her window as they came to a stop in the middle of the quiet road.
“Hey,” he said through his open window. “You’re home early.”
He looked good, she thought, taking in the dark hair and eyes and wishing nothing about his appearance got to her.
“It was a really bad day,” she said. “I needed to get away.”
“What happened?”
She eyed his concerned expression suspiciously. “Why do you want to know? Are we speaking now? Or is this just some trick to get me to open up to you so you can use it against me later?” She held up her left hand. “You know what? I don’t care. I’m tired of being your emotional punching bag. You’ve turned into a real bastard, Mitch Cassidy, and I’m done feeling bad about what happened before. Yes, we had a relationship. Yes, it ended badly and while I take responsibility for that, I refuse to spend the rest of my life being punished. You’re not the judge and jury in this. You’re just one voting member on a committee of two.”
