Behaving Badly in Vegas (Vegas Love #3)

30. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Hunter

“Happy birthday, Leonard.” I set the box of cupcakes on his desk.

Lenny Boy scowled at me and opened the box. “I’m not eating a damn thing from you.”

I scowled back. “That’s not very nice. I picked these up special since I missed your birthday yesterday. Even brought a candle.” I pulled the candle out of my pocket and poked it into one of the cupcakes.

He pushed the box away. “If you don’t think I know you were behind yesterday’s events, you’ve got another think coming.”

Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I rolled back on my heels. “I think you’re being paranoid. Didn’t the ladies say they were sent by a golf buddy? If my friend sent me a stripper for my birthday, I wouldn’t be mad about it. I would have sat back and enjoyed it.”

“My friend didn’t send them.” He stood and leaned on his desk, his face turning red. “It was you! You’re trying to make me look bad. ”

“No disrespect, but all I’ve done is be at your beck and call, even if you’ve treated me like a servant. I tried to do something nice by bringing you cupcakes and all I get are accusations.”

Leonard pointed a finger and shoved it down on top of his desk. “I don’t trust you!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Is that a no on the cupcakes then?”

“It’s a hell no.”

“Suit yourself.” I extracted a cupcake from the box and took a huge bite out of it. Chewing slowly, I hummed my appreciation. “These are delicious. I’ll put them in the break room for the rest of the staff.” I grabbed the box and turned on my heel.

“I want payroll done by the end of the day,” he barked at me.

“Finished it this morning. Check your messages.” With that, I strolled out of his office. Leonard might have thought he had me all figured out, but there wasn’t a shred of evidence against me. Paranoia was a dangerous place to be, and Leonard was well on his way.

My father showed up in my office doorway with a shit-eating grin on his face. “I have a surprise for you.”

I hated surprises. In my experience, they weren’t a good thing… moving to a new home without my mom, getting fired when my brother broke company policy, a baby showing up at my apartment. Well, the last one did end up being a good surprise, even if I wasn’t ready for it. Now I’d rip out the heart of anyone who dared try to take Carina away from me.

Which reminded me to follow up with Rudy. For a private investigator who came highly recommended, I wasn’t impressed. You’d think I’d asked him to find out what happened to Amelia Earhart instead of a stripper in Vegas. In this day and age, it was nearly impossible to be completely off the grid, yet Jennifer Johnson had evaded every attempt to locate her. It pissed me off. I didn’t like loose ends and that’s exactly what Miss Johnson was… a loose end who could show up at any time and threaten the custody of my daughter.

Where the fuck was she?

“Hunter?”

I snapped out of my thoughts and focused on my father. “What’s the surprise?” Perhaps he’d already decided to sack Leonard. That would be the best surprise ever.

He motioned for me to step into the hallway. “Ta-da! It’s a new desk.”

It was indeed a new desk, but nothing like the expensive mahogany one that was now being used by Leonard Morosk-hole. That desk probably wouldn’t even fit in the closet where I worked.

Instead of seeming ungrateful, I plastered on a smile. “Thanks, Dad. This is great.”

His face lit up. “I hope you like it. I’ll have maintenance swap it out with your old one immediately.” He peered into my office and scrunched up his face when he looked at the metal hunk of junk my computer sat on. “God, that’s really awful. I’m sorry it took so long to replace.”

I clapped him on the back. “No worries. It hasn’t interfered with my ability to do payroll.”

My father’s brows furrowed. “What else does he have you doing?”

“Honestly?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

“Not a damn thing. I am helping Gia with something, but other than that… nada. It’s a waste of my degree.”

My father was known for his patience, but Leonard was testing it. “I’ll have a talk with him. There are a million things you could be doing, and I’m not talking about getting his coffee.”

I motioned with my head for him to follow me into my office and shut the door behind him. “About the other project we talked about… I need access to more records. There’s nothing obvious popping up. I need a list of vendors, all accounts payable, invoices, daily transactions… the full gamut. I know he’s stealing from us.”

I could tell by the look on his face that my father didn’t want to think it was true because if it was, it called into question his decision to hire Leonard. He was a prideful man and a mistake like that would devastate him. “I’m not sure—”

“I am, Dad. Don’t let that asshole steal your family’s legacy.” My father had the power to do whatever he wanted. The fact that he was stalling concerned me. He’d been shrewd in his younger years but was losing his edge. Getting soft in his older years.

Luckily for him, I had no such affliction.

He sighed. “Come to my office. I’ll give you everything I’ve got.”

Finally. “Thank you.” I didn’t expect to find anything in the company records. I was sure the evidence I needed was on Leonard’s computer.

Guess I was working late tonight. That camera I installed in his office was about to pay off.

“Are you telling me she fucking vanished into thin air?”

“What I’m saying is that every Jennifer Johnson we’ve found isn’t her. I’m starting to wonder if it’s even her real name.”

I was irritated I had to call Rudy Mendosa for an update. I was irritated he hadn’t found her yet. And I was irritated she ended up being more conniving than I first thought. When I got my hands on that woman…

What?

What was I going to do?

I wanted to say that I was going to ship her off to Timbuktu in a wooden box, never to be seen again, but… she was Carina’s mother, so some type of legal agreement that didn’t include sending her to the middle of the Sahara Desert would probably be more appropriate.

I’d barely given the woman a second thought since Charli came into my life. Although Charli took the nanny position as a temporary job, she fell in love with Carina. I couldn’t ask for someone better to take care of my daughter. And me for that matter .

“Keep looking,” I instructed Rudy. “I don’t want any loose ends where she’s concerned. I need her to relinquish her parental rights.”

“Hunter…”

“What?”

“I’m on your side here, but I have to be honest with you. When we do find her, you can’t force her to sign the paperwork. You’ll have to prove that Carina is better off with you than her mother.”

“She abandoned her daughter!”

“I understand. However, I want you to be prepared. What seems like common sense doesn’t always hold true in the courts.”

Fuck that!

Getting upset with Rudy wasn’t going to help the situation. For once in my life, I needed to think with my brain instead of my emotions. “You just find her; I’ll deal with the legalities.”

No one was taking my daughter away from me.