Ohfuck. Five would get him ten it was his dad. Maybe he’d luck out and it’d be one of his dad’s “brothers” who’d been hanging around the house. He supposed someone who was determined would root around till they found his checkbook. He hadn’t locked it up like he had his jewelry. He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed it. “Who was it, and what happened?”
“We caught him trying to cash a very large sum of money this morning. When we detained him to call you to verify the sum, he tried to run. The police are holding him now. His name is Kofi Osei.”
Fuck, fuck,fuck. What the hell was Kofi thinking? He winced, trying to remain calm when really he wanted to throw something out the window.
He needed tothink.
Shaking his head to clear the anger, he looked at the situation and knew the fix was easy. “I authorized the check,” he said as easily as he could.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “You authorized it?” the man repeated in disbelief.
“Yes. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Kofi is all right?”
“Yes, of course.” There was another pause. “You want us to go ahead with the transaction?”
“Let’s wait on that,” he said as amiably as he could. “I’m coming back to London today. I’ll come by and straighten all this out.”
“Well—”
“I appreciate you and the care you take in protecting my accounts,” he said reasonably. Then he added just enough bullshit to smooth this over. “It’s comforting to know that I can trust you and that you’ve got your eye on things.”
“Well,” Mr. Rothwell said again. “I suppose I’ll handle the paperwork here and have the man released. We look forward to seeing you, Mr. Gilbert.”
“Thank you.” He said a few more things to the man before he ended the call. He lowered his head and rubbed his neck. What was Kofi thinking?
“Are you okay?”
He spun around to find Jules in the doorway of the bedroom. Her hair was mussed, and she wore one of his dress shirts open. For a moment he was distracted by the peek-a-boo of her generous curves.
But then he remembered the call and got tight again. He swiped open his browser and pulled up the airlines to buy a ticket. “There’s a problem in London I need to take care of.”
“What sort of problem?”
“One regarding my brother Kofi.” Or his dad, who was the more likely candidate who forged the check. Kofi was probably just talked into going to the bank to do it. He did their dad’s bidding without question.
She walked over to him and gently took his phone from hands. “Sit and tell me what’s going on.”
Sighing, he figured it didn’t matter if he took a moment. If he didn’t catch a commercial flight, he’d just hire a private jet. He dropped down on the couch.
Jules sat on his lap, straddling his hips.
It didn’t matter how upset or distracted he was by Kofi’s situation—having her this close to him woke his dick up.
She arched her brow as she felt him stir.
He gripped her hips, not moving her closer or away, just holding her there. “I can’t help it. You do it for me.”
The corner of her mouth lifted, but she was all business. “Okay, tell me what happened.”
“Kofi was arrested for trying to cash a forged check.”
She nodded, her brow furrowed. “But it wasn’t a forged check?”
“It was.” He paused. “I don’t know who actually did it.”
“Only your brother was the one who tried to cash it,” she restated in a neutral tone.
“Yes.”