{ #2 } I Would Give Him The Moon (MxM || 18+)

Chapter 65 - Nervous? Who's Nervous?

(Joshua's POV - Thur. 15 May 2016)

Just as Allan and I wrapping up our meeting about ten minutes before six, a knock echoes on my door and Tony walks in, followed by Myers.

"Sorry to disturb you," Tony says sternly, "but I believe that you would like to hear what Myers has to say." Shit! I wasn't expecting him to give me another report until the final one tomorrow and I told Liam that we would meet at six in the parking lot.

"If that's so important... please just let us do this quickly," I reply with an intent look for the attention of Tony who nods back in answer. "Allan, can you stay for a few more minutes?" I then ask my friend who was about to gather his laptop and notebook and go. As my second in command, he already knows about the audit and I keep him updated on a regular basis but I think that it will be better if he attends this short meeting, especially since we are getting closer to the end of the investigation.

The four of us settle back down at the table and Myers begins to reveal part of what he has discovered while leading the audit. He briefly exposes the issues he picked up - issues that clearly incriminate my CFO - which throws me into a deep wrath that I barely manage to hold within me. Fuck! I have had my doubts on Derek's loyalty recently but I wasn't expecting anything like this. I was trying to convince myself that he might be growing tired of the job and thus getting less efficient; somehow I hoped that he was just slacking a bit, which is not much less excusable, but betrayal is a different story.

Every single employee of Pierce Construction is valuable to me, from the bottom of the ladder to the top. The guy who delivers the mail is as important as the one who makes photocopies or the one who lays bricks on site or the one who puts some figures in an Excel spreadsheet or the one who leads an entire team in any department and I really try my best to make them feel comfortable working for my company. They have more than decent wages, way above the average; they get at least four to five weeks of vacation each year depending on their length of service; they also get health care insurance and performance bonus as well as various other pensions.

Not all companies provide such benefits to their employees in the US but I consider it as a due to valuable employees. In return, I expect not only seriousness and hard work, but also a loyalty beyond reproach. Every year, we all go through some kind of online training dedicated to ethics and compliance; this is a yearly reminder on the Do's and Dont's, boring as hell, yet necessary to remember the good practices and ethical values. If I expect a lot from all my employees, I expect twice as much from my leadership team members. Much, much more and loyalty comes first because I trust them with all I have: my wealth, my projects, my customers and my future. Having one of them infringe on this basic rule is like a stab in my back and as much as I can be indulgent when it is necessary - I can understand that people sometimes face hardships at certain times of their lives, I am human too... - betrayal is not something I can tolerate. And Derek Jones will learn it the hard way.

"Josh, we need to have him come up here immediately and fire him right away," Allan suggests, but before I can answer, Myers speaks again.

"I would advise we wait for a few more days, Sir..." he suggests.

"Why would I do that? You have just clearly proved me that the CFO is guilty of embezzlement!" I reply more dryly than I would like.

"My other theory about the implication of more of your employees is confirming and I need another day of work to prove this too. For now, Derek Jones has been quite unsuspicious about our discoveries because we have managed to make him believe that we were following another lead," Myers explains warily. Damn! The guy is smart!

"What makes you believe that he hasn't been doing this on his own? And how many more people might be involved?" Allan asks.

"When I give you the full details of our investigation, you will understand that he can't have been doing this on his own, and to be honest, I actually believe that he wasn't at the bottom of things. Let me just finish this and tomorrow, I will be able to provide you with names or at least the departments that are concerned by the treacheries," Myers concludes.