One Kiss, the Billionaire's Bride novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Lyle Draper

Lyle laughed.

It was a short, sharp laugh, and he stopped it as soon as he heard it.

"Audits take months," he said. "This is a stunt."

"It's a preliminary report," the auditor said. "My team has been in the vendor files for six days."

She opened the envelope and laid out four pages.

Bryony watched the directors' faces as they read, and she watched them change.

"Lakeshore Consulting," the auditor said. "A company registered two years ago to a post office box. It has invoiced forty Draper hotels for consulting services no manager remembers receiving. Total paid: eleven million, one hundred thousand dollars."

"Anyone could have approved those invoices."

"Every one carries your signature."

"Forged."

"Your signature, Mr. Lyle Draper, and your code, and your private access key. I don't think it was forged."

A director near the middle pushed his chair back from the table.

"Lyle," he said. "Is this true?"

"Of course it isn't true. I'm being framed by a woman who has owned stock for two days."

"I've had the stock two days," Bryony said. "You've had the money two years."

Lyle turned on her with his teeth bared.

"You baker. You little thief."

"Say that again," Holbrook said.

He took his phone from his jacket and laid it on the glass.

"I recorded you on Saturday night in the back office of Moody Motors. I have your voice, and I have a photograph of you handing Dwight Moody a cash envelope under his own sign."

"That's a fabrication."

Holbrook pressed play.

The boardroom filled with Lyle's own voice.

Eleven million dollars of my thing, over two years. And now they'll find it paid for your note on the ovens.

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