Flame & Fortune (Angels of Sojourn) Page 6

  Kieran pulled out his phone. “We call an old friend for a favor.” He found Tom’s number and dialed.

  “Hola.” Tom always greeted Kieran with Spanish, though he wasn’t even a touch Hispanic.

  “Hi, Tom. How have you been?” He waited for Tom to ask about the missing money, his suspension from work, or his little intervention with the police, but Tom didn’t hint that he knew about it.

  “Busy. We have more kids here than ever before and had to open a second shift. I can’t believe they’re going to shut us down.”

  “That’s just what I wanted to talk to you about. I know you normally go home at five, but could you stay until I can get there? Six or so?”

  Tom laughed. “Oh, I don’t think I’ll get out before six anyway. Come on over.”

  After ending the call, Kieran backed out of the parking lot. He glanced at Lena, who had been exceptionally silent. Perhaps all this was getting to her? Or maybe that meeting with her friend was more disturbing than she let on? She needed a distraction as much as he did. “Tell me more about you. Your family? Hobbies? Favorite dessert?”

  The tension melted from Lena’s face. “I grew up a middle child in Montana. Nothing exciting. My parents owned a ranch, and I tucked myself away in my bedroom as much as I could, reading.” She smiled. “As soon as I turned eighteen, I went off to college, as far from Montana as possible.”

  “Where did you end up?”

  “Georgia. Let me tell you how hot the summers were to a Montana mountain girl. Now, I miss those miserable days.”

  “You’ll have to go back one day.”

  Lena nodded. That joy she had showed disappeared. A sadness Kieran had tried to avoid overwhelmed her tiny features. She must have caught it, because she forced a smile and continued, “My hobby had always been reading and my favorite dessert is baked Alaska.”

  “Baked Alaska? That’s a little extreme.”

  “And what’s your favorite dessert?”

  “Crème Brule.”

  Lena laughed a genuine laugh. “And who’s a little extreme?”

  They spent the next two hours going back and forth about favorite things, each trying to outdo the other. Kieran had forgotten about all the trouble he was in at work and with the police, but when they arrived at Grief Relief, everything came crashing back.

  Soon, they were seated in the building’s lobby, waiting for Tom Valders. Kieran had known Tom for quite some time and wanted to see if he had info that would help.

  Kieran kept glancing at Lena, trying to read her. Was she bored? Happy? What did she think about him and his situation?

  In front of them, Tom’s secretary and greeter for the organization peered from behind her desk. Nancy had been there longer than Tom, helping Kieran and Ems after their Dad died and Mom fell apart.

  “How’s Emily?” Nancy asked.

  Kieran smiled. “She’s good. Planning on going off to college next year. Yale. I’m not sure how I’ll pay for that.” Kieran tightened his lips, realizing the truth to that statement. He may not have a job and money may be hard to come by. He may even go to prison. His mouth dried.

  “There’s always a way,” Nancy said. “Ems is so bright, she’ll accomplish amazing things, I’m certain, no matter where she ends up in school.”

  Kieran sat forward. “She’s a little different from me, huh?”

  “Oh, Kieran. You’ve accomplished so much, considering your situation.” Nancy looked to Lena. “How long have you two been together?”

  Over twenty-four hours now. Were they even together? “Not long enough.” He looked at Lena and smiled.

  A tall, athletic-looking man in a blue polo and khakis came down the hallway and leaned on Nancy’s desk, facing Kieran. “It’s nice to see you again.” He nodded at Lena. “And who do we have here? You’ll have to introduce me to your friend.”

  Kieran stood, wrapping his arm around Lena’s, noting how nice it felt to touch her. “Tom, this is my friend Lena. Lena, Tom.”

  Lena shook Tom’s hand with her free hand.

  “It’s so nice to see Kieran with a friend.” Tom winked.

  “Knock it off,” Kieran said. “I have business to attend to with you.”

  “Sure. Come on back.”

  Kieran ensured Lena followed them to the back office. They sat across from Tom at a desk sprawled with folders, pens, and booklets.

  “How’s Gen Power?” Tom shuffled paper in a failed attempt to tidy the office.

  “Not good.” Kieran wiggled to the front of the chair. “I heard they cut your funding.”

  “Months ago, already, but there’s hope. They were going to announce shutting us down today, but they held off.” Tom let out a smile. “Maybe they’re changing their minds.”

  “Or maybe they have something bigger going on.” And Kieran knew what that something was. His heart hurt when he thought about the possibility of Grief Relief no longer helping needy children. They had done so much for Emily, and for Kieran, too. If he could fund them himself, he would. “I can help you fund raise.”

  “I may have to take you up on that.”

  Kieran shuffled back in his seat. “You said you knew they stopped funding you months ago. Who broke the news?” Tom was an old friend, but not someone that would call Kieran about his troubles.

  “Fred and Rod said they were holding the funding for a little while. I didn’t know it would be permanent.”

  Kieran’s chest constricted and he fell silent. They met with him months ago? Why was he out of the loop? He had always been included in company changes. Fred was his friend. At least, he thought he was a friend. Was Fred involved in setting Kieran up?

  Lena spoke. “Who else funds you?”

  Tom shook his head. “Unfortunately, Gen Power Systems funds about seventy-five percent of us and provides us with IT infrastructure, payroll, and other services we couldn’t afford. Other than them, we get private funding.” He twisted open the blinds on his office, revealing a room with half-a-dozen kids playing. At least as many adults interacted with them. “I don’t know what we’ll do if our doors shut. Those children have nowhere else to go where they’ll be surrounded by others like them. Others that feel their pain and have experienced loss, too.”

  Kieran couldn’t take his eyes off one girl, sitting in a ball in the corner. Besides her, a younger boy pushed a few trucks on the bench she was on. She was small and weak, but when the boy drove his truck over her foot, a reserved smile tugged her lips.

  Ems had been like that. Angry at the world. Withdrawn after Dad had died and Mom went away. At only twenty years old, Kieran had been at his wit’s end and sought Grief Relief for help. Their assistance was the reason he sought employment with Gen Power Systems. He believed in the company.

  Kieran pulled his eyes from the window and back to Tom. “Can I borrow an employee computer here? I have a few things I need to check before I go home.” Kieran hoped his login and password still worked.

  “No problem. You can use mine. I’ve got to go over some things with my secretary before I leave, anyway. Let me log out.”

  Soon, Tom left the room, leaving Kieran to use his computer and Lena to stare out the window at the kids.

  Her voice was soft. “Could your boss, Fred, be behind this all?”

  “Fred? No, he wouldn’t do that.” Though Kieran had the same thought. “We’re friends.”

  “But if he was in trouble, I’m sure he’d do anything to clear his name.” She pulled her eyes from the kids and looked at Kieran with painful sincerity. “Once you tell one lie, it’s hard to dig yourself back out. He knew Gen Power Systems had cut the funding for months.”

  Kieran rubbed a hand along his cheek, then turned to the computer. “Maybe. I just hope it wasn’t him.” He logged in to Gen Power Systems’ network and into their accounting software. He pulled up invoice after invoice from YABF Industries, only to see most of them didn’t have an authorizing signature.

  But a few did. When he saw Fred’s sig
nature, his muscles tensed. He wouldn’t believe it. He kept digging, finding invoices authorized by Olivia, the Director of Research and Development, and Samantha, the Director of Finance. He printed the invoices one by one. He then clicked into all the other information he could find, including the ledger and the cancelled checks written to YABF Industries. He printed these as well, anxious to get home and examine them.

  It wasn’t until he logged out and pulled the papers from the printer that he noticed Lena had drifted into a faraway place, not noticing him approach.

  Chapter 10

  LENA

  Lena couldn’t tear her eyes off the children as memories crashed back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kieran stand from behind Tom’s desk, but Lena only hunched in her chair. She wiped her eyes, remembering Stephen, Amelia, and other children like them. Children who were bruised and cut. Children with as much withdrawal from society as these children at Grief Relief. Children Lena had grand aspirations to help when she started the charity but was so corrupted by money that she forgot her purpose.

  “Lena?” Kieran’s voice was soft.

  She let out a loud sniffle. She couldn’t help it. Perhaps she was better off in the Underworld, freezing for her crimes.

  Kieran held out a Kleenex. “Hey, I know it’s sad, but it’ll be okay.”

  Lena shook her head. “What’ll they do when this building closes? When there is nobody else to help them?” She stood. She was a mess. After twenty-three years, she still hadn’t gotten it together. “Please excuse me.” She pushed her way out of the room, down the hall, and outside the building. She heard Kieran behind her, but she kept moving, finding a private spot under a tree of a neighboring park. She sat on the grass, her back against the tree trunk and buried her face in her hands.

  Her memories rushed back, and she didn’t fight them. Not only of Stephen, but of little Amelia who was barely a toddler. She was so sweet and barely cried. The social workers intervened, but when funding dwindled, her mother pleaded for her return.

  Amelia’s tiny obituary appeared in the local paper. It was a brief account of her short life that didn’t do her justice. It didn’t capture her joy, her wonder, and the pouty lip when she struggled with a puzzle.

  “Lena?”

  Kieran knelt beside her. She tried to look him in the face, but the undeserved compassion he gave her made her look away. Her mind filled with the images of children she could have touched. Stephen, whom Lena had been helping with a custody battle, despite her charity closing. She had taken a personal interest in him, but when Lena died, her assistance ended and she didn’t know the outcome. Then there was Jenni whose mother was getting help, due to Lena’s prodding and follow-up, but when Lena died…

  Images of the bottle of vodka laying on the passenger seat of her car besides Amelia’s obituary circled in her mind. She remembered flooring the gas as she rounded each turn of a snake-like country road. Of closing her eyes…

  She was sorry.

  Sorry for Stephen. For Jenni. For Amelia.

  So sorry.

  If she could live again, everything would be different, but would it? She hadn’t planned the life she had lived. The journey she took to the Underworld was a long, slow path that she didn’t intend to take. Would she take the same path if given a second chance?

  Kieran sat in the grass and circled his arm around her. He attempted to pull her to his side, but she pulled into a ball, hugging her knees. “Stop. You have no idea who I am.” Her voice weakened. “What I’ve done.”

  Kieran brushed her red hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. His words were still soft. “What’s going on?” He placed his arm around her, and this time, she didn’t pull away.

  Despite whatever consequences the Unfortunate would have for her, Kieran deserved the truth. Perhaps, it was Lena’s fault Grief Relief was closing. If she hadn’t distracted Kieran, could he have found something in Gen Power Systems’ numbers? Done something to keep funding those children? Even in her afterlife, she destroyed innocent lives.

  She had built a wall in her mind during her corrupt years running the charity, a wall that she reinforced during her time in the Underworld. It separated Lena from her crimes, letting her face each day. Now, that wall crumbled into nothing. “Remember when I said I knew a person who stole money from the charity I ran?”

  Kieran’s eyes were wide and expectant.

  Lena looked away, her voice dropping to a whisper. “That person was… It was me.”

  She expected Kieran’s arm to fall from her shoulders. For him to stand up and walk away, but he stayed at her side, tightening his hold on her. Perhaps he didn’t completely understand what she had said?

  She wiped her eyes. “I stole from the charity I ran. I watched as we downsized our social workers and the families we could help until we shut the door. Child abuse continued, despite police intervention, and all I did was sit in my house, watching children get hurt…or die.” Tears flooded out again, and she didn’t wipe them. “A child died because of me. Who knows if there are more?”

  Kieran sat in silence, keeping his arm wrapped firmly around her. She lost the ability to fight, and when Kieran urged her closer, she obeyed.

  He eased them into the grass, laying on his back and holding her tightly into his side.

  When she had no more tears, she fell asleep in Kieran’s arms with the warm, spring sun bathing her skin.

  KIERAN

  Kieran wouldn’t say he knew what the pain Lena was experiencing was like, but he knew grief, and guilt was one of the seven stages of grief. Losing his father, coping with his mother, and his time working with Grief Relief, Kieran was intimately acquainted with remorse.

  Did her confession change the way he felt about her? Deep inside, she harbored a selfishness that caused disregard of right and wrong. He examined her tear-filled eyes, the quiver on her lips, and her sagged shoulders. He thought of all the help she was giving him—basically a stranger she just met. Of her gentleness with Woofgang and how she kept coming back, no matter how his situation worsened. No matter her past, her heart was in the right place now. He owed her as much support as she gave to him.

  Knowing what Lena had done didn’t change his opinion of her. In fact, it made his heart ache for her. She was filled with a deep sadness for what she had done. As Kieran laid under the oak tree with a frail Lena snuggled to his side, his only thoughts were to help her overcome her guilt and accept the past.

  Had he been so tied up in his own troubles that he failed to see her struggle? She was doing everything in her power to help him, and he gave her nothing in return. Not anymore. They may have had different goals, but life was easier with a partner.

  When Lena stirred, perhaps an hour later, Kieran stroked her red hair. “Feeling better?”

  She rubbed her eyes. “Not better, but ready to move on. I think it's best if I return home. I’m afraid being here may make the situation worse.”

  Kieran felt a sudden emptiness inside him. “You can’t go.”

  Her eyes widened, like nobody had ever wanted her to stay.

  “You can’t go because…you need me right now.” Kieran sat up and took her hand. “And I need you. Please stay. You have expertise in this area, and…I enjoy your company.”

  Lena looked away. “Even after my confession?”

  “Especially, since your confession. You’re as human as anyone else.” Kieran climbed to his feet and helped Lena up. “We may have just met, but there’s something between us. Something I want to explore once everything is over.”

  Lena shook her head. “I cannot guarantee I can stay. In fact, I’m certain I’ll have to leave you at some point.”

  “Then, help me through this. Don’t deny me the opportunity to get to know you more, even if only for a few days.” Lena still shook her head, so Kieran kept explaining. “There’s a whole building of kids over there that need you, too.”

  Lena looked to the Grief Relief building, and she fell still, bit
ing her bottom lip. “I can’t leave them.”

  With an arm draped around Lena, Kieran led her across the park and back to his SUV. After she climbed in, he looked into her dark grey eyes and said, “Thank you.”

  Lena nodded. “You shouldn’t be the one thanking me. I’m grateful for your support.” She placed a hand against Kieran’s cheek that made his insides jump. He closed his eyes, and it wasn’t until she dropped her hand that he could close the door.

  He had fallen for her, hard.

  Now, he just needed to keep out of jail and convince her to stay with him.

  He remembered one line his mother had told him when he was a child. When you find that special someone, hold tight and never let go.

  Chapter 11

  LENA

  On the ride back to his home, Kieran handed Lena a pile of papers he had printed inside Grief Relief. “Page through the invoices. All I can find are the three people’s names who signed off on them. That narrows it down to three suspects.”

  Lena paged through each of the twenty or so invoices. “Samantha Engren, Fred Shotz, and Olivia Nelson. Fred is your boss, but I don’t know who Samantha or Olivia are.”

  “Samantha Engren is the Director of Finance. She’s been in finance for…maybe five years now? Olivia Nelson is the Director of the Research and Development Department.”

  “So, you think it’s one of them?”

  Kieran shrugged. “Who else could it be? I find it odd that the invoices had been paid repeatedly.”

  “While back at Grief Relief, you were surprised that Fred didn’t tell you they had stopped funding the program.”

  “He always keeps me in the loop.”

  Lena raised an eyebrow.

  Kieran shook his head. “It can’t be Fred. We go way back.”

  “Has he been acting funny lately? Had any big expenditures?” Lena thought back to her own life.

  Kieran’s face went blank, then he tightened his jaw. “He just bought a new car.”

  “Well, let’s talk to him. Besides, you want an update on your job, right?”