Her Forbidden Millionaire

“Now let’s see what he wanted to hide,” she mumbled to herself as she started from the beginning of the paperwork. There were an endless amount of sheets of paper that gave her the details to every business Lincoln had started in the last ten years. Business after business, bad idea after bad idea. She couldn’t see what was there that needed to be changed. It was a sh*t storm of bad investments, but all of them were public information.

She spent an hour combing through all of the paperwork trying to find what Lincoln was so concerned about her finding. “Maybe he really did leave something out,” she said to herself. Phoebe thought to take a break and come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes. After running a few files to her interns and checking on Mrs. Aimsley’s case with one of the other advisers she came back to her office to see Lincoln’s file still wide open on her desk waiting there. She grumbled as she sat down to focus her brain on what could be missing or what was out of the ordinary.

It took Phoebe another hour sitting there when something finally jumped off the page at her. One of the failed businesses was still in operation. It was costing over $150,000 a month to operate. She took a deep breath as she pulled that sheet of paper and everything associated with it from the file. “What in the hell costs a hundred and fifty dollars to operate every month?” she asked to no one. Reading the papers over and over again didn’t give her any further explanations. She’d found the needle in the haystack, but now where did the haystack go?

Phoebe wondered what kind of information Lincoln was going to add or if he was going to tell her anything at all. She thought about calling him, but with the way he was acting she wasn’t sure how trustworthy his responses would be. Calling the only person she thought was smarter than her in the firm was the next best thing.

Bob showed up to Phoebe’s office a few minutes after she requested his assistance, “You rang?” he said, poking his head into her office doorway.

“Yeah,” she said, waving him inside. “Come in and close the door. I need you to take a look at this and tell me what you think.”

Bobby glanced over the papers for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. “Looks like a sh*t investment. How many years was it open for?”

“It’s been almost a decade now, and it’s still open,” Phoebe stated with a worried glare. “The operating costs fluctuated early on, which is to be expected for any business, but they tapered off to a constant after about four years and then two years ago they jumped to the 150 number. What kind of business has those kinds of operating costs, without any kind of profits to speak of whatsoever?”

“This sh*t is still open?” Bobby asked, reading through the papers again. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No,” Phoebe huffed. “I think it might be a friend or someone he knows who’s mooching off him. We’ve seen it before where these celebrities get guilted into taking care of people who don’t deserve it.”

“Is there a number for the business or address?” Bobby asked. “Let’s not jump the gun or anything yet. It’s probably a charity or something. Find it. And if it’s in Crimson, go check it out. I’m sure that the charity wouldn’t mind you asking a few questions. Hell, we may even be able to pick up a new client.”

Phoebe shook her head thinking that Bobby was being way too optimistic. A little more digging was going to get Phoebe exactly what she needed… an address for when the business was first established and a telephone number. She wondered if there had ever been anyone working there and decided to do some more digging. The only problem was she kept hitting dead end after dead end. There was nothing on the address listed. There weren’t any news events or stories associated with it. The place had no internet presence at all. Phoebe stared at her computer screen a bit frustrated. “What kind of business doesn’t have any kind of press when it’s associated with someone like Lincoln Gold?”

The phone at her desk rang, breaking her away from her search. “Phoebe Grissom, how can I help you?”

“You can help me by picking me up and taking us to lunch,” Pam laughed on the other line.

Phoebe sighed. “Is it lunch time already?”

“Yes, and I’m starved! I don’t want to move my car and lose my space. Come on! Come get me,” Pam feigned a begging plea.

“Fine,” Phoebe chuckled. “I’m on my way, but we have to make a stop after we eat. There’s an address I want to check out from Lincoln’s portfolio.”

“Wait a minute,” Pam stopped her. “You landed him? I thought you had to curse his lawyer out and left the thing early?”

“I thought I lost it too, but it turns out the other guys there stood up for me and told her about what Clayton said. She knows I was just defending myself. Besides the proposal I submitted didn’t have my name or the company information on it, so I was picked based off pure talent!” Phoebe told her proudly.

“Well, that’s great! Now we can have a drink at lunch… you know, to toast to your success.” Pam giggled.

“Yeah, sure, to my success.” Phoebe smiled. It didn’t take long for Phoebe to pick up her friend and for them to eat. She told Pam about the business address and she just wanted to check it out. Pam knew the address wasn’t in a very good neighborhood and felt like it was a bad idea.

“I really think we should have one of the guys from the station come with us. I can have them meet us there in about twenty minutes,” Pam said with worry in her voice.

“Nonsense.” Phoebe waved her friend’s worried tone nonchalantly. “We can handle it. I just want to see the place. We’ll be fine.”