Free Utterly Yours (Book Five) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Alexa Brookes

Chapter One
     
                  Nathaniel Lynch entered the visitation area of the local jail in Troy, New York where his former intern and assistant, Tony, was waiting for him at one of the round tables in the large, empty white room.  The kid looked scared, and clearly, the past week in jail had not been good to him.  All of his assets had been frozen, so he had been unable to pay for bail –and his family, Nathaniel knew, was not particularly well off and often relied on Tony to be the one to get them out of financial situations.  The kid was stuck.
                  Truthfully, Nathaniel was surprised he was allowed to come talk to Tony at all.  He was Tony’s victim, after all, but since the court case would be taking place all the way in California a few things had managed to slip under the radar of the court system –including allowing Nathaniel a visit.  Tony sat upright when he saw that Nathaniel was the one paying him a visit.  There were dark bags under Tony’s eyes, and Nathaniel felt a pang in his stomach when he saw the tired expression.
                  He sat down across from Tony, and a surprised, “Why are you here?” escaped from the young man’s lips.
                  “To offer you a plea deal,” Nathaniel said, and Tony slumped over in his seat.
                  “I’m not confessing to a damn thing,” Tony sneered.
                  “Come on, kid, I’m trying to help you out,” Nathaniel said.  “Look, I can’t convince the board to drop the lawsuit.  It’s not going to happen.  And to be honest, it would be stupid of me to even try because I’m the one who almost got screwed out of that money.  If you didn’t get caught, that money would have had to be refunded out of my personal account.  If you take the plea deal, they can knock five years off of your sentence.”
                  Tony shot upright again.  He glared at Nathaniel.  “What sort of sentence were they talking about, to begin with?”
                  “Up to ten,” Nathaniel said.
                  “What the hell?  Embezzlement carries a three-year sentence in California!” Tony shrieked.  He lost all color in his face.
                  “The lawyers are pulling out all the stops on this one, Tony.  Five million dollars!  Did you really think you could get away with stealing five million dollars from me?” Nathaniel questioned.
                  Tony banged his fists down on the table.  “I didn’t do it!  I didn’t fucking do it!”
                  “It went straight to your bank account, man.  You had me sign for the transfer on your personal tablet.  We have video evidence of you cashing the thirty thousand that went missing before you decided to opt for the five-million-dollar payday.”
                  “I put the thirty thousand back into the company’s accounts when I realized it had been transferred to me, and I was launching an internal investigation at the company to try to figure out how that happened!  Why would I do that if I was going to turn around and try to steal five million more from you?” Tony questioned.  “Nathaniel, I didn’t do this.  I didn’t!  I wouldn’t.  Not to you.  I wouldn’t do this to you.  You have to believe me!”
                  “Why should I?” Nathaniel asked in a calm tone of voice.  “Tony, tell me why I should believe you –because, Tony, I want to believe you.  After everything we’ve been through together, I want to believe every word that is coming out of your mouth.  You’re a good kid, or at least I think you are.  Did you just see an opportunity and try to take it?  I called around… I heard you’ve been having trouble at home financially.  I know your family takes a lot of money from you since you’re pretty much the only one that makes over 20K a