Page 38 of Badass Alien Boss

“Our stay has been very pleasant,” Michaela said.With the exception of almost dying from mislabeled food.

“Thank you for your time.” Ruyn smiled and took her arm, and they strolled back toward the main property. With a wave, the employee hurried past them, obviously on her way to work.

“Starlight is a five-star luxury hotel with high standards,” he said. “Everythingisnice. Workisbeing done. But I don’t see a billion credits worth of nice.”

“No.”

“The pool area redo cost over half a mil. The nonexistentguestbungalowsrenoscost a half-billioncredits. All they did was repaint. Projects are being redone over and over like they’re spending money to spend money.”

“I see three possible explanations,” Ruyn said. “The best-case scenario is that excessive costs are a simple case of price-gouging—the contractor is overbilling. But for that to occur, the general manager would have to be so stupid, he couldn’t find his ass with both hands.”

“That doesn’t seem likely,” she said.

“Which leads to the second possibility—embezzlement. The general manager or the head of finance is skimming, submitting inflated charges to corporate and pocketing the difference.”

“Neither of those scenarios would explain why renovation has become a perpetual project,” she said.

“No, they don’t.” He pressed his lips together grimly. “But the other possibility does. I hope I’m wrong. I really, really hope I’m wrong…”

“Money laundering,” she said it for him.

He looked at her. “You thought of that, too?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed. “Korsan Enterprises owns shares in its subsidiaries. It has a financial stake in the success of the businesses. I want there to be another explanation, but it appears the subsidiaries are being used to move money.”

Money laundering mixed “dirty” money with legitimate funds to conceal the origin of the illegally gotten gains. With inflated invoices, a perpetrator could deposit more credits than he’d earned legally, thus mixing dirty money with clean, so authorities couldn’t tell which was which and trace it back to the criminal.

“The contractor and the general manager must be crooked,” Michaela said.

“The GM may be involved, but he’s not the mastermind. It goes higher up.” His grim expression deepened.

Korsan.He didn’t need to say it.

* * * *

Michaela nibbled on her Lunar Lunch, a vegetable-and-fruit medley deemed edible for humans. She’d chosen it after the waiter informed her it was vegan. Food allergies were almost always caused by proteins, so she thought it prudent to avoid meat, fish, and eggs.

Even in plant allergies like peanuts or wheat, proteins were the culprits, the allergens being the proteins in the plant, not the plant itself. So, she wasn’t home free by eating vegan, but it was her best bet at this point.

Although the hotel vouched for its Lunar Lunch, they had been deadly wrong before, so she ate a nibble at a time and waited before taking another bite.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. “Not getting itchy?”

“So far so good.” She sighed. “I still find it hard to believe Korsan is laundering money. You know him far better than I do, but he seems so nice, so concerned, so caring. He gave you a job. He hired a bodyguard after you were attacked. I don’t want it to be him.” She bit into a sweet-savory fried vegetable, reminding her of a yam. “Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to leap to the worst-case scenario.”

“I wish there was another scenario. But there aren’t enough people positioned high enough in the company to do something like this. At an individual site? Yes. At multiple sites across multiple subsidiaries?” He shook his head.

“How are you going to handle it?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I’ll confront him. Present him with the proof and demand he stop.”

“Do you think the subsidiaries are aware of what’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Some, maybe. But if you’re breaking the law, the fewer people who know, the better.”

What if GAL Friday was involved? On principle, she hated that an employer she respected might be involved in illegal activity. It violated her moral code, but she also had to worry about guilt by association. Who would hire an investigator who’d worked for a company that laundered money for criminals?