ACE

Looking through the stacks of documents piled up on his desk, Ace was exhausted. He's been at this the last four hours, yet the paperwork still looked endless. Well, that's basically the life of a Managing Director. Especially one who heads a company as large as his current employers.

The Great "Rodgers Automobiles Incorporated" was the fourth largest company in the tri-state area in the automobile world. And being it's Chief Operations Officer at the age of 38, was a pretty good achievement, even though being married to his boss's family did play a part in smoothening that achievement transitioning to reality, Ace would love to believe he was hired cause of his astute business sense and his expertise in evaluating and identifying new markets in the industry.

Ace Mackenzie Graham, a thirty-eight year old Businessman employed by his father-in-law's cooperation. His, you can say is the proverbial grass to grace story. He wasn't born into wealth, but he didn't exactly make his own wealth per say. He was comfortable, had a well paying job and enjoyed it, married, but with no kids in the picture. He and Olivia discussed kids earlier on, but with how busy they were currently, they never actually tried to have one. Maybe they should start trying for one, Ace thought.

The door to his office opened, and one of his assistants walked in with a brown paper bag containing some files. He had requested them earlier and it had taken him some time to get all those files sorted out before handing over to him.

"The files you requested, sir." He said.

Ace nodded his appreciation, stretched his hand to receive it and having gotten it from him, he stepped out.

Ace opens the paper bag, pulls out the contents in them and flips through them one by one until he reaches the exact one's he's searching for. The expression on his face changes into shock as he doesn't believe what he's seeing. He pushes out another document, his facial expression remains the same, he brings out a previous document from under his file and goes through it, he's mouthing some curses as he hurriedly flips each page wishing his worst fears aren't his reality.

He spits out a curse which embodies his entire frustration as he flings the paper to the floor.

"What in the world is this?" he yells at no one in particular.

What he was reading couldn't be possible, so he grabbed the sheets again and purred through it, but still got the same outcome. He picked up his office landline and called in the accountant. When he got off the phone, he rang for his assistant.

"I'm expecting someone in some minutes, be sure to show him to my office once he arrives." He says almost breathlessly.

The assistant nods and departs. As soon as he steps out, Ace picks the papers up again, out of frustration and unable to think, he throws them away again, gets up to pour himself a drink. Just then, the door opens and in walks a man of about forty-five, dressed in a suit cut to his figure.

He has jet-black hair and forest green eyes, he takes in Ace's appearance behind the counter, the scattered sheets on the floor and the frustration playing through his face.

"Considering you need a drink in the middle of work. How bad is it on a scale of ten?" he asks.

"Really bad, Scotty."

Ace downs the whole glass and points to the papers on his desk. The man looks at the papers, looks at Ace, who has a glass in his hands, and looks back at the papers

"Lets go get you cleaned up first, this can wait." He says to Ace.

"Look at it. Look." Ace repeats. His voice sounding more authoritative than before.

The guest lifts the papers off the table, glances through them, compares them with the second set of papers, realizes where Ace's frustration originates from and puts them down.

"Care to explain?" Ace asks to which he shakes his head.

"Honestly, I don't know what to tell you."

"How about starting from why the company accounts is transferring company funds to an unregistered offshore account?" Ace spat with venom in his voice.

"What is this?" Ace asks again.

The accountant is agitated and edgy and it's visible on his face that he dreaded this. He picks up the documents, walks down to the settee available and exhales as he drops down into it. He stares directly at Ace and he returns the eye contact.

"To be direct with you sir, I have no idea why the company is transferring funds to these accounts." He stated.

"Ever since I started working here, I've been Instructed to see to..."

"Instructed? I never gave such orders." Ace cut him off at the last part

"Instructed by who?" Ace asks again.

"Thats above your pay grade, sir. with all due respect." He replied.

"Instructed by who?" Ace spat out a second time.

"By the top office."

The scorn on Ace's face was visible. His boss's has given an instruction behind his back. He was basically being side stepped in his position. Clearly not every company business went through him. He felt like a puppet, being kept in the dark.

Having called in the accountant and having him diffuse this information, it was clear he was kept in the dark on certain Company policies. As the COO he was supposed to know what happened in the company, but having information like these being kept from him, he was furious.

He raised the glass in his hands to his lips and poured it's entire content into his mouth in one full swing. Looked at the man in his office. Raised his head to signal he was dismissed to which he stood up, walked to the door and exited, all without Ace acknowledging his departure.

"What was going on." Ace thought.

Was the company diverting funds to cover-up illegal assets? Or where they involved in some sort of illegal business?

Why were these kept from him. Something wasn't right, He knew it. Unable to complete his work without knowing why this information was being kept from him, he picked his jacket lying on the arm of his chair, swung it over his long arms and buttoned it then stepped out of his office.

"Aaron, defer all my calls for today. And reschedule all other appointments for a later date." He says to his assistant as he stepped out of the office.

"Yes sir." Aaron replied, picking up the telephone to do as he was told.

Ace walked out of the building, got into his car, turned the ignition and the automobile roared to live. On a good day, he'd enjoy the sound of the engine, but he wasn't in the mood today.

He glide the engine off the office parking space and into the road, straight to his father in-laws mansion. He needed answers and that's where he was going to find them.

Ace drove his car, a 1974 vintage Ford Mustang GT through the large gates of his father-in-law's Mansion. It was a fortress, the view was breathtaking, same as always anytime he drove in. But today, he wasn't paying attention to the garden, neither was he paying attention to the freshly watered lawn as he made his way into the parking space.

He parked his car, amongst the other three Automobiles in the space and turned it's engine off. Stepped out and walked into the house. He had informed his father-in-law of his imminent arrival, so he knew he'd he in the study waiting for him, so he moved swiftly.

"Ace!"

His father in-law, Jacob Rodgers boomed as soon as he walked into the study. He rose to give him a hug and kiss his cheeks. Ace shook his hands, then embraced him as well.

"How's everything, my boy." Mr. Rodgers asked to which Ace nodded it was all good.

"You said you had some office business to discuss over the phone that couldn't wait? Let's hear it." He said pointing Ace to a sit to which he gladly took.

Straight to business, was Jacob Rodgers' policy. No time for plesantries apparently. Ace opened the brown office bag he was holding and brought out the same documents he was pondering over in his office and handed them to Jacob Rodgers.

" I was going through the company accounts earlier today and came across some transactions I wasn't aware of." Ace began.

" I brought in the accounts department, but even they, weren't able to explain why the company funds were being transferred to these accounts. Just some things about being instructed to see through it's transition. And it's been going on for quite a while now, but isn't recorded in the official reports." Ace concluded.

Mr. Rodger's feigned ignorance as he skimmed through the documents, then acted thoughtful for a while.

"Ace, my boy. What's all this?"

"I want to know why the company is hiding transactions from it's official reports and why I'm being kept in the dark on these matters." He said, his voice deeper than he intended.

"As the COO of Rodger's Automobile, I should be made aware of what's going on in every sector of this company. I'm being side stepped and I don't like it." Ace said.

Rodger's nodded his head to these words. Ace was right, he had to have been informed and rightly so.

"I'm sorry you weren't informed of this. It's a personal affair and I didn't want to bother you, seeing you've been working so hard." Rodger's started.

"It's just a little resources I had someone do for me back in the day and the payments where to his accounts." He said.

"Then why wasn't I made aware. Why was the company accounts being used to run these transactions. Why isn't it logged in the official reports. I don't like it one bit." Ace interjected.

"I feel dirty. Like we're hiding some illegal business or so from the FCC..."

"No. My dear boy, it's nothing of that sort." Rodgers stepped in.

"Then when will it end?" Ace continued his rant ignorant of the cloud that had shown up on Jacob's face.

" We can't go on with these transactions else our accounts will be compromised and if the FCC gets tipped off, we'd be in a serious mess. We don't want that. You don't want that." Ace concluded.

Rodgers nodded so, took the papers into his desk and dumped them there, then walked back to Ace.

"You're right. And this is the end of these payments." He said to Ace.

"Now that this business is settled, come with me, let's play a round of golf, ehn?" He tried to lighten the mood, Ace smiled and politely declined saying he had some work he had to do still, but seeing these were urgent, he had to address them immediately.

Rodger's nodded his understanding and patted him on the back as he left.

As Ace's car drove out of the driveway, the frown on Jacob Rodger's face was clear and evident as he watched his son-in-law who has just threatened him moments before, drive out of his mansion.