Betrayal by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page B

audit was to establish her solvency and net worth, but the one Victor was doing was just to make sure that her accounts were in good order, and they were taking deductions properly. Victor was conservative in his approach. He never liked taking too many deductions, if they were questionable, and he wanted to be able to defend all of their positions if they were ever challenged by the IRS. He didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, or let his clients stick their necks out too far. Some of them wanted him to be more aggressive than he thought reasonable, although Tallie never had, but this was a good opportunity to reevaluate their positions, and he was doing the same for Hunt.
    Hunt’s bookkeeper’s accounting system was less precise than Brigitte’s. A lot of money came in and a lot went out, but he spent most of it on his credit card, so they had a good record of it. Victor met with him and asked him several questions. It was all very straightforward. And when Victor asked him about the local hotel stays, he said he’d stayed there with Tallie, and once in a while he rented suites at hotels for meetings with out-of-town investors so those were business deductions, and Victor wanted to know which charges were for business if Hunt remembered, and most of the time he did.
    It all made sense and Victor was comfortable with the deductions they were taking for him, and they hadn’t put Hunt at risk for an audit. Victor was satisfied with Hunt’s answers, and the accounting firm of the Japanese investor seemed pleased too. They were almost finished at the end of two weeks, and very happy with what they’d seen. It looked like the deal would go forward. All Victor had left to do was ask Tallie similar questions to those he had asked Hunt, just for the sake of clarity in their ledger. And in Tallie’s case, he thought they should be taking more deductions. He also wanted to be sure that they were up to date on her California Use Tax, for things she had purchased out of state or abroad. He checked diligently that Tallie was keeping track of it, and Brigitte was recording it correctly, so Tallie didn’t get hit with penalties later. Most of his questions were about that, money spent on Max, and the considerable amount of cash that Tallie was spending, instead of using her credit cards, which he would have preferred.
    He called her on her cell phone on Friday afternoon on the set. She sounded busy and he apologized for bothering her, and told her he had a number of questions to go over with her, to be sure that everything was in order and that he fully understood her expenses in the ledger.
    “Can you talk to Brigitte about it?” she asked, sounding distracted. They had fallen slightly behind that week due to bad weather and a lot of changes in the script. She was worried that they were going to go over budget on location.
    “I can,” Victor answered her cautiously. Sometimes he drove her crazy, he was such a nitpicker, but that was what she paid him for. She just didn’t have the time to spend on it with him at the moment, or she really didn’t want to. “But I’d rather ask you. You’re the one who’s responsible for your taxes, if Brigitte or I make a mistake. I’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth. When will you be back in L.A.?”
    “This weekend. But I’ll be back here on Monday morning.”
    “Would you like to meet on Sunday?” he offered, and Tallie sighed, thinking about it. She wanted to spend her time off with Hunt, not Victor, but she knew he’d drive her crazy till she agreed to meet with him. She might as well get it over with, and figured she could do it on Sunday morning when Hunt played tennis. It wasn’t how she wanted to spend her Sunday, but she agreed to meet him at ten-thirty at his office to answer his inquiries. He promised he’d make it quick. Brianna liked to go to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel for Sunday brunch, and she wouldn’t be happy about his working