Chase glanced down. The numbers above the line didn’t tell him much, but the number in parenthesis at the bottom indicated they’d run over by a hundred thousand dollars instead of making money. He slammed the paper down on his desk, causing Martin to jump.

“How can this be?” He met both men’s eyes before looking at the paper again. The numbers hadn’t changed. “Night Blooming was number one at the box office for several weeks, plus the early release to DVD. The Golden Globe nominations and the Oscar talk. We should be in the black, not the red.”

Martin shifted in his chair. “There were costs we hadn’t anticipated.”

“How could that be?” Chase leaned back in his chair. Every extra dollar counted. The loss would mean one less project they could back this year. “This isn’t our first film. Robert, you came up with the budget. You’re not green.”

“I don’t know, Chase,” Robert said. “My budgets are pretty tight. The only thing I can think of is to have accounting look into it.”

Chase turned back to Martin.

Martin cleared his throat. “Um. I hired a new assistant who will be auditing this budget first thing. I need to start working on the financial reporting for the month.”

The little accountant. His pulse jumped. “This is our priority, Martin. We need to get to the bottom of this.”

“Natalie!”

Natalie cringed as Martin barreled toward her desk. The CFO liked to yell at her when telling her to do something. He wasn’t demeaning or anything, just loud. If anyone was nearby, they always turned to look.

“Yes, Mr. Morrison?” She placed the papers in her work tray and waited for the next project about to be yelled at her.

“Come into my office.” He pounded past her desk and into his office.