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“What has your dad found?” Brax asked.
“He says it shows a money trail from various offshore accounts, all registered to shell companies, but the important bit is they lead to Mateo Silva and the Matarosa Cartel. It looks like the cartel was using Daniel Cancello to launder money.” Then he frowned slightly and looked at Brax with trepidation. “The bad news is that your grandmother is implicated.”
Chapter 109
Brax
It came as no surprise to learn my beloved grandma was involved in criminal shit. I’d always known her moral compass was skewed. All my life she’d treated people like garbage, especially the servants. Now we had the means to take her down, I felt nothing. If she went to prison, our family would likely be ruined, both financially and in reputation terms. I should have cared, but my emotions had flat lined.
Mom would be hurt the most. She’d grown used to a luxurious lifestyle. Dad had fucked her over when he killed himself, but at least she was still allowed to live on the Walker Estate, and I knew Lily gave her an allowance in return for toeing the line.
Her life was about to change for the worse. The girls’ lives too. No more private school. No more college for me, either. Not that I cared. I’d already decided my degree was a waste of time. I didn’t need an expensive college degree to be a success in life. Stella had taught me the value of non-material things, like love and friendship. I had no idea what the future held for me or any of us, but as long as she was with me, I didn’t care about anything else.
“Are we passing the files on to Norcross?” Harley asked.
Quinn stared at his screen pensively. “I’ve been digging into him and honestly, I think he’s clean. I can’t find any dirt on him. His taste in suits is appalling, but he’s a solid kind of guy.”
“I agree,” I said. “I get no bad vibes from him and he’s been straight with us from the start. I vote we tell him about the files. It might be enough to get the cogs of justice moving.”
“Yeah.” Quinn typed something then turned his attention back to us. “This has gone on long enough; we need Stella back. The longer she’s with that asshole, the more likely it is something bad will happen.”
Chapter 110
Stella
It felt like forever since I was last here, inside the cavernous lobby of the Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Cincinnati. I looked around, praying the cops were somewhere close. Although how they would know I’d crossed the border back into the US was a mystery. Mateo’s private jet didn’t seem to follow the usual protocols. We’d landed at a small private airfield, where nobody other than a bunch of guys carrying semi-automatics greeted us. I guessed immigration control wasn’t a problem when you were a stinking rich criminal like Mateo Silva.
The man himself was keeping me close, with one hand on my arm at all times. He’d made it abundantly clear he wasn’t averse to killing me if I tried to cross him. I was well aware time was running out.
Once Mateo realized I was fucking him over and the safe deposit box was empty, there was no telling what he’d do. If he felt I was surplus to requirements, I was likely dead. I just hoped I had an opportunity to get away before that happened. I didn’t hold much hope, but it was all I had.
“Can I help you?” Susan at the customer service desk was polite. Thankfully, the snotty bitch I’d seen the last time I was here was not working today. I knew she’d remember me, which would have caused issues.
I told Susan what I needed and she took my details. The fake passport Mateo had produced in my name (because people with a fuck ton of money could apparently get fake passports on the regular) passed muster and we were escorted downstairs.
Mateo was forced to leave his two goons behind in the lobby, where they looked horribly conspicuous against a backdrop of regular Joes going about their business. When the elevator doors opened in the basement, a familiar face greeted me.
“Ah, Miss Blake, isn’t it?” Clint, the bank’s creepy manager, beamed, his sweaty forehead gleaming in the glow of lights overhead. He cast a quick glance at Mateo but must have decided he was my father or grandfather.
Mateo tensed beside me, his hand squeezing my arm so tightly I had to force myself not to whimper in pain.
“Hello, again.”
“Did you forget something?” he asked.
“No?” Why was he chatting to me like we were friends? For fuck’s sake, he was going to drop me in it if he didn’t shut up.
I looked past him and saw a large guy in a dark suit hovering in a doorway. He had a lanyard on but he didn’t fit the bank worker stereotype at all.
Had Mateo managed to get one of his guys down here? Mateo noticed him too and I felt him stiffen. His hand slid inside his jacket and time slowed down.
The guy in the suit stepped forward and two more men wearing FBI vests appeared from a side room. Clint’s jaw dropped as his day went irrevocably south.
Mateo pulled a gun and began shooting. Bullets pinged off the wall and Clint dropped to the floor, sobbing.
Mateo pulled me toward the open elevator, using me as a human shield, while the FBI agents yelled at him. The doors closed.
“You set me up!” he hissed in my ear before pulling a phone from his pocket.
