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“I think that’s what my meeting is for in a few days. I told him I would be there with Addie, but we had to find a place to stay soon, or we’d be in trouble.”
“Good job,” nodded Gaspar. “Do you think they’d be suspicious if you wanted to bring others in?”
“I think it’s too soon for that. Let me figure out what they want from me first. Actually, I know what they want from me, but I’ll need to figure out an excuse to not do it.”
“Venereal disease,” said Wilson, shrugging his shoulders.
“Excuse me?” growled Miller.
“Don’t lose your shit, brother,” laughed Wilson. “I’m just trying to save you. Tell them you’ve got herpes or gonorrhea or something. Or you could tell them your dick doesn’t work anymore. War wound or something.”
“I don’t know,” he frowned. “That feels – wrong.”
“It feels wrong because no man wants it to happen to him. It’s going to feel more wrong if they’re pushing you to have sex with those women. Do you know that STDs among seniors in luxury communities are the fastest growing of any age demographic? It’s true.”
“I know, but still, an STD?”
“Or your dick doesn’t work,” smirked Rafe.
“Shut the fuck up. My dick works just fine,” growled Miller.
“Babe, we all know your dick works great,” smiled Kari. “I think Wilson is onto something. Just tell them you had an injury. It would bring the women in even more. You could play all cool and shy because of it. It might help you.”
Miller took a few deep breaths, staring at the group of friends and family. Men were particular about telling stories about their dicks. Size – exaggerate. Ability – exaggerate. But never in his life had he heard a man speak disparagingly about his own manhood. However, he did understand.
“I’ll think about it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
When the team from the Square walked up, Julia was with her husband, who had just returned from a security detail. Like his father, Joseph never wanted to be out of reach of his wife. She had saved his life, and in turn, they saved one another.
“How did it go today after we left?” asked Gaspar.
“Other than the one Korean ghost that was connected to all of this shit, it was pretty quiet,” said Noah.
“Are we sure she was connected?” asked Ian.
“Positive,” said U-Jin. “She and her brother owned a chain of Korean grocery stores. They were very wealthy. His sister was living in a luxury retirement community in Tennessee just before she got sick. A guy by the name of Bill Laughlin ran security at the community. He was trying to date her and pushing her for marriage. She didn’t want to marry.”
“Damn. What happened?” asked Ghost.
“He wanted to move in together, and she refused. When she became ill, she gave him access to her checking account to buy her medications. We’re fairly certain he cleared out her bank accounts right before she died.”
“Bill? Bill Laughlin,” repeated Ella. “His name appeared several times on the transaction sheets. He had payroll records, but also some transfers of money into the general company accounts.”
“Why would he deposit into the company accounts?” asked Nine.
“If he was making or taking money on his own, he would then turn around and give that to the organization. If it were cash or checks, then he would just deposit them into his own account and transfer that. This way, it would look as if he were investing in the company or buying stock.”
“Jesus, this shit is so messy,” said Nine.
“Hi, sorry we’re late,” said Code. Hannah was coming behind him with her laptop, smiling at the others.
“I think I’ve found something interesting that we need to follow,” she said, opening her computer. “Jean and Ella asked me to help look at the financials, and for some reason, I started to go down a rabbit hole. I started to look at the retirement system for the City of Atlanta, specifically the APD.”
“Okay. Sounds like a smart thing to do. What did you find?” asked Ghost.
“Their retirement system was nearly bankrupt about eleven years ago. Someone was playing with their benefits, risking the money on shaky investments and playing the stock market. That’s all well and good if you understand the market, but apparently, this person did not.”
