Chapter 12 #2
“Spade, keep a few people in the lobby as lookout, and the rest of you follow the staff. This is coming out of my accounts, so there’s no reason for them to alert anyone.
If one of them does, you know what to do,” I instructed when he was done, fully knowing that the employees could hear.
It was better that I reminded them of the consequences now than if one of them got brave enough to make a move.
I didn’t want any innocent blood on my hands. Miller, though, was far from innocent.
“You’re so sexy when you take charge like that, and especially when I get the opportunity to kill for you, darling.”
A choked sound rang in the background, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Let us know through the earpieces if you run into any problems.”
“See you soon, sugar.” With that, he hung up the phone. I glanced at the ornately carved grandfather clock in the corner. It was a quarter past two, which meant we only had forty-five minutes to finish this up and have all the money packed and loaded into the vans.
“Now, for the rest of the money in my account, I’d like to transfer it elsewhere.” The clack of my heels was the only sound that echoed through the office as I took my seat.
Miller’s mouth formed words, but he smartly didn’t voice them.
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” I raised a brow in question. “The moment I leave here, you’re going to call Angelo, and I’m sure you’ll do everything in your power to clean out that account before I can touch it again.”
His eyes widened, but he didn’t argue. Good.
“Do you have the account information?” His voice wavered, but I didn’t care. He helped the Barones every step of the way; he illegally transferred my money into this account in the first place. So in reality, he was the reason any of this was happening to begin with.
“Of course.” I grinned. I pulled a piece of paper out of my bag, amusement sparkling in Kellan’s eyes as they met mine.
After we met with Francine, I asked Sophia if she knew how to open an offshore account, not wanting any chance of Angelo tracing the money back to me.
Her father got me in touch with his guy, and I set everything up with him.
He’d take care of hiding it away and making sure we dealt a major blow to the Barone’s pocketbook.
I had no idea how much exactly was in there, but judging by the way Miller’s face surprisingly lost even more color, it was a lot more than what was in the vault. Good.
“I’ll be watching to make sure you type in every number correctly,” Kellan said with a shift of his gun.
“O-okay,” he wheezed out, keeping his hands above the desk as he typed in the account information. “For a transfer this large, there’s paperwork that will need to be signed.”
“That’s fine,” I assured him and tucked the blade back into the bag.
The phone rang, and I pulled it toward me, not giving Miller a chance to grab it.
“Yes?”
“No fun, sugar, you should have answered the phone like I did.” Spade snickered. “Or maybe we could even do a role-play later, and I could be your employee. Switch it up a bit.”
“Spade,” Kellan said. “Is now really the time?”
“Why not?”
“Because everyone can hear this. Do you really think it’s the best idea to let them all fantasize about our girl?”
My cheeks heated at that, and I couldn’t fight off the smile that curled on my lips. He hid it well, but he was just as possessive and violent as my other two men.
“You’re right,” Spade said.
“Is it finished?” I interrupted before he could go on a killing spree.
“Almost.” He sighed. “They wanted to call and give the final total.”
Glenn’s tone was wary as he took over. “There’s four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in large bills. We’re working on getting it all packaged up now.”
“Thank you,” Miller said, trying to hold back the wobble in his voice as Kellan nudged him with the gun, reminding him not to try anything stupid.
I hung up the phone and gestured for him to continue what he was doing.
The whirr of the printer filled the room as he got to work, and Kellan retrieved the pages for him, not giving him the opportunity to pull anything.
“I’ve deducted the four hundred and fifty thousand.” Miller reached for the top page and signed it, passing me a pen. I skimmed over the page and signed.
“So this is the remaining balance that will be transferred to the account you provided.” He signed the page and passed it to me. When my gaze landed on the total, I forced my reaction under a blank mask. I always knew he had money, but this much was inconceivable.
I read over the page, making sure there weren’t any loopholes and the account information was correct.
When I was sure there were no surprises, I signed the document and passed it back to Miller.
He pulled in a ragged breath as though he’d been holding it while I read the page and continued to process the transaction.
“I’ll print off another copy for your records, and then everything should be in order,” he said, and Kellan grabbed the papers from the printer once again for us to sign.
Miller’s mouth tightened as he tapped a finger impatiently on the desk and glanced at the clock, most likely hoping to get out of dodge before the end of today, but I ignored them and pulled out my phone. It rang only once before the person on the other end answered.
“Is it done?”
“The transfer just hit,” Louis said, not missing a beat. “I’ll route it through a few different shell accounts so that they can’t trace it.”
“Perfect, thanks again.”
“No problem, especially with the generous cut you offered. This was a bit more than you thought it would be, wasn’t it?” We’d offered him two percent of whatever was transferred, and at over two hundred million, he was looking at a paycheck of over four hundred thousand dollars.
“Definitely, but you’re earning every penny.” With that, we hung up and let him get back to his work.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you, but I hope I never have to see you again.” I pinned Miller with a scathing glare, not missing the way he shuddered like I might just snap and kill him anyway.
“Y-yes.” He nodded, his breaths coming in ragged pants like he was already mentally planning how he was going to escape the Barones—which was poetic justice if you asked me.
“Follow us out?” It was a question, but we both knew he didn’t have a choice.
“Of course.” I picked up my bag and strode back out to the lobby, with Miller and Kellan following behind, the latter still with his gun trained on the bank manager.
The employees were still clustered in the lobby, but there were duffel bags filled to bursting placed by the locked door.
“The town is congregating with Francine at the helm in front of her shop.” Nicholas’ voice echoed through our earpieces, coaxing my lips into a grin.
“Perfect timing,” I said, placing a finger to my ear. “We’re coming out.”
Our guys each grabbed a bag as we readied to unlock the door.
“I suggest you all leave too.” I threw over my shoulder. “And if you tell the Barones, they’re only going to come for you that much sooner.”
“I know.” Miller nodded brusquely. “No one is calling them. We’ll all be leaving town until this is all over.”
I turned, leveling him with the full intensity of my glare. “I suggest you transfer permanently, Miller. I don’t want to see you again. If I do, I might be feeling a bit stabby.”
He gulped and gave a sharp nod. “Understood.”
Spade unlocked the door, and the guys strode out with the bags of cash in hand. The rest of the Demons were already out there keeping watch as our guys loaded the duffels into the back of the van.
I paused at the top of the stairs, with Kellan and Spade by my side. Francine was at the front of the crowd and beckoned them forward the moment she spotted us.
“Ready?” I grinned and slipped on my sunglasses.
“Always.” Spade returned my smile.
“What he said.” Kellan chuckled and grasped my hand, bringing it to his lips before he led me down the stairs.
Another one of our vans pulled up, and the guys loaded up the back of that one too, the duffel bags stuffed as high as the seats. Before I could say anything, another van pulled up, and they started loading that one too.
Francine hadn’t gotten the whole town out, but pretty close. We could only hope that those who didn’t need financial help would already be packed up and on the road by tonight.
We met at the back of the van, and I pried open the zipper of one of the bags while the others closed up and locked the other two vans.
There were at least a hundred people congregating in the streets, murmurs of both excitement and fear filling the air.
We’d probably go through most of the cash in this van, but I doubted we’d get through it all.
Damn, maybe the entire vault was overkill, but oh well. It was entertaining at least.
There were bands around the stacks of bills indicating the amounts. “I’d say we were lucky they had this much cash on hand, but it was most likely because of the Barones, so lucky might not be the right word.”
“Probably.” Kellan frowned, looking out at the group that had gathered before addressing the Demons. “Let’s get a line going; there’s no way I want this many people rushing Giana at once.”
I grinned up at him and gave him a kiss on his cheek, leaving a red lip print there. Good, let everyone know he’s all mine. “You always take care of me.”
“And I’ll never stop.” He beamed back at me, placing a tender kiss on my cheek before turning to stand guard. We knew most of these people, but money sometimes made people do crazy things.
“I already warned them not to get out of hand,” Francine huffed, coming to stand at my side. Spade frowned, but he didn’t argue. Apparently, even he was afraid of getting a dressing-down from the older woman.
He stood by her side, his gaze flicking between the crowd and me. With these men by my side, I knew nothing would happen to me. The rest of the Demons spread out, organizing the waiting crowd and spreading out to watch out for any uninvited guests.