Chapter 22
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
Mongrel
I see nothing but zeroes and look at her with my brow raised. “You said you just got paid, right?” I ask, trying to understand what I’m seeing. “Are you… do you think the bank has a maintenance thing going on?”
“It was there on Friday, Mongrel, I swear it was,” she replies, tears now streaming down her face.
“I took care of the rest of my monthly bills and even wiped out a few for next month as well.” I know I must look shocked, because most people literally live from paycheck to paycheck, but not only has she got this month all taken care of, she’s working through next month’s bills as well!
“I’m impressed, babe, because most folks can’t do that,” I admit.
I mean, I can, but I get a nice payout every month from the club’s profits, especially now that I’m a full patch brother and an officer.
Outside of my vehicle insurance, my cell phone bill, and gas for said vehicles, my expenses are negligible at best, so my own accounts are rather healthy, even with purchasing two new Harleys with cash.
“About a month or so ago, we had an office manager who ended up losing her job because she was double-booking and overworking five of us at the clinic. Mrs. Rockmartin went back through the logs and found out that I was doing a month’s worth of patient visits every week and it had been like that for months .
So, she figured out how many ‘months’ I should’ve been paid based on the work I did, paid me for that and also gave me a bonus to thank me for handling the workload and not quitting.
I went ahead and paid my car off two years early, or maybe it was three, I can’t remember right this second, plus I paid off the last of the student loans I still owed.
Basically, I took care of everything, then added to my money market account, my savings account, and my Roth IRA!
So, what I paid out Friday night was maybe five hundred bucks, tops.
I left a grand in my checking, then transferred the rest like I normally do.
But right now, none of my accounts have any money in them! ” she shrieks.
“Okay, let’s get back to the clubhouse and we’ll see what we can do to figure shit out,” I reply, trying to calm her down.
It’s useless, however, as she completely breaks down in hysterics. All I want to do is pull her to me and hold her, but I need a computer, possibly Nerd, and maybe even Jonah, to make sure nothing nefarious is going on with her money.
“Y-y-y-ou don’t understand,” she stammers as she wrings her hands.
“G-g-growing up, my mother’s only concern was for her-herself.
We never really had food in the house, and if…
if not for the aid I got through the school, I would have been hungry all the time instead of just on the weekends and holidays. ”
My heart drops. I’ve gone hungry but it was by my choice at the foster homes where money didn’t stretch far enough to feed all the mouths.
It was never because there wasn’t food, though.
And I always lied and said I was full, so the younger kids got enough to eat.
But hearing that my woman, the one I can see beside me for the rest of my life went hungry living with her mom ? That incites my wrath.
She’s now rocking in the passenger seat, lost in her memories, so I just listen, my hand rubbing up and down her arm in a futile attempt to soothe her.
“Necessities weren’t bought, so I didn’t have soap or shampoo to bathe properly, and my clothes were dirty and stained.
Seems plain water doesn’t do much for a dirty body or clothes,” she bitterly says.
“But I didn’t know any better. Mongrel, I lived in filth as a child.
My mother was always looking for her next high or the next man who could get her that high or bottle of booze, and she had no problems having a revolving door in order to get what she wanted.
I wasn’t even part of that equation. Sometimes, the elderly neighbor would see me outside and bring me a plate of food, but when my mother figured out what she was doing, that stopped. ”
“Is that when your aunt stepped in?” I ask.
She laughs, but the sound is so grating it hurts my heart to hear.
“Yeah. She knocked on our door one night and my mother opened it thinking it was her new man. When Betty saw the condition of the house, she made me pack my stuff and she took me home with her. Mongrel, it took three baths before I was clean! And I still don’t know how she got all the mats and tangles out of my hair.
The other kids used to call me horrible names.
When I went to live with Betty and found out that how I was living wasn’t appropriate, I vowed then that I’d never be dirty again and I’d always have food in my house and money in the bank.
Betty saved me, Mongrel, but my mother left deep, ugly scars. I’m a hot mess.”
“Oh, honey,” I whisper. “I know I had it rough at times, but nothing like what you dealt with. I’m glad your aunt saved you, Addy.”
“Me too,” she says, still crying. “But having my card declined has me spiraling, Mongrel, and I feel like that ten-year-old little girl, dirty, filthy, and grungy, who learned to be quiet and not draw attention to herself all over again.”
We pull into the driveway for the clubhouse and Jonah opens the gate for us. “Let me get someone to unload this so we can try and figure out what the hell happened, okay?”
“Okay.”
She sounds so fucking defeated right now.
I’m confident that between me, Nerd, and possibly Jonah, we’ll figure out what happened, but she’s hurting.
Once I park, I shoot a text to Doc and let him know we’re back, but I need to take care of Addy.
He texts back that he’ll unload the truck and he’ll let Gretchen know we’re going to be down after we take care of something.
“Okay, here’s my bank register,” Addy says, pulling it out of her purse and opening it on Nerd’s desk. “Here’s my last bank statement which just came in on Saturday. I was going to reconcile my account, so I put it in my purse to do at work tomorrow.”
“You don’t mind me seeing this?” Nerd asks.
“No,” she replies. She’s calmer now; not by much, but she’s stopped crying and now she appears to be angry. She’s already called the bank who had no answers they were able to give her other than to say they show the withdrawals happened today.
Nerd looks at the bank balance, then slowly turns each page of her bank statement.
I’m not surprised that she does everything manually based on what she shared.
For someone who had little to no control as a child, she would want to know where every penny was and that it was accounted for with no deviations.
Nerd opens up the online portal for her bank and pushes the keyboard toward her so she can input her user identification and password.
I watch him scroll through the deposit that hit on Friday, as well as the credits from where she paid her bills before he looks at today, where the balance in both her checking and savings accounts were wiped out.
He spins to his other computer and inputs something and I watch another screen pop up and code starts flying across faster than the eye can see.
“What the fuck?” he murmurs, peering closer.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“I’m in the bank’s system and it appears that there were five other accounts this happened to this morning,” he replies. Turning to Addy, he asks, “Do you know someone named Kara?”
“She’s one of my coworkers, why?”
“Do all of y’all bank at the same place?” he probes.
“I think so since it’s the only bank in town. Hell, even the surrounding towns have my bank,” she retorts. “Again, why ?”
“Because all of y’all’s money appears to have been siphoned by the same person,” he murmurs, his fingers moving once again on the keyboard.
“Who?” she asks. “Who in their warped fucking mind would think something like this would be appropriate?”
“Does the name Janice Higgins mean anything to you?”
“That bitch,” Addy seethes. Turning to me, she says, “She’s the one who overscheduled me and the others and she ended up getting fired. But how… how is what she’s done even possible?”
“Did she handle payroll?” Nerd asks.
“Yeah, but she was fired that same day,” Addy replies.
“If she suspected she was in danger of losing her job, she could’ve popped all of y’all’s financial information on a flash drive, then hit you afterward,” Nerd says.
“But what she’s done is illegal as fuck.
I just need to… there… I’ve flagged it for their security to find.
Can you call your employer and let them know there’s been a problem?
Maybe someone else has done the same thing.
She’s definitely going to face jail time. ”
“I think I’d rather strangle her,” Addy retorts, her tone seething. Her phone rings and I see ‘Mrs. Rockmartin’ on the caller ID. “Let me take this, it’s the owner of the clinic.”
She answers and all Nerd and I hear is, “Yes, ma’am, I’m looking at my account online now.
Really? Do I need to give a statement or anything?
I can come in and do that, or they can come here.
I’m at the Triple R Ranch, ma’am. Why would she do such a thing?
Well, if they want to know how I feel, I’m definitely willing to press charges.
Okay, yes, that’s fine, I’ll let my boyfriend know they’re coming here.
Thank you, Mrs. Rockmartin. Yes, I’ll see y’all tomorrow. Goodbye.”
I think I’ve got the gist, but I wait for her to slip her phone in her back pocket before I ask, “Well?”
“Seems that Janice wasn’t as smart as she thought she was because the clinic caught her trying to take money from their accounts due to some program the accountant has on it to prevent theft or something like that.
When the accountant saw who was trying to do it, he remembered the five of us who were paid for the extra work we’d been doing, called Mrs. Rockmartin and she asked the therapists who are working today to check their accounts.
Every single one of them, like Nerd already found, had their accounts hacked and money stolen.
The police are coming here to get my statement, but it sounds like it might be a federal crime since it’s an FDIC-insured bank, so it’s likely the FBI will be getting involved.
I hope it was worth it to her, because we’ll all get our money back and she’ll be up shit creek without a paddle. ”
“I’ll let Rio know why law enforcement is gonna be at the gate,” Nerd says.
“Sorry, would it be easier for me to meet them at my place?” Addy asks.
“Not at all. I’m going to print off your past few statements, so they’ve got them, plus the page that shows what your direct deposit was on Friday,” Nerd replies. “Give me a second and y’all can take them and vamoose.”
I snicker since Nerd now prefers to be in his office and left to his own devices. “Thanks for your help, brother.”
Once the pages print, I hand them to Addy and say, “Let’s go see what we can do for Gretchen until the cops get here.”
“That works for me. Do you think Constance or Maria has any dough I can pound?” she asks, smirking at me. “I have some rage to work out. I know I’ll get my money back, it’s just the unmitigated gall of that bitch to do that to the five of us!”
“At least it’s not something that’ll have you chasing your tail for weeks on end,” I tell her as we walk out of Nerd’s office. “But never worry, because I’ll always have you.”
“And I appreciate that, Mongrel, I really do. Um, I’m sorry I lost my shit earlier.”
Instead of heading to the common room, I take her upstairs to my room and let her inside.
Once the door is closed, I pull her into my arms and hug her.
“Sweetheart, I think anyone would’ve done the same, even without the trauma you went through as a kid.
Because of your childhood, it would definitely hit you differently. ”
“I told you, I’m a hot mess,” she says, looking up at me.
“I shower twice a day, every day. If I want a bath, I shower beforehand. I clean my house every day, even though it’s just me and it doesn’t get dirty.
My clothes are organized by what they are, like capris, jeans, pants, shirts are separated by sleeve length and color, and my scrubs are the same way.
Everything has a place in my house. My pantry has enough non-perishable food items for at least three months, the same with my meat in the chest freezer I have.
I also regularly spend time canning fresh fruits and vegetables I get from the farmer’s market ‘just in case’, and I don’t waste anything, Mongrel. ”
“So, you like your shit a certain way. Wanna see something?” I ask as I lead her to my closet.
Opening the door, I flip the light switch so she can see how I have my stuff organized.
“That side has my running shoes, with the ones I’m using now in front, moving back to the ones I use for knocking around.
My motorcycle boots are the same, and my jeans are hung based on their color.
This is something I can control, and I suspect it’s the same for you, Addy.
You didn’t have money as a child, so as an adult, you make sure you always have it in a variety of places.
Same with food. And because, according to you, your clothes were little more than rags, you take care of what you own now.
There’s nothing wrong with that at all and it doesn’t make you a hot mess or weird or anything else you may have been told in the past. It makes you you, Addy.
And I like every single thing about you. ”
Fresh tears are falling down her face as I talk to her, so I pull her into my chest and hold her again. She feels right in my arms, and I know she’s where she belongs. “Like I said before, you’re a unicorn,” she murmurs.
Chuckling, I reply, “I’m just me, sweetheart. But I gotta warn you, down the road, when we decide to go from two to more, kids are a bit… messy.”
She giggles while nodding. “Betty has mentioned this a few times, but I never thought I’d meet someone who would be a part of my life in that way. I was resolved that I’d probably be a single, crazy cat lady or something.”
“While I’m not averse to pets, it’ll be as a couple, Addy. Now, kiss me so we can go downstairs and see if the cops have arrived yet, because I know Gretchen’s probably chomping at the bit to start those shooters.”