Chapter Eight
Quinn
THE PATTERN WAS back.
The accounts were acting weird, the money was coming and going and the only thing I could think was that I was going to have a hell of a thesis for a paper if all fraud followed the same pattern.
I could probably also write one for psychology about the patterns that serial thieves followed. I hadn’t ever seen such a clear pattern, either way. Kyle had done this, then Jarrett and now Andrej.
I was going to find a monastery at this point. There was no point in trying to find a romantic partner, because all they ever saw were my accounts. Even if I never showed them the money.
The ax fell directly into the piece of wood I was currently taking my anger out on. It wasn’t right, and I didn’t want to be this angry.
The nerve of that man to show up at my house, looking sexy and sweet and lost. How dare he? Here he was, acting like nothing was going on, like he wasn’t trying to steal everything from me for the fourth time in my life.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see if anyone was angry texting me. They weren’t. It was Foxy’s sending me a new date to approve.
Friday, six to 2 a.m.
I texted back an acceptance. No reason to stop taking on dates if that’s all I was ever going to be. I would just have to learn to not be so intimate or interested in the rented date.
That was where I failed this time. Andrej was too cute, too earnest, to naive to keep my walls up.Wasn’t going to happen again, no way. I couldn’t keep doing this to myself.
I would just rent myself out and learn how to jerk it with my non-dominant hand.
“Are you okay?”
I looked up and found my professor standing there.
“You’re looking a little more confused and upset than you have all semester. I’m not used to that from one of my best students.”
“Not having the best week,” I said. “Someone is screwing with my bank accounts and I’m working my ass off to fix my own mess. I moved some of it to a credit union--”
“Good move,” he said with a nod.
“And I’m just trying to figure out who is attacking me.”
“You need someone who is good with research who can do some digging into the the times and places and approaches. Someone who might be able to do forensic accounting or someone who has access to things like that. Meanwhile, you should use more banks. Spread it out. It’s annoying to keep track of, but it’s the best way. ”
I considered him for a moment. “You’ve dealt with this before?”
“My wife did,” he said. “She’s actually the financial genius in our house.” He knocked on the table. “Chin up, you’ll get it figured out, Quinn. You’re good at this.”
“Thanks, Professor.”
He disappeared into the stacks, and I looked at the papers and computer and books in front of me. I realized that I had an amazing researcher in my back pocket.
It meant I had to explain everything to Tara. To tell her how stupid I was with Kyle and Jarrett. How much trouble we were in when we left New York and how much I was still struggling to get us back to a good position. I really didn’t want to tell her. She didn’t need to know.
I didn’t want her to know.
I’d spent most of our lives protecting her and making sure she was getting what she needed to keep going. She didn’t need more stress.
Maybe I could give her just enough information.
***
Tara sat back in the chair. “Quinn. I’m telling you, there’s no evidence of Andrej having anything to do with this.”
“Who the hell else could it be?”
She leaned back. “It’s not Andrej. It’s something else. Could it be someone else? Have you been talking to anyone else? Someone in your classes?”
“Only project partners and the have nothing to do with me after class.”
“You’re sure?”
“I don’t want anything to do with them, so yeah.”
“You’re being an ass, Quinn.” She threw her pen on the desk. “You need to be honest with me here. You’re not.”
“I am. Just please keep looking.”
She stared at me. “No. No, I’m done.”
“Done what?”
“Done pretending like I don’t know what’s going on. You’ve always tried to hide the worst of life from me, but I know. You’re trying to blame Andrej because you’ve been screwed over three times before.”
I stared at her. “What?”
“Andrej knows, too, that you got fucked over by mom and dad, Kyle and Jarrett. I know we left New York because you didn’t want to be there anymore.
I don’t know why you’re not telling me the truth.
I could have been way more effective at researching this if you were just honest about this. Now we’ve wasted four days.”
“Four—”
“I was hoping you’d just tell me.”
She turned back to the computer and started typing again. “There. Now you know I know and now I can better research what’s going on. You’re ridiculous.”
Grabbing the back of her chair, I spun her around to face me. “What are you talking about.”
“I’m talking about how you haven’t been honest about what’s gone on for the last twelve years of your life.
” Tara grabbed the next pen in her pile.
“I’m your twin, you ding dong. Did you think that I wouldn’t know something was bothering you?
I know we don’t usually have the twin connection, but this has been twelve years. I know.”
My ass hit the chair next to her. I had thought that I had done a good job shielding her.
“You…”
“Me, yes. All of it. Jarrett, Kyle, Lia… I know. And I explained it to Andrej, who you tried to scare off last week and I managed to save that relationship for you when I explained all of it.”
“No! I didn’t want to tell him! It’s...”
“You never wanted to tell anyone, brother dear. But you have to. You can’t bottle this up. It’s not fun, it’s not good, it’s not fair and you’re about to lose someone who could be really good for you.”
“He’s trying to steal—”
“What? Your socks? Your beat-ass Ford Focus that I keep telling you to replace? You, my dear brother, are no longer wealthy. You don’t have to worry about Andrej Krastins, great-great-grandson of the Rothschilds, stealing anything from you.”
That pulled me up short. “Wait, what?”
“For all the time you spent together, you were so focused on not saying anything about money, you never ever realized he was a Rothschilds. They may not be as wealthy as they were, but they are definitely not hurting for cash. They wouldn’t bother with what you’ve managed in the past few months.
” She looked up at me from where she was typing.
“He’s got a boat. A nice one. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. ”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you kidding?”
“Look, you wanted me to look into him, and into all of this. Part of that is surveillance footage from the dock. I can’t even tell you how many times you two show up. Over and over. Discreet? Nah.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay, how much do you know?”
“I told you. All of it. Mom and dad, Kyle, and Jarrett. I know Jarrett married Lia and left you high and dry. I know Kyle didn’t marry a woman but definitely left you high and dry.
Mom and dad draining all the accounts and snorting it.
They got into that horrible apartment because I know you would have been able to pay the rent on that if you’d had the money. ”
“I’ve long gotten over both mom and dad, and Kyle. I haven’t gotten over Jarrett. He screwed everything up.”
She shrugged. “You will someday. It’s not hard. He’s a jerk, and you weren’t the only one hurt by what he did to you. He screwed up our lives. We moved three thousand miles. Of course you’re not over him. I’m not over him. I’ve felt guilty about it, because Lia was my friend.”
“And you’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad at you? Aside from you not telling me anything?”
“Okay, fine, I screwed up.”
She spun from the computer and held a hand to her chest. “What? What? Did you just admit that you were wrong ?”
“Very funny,” I said. “Nice. Fine. I was wrong. I don’t think that you should have said anything to Andrej, though.”
“Yeah well, you weren’t talking. Besides, you’re also wrong about him. He makes you happy and you’re just freaking out that someone got through the Wall of Quinn so soon after Jarrett and that mess.”
Stubborn. But I didn’t know who that thought was actually directed to. I glanced at my watch.
“Ooh, gotta go. I have a date.”
“Quiiiiinnnnnn,” she whined.
“I’m not going to do anything with them, it’s a business transaction and since you know everything, you know how much we need the money still.”
“Quinn.”
“Stop it.”
“Q.”
“Fine, I’ll start looking for a regular job. Nothing is going to pay like this though.”
She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Fine. Fine. We do need the cashflow. I get that, but I’ll only look the other way until I get my bar done here and then you have no choice. You get out of the rent-a-date. Sooner if I'm really right about Andrej.”
“Fine, sooner if you’re right. But absolutely by the time you get the bar exam done.”
The date was just north of the island this time, in Suquamish Clearwater Casino.
I hoped that we wouldn’t be gambling the whole time and there was a chance that we would have a nice meal.
I’d checked the schedule of events for the casino and there was an interesting lecture series on science and policy going on, but I didn’t think that someone who was renting a date was going to be going to something like that.
So, I was just hoping for a nice meal.
The casino was just about twenty minutes from the house. I was getting used to having to spend an hour getting anywhere with the ferry, so this was nice. And the casino was nice as well—it had a resort and spa.
I put the car in the garage and made my way into the building, checking out the decor and the layout. I wanted to spend more time just wandering, but the date was very strict about being on time, seven p.m. in the front of the main casino entrance.
And I was on time, as usual. But there was no one waiting for me, just other guests going in and out of the entrance, some laughing couples, some cursing as they were leaving, some looking for their gambling fix.
After twenty minutes, an attendant appeared and walked up to me. “Mister Seward?”
“Yes?”
“Your date is in the spa. He apologizes for his delay and said to please take a seat in Steak and order a drink. His services ran over and just needs a few more minutes.”
“That’s fine,” I said.
He motioned me to follow him, and we walked to a table in the corner of the room. I took a seat, and the attendant sent a waiter over to me. I ordered a drink and watched for my date to appear in the door.
It was another few minutes until I recognized a face moving across the room—but it couldn’t be. As he got closer, it became clear that this was who I thought it was, and I wanted to run. I want to push back and duck through the kitchen.
But I didn’t have the chance because he sat down right across from me with the biggest shit-eating grin I had ever seen on his face after grabbing my phone off the table and pocketing it.
“Hello, Quinn.”
“Kyle...”
Shit, shit, shit… Andrej had nothing to do with this. It wasn’t his fault.
“I was wondering if you were going to remember me.”
“I can’t forget you, you slimy son of a bitch. What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“We never lost track of you, darling,” he said, playing up his already effeminate mannerisms. “We’ve always known where you were, but you did give us a bit of a slip for a while there.”
“We?”
He folded his hands in front of him on the table. “We. We saw how much money you can make and how much you could make for us.”
“Who? What?” I was really confused. Kyle was so far in my past that I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t think about him but maybe twice a year.
He just grinned and put something on the table. “So, you’re going to work for us. We know that you are making money as a rent-a-date, hand over fist and turning that into big money.”
“I’m not,” I said.
“Don’t lie,” he snapped, slapping his hand on the table. “You’ve managed to lose two whole fortunes because you are entirely too trusting.” –How did he know there were two?— “So you’re just going to generate money for us.”
“I’m going to have to decline—”
“It’s not something you can decline,” he said, and tapped what he put down on the table.
There were two pictures there—one of Tara and one of Sofia.
“What?”
“You need to worry about these two. We’re not touching them, right now. But just know that we know where they are.”
“ Who is we ?” I hissed the words.
“You don’t need to know.”
“I think that I do, Kyle.”
“Not right now. Finish your drink, we’re taking you to your new apartment.”
“My—” I stared at him.
He was kidnapping me. They were kidnapping me because I could make them money.
And I had no way to let anyone know this was happening right now. I was going to have to hope they didn’t have a good computer tech so I could bust through the internet and get a message to Tara. Or the cops. Or anyone.