LAKE
Yesterday was the best feeling I’ve had in a while. Winston Holdings had finally accepted my resignation. I sold my share, and the company was on the brink of collapse.
I felt a huge accomplishment, and I just told my father what a manipulative sociopath he was. It felt so good that I finally got it off my chest.
Although my heart was breaking for my wife leaving me without explanation, I felt relieved that somehow everything was becoming clearer. My wife was a victim of blackmail and threats.
I answered my phone when it rang. “Yeah?”
“Winston?” Hope rose in my chest when I recognized the caller.
“Terzo.”
“I’m sending you random pictures. You might know the other guys. Don’t worry about the Italian. I took care of him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone blackmailed my sister.”
“Fuck you.” I spat out in vain. “You told me you didn’t know where she was.”
“Well, I lied. I’m a criminal, remember? I’m a liar.”
Fuck. “For just one second, be serious with me, Terzo.”
“It’s a good thing that I don’t work for you. That I am your brother-in-law because if you are just a random guy who can’t take care of my sister, I already put a bullet between your eyes, asshole.”
I drew a deep breath. I couldn’t deny he wasn’t right. “Get to the point.”
“She’s protecting you, dumbass, but I haven’t gotten the full story. I dropped her somewhere with some cash, and I don’t know where she’s heading.”
“You just dropped my wife somewhere? And you have no clue where she might be? What the fuck, Siciliano? She could be mugged.”
“She’s not carrying your money, moron. There’s no way your five million dollars would fit in her suitcase. She called me asking for my help. Do you expect I would decline my sister? I couldn’t tell her no when she sounded scared and broken. It’s all because of you. Your family of fucking rich narcissists.”
“My father knows who her father is. He gave money to Florence to tell him who fathered Maverick.” I calmed down a bit.
It pained me to admit that Terzo was always right. It was all because of my father, the reason why my wife was hurting and my marriage was in trouble.
“Fuck.” He cursed further. “I swear if he’s not your father, I already skin him alive.”
“Send me the picture. I’ll send it to Osmium.”
“All right.”
“Siciliano?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure you don’t know where she went?”
“Fuck you, Winston. Even if I know, I won’t tell you a shit. Get your head out of your ass and find my sister. If you care about your wife, you would use your billions and resources and scour the world to find her, but you make it abundantly clear that your money is more important to you than anything.”
“Fuck you. I love Maverick. I couldn’t go anywhere until I was done tying loose ends. Now I’m free from my father’s fucking company. He can go to hell and expose my relationship with my wife’s family. I don’t give a fuck. You and your father are dead, anyway.”
After the call, I checked the pictures he sent me, and it fucking shocked me to the core.
“Rusher?” Rusher, my close friend and the man I trusted betrayed me. This just fueled my rage, and I wanted to break his face.
“Boss?” Owen looked at me in the rearview.
“Motherfucker.” I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. “I had a feeling. I should have trusted my guts.”
“Your friend, Rusher, your COO, the same Rusher we saw going out of Winston Tower, Rusher?”
“Yes, the very fucking asshole. I thought he was my friend. These two guys were the men I shook hands at the bar. They’re from London. He was playing with me all this time.”
“I remember them.” Owen nodded.
“Fuck. They must have met with this Italian guy the moment I left them and then called my wife and blackmailed her. Motherfuckers.”
Homer turned to look at me. “What is shocking, boss, is that your father has gone to great lengths to destroy your marriage while he’s dating your ex. I mean, what the hell?”
I called Linden.
“What is it this time, man?”
“Don’t worry. I just want to ask you random questions.”
“I’m listening.”
“Lake, did you talk to Maverick?” Estelle asked. Linden must be at home.
“I’ll call back if I’m interrupting, you guys.”
“Don’t be silly. You’re family,” Estelle said.
“Well, Linden, if you’re Terzo and you want to take your sister somewhere safe but still under the protection of Siciliano. Where would it be?”
Estelle suddenly laughed.
“What am I missing here, guys?”
“Oh, my God, Lake. She’s probably in Marettimo.”
“Marettimo? Why there?”
“Yeah. That’s where I met Estelle, where she was hiding from her father. I also met Terzo there, and it’s Siciliano territory.”
“Huh.” I subtly nodded.
“Yeah. Look for a villa closer to a bar. Considering she’s a bartender, she’s probably working part-time there.”
“Thanks for the tip.”
“Good luck, man. If you need help, just ask.”
I typed a message to the IMI head of finance.
LAKE: Look at financial discrepancies for the last three years.
“Owen, take me to Nana. I’m taking her home with me.”
***
“Hey, man.” Rusher was smiling from ear to ear as if he hadn’t been stabbing me in the back and stealing millions of money from the company. How could I detect it if he’d been blackmailing my accountant for years? “It’s Saturday. What’s the emergency?”
“Have a seat while we’re waiting for others to arrive.” I was the first to arrive as I read random numbers from the report I received last night. The company’s financial department worked hard day and night to finish what I’d asked them to do. They deserved a raise for coming up with a quick analysis.
“Is there a new project that I don’t know about?” No matter how good he was at lying, the truth would always come out when a person was guilty. I could feel the tension in his muscles, and he started fidgeting.
I ignored his question and checked my messages and call logs, hoping Maverick would just reach out. I admired her and loved her even more for sacrificing her happiness, even our marriage to protect me and her grandmother.
Finch and Josie just got inside the conference room. Owen and Homer followed.
“Here’s the report.” Josie gave us the files one by one. Rusher was the last to receive it.
“We just had the last quarter report. Why are we doing this?” Rusher asked Finch.
“I found some financial losses for three years.”
“How did I not know this?” He wasn’t insulted. In fact, he looked confident and annoyed. “This is your job, the two of you, to find discrepancies. Why did you not report it to me?”
I shook my head in amusement while I was furious. “I asked them to look for inconsistencies.”
“Why?” He looked genuinely shocked, minus the swallowing.
“Because I’d been losing three million dollars for the first year, five million dollars two years ago, and one million dollars from last year.”
“What? How did that happen?” Jesus Christ.
“You tell me. Check the data.”
He looked down for a few seconds. “Yes. It’s here.”
I shut the file before me. “How long have you been working with my father behind my back?”
“Pardon me?” His ears reddened.
“You heard me.” Our gazes locked. Despite his fooling me for years, he was still meeting me in the eye.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, mate. You know me.”
“I thought I knew you. I thought we were friends.”
“Mate, I should be insulted by that. We’ve known each other for years. I would never lie to you.” He looked really hurt. If he weren’t a deceit, I would have believed he was telling the truth.
“Explain this.”
Homer put a picture I printed from the picture forward to me.
He dragged it before him and picked it up. “Yeah. These are my friends. You’ve met them. This other guy- Wait. Wait. This is outside the Winston.”
“Why are you with my father, Rusher?”
All of a sudden, fury filled his eyes. “Are you bloody accusing me of stealing that money?”
“Did you steal a company’s money?”
“Why would I bloody do that?”
“Why were you with my father?”
He blew a breath before he spoke, “He called me to talk about you. He said he wanted to meet me in person. It was early morning. I think before your board meeting. He randomly asked me personal questions about your relationship with your wife and her family until I realized he was more interested in Maverick. He asked about your trip to Italy. I told him I didn’t know anything about that trip. From what I know, you were on a honeymoon.”
Fuck. I may be wrong about this.
“Did you meet that guy after I left you on Friday?”
“No. We stayed at the bar for another hour. You can ask my friends. What is this all about anyway?”
“Did you blackmail them?” I tipped my chin at Finch and Josie.
“Shit.” He breathed deeply, leaned back, and stroked his chin. “Yeah.”
“Why the fuck did you do that? Where the fuck did my nine million dollars go?”
“Because I felt like I failed you. You hired me as your friend when no one wanted to hire me. I bloody kept that guilt for three years. I failed you over and over again, and I couldn’t figure out who had been stealing from the company. I wish I figured it out before you found out, but-” He shook his head in despair. I’d never seen him so ashamed and full of guilt. “It’s too late.”
“Why did you meet my father again?”
“He offered me a job. A COO. He said I have the potential to be the next CEO. It was-” He swallowed hard, no longer meeting me in the eye. “Trust me, it was tempting for a second, but I thought of you. I could not betray you, so I declined. My friend had been waiting for me in the parking lot because they were leaving for the UK in two hours. Then I almost bumped into this man.” He pointed at the picture.