She bit at her bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. A lot of people keep a secret list of all their passwords on their personal computers or cloud accounts, right? To help them remember them all. I mean, I know I do.”
“Yeah.”
“I bet Bobby does too, and he knew most of your passwords, seeing as he started the brokerage with you. So maybe he had them stored somewhere too, just to remember them. Heavily encrypted, because he’s not stupid, but a decent hacker can get past that.”
“Right.”
“I think someone hacked his stuff to get the passwords and cloned his security keycards to set him up. It could’ve been anyone who regularly interacts with him. Staff members who work closely with him, maybe.”
I sighed. It was a nice theory, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a new one. Not by a long shot. Kudos to Georgie for trying, at least.
“Our employees were the initial focus of the investigation, because the cops and feds had the same idea as you. But all employees were cleared,” I said.
“Okay, well, even a housecleaner who moonlights as a hacker could’ve gotten into his stuff and done it. Who knows?”
I shook my head. “He doesn’t have a housecleaner.”
Georgie sighed. “I’m just trying to make you see the possibilities and get you to stop being so narrow-minded. It could have been someone else. Maybe a close friend. Bobby has friends, right?”
“Yeah, but you’ve met them. They’re a bunch of idiots stuck in their old frat boy phase.” I rubbed my temples. “Doubt any of them could even hack a Facebook account.”
She didn’t need to tell me what she was doing, because I already knew, and it wasn’t working. I’d already run through all the possible suspects in my mind a hundred times. Maybe even a thousand. So had the cops. Georgie obviously thought we’d all missed something, but as far as I was concerned, that was simply wishful thinking because she didn’t want to think the worst of a person she knew. She didn’t want to believe my brother could’ve looked her in the eyes and lied right to her face, and she didn’t want to believe her sister was dumb enough to fall for a white collar criminal’s charms.
I guess it was kinda sweet that she wanted to think the best of everyone. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always how reality worked. Sometimes people really were just lying, thieving assholes.
Georgie puffed out a deep breath of air and looked at her feet for a moment. Then she looked up again. “I have an idea. But this is just an example to prove my point, okay?” she finally ventured, her voice low and tentative.
“Right. Go on.” I wrinkled my forehead, wondering what inane theory she’d concocted now.
She twisted her lips. “My mother could’ve done it.”
My brows shot up. “Your mother?”
“She was a programmer back in the eighties. She might not act like it, but she’s kept up with tech over the years, and we all know how nosy she is. So let’s just say she figured out you were Bobby’s brother when he and Libby first met. It would’ve been easy for someone like her, even though Bobby hid the fact.”
I shook my head. Had she totally lost the plot? “I don’t understand where this is going.”
She held up a hand. “Just wait. Say my mother knew who you were, and where Bobby worked. She visits Libby a lot. So maybe one day she overheard a conversation where Bobby mentioned to my sister how annoying he found it that you kept leaving your personal laptop at the office. Maybe another day she was there and sneakily hacked Bobby’s PC to try and get all his passwords, including yours.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Then maybe she got her hands on his office security keycards, and she knew a way to clone them and get her own copies so he never noticed them missing. After that, the rest is history. She would know how to hide money, because her third husband was a shady investment banker. He could’ve taught her a thing or two about how to make money seemingly vanish.”
I tried to picture Margaret sneaking around CryptX in a balaclava, and I snorted with laughter. “You think it was her?”
Georgie’s eyes widened. “No! That was just an example of how someone other than an employee could’ve infiltrated Bobby’s private stuff and used it to frame him after stealing your money. I just wanted to make you see it was possible. Of course my mother didn’t actually do it,” she said. She paused and bit her lip, her eyes flickering to the left. “I mean, she does seem to have come into a lot of money recently, but she’d never steal.”
“You sure about that?” I lifted a brow.
“Yes, of course.” Her voice was firm, no-nonsense. “My point is, there could be someone that you and everyone else missed as a suspect. But you’ve wanted so badly for it to be Bobby that you’ve narrowed your focus to him and him alone. Because of that, the investigators have done the same, and whoever might’ve really done it got away scot-free.”
Her words slowly sank in, and my shoulders slumped. I stared at the wall as I thought back to five months ago, when everything went down. Back then, I was like everyone else at first, adamant that it wasn’t my brother who committed the theft, even though we could barely stand to be around each other. It was only after every avenue of investigation had been exhausted that I began to suspect him.
Now I realized why. The real reason why. Georgie was right. There were plenty of possible suspects and theories that didn’t pan out due to a simple lack of evidence, but I’d let my resentment over past issues build to the point where I became blinded to that. I was stuck in a tunnel, seething with pent-up rage, and my brother was the only thing at the end.
I wanted it to be him. I wanted him to be guilty. Simple as that. I despised and resented him so much that my mind had given me a convenient reason to finally push him out forever, like I’d subconsciously wished for ever since he made those comments essentially blaming me for our mother’s death.
Georgie’s example a moment ago was like a jolt of electricity to my system; the exact shock I needed to set me straight. Obviously it wasn’t really her mother behind the theft, but just the fact that it theoretically could be was enough to make me realize how wrong I’d been for pinning everything on Robert and refusing to admit there were any other options.
Maybe in the end it would turn out that he did do it, but hell… maybe he didn’t. Till now, I hadn’t been willing to consider that possibility.
“Fucking shit.” I put my head in my hands.
Georgie tentatively stepped over to me. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a dumb idea, and I’m overstepping, but I was just—”
I looked back up at her and shook my head, cutting her off. “No, you’re not dumb. You’re right.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
I nodded slowly. “I resented Robert so fucking much that I wanted it to be him. I’ve been a total asshole about it,” I muttered. “Not just to him. You as well.”
My mind reeled with guilt. I couldn’t believe what a fucking idiot I’d been. Just ten minutes ago, I was down in the lobby going off at Georgie and accusing her of faking everything in our budding relationship, all because I was angry and overreacting. I couldn’t have been more off-base. She never faked anything, and she didn’t betray me. That was clear now. The last couple of days were filled with real moments. Real feelings. I should’ve known that. In fact, I did know that. But all sense of reason had left me in those moments as anger overrode every other emotion.
I really fucked up.
Georgie let out a heavy sigh. “You reacted the way you did because of Bobby’s past behavior. It doesn’t make you an asshole, it makes you human. We aren’t logical creatures, so sometimes we act on emotion, not reason. Even big strong men like you.” Her lips curled with the vaguest tinge of amusement.
“I suppose so.” I still felt like shit.
She sank to her knees and touched a hand to my lap. “I’m sorry if you felt like I betrayed you with the things I said to Bobby. I know I should’ve talked to you about that stuff, but I wanted to wait till after we were h
ome, because I figured it might start an argument.” She paused to suck in a deep breath. “We only just got together, and I guess I wanted to stay in that honeymoon period for as long as possible. But I should’ve been more honest.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “You don’t need to apologize. You’re entitled to your opinions,” I said in a gruff voice. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. All that shit I said down in the lobby… I had no right to make you feel bad. I had no right to say this wasn’t real, just because you didn’t agree with me on something. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” Georgie murmured. She bit her lip. “But I still feel bad, because I made you feel bad.”
“Don’t.” I smiled faintly and took one of her hands in mine. “You know, no one’s ever called me out on my shit before. But you always have. I love that about you.”
She returned my smile. “There’s a couple of things I love about you too,” she said. Her voice was soft, but her sincerity shined through like lightning.
“Just a couple?” I arched a brow.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She rose to her feet, her tongue peeking out from her lips.
I chuckled softly. Then I recalled something she said a few minutes ago, and the furrow in my forehead returned. “You said something about my brother being in a bad place after Mom died. What did you mean by that?”
Georgie’s eyes went to the floor. “It’s really not my place to tell you the details. You should speak to him.”
I sighed. I had a feeling she’d say that. “Okay. I’ll try,” I muttered.
“What I can tell you is that he truly regrets what he said to you all those years ago, and he’s been beating himself up over it ever since. That’s why I believe him,” she said. She steeled her jaw, took a deep breath, and went on. “There’s just no way he was lying. Trust me.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“I know you won’t be able to forgive him right away. But if you just talk to him, I think it’ll help.”
I grunted. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“No matter what happens, I’m here for you. Always. I wish I’d made that clearer before now.”
I looked up at her. “I wish I did too,” I said. I let out a long sigh. “You know, when I was angry earlier, thinking you betrayed me or whatever… it wasn’t just anger. I was afraid, too.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “Of what?”
“That I lost you. Or that I never really had you. It made me crazy.”
“I get it,” she said softly. “When you stormed off like that, I thought I’d lost you too.”
“Sorry.” I rubbed my chin and sighed. “Fuck, I was such a dick.”
She smiled. “Yeah, all that jumping to conclusions. What are you… me?”
I chuckled at that. “Why do you have to be so cool? I was so shitty to you.”
She shrugged. “Hey, I’ve done more than my fair share of shitty things to you. But you always said you’ve got my back. So I’ve got yours too.” She winked and squeezed my hand tightly. “And you know what?”
“What?”
“I’m going to prove it to you once and for all.” Georgie took a deep breath before continuing in a triumphant air. “I’m going to figure out who took your money.”
31
Georgie
I lay back on Nate’s bed, my eyes drifting closed as I listened to Nate snoring softly beside me. After sitting here and talking to me about the CryptX case all afternoon, he’d fallen asleep halfway through a sentence and collapsed back onto the mattress. He was probably exhausted after staying up almost all of last night to take care of me during my food poisoning. That exhaustion also partially explained why he was so grumpy earlier—I was always irritable when I was running on less than five hours sleep.
The rest of it was largely my fault. There were certain things I should’ve spoken to Nate about before now, and it all came out in the worst way when he overheard me talking to his brother. I wasn’t too pleased when I chased him down only for him to slam me with all sorts of accusations about faking my feelings for him, but after picturing how things seemed from his end, I realized how bad it looked. Thankfully, we’d talked it all through and sorted it out.
As I lay there staring up at the vaulted ceiling, a sense of peace overwhelmed me, and I relaxed my legs, stretching them out over the sheets below me. Nate and I had taken a lot in the last couple of weeks. We’d been bumped around by all sorts of odd situations and muddled misunderstandings, but we didn’t give in, and we finally made it out the other side, stronger than ever.
Our earlier argument had actually somehow served as a strange catalyst for our relationship taking a more serious turn. We’d already felt beyond serious about each other, but neither of us had actually said it out loud, due to various troubles and timing issues. Now we had. It was all out in the open. We’d told each other once and for all that this was the real deal, not just a fling, and we were here for each other no matter what.
Of course, Nate thought I was a bit nuts when I said I was going to help him find his thief, but he played along anyway. He knew why I wanted to help him. I simply had to, because I could see how much the theft had broken his spirit, as much as he tried to hide it. The idea of him being in pain twisted my guts into a roiling, worried mess.
I could also see that having someone to blame (like his brother) had served as a temporary salve to ease the pain of losing nearly everything. But now that I’d convinced him of Bobby’s probable innocence, there was nothing for him to feel over the situation except hopelessness. I wanted to change that. I had no idea how a simple creative arts director like me could pull that off, but I wanted to try.
As such, Nate had spent a long time this afternoon explaining every detail of the case to me—every single theory the investigators had, every person of interest, every piece of evidence.
Now I knew exactly why the case was considered so hopeless.
After the money was wired out of Nate’s main bank account, it was sent to twelve different offshore accounts, all of which were untraceable to one person due to some sort of identification issues. The money was subsequently funneled out from those, all within an hour of the initial deposits. No one could figure out where it had been funneled to, though. The only thing they could figure out was that whoever did it really knew how to hide their ill-gotten gains. Once the money left those offshore accounts, it was like it never even existed.
On top of that, there was simply no evidence to show who could’ve let themselves in to the CryptX office that fateful night, aside from the logs showing that Bobby’s credentials and keycards were used. All the security footage from inside and outside the building had been wiped by the thief, and the police hadn’t been able to find any third party security footage that could aid in the investigation. The nearest third party source was a CCTV tape from a street-facing security camera at a store about a quarter mile up the road, but the footage from that showed nothing. Whoever committed the theft had obviously scouted the area on other occasions, knew the camera was there, and consequently went the other way when they left.
The search was fruitless.
I sighed and moved my head around on the pillow, trying to get comfortable enough to take a nap like Nate. He looked so peaceful lying there, and I figured a short rest might shake something loose in my brain. I doubted it, though. Like Nate said from the start, the case really did seem hopeless. There was just nothing to go on.
My phone pinged at me a few seconds later. With a yawn, I reached over to the bedside table and grabbed it. It was Tiana.
Omg, G. Please tell me your vacation is almost over!
I smiled and tapped out a short reply. Almost. Four more days.
Thank god. The temp guy filling in for you is such a moron. Bad enough he messed up that thing the other day which you ended up having to fix from over there… now we almost lost half our shit because of him!
What happened?
He forgot to lock up a bunch o
f stuff, and some stupid teenagers managed to get in. They took a couple of cameras and computers. Luckily Reuben was here and chased ‘em down!
Ugh, that sucks. Thank god for Reuben, huh?
No shit! Come back soon, boo. We miss you. XX
I put my phone down, silently stewing about the temp guy. He was such an idiot. Not only had he screwed up a bunch of client files a few days ago, he was now risking the security of Harborview by forgetting to lock things up properly. We were just lucky Reuben was so damn great at his job and managed to chase down those thieving teens.
“Oh my god.” I sat bolt upright, adrenaline suddenly coursing through my veins. The heaviness in my chest was gone.
I shook Nate awake.
“What is it?” he said sleepily, rubbing bleary eyes. “Everything okay?”
“Reuben!” I said, clapping my hands together. I was so excited I couldn’t say anything else without my words coming out in a jumbled mess.
Nate shook his head and sat up, propping himself on one elbow. “Huh?”
I swallowed hard. “You remember me telling you about our head of security, right? Reuben Sanders?” I spoke the words at approximately a mile a minute.
Nate yawned. “The guy who supposedly introduced us?”
I nodded vehemently. “Yes. I was just talking to Tiana about him, and it made me think of a conversation I had with him a few months ago.”
“Okay.” Nate raised a brow. “Go on.”
I held up a hand. “I don’t know if this will help you, but it might. He told me that recently, a hell of a lot of homeowners have been getting CCTV surveillance things installed outside their homes for security. Usually somewhere around the front door or on the door itself, near the doorbell. It’s totally legal in most cases, as long as the camera isn’t facing something it shouldn’t, and if it’s in plain sight. Sometimes it’s not even about security—some people just want a way to see who’s at their door if the bell rings or someone knocks.”
Mr. Man Candy: A Fake Boyfriend Romance Page 25