“Give it up.” My words are coarse. I’m losing patience. “You know what our prospectus says, what we’ve reported to our investors—what we report to the SEC! We have the same deal as the mutual funds. Securities lending runs through our custodian.”
“Couldn’t you just let it go until Monday?” Lucas finally breaks, rubbing his face hard. “Honestly, it’s not a big deal. We arranged to borrow some of your fund’s on-specials to cover some positions we’d become overextended on.”
“What’s on-special?” Clint’s voice is low but also without any more patience.
“Securities that we own but are hard to acquire on the open market.” I shake my head at Lucas. “You couldn’t unwind. You’ve sat on them for two years?” My tone has gone acidic.
“No! Only for a few weeks.” His eyebrows crunch together while he rapidly shakes his head.
“No, I saw the agreement. It was executed before launch.” What I really saw was a draft of the agreement without any borrower listed or signatures.
“Impossible.” His face animates. “You saw wrong, Meredith. We’ve only needed to cover those positions for a few weeks, maybe a couple months. The board is getting updated. On Monday.”
“And the client data? I know you supplied it to get a better rate.”
“It wasn’t like that. I thought I was helping. We talked about selling Garman Straub the data, and I provided a sample. It was—”
“Wrong again.” This side of Lucas is very troubling. “It was much more detailed than anything we could pay for.”
“It was what I had access to.” He hangs his head. Finally, some truth.
“What else did you give up?” I ask from between clenched teeth.
“Honestly, Meredith, I don’t know all the details. With our firms’ growing relationship, I know there were meetings about the positioning of your mutual funds. That’s all I know.”
Waves of anger almost overwhelm me, but I believe him. His posture, his fluid words. He’s not tripping over himself. He’s been played for the fool. For what, better rates and to be the man at the center of the deals? He’s implicated himself in shady idiocy.
“Lucas, you have to tell me who’s behind all this at Garman Straub. If you care about me at all, I have to know. My family has been threatened. My career is likely finished.” As I lean forward, Clint flinches as if he’ll throw himself in front of me if I move from the couch.
Lucas glances toward the door. “Candace saw your fear. As you were running from the gym. It gutted both of us. She and I were on the phone together. Meredith, she came to help you.”
Clint snorts. “Give it up, Lucas. I’ve heard enough. I need you to leave.”
I lean into my husband. “Please, Clint, I want to hear this.”
“You believe him?” The hurt on his face skewers me.
“Erika told me tonight that you’re one of the best judges of character she knows. Our teenage daughter said this.” I lean closer to him and hold both his hands in mine. “I need you to listen without the hurt and pain clouding everything you hear. I need your partnership in finding the truth.”
Clint stares hard at me.
I keep one of Clint’s hands and then shift back on the couch. “Lucas, tell us who is behind all this.”
Lucas shakes his head. “I want to, but Candace knows more than I do. She’s in the car.”
My head whips toward the unlocked door.
“She wants to explain. Can I invite her in?”
“No.” Clint must’ve had the same thought about the door because he bullets from the couch and sets the lock. “She’s not coming anywhere near my family.”
Lucas stands. “I think she can fill in the missing pieces. None of us know the full picture. That’s the insidious nature of what we’re trapped in.”
“Trying to make us believe you two are not behind all of this. No.” Clint stalks back to Lucas but then looks over at me.
Lucas shakes his head. “I think we’ve all been used.”
Clint stares at up at the open ceiling. “I can tell you that woman is not setting foot in this cabin with my kids in the other room.”
