I nod into his shoulder. “Of course I’m here, you idiot.”
Behind me, someone clears their throat.
Reluctantly, Beckett loosens his hold, though he doesn’t let go completely—one arm still wrapped tight around my waist. He glances over my shoulder, then back at me.
“You’ve met Sugar?” Something like a crooked smile tugs at his mouth.
I pull back just enough to get a better look at him. Really look at him. At the tension still braced in his shoulders, the exhaustion in his eyes.
“Briefly,” I say.
Agent Sugarbaker gives a polite nod. “I’m going to track down the reports I need you to sign,” she says briskly. “I’ll give you two a few minutes.”
The door closes behind her and with that, an expectant silence closes in.
Beckett lets out a long breath, then guides me down to the chair beside him. No—pulls me, until I’m seated close enough that our knees touch, his arm draped around my shoulders like he’s afraid I might disappear.
“I owe you an explanation,” he says.
I swallow. But… I’m ready to hear whatever he has to say.
“Start anywhere.”
He stares at the table for a moment, jaw tight. When he finally speaks, his voice is low. Careful.
“It started with the bonuses,” he says. “I was killing it, Ash. You saw the deposits. The market was hot, Aurum was everywhere. I mean, I was on top of the world. Everything felt... golden.”
I already know this, but I nod, waiting.
“And then last spring,” he goes on, “I was playing golf with Kyle—you remember Kyle Kemper?”
“I remember. The… CFO.” I may be ready to hear this but my mouth is dry.
He gives a hollow laugh. “Yeah. Well… We were on the back nine, I was under par. He’d had more than a few beers—and Kyle brings up Aurum. He says something like—’we’re selling the dream. Long as the story holds, so does the stock.’ But it was weird, the way he was… was talking about it like we were both in on some joke. ‘Smoke and mirrors,’ he said. I had no idea whathe was talking about. But… smoke and mirrors in investing is never a good thing.”
“Did you ask what he meant?”
Beckett shakes his head. “I played along. It sent up a red flag but I wanted to ignore it, concentrate on my game. Looking back, I don’t think I wanted to know,” he admits.
“But…?”
“But it didn’t sit right.” He holds my gaze. “I kept thinking about it that night. Kyle fed me that stock, and I trusted him, but I couldn’t let it go.”
“And?” I already know. The world already knows.
“The numbers didn’t match the hype,” he says, rubbing a hand over his jaw, voice tight now. “That story Kyle was talking about, it was a fairy tale.”
“So the stock?—”
“Was being held up artificially,” he cuts in. “It looked like momentum, but it was just rotation. Money coming in at the bottom so it could be pulled out at the top.”
“And it wasn’t just Midtown.” Not according to the news…
“No.” He exhales slowly. “God, I should have seen it right away. It wasn’t just bad oversight—it was deliberate. It was a system. Feeding off of…” he swallows hard. “Feeding off of the small investors. People who trusted us.People who trusted… me.”
I squeeze his hand. “How many shares did you sell?”
His mouth presses into a thin line. “Just under a million.”
