The stairs are nothing this time.Before I can get there, Finn pounds on the door.He’s already reaching into his pocket for the lockpick set he’s had since we were kids when the door opens.
“What?”Beth looks belligerent until she registers it’s Finn and me.She’s got on jeans and an expensive shirt.
Finn brushes past her into her apartment.He looks around, taking in the expensive furniture and decorations.“We must be paying you too well.”
“Not enough to justify you coming to my place on a Sunday.”She follows him inside.
I step in and close the door behind me.“We have a few questions, Beth, and don’t have time to coax it out of you.”
Finn spies what he’s looking for and grabs the laptop bag.He pulls out her work computer and some files from our office.
“What are you doing?”Beth steps toward him but I block her path.She glares up at me.“You don’t have the right.”
“Don’t we?”I glance back at Finn.“Everything he’s looking at is company property.”
“It’s in my apartment.”She’s a stubborn little shit.
“Who does your real dad work for, Beth?”I ask, towering over her.
She narrows her eyes and steps back.“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Cut the shit,” Finn flings across the room.“We need to know all the assets of these organizations you’ve continued to hide from us.”
Her jaw ticks and she crosses her arms.
I put my hands on my knees and lower so my face is in hers.“Honestly, both of us have been itching for a fight, but this would go a lot smoother if you just tell us what we need to know.Maybe we won’t turn your ass in for money laundering.”
She grows pale and her gaze shifts from me to Finn and back.The horrified look tells me she thinks we know something about what she’s doing.It’s a good bluff, so I lean into it.
Straightening, I pull out my phone.“How much time does money laundering get these days?”
“Three to five years.”Pretty sure Finn just pulled that out of his ass.Neither of us knows or cares.There’s only one thing that matters right now.
She grabs at her pendant and slides it back and forth on the chain.“I haven’t done anything that would get me put in jail.”
“They could tack on kidnapping or aiding and abetting.Couldn’t they, Finn?”I glance at him and he’s got her laptop opened and is sifting through files.
“Oh, yeah, at least ten to fifteen more for that.”Finn doesn’t look up from the screen.
She backs up and leans against the wall.It’s like I can see the mental gymnastics she’s doing in her head right now about how to get out of everything.
She refocuses on me.“It wasn’t my idea.”
“If you tell me Tom decided?—”
“No, Tom didn’t realize what the companies were doing.I was supposed to keep him distracted so we could legitimize the financial statements.”Beth shakes her head.“He was supposed to be an easy mark.Everyone knows what a man whore he is.I mean, look at me.”
She gestures to her trim figure.“I should be able to catch any guy’s eye.And Tom would have been a catch, but he wasn’t interested in me.”
She scoffs like she can’t believe it.That makes me like Tom just a little bit.Not enough to forgive him for what he’s put us through, but at least I can respect that he didn’t take just anything that was offered.
“What does this have to do with the businesses?”I’m losing my patience.
“I kept them out of the system.”She laughs.“Blamed it on a coding error when he’d ask.I wore some very revealing outfits that worked for like a week.Hacking into his computer and cloud drive took going to my cousin Angel.She’s a fucking genius.”
This wasn’t some little job.“What the fuck have you gotten us into?”
She smiles sadly.“If I help the family, I’m part of the family.I get the perks of being in the family.All my college debt taken care of.My own place.Extra money in my pocket.And they get an accountant to help them.”
