He walked the length of the pallets, counting ten. Nine were stacked to about six feet tall with green bills. One pallet was only about four feet tall as if a work in progress. From the brief scan, the currency ranged from single dollar bills to hundreds with no apparent discernible organizational system.
In his youth, he’d grown up dirt poor. They had always lived in the worst possible home in the worst possible neighborhood, and his old man had access to this kind of cash?
Mind blown.
He’d had to steal his first Harley in order to earn his patch. Grand theft auto.
His hate for his father grew stronger.
How did Dixie not know about this place, but his mother had?
Maybe Dixie did know.
Nah, she’d have emptied the storage unit by now.
Dev chuckled, knowing he certainly would have. His inner thief wanted to do it right then.
He and Cash and the girls could run off and live one hell of a good life with this much green.
Except his good-guy boyfriend didn’t do things like that.
Honestly, he didn’t want that life anymore. Sneaking around, looking over his shoulder. He’d always be paranoid for Cash and the girls.
The grim thought had him locking the door back in place then doing the same thing again on the outer door as he went for the truck and the iPad. He fished the jump drive and adapters out of his back pocket as he climbed behind the wheel. The door was left open, needing the cool air to deal with his anxiety-heated skin.
Worry made him fumble as he sorted out the adapter he needed and plugged everything together. He navigated the contents of the jump drive. He understood many of the file names. Others not so much. It didn’t require a degree in rocket science to begin with the one titled start here. The file held an email address and password combination.
He continued to follow the links and use the email and password combination to open different bank accounts. The world stood still as he stared at the screen. The breeze that tickled across his skin and the almost too-bright sun dimmed. Ten million dollars was in an account under his name with the same shell company that owned his mother’s house.
His heart hiccupped. He couldn’t take his eyes off the enormous total.
There were four accounts listed. The others under Shanna, Abi, and Mae’s names.
What had his mother done?
Better question. How had his parents stolen so much money from the federal government and only now been busted? His hand went to his face, covering his mouth as he lifted his gaze to stare out the windshield.
How the hell did he handle this?
Dev took the time to open each account. His and Shanna’s accounts were the same. Each of his children had five million dollars in their names. His mother stole thirty million dollars outside of what she had taken for herself.
Jeez. How was this possible?
Every part of his life to this point had been based on a sham.
Nothing was real.
He began to doubt everything he’d ever known.
Was his mother even safe outside of the country?
How did he play this?
At least to this point his mother was still alive… Except did he really know that. He hadn’t spoken to her since she left. He reached for the burner phone, making quick work of putting it together then searching the flash drive for her phone number. He entered the digits, his shaky fingers started over three times.
Mechanically, he brought the phone to his ear and shut the truck door. His elbow hung out the window as he held the phone in that hand. It took four tension-filled rings for her to answer.
“Hello,” she answered out of breath.
