Page 21 of Vexatious Queen

“I think it’s more complicated than that.”

“Don’t care. Sue me,” he said as the SUV with the guards and the limo pulled up. There was zero point in arguing with him, and right now, I didn’t know if I should even bother. Vicky was…overly complicated, and I already had my share of issues, like finishing school and making sure that all the people I loved were going to be okay.

Marcus hopped out and opened the door of the limo.

“Just you two?”

“Yeah, now,” I said.

Nash rolled his eyes. Marcus’s eyebrows drew together in obvious confusion, but he didn’t ask what I meant.

I got in and waved to Mo, who was sitting beside the driver. He gave me a small smile and lifted his hand in return.

“You want the divider up,” Mo asked.

“Yes,” Nash said.

“No,” I said at the same time. We looked at one another.

“Fine, it can go up,” I grumbled, making Nash smirk.

Despite the giant car and only the two of us, Nash held me close to his side like he was part Velcro. I leaned into him, and my eyes quickly became heavy.

But in typical Nash fashion, before I fell asleep, he whispered in my ear.

“One of these days, I’m going to fuck you on this seat, Princess.”

The corner of my mouth tugged up. I didn’t doubt that.

Edmundo

“This makes no sense,” I said aloud as I went over the bank statements.

It was one chore that I still hated doing. I’d seen too many times what greed and opportunity could do, and I refused to leave this work to anyone else full-time. My hope was to hand all of this over to Ren and…Nash, or was it all five guys?

Sitting back, I stared at the wall and had no idea how to handle that particular situation. If they wanted to be in Ren’s life, they needed to be productive in something. But did that mean that they all had to work under the Genovese umbrella? That was a problem for another day.

Shaking my head, I looked down at the tiny baffling numbers.

These accounts were all tied to the investments and businesses that I’d helped Ana set up years ago. I’d kept them separate to ensure that one day I could hand this piece of Ren’s legacy over to her as a gift from her mother. They’d grown exponentially with some care, but the statement showed that the account was almost wiped clean at the beginning of December. Then, early this month, the money was returned with an extra half billion.

Bugs happened, glitches happened, computers and technology were what they were, but this…it was truly unusual. Millions didn’t just go missing, and then like magic reappear with a massive bonus.

The truth eluded me, and I came up with two viable options. Either there was a bank error, in which case they would have to explain how it happened and apologize profusely, or…someone hacked the account, stole the money, and then put it back with more to make it look like I was doing something shady. Neither seemed overly realistic, but there was no other explanation.

Giving up, I grabbed my phone and called the bank manager, despite it being 1 a.m. in Rome. Luckily, I had so much money with them that I had a direct line to his cell. It also meant that I didn’t have to sit through the endless loop of pushing numbers only to be disconnected.

“Buongiorno, Banca Nazionale di Roma, come posso aiutarla,” Mr. Valentino asked, his voice groggy with sleep.

“Mr. Valentino, it’s Edmundo Genovese,” I said firmly.

“Mr. Genovese, it is a pleasure as always. I’m sorry, I didn’t expect a call at this hour. How can I help you?”

I stood from my desk and walked over to the window that looked out over the driveway.

“I wanted to inquire about some transactions on two of my accounts. I find the discrepancies baffling to say the least.”

“Oh my. I’ll pull your account up. This will take a few moments. I need to turn on the computer.”