Page 62 of The Wolf and the Monarch

She paused. “What?”

“That’s why they took me. They wanted to know where the money went.”

Andi released a breath. “I just don’t…understand. How did they get my name? And why did they think you were me?”

Benj swallowed hard. He really didn’t want to get into the next part of the story but it needed to be said. They had to figure out what the hell was going on. “This guy, Sawyer, he’s been…helping me. He worked where they were holding me and he went digging around. He saw some email exchanges with Dad and the guy who didn’t get his money. Sawyer said that Dad sent the guy an email and said that my son Andi was the reason the money didn’t get transferred.”

“No fucking way,” she scoffed and almost laughed.

“I said the same thing but I don’t think he would lie to me about that. Why would he? What would he get out of it?” Pause. “Nothing. If anything, he put his ass on the line to snoop and tell me about it.” Benji trusted Sawyer implicitly. While he still didn’t understand what was going on, he really did believe that he was just looking out for him and for that, he was appreciative. Benji needed to know what was going on. He deserved to know.

“So, what? Dad set up the mission for you to get kidnapped?” She laughed out, clearly not convinced.“I mean, if the shoe fits.”

“Benji, come on. It’s Dad.”

“I know. And it’s fucked to think and talk about it but what if he did it because he's still pissed with me?” He sighed. “I went through fucking hell and made it out alive. I deserve some answers.”

Andi fell silent on the other end of the line but he heard the telltale sign of her keyboard. She was typing away about something. He gave her a minute or so of silence before he finally spoke up again. “What are you doing?”

“Looking at the records from that mission.”

“What do you remember about it?”

“I mean, nothing all that significant. It was a pretty easy job. Dad gave me the routing numbers and I just wired the money from one place to the other.”

“Do you still have the numbers?” He asked.

“I’m looking at that now.”

Benji let Andi do her thing while he just stared off at the wall in front of him. It was still so very surreal to be speaking to his sister at that moment. She seemed to believe what he said and was willing to look into it. That was the good thing about the twins. They trusted each other. That was their thing. But if she didn’t believe him, then they had a whole different scenario to deal with considering Benji had nothing to lie about. He was just a victim of circumstance.

“Hm…” She hummed on the other end.

His brow raised. “What?”

“Well, okay. We’ve taken jobs from John in the past, it's just been a while. So, I reverse searched the account number for him and that popped up like I figured it would. The last job we took from John was a few months ago. I reverse searched the number attached to that job and it brought up a few different transactions to another account.”

“Wait. So, you took the money from John’s account and transferred it to a different account, right?”

“Yeah. And I figured that account was where it was supposed to go. I hadn’t seen it before. But there’s another transaction from that account to another,” she released a shaky breath. “I’m really, really trying not to freak out but that number looked familiar. So I searched for it, and it’s Dad’s account.”

“What?”

“It was sent to Dad.”

“The money from John Raymond was sent to Dad?!” It felt like his head was going to explode, his heart was going to give out or his stomach was going to fall out of his ass. He wasn’t sure which. Maybe all three. “Oh my God.”

“Benji…”

“I-I don’t know what to do with this information…”

“I don’t either…” She admitted and sighed. “I can’t believe this. Why would he do that?”

“Who fucking knows.”

Andi sighed. “I know why they would have my name. I did the initial transfer from John to that other account. But I didn’t do the other one, I swear to God, Benji. I didn’t touch it. I just did what Dad gave me.”

He nodded. He believed his sister. He really did. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body. She wouldn’t swindle someone out of their money. He knew she wouldn’t. It made him feel awful that for a few days, he thought that she would. He just didn’t know why their dad would do it. No matter who they were. He didn’t like to make enemies. And stealing someone’s money was usually the easiest way to do that. Benji just didn’t understand anything anymore…