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Cadence chewed her lip and I got a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. “A bird that knows all of Roy Demarcus’ passwords,” she whispered, the words barely audible.
“Jesus Christ,” Johnny grunted, saying what I was thinking. “Why didn’t you just give the bird back to the very bad man?”
“Because I didn’t take him! Nico followed me,” Cadence explained. “I was around him a lot and would share my lunch. When I was told my services were no longer needed, he sort of stowed away with me.”
“Sort of stowed away with you,” Johnny repeated slowly. “So now Demarcus is after you because you have his bird who knows his passwords. Why doesn’t he just change them, for Christ’s sake?” Johnny shouted, waving the empty glass.
“Because he doesn’t remember them,” Cadence explained. “That’s why I spent time with Nico. He knew Roy’s passwords. I needed some of them when I integrated his websites.”
“I admit I don’t know jack about software, but shouldn’t there be an administrator account?”
“It’s Roy’s,” she answered with a roll of her eyes. “I explained to him that he shouldn’t do that, but he wasn’t one to take advice.”
Johnny scrubbed his hand over his head. “My brain hurts.”
I couldn’t help but notice Cadence had a squirrely expression and my head dipped as I sighed. “What else?”
“Weeellll, I might have, um, done some things, that in hindsight, you might think were a bad idea,” she hedged, looking anywhere but at us.
“Things?” Johnny echoed, giving her a flat stare. “What things?”
“Used the passwords Nico knows to dismantle portions of his empire.” She spewed the words out so fast I wasn’t sure I heard her correctly.
“You what?” Johnny spoke calmly, too calmly, and I placed myself between them. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” He bellowed and I winced.
“He deserved it,” she shouted back, yanking her sleeves up again. “You shoot people that piss you off. I bankrupt them.”
“Except he’s one of the biggest traffickers in the world,” Johnny roared back.
“Not anymore,” Cadence snapped back, deflating Johnny. “I made sure of it.”
“How?” I asked curiously.
“It’s the 21st century, guys. You don’t buy yachts with cash anymore. All that money had to be laundered. One of my jobs was to setup dummy corporations to do it.” She raised her hands, palms up. “With the right information, you can divert money anywhere.”
“And he knows you did it,” Johnny stated and Cadence’s shoulders dropped slightly. “So it’s not about a bird anymore. It’s about the millions of dollars you stole from him,” he continued and my chest tightened.
“Billions,” Cadence mumbled under her breath.
“Wha –” I trailed off, unable to comprehend.
“Billions of dollars,” she articulated, flashing me a quick glance. “Billions with a b.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered, sitting down hard.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Cadence said hurriedly. “Really. It’s not like he’s going to tell anyone he’s lost all his money.”
“No, he’s just going to go to the ends of the earth for revenge,” I declared, my stomach rolling. “Cadence, this is bad.”
“I can leave,” she said in the smallest voice I’d ever heard.
“Slow down,” Johnny said at the exact same time I said, “No.”
“Leaving isn’t going to solve anything,” Johnny reminded her. “We just have to eliminate the problem.” He gave me a pointed look. “All we need to do is get him here and then we neutralize the threat.”
“You make it sound easy,” Cadence complained.
“It is easy when there’s only one solution,” he pointed out. Cadence looked doubtful. “Chin up, darling, Daddy’s here.”
“Those might be the most frightening words I’ve ever heard,” I mumbled, my gaze shifting between them as they stared daggers at one another. “How are we going to get him here and keep Cadence safe?” I asked, admitting defeat with a sigh.
“You let me take care of the details,” Johnny suggested. “The less you know the better.”
“Like Dwayne recognizing Nico?”
“Just like that. Forget you heard that,” Johnny ordered. “I’ll let you know when it’s time to do your part.”
“And me? Am I just supposed to sit around like a good little girl?” Cadence bitched, crossing her arms. “And let Daddy handle it?”
“Yes, if you can figure out how to be good,” Johnny retorted. He pointed at her. “Remember, you bankrupt them.” He pointed at himself. “I shoot them.” He jerked his head toward the door. “Now, get out of here. I have shit to do.”
Cadence started to object, but I grabbed her arm and dragged her out. She was sputtering by the time we got outside.
“I wasn’t done,” she yelled, pointing at the door. “He’s going to do something stupid.”
“Like you already did?” I asked dryly, starting to walk to the car, hoping like hell she’d follow and I wouldn’t have to get out the handcuffs. She stood there for a second, torn, but finally stomped after me.
