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“Sounds like someone else I know,” Vivi muttered on a cough.
Rory shot her a glare.
“Anyway,” Hannah went on. “I’ll let you get back to whatever you were…” Her eyes scanned their intertwined bodies. “Double date when Cohen is on his feet?”
Rory groaned and Amelia elbowed him. “I would love that!”
They said their goodbyes to her and between all four of them, they managed to get Rory and Amelia sitting up with coffee and donuts. “What did you find out?” Rory quizzed Beatrice.
“The man with the scar is Jan Meidros. He was part of the original international ring, and was supposed to be lying low here in America after the Concordia incident. Instead, he put together his own group and was indeed trying to kidnap Hannah the night of that birding event. I believe, thanks to Baron Thorpe, he aborted that plan, but still went after Stanton. Antoni and Rena decided to keep Stanton, and they raised him to be one of their co-conspirators. He grew up to be known as Chad LeFarre, one of his many aliases through the years.”
Amelia swallowed a bite of doughnut. Nothing had ever tasted better. “But I thought he was a tech billionaire.”
“The group reunited in Serbia a few years ago, according to what Interpol has already gotten out of him. Stanton, a.k.a. Chad, was good at stealing a lot of things. Learned it from his mentors. Jewelry could be too hot to move immediately after a robbery, but he found he could steal software and digital programs quickly and easily and resell them to the highest bidder. He was enrolled at the University of Belgrade and there came into contact with plenty of students working on various apps and software that he pilfered.”
“Again, how awful,” Amelia said. “He made all that money off other peoples’ hard work?”
Beatrice nodded and sipped her drink. “He and Binni connected through Hannah’s leadership group, and the original ringleader, Antoni, saw the opportunity to exploit those funding the scholarships and investments as well as those receiving them.”
Rory wiped his hands on a napkin and downed some coffee. “How did Meidros find out about the pictures?”
“Kenesha Wallace,” Amelia said.
Beatrice nodded. “She’s the one who told us most of the story after Hannah pointed the FBI at her regarding the pictures. Apparently, she posted on her social media about the job with the First Lady and the scrapbook she’d put together about the sanctuary fundraiser. Chad had set up a software program to flag any mentions of that night and his kidnapping, so when the team saw it, they devised a plan to destroy the photos. Chad and Meidros returned here to get their hands on that digital scrapbook and wipe it. They never expected Hannah to give you a copy.”
“And Binni? What was her role?”
Vivi set her empty cup aside and fished in the box to pull out another cream-filled treat. “While she actually does avoid being in public, she still did spring and fall runway shows and met with very rich clients to give them first dibs on her one-of-a-kind collections. That got her in the door of quite a few folks around the globe, and she needed her translator, aka Petrina Yokovich, to accompany her. They were smart enough not to steal from every client, but they didn’t have to. Petrina scoped out the mansions, the security, and located safes, and then the team would decide who offered the biggest payout—whether it was jewelry, art, or kidnapping for ransom.”
“It’s a huge bust for us as well as Interpol.” Beatrice smiled. “Two generations of a criminal enterprise who are responsible for billions of dollars of thievery, as well as the toll on numerous families.”
Including Moe’s.
“Why didn’t Stanton run away and turn them in when he was old enough?” Amelia asked.
Vivi licked icing off a finger. “Ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? This appears to be a classic case. He bonded with his kidnappers who brainwashed him to view his parents, the police, and authority figures in a negative way.”
For a long moment, no one said anything, all of them lost in their thoughts.
“Hannah didn’t recognize him.” Amelia wished she hadn’t drank the coffee. “I’m surprised she’s not blaming herself in some way over that.”
Vivi nodded. “She is, but we discussed it. She was only eight and Stanton’s looks changed. He fooled a lot of people, not just her.”
“Well.” Rory wadded up his napkin and shoved it inside his empty cup. “How soon can you bust us out of here? I’ve got work to do.”
Amelia smacked his arm. “Don’t be ridiculous. You nearly died and you’re on bed rest.”
“I didn’t even come close to dying.” He gave her a squeeze. “And I don’t do bed rest. Not anymore.”
Amelia looked at the others for backup, but Vivi shrugged. “He’s right. There’s way too much to handle back at SFI. We can’t have him slacking off here.”
Then she got it—Rory needed to get out of here pronto. His work entailed therapy about the past and what had happened to him and all of this and what it had triggered. If he stayed in this bed feeling helpless, he would only stew about it and he’d end up right back where he’d been when Amelia had met him.
“I’ve already instructed Jax to get your medical care turned over to him,” Beatrice informed him. “We’ll have you both back at SFI before nightfall.”
“Noon,” he countered. “You’ve got until noon or Amelia and I are making a break for it on our own.”
Beatrice cocked a brow, pointedly glancing at their mutual casts. “You always push the boundaries, don’t you?”
