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"I'm fine," I replied, forcing a smile onto my face. But the truth was far from it. "How do you think Hassan is?"
"Ask him later," he said as I grabbed the laptop I'd brought from home.
I fixed my gaze on him for a second, wondering if I should call him out. But he was right–I thought. Skylar and Zane were taking care of Hassan, and we needed to focus on the wedding so we could ensure Sebastian had a future with us.
"So what do we know about this guy?" I asked as I started to connect to the network.
"Jace? He's my cousin's man," Bash said. "Some sort of tech genius. Teo had him hack into Vito's accounts for information for us."
"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as I logged into the system. "And we trust him?"
"Teo vouches for him. That's good enough for me." Bash seemed unworried, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against a white-painted wall.
I frowned as I connected to the video call, staring at the screen in front of us. The blue video chat logo blinked back at me momentarily before it switched to the face of a man who could not have been older than twenty-five. His sharp jawline was dominated by a smattering of freckles, framed by blond slicked back hair. He looked nothing like a tech nerd. He looked like a man who would play a tech nerd on TV.
"Jace," Bash said. "Thank you for your help."
"Of course," he said. "Let me skip pleasantries here. I'm mostly doing this to help Teo, but I dislike the De Lucas a lot. Long story, but they had some association with my parents. Anyway. I'm very happy to bring them down."
Bash caught my eye and smiled. "What do you know?"
"I hacked into his personal computer," Jace answered. "It was hard. He has a lot of security. It appears Vito has been funneling money into several offshore accounts. He’s preparing for something big...or maybe he already started it. He's planning his estate, wants custody of Sebastian. And he's getting all this money...ready. He's trying to make himself look more financially stable, as a better option for Sebastian."
"But the money is coming from his drug ops, right?" I asked.
"Sure, but there's no way to track that from these," Jace said. "The way he's laundering it, it just looks like he's selling off art or stocks or something."
"Can't we expose him?" Bash asked, his brow furrowed with worry.
"I thought about that," Jace said. "But who are you going to show? The police? They're in his pocket. The court? It's full of his friends and associates."
Bash cursed under his breath, running his fingers through his hair. I could see the frustration etched on his face and it was a mirror of my own feelings. We were playing a game with rigged rules, against an opponent who held all the cards.
"So what do we do?" I asked Bash.
"I know you didn't ask my opinion," Jace said. "But I think you have to hit them where it hurts."
"And where would that be?" I asked, staring hard at the screen.
"His business," Jace replied. He tilted his head to one side. "You take out his supply chain and his ability to launder money, then you've really done something."
Bash nodded slowly at the idea. "That's not a bad plan," he said thoughtfully. He turned to me, his eyes searching mine for approval, for dissent–for anything.
"Right. It's a solid plan. But how?" I asked.
"I don't know, man. I'm just the tech guy."
Bash chuckled, a low, husky sound that broke the tension in the room. "Thanks, Jace." He turned to me, his expression serious again. "We'll need to call a meeting."
"Agreed," I said, signing out of the call before closing the laptop. I helped myself to a chair, letting out a long sigh. We stared at each other across the table for what felt like an eternity. To say the situation was dire would be an understatement.
"I know that look," Bash said finally, his intense gaze softening. His fingers brushed against mine on the tabletop, offering reassurance.
"What look?" I asked, my eyes flicking from our entwined hands back to his face.
"The wheels turning in your head," he murmured with a small smile playing on his lips. "You're planning your next move."
"And you're not?" I countered, squeezing his hand lightly as I responded.
