Disillusioned (Swept Away, #2)(59)

“If Larry was the mastermind, he wouldn’t be on his way to jail now, would he?”

“No, I guess not.”

“So that means there’s someone else pulling the strings.”

“Someone like who?” I frowned. “The lady in the photo?”

“I don’t think so.” Jakob paid for two doughnuts and coffees and we took a seat. “Not if she was begging in the street outside your apartment for so many months.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Then who?”

“It has to be someone important. Someone who has a lot to lose. Someone who enjoys playing games . . . someone like my dad.” Jakob watched me over the rim of his coffee cup. “It can’t be my dad because he’s dead, so it has to be—”

“Maxwell!” I rushed out. “It has to be the third partner, Maxwell.”

“Yes.” Jakob nodded slowly. “I’m starting to think you’re right. He’s the only one left.”

“What do we know about him?”

“Well, we know that he left right before Larry started working there.” Jakob frowned. “Though I could have sworn Larry was with them all from the beginning.” He sighed.

“Maybe Maxwell is mad that he had to leave and blames Larry and me?” I sipped on my coffee and nearly choked as I remembered something else. “Larry’s wife told me that Maxwell’s wife had contacted them.” My eyes widened as I remembered. “She said that Maxwell’s wife threatened them!”

“How?” Jakob leaned forward. “What did she do?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I was more concerned with getting to talk to Larry, so I didn’t really follow up with that. Man, I suck.”

“It’s fine, Bianca. We’re new to this. We can’t expect to be CIA operatives in ten minutes.”

“Yeah, I guess. I wish I knew more.” I closed my eyes for a few seconds and tried to take deep breaths.

“I don’t know anything either, but I know a man who does.” I heard Jakob’s chair scrape along the floor as he jumped up. “Come on, we’re going back to David’s.”

“But I thought he was having sex with Roma.” I opened my eyes and made a face, not wanting to walk in on David fornicating again.

“I don’t give a shit.” Jakob hurried me out of the restaurant. “I think my dear brother has more information than he let on before. I think this is about more than money to him. I think this is a game as well.”

“Why do you say that?”

“What he tried to do to you earlier.” Jakob’s voice was angry. “He was trying to rile me up.”

“What do you mean?”

“He chose George to pick you up that night. George was my driver for many years. He’s loyal to me. David knows that. He wanted George to call me and tell me what was going on that night. He wanted me to drive over to his house that night. He wanted me to see the two of you together.” Jakob started walking faster. “I think we’ve both been played, Bianca.”

“But why?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”





thirteen


“How did he leave so fast?” I frowned as Jakob and I left the building and headed for his car.

“Almost as if he were tipped off.” Jakob drove off.

“You think Joseph told him?”

“I think there was no CVS trip.” Jakob nodded.

“Why didn’t we ask Joseph?”

“He’d deny it.” Jakob slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “Fuck!”

“What are we going to do now? We don’t have access to Larry. We don’t know who Maxwell is. David’s gone into hiding. We don’t know who the lady in the photograph is. What do we have?”

“We have Steve.” Jakob sounded thoughtful. “We know he was working for someone who wanted to intimidate both of us. And at this point, I don’t think it was Larry.”

“You don’t think he was working for David?”

“No.” Jakob shook his head. “His loyalties were stronger to me than to David.”

“But he turned on you.”

“Yes, he did. But I refuse to believe it would be for someone like David. He couldn’t stand rich kids who’ve been handed everything on a silver platter. He wouldn’t have done this for David, and I don’t think that David would have hired him anyway. What would David care if we got close? Why would he want us both intimidated?” Jakob shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. At first, I thought it had to be David. That’s why I pretended to be Mattias when you accused me. I wanted you to think you’d caught me out. I wanted you to think you knew everything.”

“Why?”

“Because I knew that if you knew that there was no Mattias, you’d keep digging. And I didn’t want you in any more danger. Not when I knew someone was out there trying to scare us both.”

“You were worried about me?”

“I didn’t even want to let you go, but I knew you wouldn’t trust me. My best bet was to let you think I was Mattias and let you go home.”

“But you couldn’t stay away. You still texted and called me and left that weird note.”