I strode away from the beach, hands bunched up by my sides. My pulse had doubled, my stomach was in knots, and my face burned as livid heat flashed through my body. I was angry at myself for letting my defenses fall, and angry at Georgie for waltzing through them.

I fell for her. I trusted her. I told her everything, and in the end, she didn’t even believe me. She wasn’t on my side.

My nostrils flared as I considered the irony. This whole time, I’d been worried about getting her to trust me. It hadn’t even occurred to me that maybe I shouldn’t trust her. Evidently, I couldn’t. My feelings for her obviously ran deeper than hers did for me, seeing as she was so willing to betray me and choose my brother’s bullshit over me.

Did she ever really listen to a single thing I told her about him? Or was all that support she gave me after I opened up to her just as fake as our relationship once was?

Sure as fuck seemed like it.

“Nate! Stop!”

I heard her calling out behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I picked up my pace and headed into the resort lobby, quickly making my way toward the elevators. Footsteps pounded on the tiles behind me.

Georgie finally caught up to me and grabbed my shirt sleeve. “Nate, please. Can we talk?”

I stopped and finally turned to face her. Her cheeks were red, and her chest was rising and falling fast as she panted. “I don’t want to talk right now,” I said stiffly. “I’d like to be alone.”

“But I want to explain what you just overheard. I—”

I held up a hand. “You don’t need to explain. I get it. I dunno why I took this so seriously, or why I ever expected you to pick my side.” I snorted. “Why would you? It’s not real, is it?”

Her eyes clouded. “What are you talking about?”

I scoffed. “I’m talking about how you wanted a fake boyfriend, and you got one. Sure, something ended up happening between us, but obviously you didn’t take it all that seriously. I’ve just been deluding myself this entire time, thinking you did.”

Georgie’s mouth dropped open, and she stood there gaping at me like a fish out of water. “I…” She faltered, unable to form a coherent response. No wonder.

I took a step closer, narrowing my eyes. “You should know, I was never faking it. Never. I always had feelings for you. I wasn’t even going to take your fucking money. I only agreed to come on this trip to get to know you because I felt something when we met. Guess I fooled myself into thinking you felt the same along the way. My bad.”

Georgie’s eyes widened, and she finally bit out a response. “Are you freaking serious right now?” She spoke so loud that several people in the lobby turned and stared. Her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red, and she lowered her voice. “My feelings for you are real. They always have been, just like yours. Even when I didn’t want to admit it. You know that!”

“Oh, really? Because I just heard my brother thanking you for being, quote ‘On his side in this’, unquote.” I sniffed derisively. “The dude practically blamed me for my mother’s death, stole a shit-ton of money from me and tried to ruin my life, but who cares, right?” I threw my hands up.

Georgie tilted her head to the side. “Oh, for god’s sake, that’s not what Bobby meant. He didn’t mean I’m on his side as if I’m totally against you and plotting your murder. It was a figure of speech.”

“Meaning?”

“That I agreed with him about one thing. One thing.” She held up an index finger. “That’s all. I’m still with you, Nate! Of course I care!”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, you sure showed me that before.”

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Look, I get why you’re mad, but we can talk about this. Just let me explain it properly.”

“I already said I don’t want to hear it.”

“Nate, come on… please?”

“Nope, I’m good.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

She planted her hands firmly on her hips. Steel daggers seemed to shoot from her eyes as she regarded me. “You’re behaving like a child.”

I scoffed again. “Sure.”

“You are. You’re refusing to even listen to me.” She took a step closer.

I did the same. “That’s rich coming from you. I don’t think you’ve ever listened to me.” I shook my head slowly and drew my arms close to my body. “I really thought I could trust you after everything I told you.”

“You can.” Step.

“So what the hell was that with my brother?” Step.

We were almost nose to nose now. Georgie was still breathing hard from chasing me all the way up here, and a beat of sweat was slowly trickling its way down her face. As fucking mad as I was, I was overwhelmed with an urge to kiss her. Christ, this woman made me crazy. Always had. Probably always would.

“People are staring. Let’s go to your room, and we’ll talk about this like adults. You made me do it when I acted like an idiot the other day, so you owe me that much,” she said in a low voice.

I hated that she had a point. “Fine.”

I refused to look at her on the elevator ride to the third floor. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to get sucked in by those perfect green eyes, because if I did, I might not be able to make it out again.

I swiped my keycard in my door two minutes later. Georgie followed me inside and watched as I poured myself a drink from the minibar.

“I think you have the wrong end of the stick, Nate,” she said as I gulped down a mouthful. “You didn’t hear everything that was said.”

I turned to her and shook my head, refusing to be gaslighted. “No. Don’t do that shit. This isn’t some misunderstanding where I overheard something and totally misinterpreted. I clearly heard you say you don’t believe me when it comes to my brother and the missing money. That’s the one thing I’d expect you to support me with, and you don’t. You know how shitty that feels?”

She sighed. “Just because we don’t agree on something doesn’t mean I don’t support you.”

I grimaced. “I think it does. You don’t believe me! That’s a pretty big deal.”

Her eyes widened in a pleading expression. “I do. I believe that you believe Bobby stole that money. I get your point of view, really.”

“What a fucking copout, Georgie. I need you to believe me all the way. My brother did it, end of story.”

She nervously licked at her bottom lip. I tried to ignore how it reminded me of her mouth on my cock, tongue sliding all around the head. Now wasn’t the time, and at this point, I wasn’t sure it ever would be again. “I’m sorry, but I’m not so sure about that,” she said softly.

“How can you seriously think that after everything I’ve told you?”

She tilted her chin up and looked me right in the eye. “I know you have your reasons for thinking he did it, and I understand that. Bobby understands it too. He knows the damage he did all those years ago. So if you don’t want to speak to him or include him in your life, then I’ll support you with that. But….” She trailed off, then shrugged. “I think you’re wrong.”

I threw my hands up. “Great. That’s wonderful support.”

She folded her arms. “Nate, we’re allowed to have different opinions. It’s a relationship, not a dictatorship.”

I snorted. “Oh, don’t give me that shit. I’m not saying you can’t have opinions. I just can’t believe your opinion on this exact matter. You know how I feel about him.”

Her chin began to tremble. “I’m sorry. I can’t help what I feel. And if you’d overheard our entire conversation, I think you might start to feel differently as well.”

I put my glass down and crossed my arms. “Yeah? Why?”

She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed again. “Bobby feels terrible about what he said to you all those years ago. That’s why he approached me, to talk about it. He said he’s wanted to beg for your forgiveness since he said it, but you cut him off. You wouldn’t let him.”

I arched a brow. “He said that?”

I couldn’t even remember my brother trying to apologize to me, but like Georgie just said, I’d frozen him out over the years. I never let myself be alone with him, and I only ever spoke to him about work-related matters when others were present. Other than that, I’d severely limited our contact. Hell, even the majority of our work communication was done via email despite the fact that his office was right next to mine when he still worked at CryptX.

Georgie nodded. “It’s not like I brought it up, by the way. He came to me of his own accord.”

“Why?”

“He wanted to tell me all this stuff before he married my sister, just so I would at least have an idea of what’s gone on from his perspective.”

“How noble.”

She ignored my dig and kept going. “He fully expected me to be on your side, and he took full responsibility for how awfully he treated you. He was genuinely shocked when I told him I believed him about the money. He didn’t think I would, and it seemed like he’d accepted that. He just wanted to explain himself to me, even though it made him look bad. That’s all. And the things he said….” She trailed off again, her eyes shimmering with the threat of tears. “I believe him. I do. He wasn’t in a good place after your mom died. He regrets how he treated you, and I really think you should go and talk to him. Sort this out.”

I crossed my arms. “He was probably lying to you, trying to make you feel bad for him. Looks like it worked.”

She narrowed her eyes. “No, it didn’t. I’m not stupid. I still think what he said to you all those years ago about your mother is absolutely dreadful, and I told him that much! You would’ve heard that if you arrived on the beach about two minutes earlier. So I’m not on his side. I’m on yours,” she said, her nostrils flaring. “I just think you’re wrong about the money, that’s all, and I think you’ve pinned it on him because of all that resentment you’re holding onto over the things he said in the past. Because of that, you refuse to even consider the fact that he could be innocent.”

“Well, how can I consider it? Every shred of evidence points to him. I don’t know how many fucking times I have to say it.” I gritted my teeth.

“I know, but listen.” Her eyes flashed with determination. “Pretend that you’re a different person and hear it from my point of view. Please?”

I sighed and sat down on the end of my bed. She obviously wasn’t giving up anytime soon. “Fine. Whatever.”

Georgie spent the next five minutes outlining her reasoning—why she agreed with me and thought my brother was guilty at first, and why she eventually swung over to an opposing view. I sat back and listened, trying to pretend I was a completely objective bystander. I had to admit, a lot of what she said made a disturbing amount of sense.

My features softened, but only a little. “If it wasn’t him, then who could it realistically be? Who had access to all his passwords, along with the ability to hack our office security system and wipe everything? That’s the big question. I can’t think of anyone aside from him.”

She bit at her bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. A lot of people keep a secret list of all their passwords on their personal computers or cloud accounts, right? To help them remember them all. I mean, I know I do.”

“Yeah.”

“I bet Bobby does too, and he knew most of your passwords, seeing as he started the brokerage with you. So maybe he had them stored somewhere too, just to remember them. Heavily encrypted, because he’s not stupid, but a decent hacker can get past that.”

“Right.”

“I think someone hacked his stuff to get the passwords and cloned his security keycards to set him up. It could’ve been anyone who regularly interacts with him. Staff members who work closely with him, maybe.”

I sighed. It was a nice theory, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a new one. Not by a long shot. Kudos to Georgie for trying, at least.

“Our employees were the initial focus of the investigation, because the cops and feds had the same idea as you. But all employees were cleared,” I said.

“Okay, well, even a housecleaner who moonlights as a hacker could’ve gotten into his stuff and done it. Who knows?”

I shook my head. “He doesn’t have a housecleaner.”

Georgie sighed. “I’m just trying to make you see the possibilities and get you to stop being so narrow-minded. It could have been someone else. Maybe a close friend. Bobby has friends, right?”

“Yeah, but you’ve met them. They’re a bunch of idiots stuck in their old frat boy phase.” I rubbed my temples. “Doubt any of them could even hack a Facebook account.”

She didn’t need to tell me what she was doing, because I already knew, and it wasn’t working. I’d already run through all the possible suspects in my mind a hundred times. Maybe even a thousand. So had the cops. Georgie obviously thought we’d all missed something, but as far as I was concerned, that was simply wishful thinking because she didn’t want to think the worst of a person she knew. She didn’t want to believe my brother could’ve looked her in the eyes and lied right to her face, and she didn’t want to believe her sister was dumb enough to fall for a white collar criminal’s charms.

I guess it was kinda sweet that she wanted to think the best of everyone. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always how reality worked. Sometimes people really were just lying, thieving assholes.

Georgie puffed out a deep breath of air and looked at her feet for a moment. Then she looked up again. “I have an idea. But this is just an example to prove my point, okay?” she finally ventured, her voice low and tentative.

“Right. Go on.” I wrinkled my forehead, wondering what inane theory she’d concocted now.

She twisted her lips. “My mother could’ve done it.”

My brows shot up. “Your mother?”

“She was a programmer back in the eighties. She might not act like it, but she’s kept up with tech over the years, and we all know how nosy she is. So let’s just say she figured out you were Bobby’s brother when he and Libby first met. It would’ve been easy for someone like her, even though Bobby hid the fact.”

I shook my head. Had she totally lost the plot? “I don’t understand where this is going.”

She held up a hand. “Just wait. Say my mother knew who you were, and where Bobby worked. She visits Libby a lot. So maybe one day she overheard a conversation where Bobby mentioned to my sister how annoying he found it that you kept leaving your personal laptop at the office. Maybe another day she was there and sneakily hacked Bobby’s PC to try and get all his passwords, including yours.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Then maybe she got her hands on his office security keycards, and she knew a way to clone them and get her own copies so he never noticed them missing. After that, the rest is history. She would know how to hide money, because her third husband was a shady investment banker. He could’ve taught her a thing or two about how to make money seemingly vanish.”

I tried to picture Margaret sneaking around CryptX in a balaclava, and I snorted with laughter. “You think it was her?”

Georgie’s eyes widened. “No! That was just an example of how someone other than an employee could’ve infiltrated Bobby’s private stuff and used it to frame him after stealing your money. I just wanted to make you see it was possible. Of course my mother didn’t actually do it,” she said. She paused and bit her lip, her eyes flickering to the left. “I mean, she does seem to have come into a lot of money recently, but she’d never steal.”

“You sure about that?” I lifted a brow.

“Yes, of course.” Her voice was firm, no-nonsense. “My point is, there could be someone that you and everyone else missed as a suspect. But you’ve wanted so badly for it to be Bobby that you’ve narrowed your focus to him and him alone. Because of that, the investigators have done the same, and whoever might’ve really done it got away scot-free.”

Her words slowly sank in, and my shoulders slumped. I stared at the wall as I thought back to five months ago, when everything went down. Back then, I was like everyone else at first, adamant that it wasn’t my brother who committed the theft, even though we could barely stand to be around each other. It was only after every avenue of investigation had been exhausted that I began to suspect him.

Now I realized why. The real reason why. Georgie was right. There were plenty of possible suspects and theories that didn’t pan out due to a simple lack of evidence, but I’d let my resentment over past issues build to the point where I became blinded to that. I was stuck in a tunnel, seething with pent-up rage, and my brother was the only thing at the end.

I wanted it to be him. I wanted him to be guilty. Simple as that. I despised and resented him so much that my mind had given me a convenient reason to finally push him out forever, like I’d subconsciously wished for ever since he made those comments essentially blaming me for our mother’s death.

Georgie’s example a moment ago was like a jolt of electricity to my system; the exact shock I needed to set me straight. Obviously it wasn’t really her mother behind the theft, but just the fact that it theoretically could be was enough to make me realize how wrong I’d been for pinning everything on Robert and refusing to admit there were any other options.

Maybe in the end it would turn out that he did do it, but hell… maybe he didn’t. Till now, I hadn’t been willing to consider that possibility.

“Fucking shit.” I put my head in my hands.

Georgie tentatively stepped over to me. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a dumb idea, and I’m overstepping, but I was just—”

I looked back up at her and shook my head, cutting her off. “No, you’re not dumb. You’re right.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

I nodded slowly. “I resented Robert so fucking much that I wanted it to be him. I’ve been a total asshole about it,” I muttered. “Not just to him. You as well.”

My mind reeled with guilt. I couldn’t believe what a fucking idiot I’d been. Just ten minutes ago, I was down in the lobby going off at Georgie and accusing her of faking everything in our budding relationship, all because I was angry and overreacting. I couldn’t have been more off-base. She never faked anything, and she didn’t betray me. That was clear now. The last couple of days were filled with real moments. Real feelings. I should’ve known that. In fact, I did know that. But all sense of reason had left me in those moments as anger overrode every other emotion.

I really fucked up.

Georgie let out a heavy sigh. “You reacted the way you did because of Bobby’s past behavior. It doesn’t make you an asshole, it makes you human. We aren’t logical creatures, so sometimes we act on emotion, not reason. Even big strong men like you.” Her lips curled with the vaguest tinge of amusement.

“I suppose so.” I still felt like shit.

She sank to her knees and touched a hand to my lap. “I’m sorry if you felt like I betrayed you with the things I said to Bobby. I know I should’ve talked to you about that stuff, but I wanted to wait till after we were home, because I figured it might start an argument.” She paused to suck in a deep breath. “We only just got together, and I guess I wanted to stay in that honeymoon period for as long as possible. But I should’ve been more honest.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “You don’t need to apologize. You’re entitled to your opinions,” I said in a gruff voice. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. All that shit I said down in the lobby… I had no right to make you feel bad. I had no right to say this wasn’t real, just because you didn’t agree with me on something. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Georgie murmured. She bit her lip. “But I still feel bad, because I made you feel bad.”

“Don’t.” I smiled faintly and took one of her hands in mine. “You know, no one’s ever called me out on my shit before. But you always have. I love that about you.”

She returned my smile. “There’s a couple of things I love about you too,” she said. Her voice was soft, but her sincerity shined through like lightning.

“Just a couple?” I arched a brow.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She rose to her feet, her tongue peeking out from her lips.

I chuckled softly. Then I recalled something she said a few minutes ago, and the furrow in my forehead returned. “You said something about my brother being in a bad place after Mom died. What did you mean by that?”

Georgie’s eyes went to the floor. “It’s really not my place to tell you the details. You should speak to him.”

I sighed. I had a feeling she’d say that. “Okay. I’ll try,” I muttered.

“What I can tell you is that he truly regrets what he said to you all those years ago, and he’s been beating himself up over it ever since. That’s why I believe him,” she said. She steeled her jaw, took a deep breath, and went on. “There’s just no way he was lying. Trust me.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“I know you won’t be able to forgive him right away. But if you just talk to him, I think it’ll help.”

I grunted. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“No matter what happens, I’m here for you. Always. I wish I’d made that clearer before now.”

I looked up at her. “I wish I did too,” I said. I let out a long sigh. “You know, when I was angry earlier, thinking you betrayed me or whatever… it wasn’t just anger. I was afraid, too.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “Of what?”

“That I lost you. Or that I never really had you. It made me crazy.”

“I get it,” she said softly. “When you stormed off like that, I thought I’d lost you too.”

“Sorry.” I rubbed my chin and sighed. “Fuck, I was such a dick.”

She smiled. “Yeah, all that jumping to conclusions. What are you… me?”

I chuckled at that. “Why do you have to be so cool? I was so shitty to you.”

She shrugged. “Hey, I’ve done more than my fair share of shitty things to you. But you always said you’ve got my back. So I’ve got yours too.” She winked and squeezed my hand tightly. “And you know what?”

“What?”

“I’m going to prove it to you once and for all.” Georgie took a deep breath before continuing in a triumphant air. “I’m going to figure out who took your money.”