A few hours later, Gray kissed Michaela goodbye before he opened the door and watched her walk outside to meet her brother who waited for her in a black SUV near the front porch. Why in the fuck did he feel like it was really their last goodbye? Their last kiss?
Emotion burned in his chest and it felt like red-hot coals had replaced his heart. She stopped at the passenger door to look back and wave at him.
Did she feel it too?
She’d been crying since he woke her up, so she might. Her kiss at the door had a feeling of desperation to it, and she thanked him again for all he’d done for her. Dante put the SUV in reverse and Mickie rolled down the window to wave at him again. He waved back, but that emotion moved up to burn his face, making his jaws hurt and his eyes burn.
Was this really almost over? He wondered as he shut the front door and leaned against it. If it did work out right, what would happen then? Gray felt like he’d been on a three-week journey through hell, but the woman he’d traveled with made it seem like paradise.
Delaying this wasn’t going to change the outcome. He pushed away from the door and strode back to the table to sit down. The emails from Mac and Dex had arrived an hour ago, but he refused to open them until she left. His hand shook even now as he grabbed his mouse and forced himself to open his email program.
He clicked Dex’s email first, jotted down the account access information then moved to the second email in his inbox. With a growl, he clicked Mac’s email open, scanned down the contents until he found the names of the principals of GiJo Holdings LLC.
A shockwave of grief resonated through his body and he knew then what that feeling he couldn’t shake was about. The wakeful nightmare he’d had last night was right on the mark.
Jose Romeros, COO, Teresa Girabaldi, CFO, Michaela G. Girabaldi, Secretary. Articles of incorporation prepared by Delgado Law Firm, Acapulco, Mexico.
Michaela Girabaldi wasn’t a victim, she was a partner in this scheme. He scrolled down further to the information on the second corporation, which was Roterra Plomería LLC, Nogales, Mexico. A Mexican plumbing company, the same one used on the Bill of Lading for the gun shipment. Sickness boiling in his gut as Gray forced himself to scroll further.
Juan Carlos Garcia, CEO, Jose Romeros, COO, Teresa Girabaldi, CFO, and M. Giselle Girabaldi, Secretary.
Gray went to work on the accounts, because his grief quickly dissipated to be replaced by rage. He’d trusted her and she’d fucked him—worse than Mona ever could. This woman was smarter than Mona, much more evil. She’d not only broken his heart and his trust, she’d ripped it out while it was beating with a smile on her beautiful face.
A few hours later, Gray had his answers, but more questions too. The structure on the money laundering was strange. When he got to the final receiver account in Mexico, which he stayed on the phone with Dex until he managed to break into, the money was still there, but it was five-hundred thousand shy of the amount transferred into Michaela’s account from Vinny’s.
Someone took themselves a bonus. Or was it a payoff to their third partner for helping them? He went back to the two accounts, scrolled through the many deposits and withdrawals and stopped when he hit a different kind of withdrawal. It was a lateral transfer into a savings account. His fingers flew over his calculator as he added up the withdrawals.
Five-hundred thousand dollars exactly.
He knew breaking into that savings account would be nearly impossible with the time he had, so he drew his own conclusions. The savings account was in the same New Jersey bank as Michaela’s checking account, she was a signatory on both, so it had to be hers.
Gray sat there a moment, trying to regulate his ragged breathing, fighting to find control and forget about the pistol that sat on the table by the door. He had to get to that hospital to see her, but that would be left behind. He was not going to jail for being a party to their crimes, and he wasn’t going for murder either. That was exactly what he wanted to do to Ms. Michaela Giselle Girabaldi at the moment, though.
Picking up the cell phone, Gray called Lou Ellen, because she started this and she was going to help him end it. She needed to know what her prodigy had done, what kind of trouble her getting him involved had caused.
He had a feeling her brother was going to flip his lid too. Dante Girabaldi was in as much trouble as Gray for believing and helping her. He would be very lucky to bypass going to jail as well. He didn’t have the information Gray had as a bargaining chip to barter with the feds for immunity. He was a fed, so they’d probably string him up on all kinds of other charges, too.
“Hello?” Lou Ellen answered, the question in her greeting probably because she didn’t recognize the number. Gray was just thankful she answered.
“Remember when I said you’d owe me big time when this was over, Lou? Well you owe me even more now. She’s guilty, and I’m calling Hawk for a ride to the hospital to tell her that. I need Susan to call her friend Carlos to be there to arrest Michaela and extradite her to New Jersey. I’ll text you the hospital address when I have it.”
“Breathe, boy,” Lou Ellen, her voice quaking. “Are you sure about this? I can’t believe—”
“Believe it, Lou!” Gray shouted, his heart pounding, as his anger ramped up again. “I wouldn’t be making this call if I didn’t have rock-solid proof. She’s not an innocent little misfit, Lou—she’s a thief. You were wrong about her, and now I’m in trouble too.”
“I’m so sorry, Gray,” Lou Ellen said somberly. “I should not have taken a chance on her. I’ve learned a lesson, and if you need anything from me, just call.”
Gray had made the same mistake trusting her. Michaela was a very convincing liar. The best he’d ever encountered. It was no wonder that Lou Ellen was fleeced too.
“I’m upset, but I’ll get over it, Lou. After this is over, though, let’s just never talk about it again. I don’t want to lose your friendship, because I love and respect you.”
He fucking loved a thief too, but he certainly didn’t respect her, and he wouldn’t be crying when he saw her in handcuffs at the hospital. She deserved every ounce of humiliation she would get—just like Mona had.
“I love you too, and I will never mention it again. Susan and Logan are back as of last night, so I’ll go talk to them.”
“Thanks, Lou,” Gray said, hanging up the phone to take a deep breath.
Gray quickly backed up the information and evidence he had to the Deep Six cloud server, which was what he should’ve done with the information on the laptop at the beach house, but hadn’t. Then he didn’t want anyone to accidentally find it and that’s why he hadn’t. Now, he wanted the whole fucking world to know what Michaela Girabaldi had done.