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SIXTY-FIVE

NATALIE

“Okay-okay-okay. Back up, Julien.” I stare at him in shock. “You have a tracker on Rosenberg and Nick. Why?”

“Because I’m tracking them.”

I whimper in frustration. I want to ask about the hidden camera but hold my tongue for now. Nothing about this house makes sense anymore.

“You knew Rosenberg wasn’t who he said he was?” I ask.

“Yes.” Julien detaches the hard drive from one computer and hooks it up to another one.

“And you knew that I knew?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Your phone, Natalie. There’s not a single step you made in this house without me knowing. Including your phone calls and texts. I apologize for that, but it was necessary.”

“ You took the letter out of my purse?”

“Yes. If Nick found out, it would’ve been a disaster.”

“Nick?”

Julien turns to face me. “Nick is the man behind IxResearch.”

I gape at him. “Nick, the driver?”

“To put things simply, Nick is the brain of IxResearch. The man that you know as Rosenberg is just a face, an actor. And the real Rosenberg is dead.”

That’s a lot to process, but I still don’t understand why Julien is doing this. “So why don’t you go to the police? This is identity theft.”

“It’s not as simple as you think. We can’t just hand Nick over to the police. There’s not enough evidence to implicate Nick in the IxResearch scam. He’s that smart.”

“Wait. What do you mean IxResearch is a scam ? It’s the largest stock exchange in the US.”

“It is. Nick took IxResearch, which was developed by the actual Geoffrey Rosenberg, and turned it into a billion-dollar company.”

“And that’s bad how?”

“It’s not. Until Nick pulls the plug. He’s slowly transferring funds to a number of offshore accounts. Today, the meeting in Manhattan made IxResearch shares public. Which means, as we speak, the company is flooded with investments, making its value increase like no other crypto company in history. If Nick gets anywhere close to Ix accounts, he will drain them. Even if Nick is arrested, he will never give up the passkeys. He will be rich, even in jail. And millions of people will lose money overnight.”

My eyes dart to the screens. “Is that what those are?” I nod toward them. “His accounts?”

“Yes.”

“But you can’t access them?”

“No.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Copying the info to the external drive in case we can find the passkeys.”

“Where are the passkeys?”

“They are probably on some sort of thumb drive. We haven’t found it yet. We spent months around him. Months searching everything, bugging his phone, his place, listening to every word he says. Nothing.”

Nick’s words ring in my ears. My little feisty dragon guarding the treasure.

Those words might be nothing. Or they might mean that the thumb drive is here, in this guest house.

Julien presses his finger to his earbud, then turns to me. “I need to put you somewhere safe while we deal with this.”

“What’s happening?”

“You need to be out of sight.”

“Whose sight?”

“Nick’s. And mine, while I’m dealing with him.”

“What does dealing mean?”

“Something you shouldn’t be witnessing.”

Despite the chill running down my spine, I want to know more. “I want to confront that asshole.”

“You can’t, Natalie. You either go with me, so I can take you somewhere safe, or…”

I cock my head at him, daring him.

He blinks slowly. “Or I’ll have to tie you up to keep you out of trouble while we deal with the situation.”

“Tie me up? Really, Julien?”

“I am not joking,” he says sternly, though his tone is not threatening.

“I am not either. I’ll bite your nose off,” I warn. I don’t have a chance against this guy, but a girl’s gotta try.

Julien’s chest shakes in a suppressed chuckle. Obviously, I’ve gotten better at getting under his skin.

“Please, Natalie,” he asks, and I think this polite version of Julien is really cute. “Please,” he repeats even softer.

“Okay,” I agree. “Where do you want me?

I won’t listen. No way I’m going to sit in hiding while the asshole who sedated me might escape.

Julien just doesn’t know it yet.