Page 40 of The Renter

I take a deep breath. We still have so much time trapped together in this car, butit’s time to get this all out there.

“So, I met Declan five years ago. I was at this bar, it’s actually a one-minute walk from the cottage. It’s called Charlie’s. Declan bought me a drink; I didn’t know who he was, but he knew who I was … and who I was to Sorin.”

“His half-brother and piece of shit,” Adam mutters.

“Right. My relationship with Sorin was getting weird and the night I met Declan, it made things worse.” I hesitate, thinking about how this conversation will be such an emotional dump for me to say and for Adam to process. “That night, Declan got me caught in a lie with Sorin. I had said I was at my parents’ house, but then Declan called him, saying he was with me at the bar. It was the first night Sorin hit me.”

“Dani,” Adam says, almost in disbelief.

“Let me get through this. It’s only going to get worse.” Adam squeezes my hand, turning on the cruise control for the highway driving, giving me more of his attention. “The next time I saw Declan was at Kent Dubois’s house. He was explaining to me how Sorin was hurting their family business and about how crypto would make them all legit and clean all their money.” I pause, hating reliving these memories.

“I got caught in another lie,” I start, leaving out a detail Adam doesn’t need to know. How Declan came on to me that night. “I didn’t mention seeing Declan at the party, and Sorin got a photo of us talking, which …” I pause.What will Adam think of this last detail?

“That lie led to Sorin carving anSin my hip with a knife.” I say it with more ease than I probably should, but it is what it is.

“What the fuck!” Adam looks at me, tense.

“I know. I still can’t believe I got myself into a situation where a man attempted to fucking carve his ownership into me.”

“Where’s the scar?”

“I got it lasered away. It took a lot of lasering, but good as new.” I flash Adam an awkward smile. “After that night, after Sorin did that, Declan did something for me. Well, he did two things for me. First, I’m pretty sure he broke Sorin’s legs after I left him for good.”

“Dani, why didn’t you tell me this when he was at the cottage?” Adam’s reaction is visceral.

“I just met you. Even telling you all this now is weird, but you know Declan so well, and I want to explain how I know him.”

“You said he did two things. What’s the other thing?” The tension in his voice is unmissable.

“We had a brief conversation before I left for my study abroad, and he told me to go to this vineyard. So, I did. And there, a guy gave me twenty-one Bitcoin. It was the strangest thing but I figured it was, like, hush money to not talk about everything I learned about their family.”

I feel a bit guilty leaving out the fact that it was also my twenty-first birthday. But the Bitcoin, it’s always felt like hush money. I’ve never talked about Sorin or Declan’s mafia affiliation with anyone until now.

“Twenty-one? That’s worth, like, a half million today. What happened?”

“I converted it to cash before it skyrocketed.”

“What year did you get it?” Adam asks after a moment of taking all of that in.

“Two thousand seventeen.”

“The Cryptoball platform was in idea mode then,” Adam shares. “How did you get the Bitcoin?”

“I got a hard drive and had to figure it all out.”

“Analogue,” Adam says, nearly under his breath, his face taking in everything I said.

In the silence, I continue, “And he’s never talked to me since then. I texted him, thanking him for the gift, and he never responded.” My internal monologue calls me out again. I so casually left out how I sent him some flirty texts and other texts over the years. “I never heard or saw him until the other day … At the cottage.”

“Now, I understand why both of you reacted like fish out of water seeing each other.” Adam squeezes my hand. “At least I know he isn’t gay.”

“That’s what you took from this story,” I say, annoyed.

“I’ve never seen him give anyone a second look.”

My memory replays Declan and my few moments of flirtation. If he were interested, he would have texted me back. He would have reached out to me at any point over the last few years.

“I’m just saying Declan is in the Crows, which is affiliated with the Polish Mafia.” My tone has an unmistakable edge. “So, factor that into your business dealings with him.”