Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers 4)

“Did you record it?” he asked.

I reached for my phone and set it on the table in front of me. “I did. And I’m glad.”

“So, you got him to admit that he stole the money from you?” Nick asked.

I shook my head. “Not exactly. Why don’t I let you hear it for yourself?”

I turned the volume up a little bit so he could hear every word and played the recording of the entire conversation. There were moments when Justin spoke more quietly, obviously aware of all the other people moving around us and not wanting anybody to hear what he was saying.

As the conversation unfolded, I paid attention to Nick’s expression. I wanted to watch his face as he listened to what Justin had come up with.

“Is he seriously trying to blackmail you?” Nick asked after the first few exchanges of the conversation. “Am I hearing that correctly?”

His reaction almost made me laugh, but I couldn’t get far enough past the anger to let myself find it funny. Instead, I nodded.

“Yep. You are hearing that correctly. His big plan for the meeting was to blackmail me,” I said.

Nick shook his head, still staring at the phone as the conversation continued. “I just can’t even believe what I’m hearing. This is ridiculous.”

“Tell me about it. This was definitely not among the top five things I would have come up with if someone had asked me what I thought he was going to say to me during our meeting. Honestly, I was still thinking about what you said about him trying to weasel himself back into my life. I couldn’t figure out if he was going to try some sort of slimy seduction approach, or if there was going to be a ridiculous big romantic gesture. Or maybe he was going to go another direction and go the intimidation factor.”

“And instead, he went for trying it to get you to shell out more money to him,” Nick said. “Money he was probably going to then bring back to my office and try to get me to invest for him. This guy’s unbelievable.”

“That’s a good way to describe him,” I said. “I wish I could say it actually shocked me that he was doing it. But it didn’t. I wouldn’t have come up with it, because I don’t like to dwell on the negativity and worst potential of humanity. Unfortunately, he doesn’t leave me a whole lot of options.”

Nick shook his head again and pushed away from the table, holding his hands up like he just couldn’t take it anymore. “Alright, that’s enough. I don’t want to listen to that guy’s voice anymore. Tell me you at least got something on him about your money.”

I turned off the recording and put my phone away. “I didn’t. You’ll notice he didn’t come right out and say he expected me to give him money. He just inched around it and orbited the whole concept a bit. So, when he was done and asked me what I thought, I figured I could bait him into making an admission. I explained to him he didn’t have anything over me he could use as leverage that would make me give him more of my money.”

“How did he react to that?” Nick asked.

“He just sat there and smiled at me. I think he knew I was recording the conversation. I don’t know if he came into the meeting already expecting me to record it, or if he figured it out somehow while we were talking. But he never said anything that would even come close to a confession that he took the money without me giving him permission to.”

“And you’re absolutely positive he doesn’t have anything he can hold over you?” Nick asked.

I looked at him incredulously. “Seriously? What do you think that I’m hiding?”

He at least had the decency to look apologetic. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. Of course you aren’t hiding anything. I just meant you don’t think there’s anything he could twist or manipulate and make it look bad for you?”

“No,” I said. “That’s part of why it makes me so angry. Who does this guy think he is that he can treat me the way he did during our relationship, convinced he was the best thing that has ever happened to me and would ever happen to me, and then do what he did. And then, as his grand finale of our saga, he’s going to try to get me to funnel more money to him because he managed to lose every cent he stole from me.”

Nick nodded like he totally understood where I was coming from and I was glad for that. I didn’t want to try to explain the emotions coursing through me right then. It was entirely possible there would be no way I could explain it. There weren’t words I could think of that properly embodied the miserable blend of emotions and thoughts twisting around in my head.