“It’s the deed to this land.” Frank sounded shocked as my confusion kicked into full gear.
“But that man had the deed,” I said, remembering that I’d clearly seen the word deed on the paper he showed me, but refused to let me touch. “Unless it wasn’t the deed for here. Or even a real deed at all.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t. The mob doesn’t usually play by the rules,” Grant said. “They’d lie, manipulate, and murder to get what they want.”
“So we have the deed to the land then?” I asked again, stunned. “And that guy doesn’t.”
“We have it. But I bet he wants whatever’s in these bags.” Nick gestured toward them, then grabbed the plate and secured it in the back of the safe again.
Frank reached for one of the old twine ties around one sack and gave it a tug. The fabric was brittle with age, and flakes of it dropped off as it practically fell apart in his hands.
“Go slow,” the rest of us cried out.
Frank glared at us. “I’m not an idiot.”
Opening the bag, he spread the top part wide so we could see inside. I peered in, finding exactly what I’d expected to see inside—stacks of cash money and mounds of jewelry. I had no idea how much money was there. The bills were old and looked almost fake, unlike any dollars I’d ever seen.
“We’ve got to call the police,” Nick said, wiping his dusty hands on his jeans and leaving dirty handprints on them.
“What are you guys doing back here?” Jess, Claudia, and our mother stood in the office doorway, staring at us curiously. “We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“And that’s my cue,” Grant said as he moved to leave the room. “I’ll go make that phone call.” He moved past the women and closed the door behind him.
“What’s going on?” Mom asked.
They knew we were keeping something from them, so we asked them to sit down while we explained everything. Our mom and Claudia took the office chairs while Jess perched on the edge of the desk, their eyes widening as our story unfolded.
“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell us,” Claudia said when we’d finished. She narrowed her eyes on the three of us, and then her disappointed gaze landed squarely on Frank.
“And we could have helped,” Mom added. “Your father and I can always help.”
When Frank shrugged, looking uncomfortable, I stepped in. “That’s just it, Mom. You couldn’t help. Not with this. We called our lawyer, and he’s been working on it, but there’s only so much he could do. We could barely even talk about it with each other, let alone anyone else.”
Frank spread his hands wide. “We never want to let you down, and we didn’t know what was going to happen. Until we knew for sure, we just kept it between us three.”
Even as he said the words, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. There was no reason good enough to keep something this big from the people we loved.
“You can’t do that,” Jess said, clearly irritated. “You don’t get to pick and choose what to tell us and what to leave us out of.”
“Yeah. We’re your teammates, right? Your partners?” Claudia asked, her eyes piercing Frank’s, making me thankful that Sofia had already gone home for the night. “Then you share everything with us. Even the hard stuff.”
“Especially the hard stuff,” Jess added, her voice firm. “We have a right to know what’s going on.”
“When was this deadline?” Mom asked.
I swallowed hard. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” the three of them practically shouted in unison. They jumped up from their seats, becoming more riled up by the second.
“I can’t believe you kept this from us.” Claudia paced angrily back and forth in the small space. “I’m so mad at you! And you.” She shot me a look that made me want to crawl into the safe and hide. “Sofia is going to kill you.”
“I’m aware,” I managed to say.
“You just proposed to me, you jackass!” Jess stepped toward Nick and poked him in the chest. “This isn’t what we do. We don’t keep things from each other.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, babe. It won’t happen again,” he said sincerely, and she poked him again, still pissed.
The three of us tucked our proverbial tails between our legs and apologized. After we all promised to never keep something like that from them again, their anger seemed to fade.