Page 35 of Sin

Tears welled up in Adira’s eyes, but she smiled. “Thank you. I’ve kind of lost my previous one.”

“That’s the great part of being with the Death Riders. We protect our own.” She patted Adira’s hand. “We should have girls’ night. Maybe a spa day or maybe one of those painting and drinking things. Or roller skating. I know! A cooking class. They’re so much fun and I’ve learned a lot.”

“I think you wasted your money,” Hunter muttered.

Vivi went to punch his arm, but Lincoln caught it and spun her to the kitchen. “Scones, woman.”

With a huff, she stomped away.

Lincoln smiled as he lovingly watched her. “Isn’t she great?”

“If you call a hydrogen bomb great, then sure,” Ares muttered.

Lincoln gestured to the dining room table and sat down. When the others followed, he opened the folder.

“Wait, isn’t that one I took from my father’s safe?” Adira asked.

“Yes,” Ares replied. “You gave it to me the other day. I think you thought it was your employee papers.”

“Oh.”

“I asked Lincoln to take a look since I didn’t fully understand what I was looking at.”

“So, it didn’t take me long to figure out what these papers are about,” Lincoln said. He typed a few things into his laptop and then turned it around. “They’re all dummy corporations in Adira’s name.”

“Dummy corporations?” she asked, frowning. “What does that mean?”

“For years money has been funneled out of the church’s accounts into them, and the increments have been so low, they haven’t grabbed the attention of the bank or anyone else. There have been checks written to fictious construction companies and there’s also been a distribution of funds through a credit line.”

“Wait, you’re talking about…” Adria’s voice trailed off. “What are you talking about?”

“Embezzlement,” Ares said.

Adira blinked at him, as if it took a moment for the word to sink in.

“No. It can’t be that.” Her tone, however, held doubt. “You’re saying my father took money from the church?”

“He did,” Lincoln confirmed. “And he put it all in your name.”

“But why?”

“Why’d he embezzle, or why your name?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked at Hunter and Ares, who stared back at her. Then she covered her face with her hands.

“Oh my God,” she sobbed. “What did he do?”

“The spreadsheet is a list of routing numbers and passwords,” Lincoln finished. “Adira, all of this was designed to put the blame on your shoulders if his schemes ever came to light. He’d have plausible deniability while you went to prison.”

She cried into her hands until Ares rose from his seat to kneel beside hers. He pulled her hands away.

“It’s going to be okay,” he murmured, using his thumbs to dry her cheeks.

“If you’d have asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would’ve told you there was no way he could do something like this.” She shook her head and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “He’s someone I don’t know. A monster.”

“How can we protect her?” Hunter asked Lincoln.

“Legally, this is a type of financial institution fraud that falls under FBI jurisdiction,” Lincoln answered. He flicked an apologetic glance at Adira. “I’m sorry.”

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