Page 77 of Packed Up In Vegas

“Oh dear. Let’s see what we can uncover. Do you have your account information?”

Callie gave the woman everything she was asked for, and eventually we got the answer.

“It looks like a few days ago you came in and authorized the transfer of the joint account into the sole possession of Jerry McIntosh, which is why it’s no longer visible for you online.”

“Excuse me?” she hissed. “I did no such thing.”

“That’s what our records say. There’s paperwork on file about the transfer.”

“Well, that’s impossible because I never authorized anything.”

“Transfer us to the fraud department,” I ordered, taking up a seat next to her. “Please.”

“Of course. One moment.”

It took a few minutes more before we made it to another human and Callie shoved the phone toward me, spilling into tears once more.

“We need to initiate a fraud check on the following account,” I told them, giving them the account number. “We were told Callie Price authorized the transfer of a joint account into the sole possession of Jerry McIntosh, and that is not the case.”

“Let me get a file set up.”

We gave them as much information as we could and told them Callie had not been in Los Angeles at all except for when she was in our presence, and hadn’t visited a bank or discussed any paperwork with anyone. I wasn’t under any illusions that it would get resolved immediately, but they promised to look into it, interview the bank associates who had approved everything, and check the on-site cameras.

Callie screamed into her hands when the call was over. “This is so fucking fucked. I went through all of that just for Jerry to steal everything?”

I didn’t know how to fix anything, but we had taken the steps to start. First we had to rebuild some of the trust we’d broken by not believing her from the start.

Amir growled and sat down across from her. “I know you don’t know me that well yet, but I’m not going to let him screw you over twice. I’ve never gotten to tell someone that they would rue the day before, but that fucker is absolutely going to.”

Ihated everything. That money was supposed to help me start my life over. At the very least, it could’ve held us over while the pack figured out how to support themselves after I had steamrolled their jobs.

All the security I’d felt from knowing I had that money was gone. Jerry really was committed to taking everything from me that he possibly could. And the worst part was that he was entitled to everything in the joint account, so there was a possibility I would never see that money again no matter what the bank uncovered.

I was trying to feel grateful for what I had been given instead of focusing on everything that had been taken away, but it was hard. I hated how I had reacted to the pack not immediately trusting me. I’d still been raw from my conversation with my mother, and having one more thing stacked on top of my already fragile emotions had been too much to handle.

The pack had the numbers in front of them, so it wasn’t a surprise they would’ve been skeptical, and they didn’t know me that well, but it cut all the same.

It wasn’t the first time I had encountered a guilty-until-proven-innocent situation with the people in my life. Maybe it was unrealistic to expect the opposite with the pack. Even a hint of my old life rearing its head with them had taken me out at the knees.

I tried to work, but it was slow going. Without the option to push the deadlines, I had no choice but to continue no matter my emotional state. It wasn’t hard to tell that the pack felt bad for how the discussion had gone, both in how they had approached me and in the realization that all the money I had earned was in the hands of someone else. Kai’s guilt through the bond sat like lead in my chest. We were probably feeding each other’s anxiety in a cycle at this point.

They didn’t seem to know what to do, and I didn’t know how to approach them, so we spent most of the day tiptoeing around each other.

Kai set down a tray with a sandwich, blueberries, a glass of water, and a can of cola for me. “You have to eat.”

“I don’t feel like eating.”

“Callie, look at me.”

I tore my gaze away from the screen and focused on him.

“I’m sorry, little dove. I know you can feel that’s true.”

I could. The dull ache from him was obvious through the bond, sadness wrapped in anger. The anger wasn’t directed toward me; that much I knew.

“We should’ve trusted you.”

“Yeah, you should have.” I wore my bitterness like armor. “Do you have any idea how shitty it made me feel to have the four of you come at me like that, like you’d already decided I was in the wrong?”

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