Page 107 of All Bets Are Off

“Well, you’re head of security. You can run the Infinity Group, right? You can tell me what they do.”

“I can. I’m going to need a secure computer.”

“Zach has one in his office. Can you use that?”

“Sure. I’ve used it before.” Rex stood. He looked thoughtful. “Livvie, what is it that you think you’re going to find here?”

“I don’t want to tell you just yet.” I reached for a smile, even though it was wan. “I have a theory, but I need more to go on than just my feelings. Can you just run the group and tell me what you find?”

“Yeah. Let me grab the computer. I can do it out here.” Rex headed toward the office, leaving Tallulah alone with me.

“Why am I here?” she asked. “I’m gung ho for anything—you know that—but this feels as if it’s above my pay grade.”

“You’re here for emotional support,” I replied. “There’s a chance I might need you to lean on if I’m right.”

Tallulah’s brow wrinkled. “I’m confused.”

“You won’t be for very long. Trust me. For now, just help yourself to whatever food and drinks we have on hand. I don’t think it’s going to take Rex long to find what I’m looking for.”

Tallulah hesitated, then she nodded. “Okay. I can’t say I’m not intrigued. I’ll wait it out, though.”

“Thank you.”

DIGGING THROUGH THE LAYERS OF SECURITYthat had been set up for the Infinity Group was more difficult than I envisioned. I thought Rex was going to be able to type the name of the group into some search feature only security chiefs had access to and things were going to come together in a matter of minutes.

I turned out to be wrong.

“Unbelievable,” Rex muttered under his breath as he started typing again. “This is just … there’s no way that nobody found this company shady.” He was talking to himself more than me, but it was impossible to miss his frustration.

“Tell me what you have,” I prodded for what felt like the tenth time. Rex had taken to ignoring my requests. It was starting to grate.

“Well, you were right, Livvie.” Rex’s gaze was serious when he lifted his chin. Normally, my brother could find the joke in anything. Not today, though. “There’s no way this company should’ve passed muster as a business partner for the Stone Group.”

“And why is that?” Tallulah asked. She was resting on her back with a peeled orange on her chest watching us work. If she was bored, she didn’t show it. I knew she wouldn’t make it much longer without some action, though.

“It’s a series of shell corporations,” Rex replied. “Infinity Group only exists on paper.”

Still on the floor—my tailbone was really starting to hurt—I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Break it down for me.” I needed to see it in my head. “What are we dealing with? Just go step by step.”

“Okay, Infinity Group has a P.O. Box. No physical address, which is suspect. When I run that P.O. Box, it says it belongs to Hamilton Corporation. Now, the thing about Hamilton Corporation is that, at one time, they sold merchandise. We’re talking one of those places that screenprints standard items like shirts, hats, ashtrays, etc. for certain businesses.”

“Like casinos?” I asked.

He nodded. “At one time, Hamilton Corporation did the printing for a lot of area casinos. The thing is, when I ran the business, I found it’s been defunct for about five years.”

“What happened to it?” Tallulah asked.

“I pulled the financial declarations to take a look, and it seems, every year, they were getting less and less business,” Rex replied. “I know that some startup company came in about that time and took a lot of the business. I can vaguely remember it being something everybody talked about. I obviously wasn’t privy to what happened back then. I’ve only been head ofsecurity for two years. Before that, I was just a member of the team.”

“I guess I kind of forgot you weren’t always large and in charge,” I teased.

Rex flicked my ear. “I’m very large and very in charge.”

I made a face.

“Yeah, I’ll save that declaration for somebody who isn’t my sister,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “What were we talking about again?”

“Hamilton Corporation,” Tallulah replied.

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