Page 21 of Zen's Crash

“It’s not,” I tell her. “Wanna know how I’m so certain that you’re a thief?”

“Enlighten me,” she shoots back, scooting her stool back a few inches.

I let her put some distance between us because my emotions are a jumble. I want to jerk a knot in her ass for stealing that five grand because it means she’s likely the one who took my sister’s money too. I also have all this pent-up sexual frustration and attraction that’s telling me throw her over my lap and spank her naked ass. I shove the images of a nice hate fuck away, ashamed that I even thought something like that.

“You stole five grand in crypto from me just last week.”

Instead of denying it, her whole demeanor flips in an instant and she laughs. “You’re that newbie who left his seed code visible? Call yourself WiseInvestor? You deserve to have your crypto stolen. All you have to do to get it back is take a digital security training course.”

I say nothing but continue watching her.

She leans forward and adds, “Wow, this means you’re not a super-skilled computer genius, right? Were you lying to impress me? If you’re hoping to get into my pants, it’s totally not happening now.”

I reach out and jerk her stool closer. “Don’t play fucking games with me. I dangled that crypto out in the open in the same chatroom my sister visited when her crypto wallet got wiped clean of a hundred grand. That was her fucking life savings and guess who prime suspect number one is?”

She reaches out and pushes against my chest with one hand until I let go of her stool. “I’m not sure I believe anything you have to say at this point. Take the digital security training and I’ll give you your five grand back. Then I don’t want to see or talk to you ever again. Am I making myself clear?”

Giving her a stern look, I growl, “You must think I’m stupid if you think I’m gonna be happy getting my five grand back and just forget about the crypto you stole from my sister.”

“I didn’t steal anything from your sister,” she flings back. Pressing her finger to the side of her head, she says, “Think about it, Zen. You’re accusing me based on the fact that I tried to save some poor newbie from getting his crypto account wiped out. That’s like someone getting murdered in a room fullof a thousand people and you randomly picking one person to focus on simply because they were present.”

“I’m accusing you, because you stole crypto from me.”

“No, I protected your crypto from getting stolen by a real thief. If I had planned to keep it, I wouldn’t have admitted to having it, nor would I have offered to give it back if you took a training course in digital security. Does that sound like something a criminal would do?”

I’m still furious and don’t believe Lexi is innocent by any stretch of the imagination. This is all too much of a coincidence. I just have to figure out what her angle is. I heave out a sigh, I guess the easiest thing to do is to take that damn training and see what happens, I pull up a free training course and go straight to the test. It takes me less than five minutes to complete it, and I forward the certificate to her phone.

Before I can even speak, my phone buzzes. When I look, the money has been returned to my crypto wallet.

“Be sure your seed code isn’t showing next time.”

“I told you, I left it there deliberately, I’m not a fucking idiot.”

“Yeah, whatever. I gave you your damn money back,” she spits out.

“Are we finished here?” Lexi’s tone of voice is cold and emotionless. If she’s waiting for me to apologize, she’ll die of old age before that happens.

“We’re not finished until I find out where my sister’s crypto went.”

“And I told you, I know nothing about it.”

“I’m not letting you off that easy, sure you gave me back my five grand, but that’s pocket change compared to a hundred grand.”

She gets to her feet. “How many times can I say this so you understand, I didn’t take your sister’s damn money! Good luck finding the real culprit. With your skill level you’re going to need it.” She’s on her way to the door before I can come up with a good reply.

She opens the door and turns to look at me. “You’re an attractive, engaging man. You don’t need to lie about being a computer genius to impress women. We prefer honesty over lies meant to lure us into believing you’re something you’re not. Remember that.”

I leap to my feet, angry that she’s still doubting me. But by the time I get to the door of my office, she’s halfway through the bar. I watch as she grabs Kayla’s hand and pulls her towards the front door. If I’m being honest, her friend isn’t struggling to stay. Evan just stands there watching his girl leave. Then he turns to look at me with a scowl on his face.

I’m not surprised when he heads straight for me. I head back to my office and wait for him. Evan’s always been respectful. He closes the door before asking, “What was that all about? Is Kayla’s friend really a thief?”

I rub my chin, realizing I’m not so sure about that anymore. “Yes. She stole five grand in crypto from me, though she gave it back.”

He sits on the stool looking all kinds of confused. “Really? She doesn’t look like the type.”

I give him the short version of the story. “My sister came to me a couple of weeks ago saying she got her life savings, all her college money stolen. She had it in a crypto wallet that someone hacked. I went to the only crypto forum she spent any time in and pretended to be a stupid beginner with the passcode to my wallet visible. Lexi swiped the money and told me I couldn’t have it back without completing training on digital security. I guess she thought she was doing a newbie a favor by getting to the crypto before someone with bad intentions took it.”

Understanding clicks into place on his face. “She wasn’t gonna keep it, right?”

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