Page 100 of The Trust We Broke
Catfish nods. “Just one thing: I swear to God, I didn’t take it.”
I nod. “I believe you, brother. I didn’t take it either.”
The only other person with access to the official bank details is Butcher, but I’ve known the man my whole life, and there’s no fucking way that he’s taken it.
I pull out my phone and dial the New Jersey chapter’s tech wizard.
“What the fuck, brother?” Vex asks. “You know what time it is?”
“Fuck, sorry. But we’ve got a problem. Our business account has been drained. You able to help us find where it went?”
“I’m up,” he says.
I hear a woman’s voice in the background ask sleepily if everything is okay.
“I’m fine, sweetheart. Go back to sleep.” There’s a prolonged pause. “You owe me for waking my old lady.”
“Again. Sorry. Having a fucking heart attack, here.”
A door clicks shut. “Fine. You got your login credentials?”
“Catfish will message them, now.”
Catfish pulls out his phone and sends them in separate messages.
“We sent them,” I say.
“Gimme a few minutes.”
I look up at the sky, wondering if this was Butcher’s life all these years, bouncing from one crisis to another. I wonder if heever felt overwhelmed, and how long it took his shoulders to grow big enough to carry all this for the club.
Because, right now, I feel like I’m swimming in a pool of molasses.
The clatter of Vex’s keys over his keyboard sounds like a tap dancer. There’s barely a pause. And occasionally ahmm.
“Last access was nine p.m.,” Vex says finally. “The IP address is Utah. None of you were in Utah, I presume.”
“We’re all here,” I say. “Got some shit going on, so no one is out of state, right now. What can you see?”
I switch the phone to speaker so Catfish can hear too.
“Funds got pulled in chunks. Three transfers. Six minutes. The first third went to a business account in Utah. The second was exchanged into crypto. The third has gone to a dummy account for a shell company out of Colorado.”
“That’s not a fucking bank error,” Catfish says.
“You can follow it?” I ask.
“I can follow most of it. Whoever did this knows their shit. They got a little cocky, though. They left a trace in the crypto jump. But it’s gonna take me a little time to dig into it.”
I take a deep breath and offer my first favor as a president. At my last visit to see Dad, he told me to be real careful offering favors because they tend to come back when the stakes are highest. When there is much to lose.
“Get me names, Vex. I’ll owe you. That was payroll. Rent for the businesses. I got guys who won’t get paid because of this.”
“Then, I suggest the thieves start running, because I’ll find them. You got anything else connected? Any leads,” Vex asks.
I think about Lucy’s father’s phone. It might not be relevant, but if I can roll it into this one problem, I’ll owe only one favor. “We’ve got a phone. Not sure what’s on it. But it belongs to someone loosely connected to the Rebels.”
It’s not a lie, but Catfish raises an eyebrow in my direction as I stretch the truth.
