Page 72 of Deserving Maisy
Ry immediately stood and grabbed Maisy’s hand, pulling her to her feet as well. “Maisy and I are gonna go chat about something other than babies,” she informed her friends.
“You’re gonna miss some serious awesomeness about how our cooters are gonna stretch to the size of bowling balls if you go!” Henley teased.
“Oh Lord, is it too late to change my mind about having a kid?” Lara asked.
Everyone laughed as Ry kept hold of Maisy’s hand and pulled her into the kitchen. The cabin wasn’t huge, and it was open concept like Jack’s, but it didn’t seem as if anyone was paying any attention to her and Ry in the corner of the kitchen.
Ry dropped Maisy’s hand and leaned a hip against the counter. “I’ve been doing some digging.”
That’s all she said.
Maisy frowned in confusion. “Okay?”
“You know what I can do, right?”
“Uh…yeah. The guys said something about how you’re good with computers?”
Ry didn’t crack a smile. She raised a brow. “I’m not good with computers,” she said. “I’m freakinggoodwith computers. There’s no one better than me.No one. I can hack into the FBI and CIA databases, get Russian nuclear weapons codes, find out exactly what the Chinese leaders are planning from day to day and wipe clean any and all research on those damn spy balloons they have, and any progress North Korea has on illegal biological warfare. Hacking into a company’s database and canceling life insurance policies, or changing where money is being transferred from a trust fund…those are pieces of cake for me. Do you understand?”
Maisy stared at the woman in front of her. She knew Ryleigh was talented when it came to working on the computer based solely on what the guys had all said. But she had no ideahowtalented. “I think so,” she said after a moment.
“Good. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t going to freak out when you logged into your bank account and saw your balance.”
“What did you do?” Maisy whispered.
“Nothing anyone didn’t deserve. First, I changed the monthly deposit routing details from your brother’s account to yours—the new account I made for you in town—so you’re now getting the monthly stipend you should’ve been getting for years. Tiny also told me about the life insurance policies Jason took out on you and Stone. That shit’s been canceled, so you don’t have to worry aboutthose. I also changed ownership of the house from your brother—which wasn’t supposed to happen in the first place; the house was left to both of you. The asshole somehow got that changed so it was only inhisname—to you. Just for fun, I also put it on the market. Jason’s gonna be surprised the first time someone shows up to see it.”
Maisy gaped at her in disbelief.
“What? I’m sorry, did you want to live there after we evict your brother?”
“No! I mean, I loved that house once, but now it holds too many bad memories. I don’t ever want to live there again.”
“Good. So you’ll get the proceeds when it sells then, which will make up for the stipend he’s been stealing all these years. Not sure how long that will take, as I’m sure Jason will refuse to leave, but the offers will come to me, and I’ll share them with you so you can decide what to accept. I listed it at averycompetitive price, so I’m thinking you should get several good offers.”
“Holy crap,” Maisy said, completely in awe of Ry.
“The only thing Ican’tdo is get around the requirement that you come in to sign for your inheritance in person. I’m sorry. So you’ll still have to go back up to Seattle to take care of that. But I heard from Tiny that you already knew that.”
Maisy nodded. “I want to go.”
Ry stared at her for a moment. Then said, “You want to show your brother that he didn’t win.”
“Yeah.”
“Good for you. Stone needs someone with a backbone. I haven’t been here as long as some of the others, but Ilike him. He’s intense, but in a good way, if that makes sense.”
It did. Maisy nodded.
“I wasn’t thrilled when I heard he was missing. Felt guilty that I wasn’t able to get to Lara, Owl, and Stone before he was taken. And it sucked that I didn’t pull the right thread necessary in order to find him. Your brother’s an asshole, but he’s not completely stupid. Actually, I take that back—he’s an idiot. He had no idea who Stone was, who he’d kidnapped. I bet if he knew he was a former special forces pilot and had badass friends who would stop at nothing to find him, he would’ve picked another man. But then, you wouldn’t have fallen in love with just any man, so even though Jason’s a moron, I’m glad he picked Stone.”
Maisy’s brain spun with Ry’s words. She couldn’t keep up. But luckily the other woman didn’t seem to expect a response. She kept talking. “I was fully prepared to not like you, Maisy. My fingers were itching to cause as much mayhem as possible in your life, but then I realized you had all sorts of mayhem going on already. Your brother had isolated you, drugged you, threatened and hurt you. All for money. And I saw the way Stone looked at you too. Then he made me promise that nothing I did electronically would come back to you in any way. He obviously loves you.”
Maisy’s head was shaking even before Ry finished speaking.
“He does. And I agree with everything Lara said in there. If you don’t fight for that man, you’re not the woman Ithinkyou are. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth having is, right?”
“I don’t know what to do. He won’t talk to me. Won’t touch me. Won’t evenlookat me.”
