Page 30 of Deserving Ryleigh
Ry hesitated.
Tiny took her silence for uncertainty. “You’re a computer genius. Even Tex has admitted that what you can do is nothing short of brilliant. Better than him. If anyone can stop your father, it’s you.”
His belief in her felt amazing. But she slowly shook her head. “I can’t completely stop him. I mean, I can mitigate some things, but I can’t control everyone else. Computers are used by everyone, everywhere. I can lock down communications here at The Refuge, but I can’t lock down the grocery store, and the people who deliver gas, or individual cell phones. There will always be ways in that he can use to mess with us.”
“So what do we do?” The question came from Pipe.
Ry closed her eyes. “I should’ve left. As soon as I screwed up, I should’ve left. Led him away from here.”
Tiny’s hand tightened on her thigh. “No.”
That was all he said. One word.
Opening her eyes, Ry saw he was staring at her intently.
“If you took off, would he have left us alone?” he asked.
She wanted to lie. Tell him that, yes, if she wasn’t around, her father would’ve moved on to find her, but that wouldn’t be true. And even though she hadn’t actually promised not to lie to him, he’d begged her not to. “Probably not,” she whispered. “It’s the only lead he’s had in ten years for where I’ve been. He wouldn’t have left The Refuge alone.”
“Right. So we need to figure out what to do now,” Stone said firmly.
Everyone was silent as they thought.
“I’ll talk to him,” Ry said, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do.
“And tell him what? To stop? I’m thinking that’s not going to work,” Owl said dryly.
He wasn’t wrong.
“The thing I don’t get is why he wants to find you so badly,” Brick mused. “He’s found you…now what? He just torments you until you disappear again? That makes no sense.”
This was it. Ry had been trying to talk around this since she began opening up. Taking a deep breath, she turned to look at the other men. Amazingly, none of them were glaring at her. Instead, they all had various forms of concern in their expressions. For her.
“I have something he wants,” Ry admitted.
“What?” Pipe asked.
“Money. When I left…I emptied his accounts. Took all the money he’d stolen for years. Sent tons of data to the FBI and gave them all the information they’d need to prosecute him. Where he stole the money from, and when, and how much. Not only does he want revenge on me for that, he wants his money back.”
“How much?” Brick asked.
This was what she’d been dreading. Ry met Brick’s gaze and tried not to flinch as she said, “Ten million dollars.”
“Holy shit!”
“Fuck.”
“Bloody Hell!”
The exclamations came fast and furious around her, but Ry didn’t break eye contact with Brick.
“And I’m guessing you can’t just give it back and he’ll go away.”
“I can’t give it back because I don’t have it anymore.”
“You spent it?”
Ry flinched at Tonka’s question. He didn’t sound angry, but she still felt judged. “The original ten million? Yeah. And then some. Well, I didn’t spend it, per se. I gave it away.”
