“That night, when those men came in, Norestrom kept asking Rocco where I was. They were
looking for me.”
“Uh-huh,” Cameron replied cautiously.
“This wasn’t the first time that I had met him,” I confessed.
Cameron’s interest was piqued. “Who? Norestrom?”
I nodded and told him about the day Norestrom joined me at the picnic table on school grounds.
Cameron was furious and walked to the edge of the water, swearing under his breath.
“I need you to tell me,” I pleaded, “did Rocco get killed because of me?”
“He didn’t get killed because of you. Rocco got killed because of one man’s greed.”
“I don’t understand what that has to do with me,” I said.
He sat on the hood and pulled on my legs, sliding me closer to him. “Before your brother and I
started the business, a guy named Shield already had the power over almost all of the
underground market. He controlled shipments, sales, business dealings, and all of the money that
came with it. He had connections everywhere, and the gang leaders let him control everything
because they were afraid of him and his connections. When your brother, Spider, and I came in
and started making contacts with the gang leaders, all of them started to join forces with us
instead. Even though Bill was a pretty smooth negotiator, the gang leaders didn’t need much
convincing—none of them trusted Shield, and they had been looking for a way out. The business
thrived under our management. The gang leaders were happy; and Shield lost everything but the
small business he ran from his own turf. He tried to threaten us and the other leaders with his
connections, but with all of the leaders peacefully united, there was nothing that Shield could
do.”
Although it was hard for me to imagine my brother being anything else but a big goof, I still
didn’t understand. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Shield feels that we stole the business from him and that we should have to pay him for that.
After Bill died, he appealed to the leaders, asking that Bill’s money be given to him. The
leaders just laughed in his face. Now Shield is coming after you for that money.”
“I don’t have any money, Cameron. My parents stopped sending me money after they got sick of
me sending it back to them.”
Cameron raised his eyebrows. “I never understood that. Why do you choose to make life harder on
yourself when your parents’ money opens doors for you that are closed to the rest of the world?
You could do anything you want with their money to support you.”
“I can do anything I want with my parents’ money, so long as what I choose to do is what they
want me to do,” I grumbled. Cameron looked confused. I shook my head, flustered. “It’s
complicated. Don’t change the subject. Point is, I have no money, and this Shield guy is
wasting his time.”
“Actually, you do. You have Bill’s inheritance, which is pretty generous, I might add.”
“I think I would have remembered if Bill had left me anything. He didn’t.”
“Yes, he did,” Cameron argued as he reached his hand over and slid it down the middle of my
chest. I was frozen in place. He pulled his hand out, with the angel pendant that my brother had
given me clasped between two fingers.
I laughed, shaking off some of the nervousness that lingered after his touch. “I hate to break
this to you, Cameron, but that thing is worth a few hundred dollars at best. I don’t think
Shield will be satisfied if I pawn this and give him the money.”
“Look more closely,” he urged, “What do you see?”
I humored him and looked down. There was nothing unusual about it. It was beautiful to me. An
angel standing on a pedestal with a pink gem in the middle. I came up shrugging.
“Look closer.” He held the pendant upside down so that the pedestal faced me.
“Shiny silver and product codes.”
“They’re not product codes, they’re bank account numbers. Bill set up offshore bank accounts
in the Caymen Islands for you before he died, with another promise from me to move all his money
into them if something ever happened to him. I kept that promise too,” he said, winking.
For the first time, I realized that the numbers meant something, but that still didn’t explain
everything. Last time I had checked in the mirror, I didn’t look all that threatening. “Why
didn’t this Shield person just send one of his dumb soldiers to come grab the necklace from me?
”
“Because they have no idea that the information they’re looking for has been hanging around
your neck for years, and, until they saw me with you, they had no idea you even had the money.
They must have assumed that Carly, Spider, and I had kept it for ourselves.”