Re/Leased (Doms of the FBI Book 5)

by Michele Zurlo

  “Jeff. He’s thirty-three, single, never been married, and he’s an engineer. He’s nerdy, but in a cute way.”

  Autumn hugged Julianne. “I’m so happy for you. Let me know how it goes.”

  “I could say the same to you.” She lifted her brows as a challenge, but Autumn didn’t bite.

  “We’ll compare notes next time. I need to get back to work.” She was already late, and she didn’t want to put David in a bad spot.

  It turned out not to matter. He’d left a note on her desk saying that he’d be out of contact all afternoon, but he’d be there at five to pick her up. This was why she’d wanted to get her car. Meetings, especially those held outside the building, lasted a lot longer than scheduled. She called Julianne to arrange a ride, and then she texted David to tell him to pick her up at Sunshine Acres at seven.

  ________

  “Something wrong?” Jesse’s question pulled David’s attention from the text Autumn had sent.

  He slid his phone back into his pocket. “Autumn got another ride home.”

  “This is a problem because why?” Jesse sat back, a wary, knowing look in his eye.

  “Because she came clean about Summer Sullivan. As we thought, it’s her sister in the nursing home. She’s in a coma, the result of the car accident. Autumn was going to take me to meet her tonight.” Part of David felt guilty for divulging a private matter his sub had trusted him enough to reveal. On the surface, it wasn’t much. Why keep a sick family member secret? But he had the feeling she’d been trained from a young age to keep her mouth shut about a lot of things. He needed her father’s name.

  Jesse frowned. “You can’t go another day? It’s not like you’re going to find out anything. She’s unconscious.”

  Malcolm tapped his pen on the table. “It’s important because she’s letting him in. The more she does that, the more we know, and the better we can figure out who she really is. I see two problems with this part of the investigation. One: It has nothing to do with the missing capital, and it’s draining time and attention that should be going to other things. Two: When she finds out what you’re doing, and she will, she’s going to be hurt in a way there may be no coming back from.”

  Jesse ran his hand over the scruff that passed for hair on his head. “I don’t see how her feelings are relevant, but I agree with Malcolm on his first point. Following her is a waste of time. I spent last night going through her apartment and car. I found some puzzling things, but nothing to implicate her in this. She’s poor. Her apartment is a shit hole in a shit hole of a neighborhood in the shittiest part of Ypsilanti. Drug deals happen out in the open in broad daylight on the streets, and the cops avoid that part of town.”

  “How is she poor?” Malcolm frowned. “I’ve seen her salary. She’s not getting paid a ton, but it’s enough to afford a small house in a decent neighborhood. If she budgets, she should be able to afford weekly entertainment and a yearly vacation.”

  “No way.” Jesse shook his head. “Not the way she lives. There’s barely food in the kitchen, and what’s there is from the bargain basement dollar bin. Her furniture, though she takes care of it, is threadbare and secondhand. Most of her clothes are as well. She lives like she’s making six bucks an hour.”

  “But she isn’t.” David frowned, thinking of how uncertain she’d been about the dress she’d bought with him in mind. Perhaps he’d misread her, and she’d felt guilty?

  “I’m going to throw this all out in the open now, and then we’re going to be done talking about David’s girlfriend.” He pulled up photos on his phone. “She has a drawer full of overdue bills, mostly for rent and utilities. It looks like she’s had the heat and water turned off a few times. The vast majority of bills are for Summer Sullivan—physical therapy, blood tests, liver tests, endocrine tests, experimental medication, and other expenses not covered by insurance. She’s in deep. Head-scratcher things: I found a ‘Go’ bag. It wasn’t well hidden. Four hundred in cash and three fake IDs. The forgeries are a few years old, but the quality is good. And she monitors her door and windows with portable laser trip wires, probably hooked up to an app on her phone.”

  David swiped through the photos before handing the phone to Malcolm. What he saw made his stomach ill.

  “A lot of the medical bills were paid in cash.” Malcolm had noticed the same thing David had. “If she’s been skimming a little off the top for three years…” He shook his head. “It wouldn’t add up to three million dollars. That would take decades. Of course, she’d be able to take more and cover it up better with a lapping scam, but even that wouldn’t net this much money. There’s not enough capital flowing through CalderCo.”

  David thought about the discrepancies from her first year. He’d investigated them, but he hadn’t thought to look at her books with an eye toward a scam. This meant he was going to have to go through her records again. He closed his eyes. “She works occasionally as a pro Domina. Last week, I hired her to go to the play party as my sub. It took some doing, and I had to pay double, but she agreed.”

  “She agreed because Beatrice DePau asked her to do it as a special favor.” Jesse tapped his fingers to the rhythm of his thoughts. “I added up the receipts. If she stole all the cash money from CalderCo, then the total is a drop in the bucket compared to what we’re looking for. She’s not our guy. Can we agree and move on?”

  “Yeah.” David had thrown out several names where he’d noticed irregularities. Now that he thought about it, a lapping scam could explain some of the figures. But they needed to trace it, find out where the money was going.

  “The FBI would pull warrants and look into personal finances,” Malcolm said. “I’m not sure what kinds of resources you have.”

  Jesse’s eyes sparkled. “We’re not bound by the same restrictions. We just hack the accounts and take a look. They’re all paid by direct deposit, so we already have the account numbers. That’s half the battle.”

  As if it were a virus, that sparkle jumped to Malcolm’s eyes. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

  “Hey, do you and Darcy want to go with Autumn and me to see the Tigers? My dad has a box, and he’s letting me use it.” David hadn’t planned to accept his father’s offer, but he’d found himself asking Autumn to go, and now he was looking forward to the outing.

  “Sure. Darcy would love to get out of the house.” Malcolm scratched his chin. “Let me double check, though. She’s going to need to see if my parents or her sister can watch Colin.”

  Jesse stared expectantly. “Are you going to invite me? I love sports of all kinds.”

  “No. I can’t have Autumn making you. While she’s not our prime suspect, she’s not in the clear, and you’ll need to keep watch over her. She’s met Malcolm and Darcy already.”

  Jesse’s expression soured. “Next mission, you get the shit part of the job.”

  David wasn’t much help with hacking, but he was brilliant at analyzing accounts once they’d been opened. Malcolm and Jesse kept him busy for the rest of the afternoon. It was well past five by the time he stumbled out of that tiny, windowless room. He’d pored through so many account statements that his head felt like his brains had liquefied.

  “Dean wants a report tonight,” Jesse said on the way out. “He’s expecting a call. I’ll watch your girl overnight. It’s best not to have her wake up and overhear anything.”

  Good thing Autumn hadn’t been forced to wait on him. He called in an order for takeout on his way to Sunshine Acres. The entryway was deserted when he arrived. From the cacophony coming from the cafeteria, he figured the residents were eating dinner. He waited for several minutes at the front desk, but nobody showed up, so he set off down a likely hall in search of the coma ward. The place wasn’t too large or convoluted, so he found it faster than he thought he would.

  Pausing at the door, he watched Autumn peel back the covers from Summer’s leg. He had no idea what she was doing, but it seemed like a bad time to interrupt. Stepping back, he listened as he wai
ted.

  “Let’s do some leg lifts. You have sexy legs, sister of mine. Remember last time we went clubbing? That guy—you remember—he couldn’t dance for anything, and he kept trying to pick you up. He was behind you, doing some kind of pelvic-thrust move, but it looked like he was having a seizure. You asked him if he needed an ambulance.” Autumn laughed, and David found himself relaxing into surveillance mode. She had a musical laugh that made him smile whether he wanted to or not.

  “Speaking of guys, David is supposed to come by soon. He’s amazing, Summer. I really hope you like him. I told you he was very handsome, but I didn’t get a chance to tell you about him.”

  She trailed off, and David almost poked his head into the room from listening so hard.

  “He’s amazing. I keep saying that, I know, but I don’t know how else to describe him. He’s funny, like he’s got this cheesy sense of humor, and he thinks I’m funny, which is nice. And he understands when I run off at the mouth. Stop rolling your eyes. You’re just as bad. Where do you think I learned it? Anyway, David gets me, mostly. Don’t worry—I haven’t told him anything I shouldn’t.” She lowered her voice, but the clear whisper carried to him. “He spanked me last night. Oh my God, it was incredible. It’s like all this pent-up emotion and stress just melted away, and then he held me afterward.”

  He heard the rustle and creak of her moving around the room, probably to the other side of the bed.

  “I think I’m falling in love with him. Don’t laugh. I know how stupid that sounds. I’ve known him for a week, and already I can’t imagine my life without him. Now, I’m not stupid enough to tell him that I’m falling for him. He’s only here temporarily, which is one of the reasons I slept with him. It’s out of character for me, I know, but he’s different. He cares about me, and he likes me. He got jealous when I met with this guy for coffee. I mean, for starters, the guy was not attractive, so there was no competition there, but it was about a job.”

  More rustling and squeaking, and then he heard her sigh.

  “Summer, I love puzzles. I can pick any lock, open any safe—well, I need practice with some of the newer models—but I’ve never been good at truly connecting with people. With David, for the first time, I feel like I’m starting to learn. I’m making mistakes, but they don’t seem insurmountable.”

  Taking a deep breath, he breezed into the room, using a trajectory that made it seem like he’d been walking down the hall. Autumn was on the bed, lying next to her sister as if the two were just casually hanging out. She sat up, surprised. “I thought you’d call first.”

  He gestured behind him. “Want me to leave? I can go into the hall and call.”

  “No cell phones. There are a ton of Pacemakers around here.” She climbed out of bed and slipped her arms around his waist. “Come and meet Summer.” Turning back to the bed, she said, “Summer, this is David, my boyfriend. David, this is my sister, Summer. Say hello.”

  “Hi, Summer. It’s nice to meet you.” It was weird to be talking to someone in a coma, but he’d read anecdotal evidence that patients could hear everything. “I’m David Eastridge, one-quarter owner of SAFE Security, and I think your sister is an exceptional woman. She’s had a long day, so I’m going to take her to dinner and make sure she gets to bed early. She might not get to sleep until later, but at least she’ll be in bed.”

  Autumn’s head snapped around, and she regarded him with wide eyes and parted lips. “I can’t believe you said that to my sister.”

  He squeezed one of her ass cheeks. It felt perfect in his hand. “Sugar, I’m sure you’ve shared more details with her than that.”

  “Yes, but I’m her sister. You just met her.”

  He shrugged. “She’s your sister. I’m sure she’s a lot like you, only quieter.”

  Though she shook her head, a small giggle escaped, and that made him smile. She kissed Summer’s cheek, and then she slid her hand into his. “Let’s go. I’m starving.” At the door, she turned back to look at Summer. “Bye, Summer. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  David opened doors for her and helped her into and out of his car. The entire time, he kept thinking about what he’d overheard. I think I’m falling in love floated around with I can pick any lock, open any safe. There was no way she was going to tell him everything, but he knew what question he was going to ask next Thursday. More than anything else, he wanted to know about this woman who called herself Autumn Sullivan.

  He picked up dinner, more takeout, and drove toward her place. “I hope you like Chinese.”

  “As long as it’s not shrimp, we’re good.”

  “So, just to be clear, you don’t have a shellfish allergy?”

  “Why? Are you thinking of making me eat shrimp as a punishment? That’s incredibly gross, Sir. It’s right up there with golden showers.” They’d arrived at her apartment building. People sat on lawn chairs in the parking lot and along the walkways. “Don’t worry about the car. One warning is all it takes. They’ve seen me in my dominatrix outfits, so they know better than to piss me off.”

  He wasn’t too worried about the SUV. It wouldn’t be the first time his vehicle had been stolen or vandalized. That’s why he registered it to SAFE Security. “You didn’t answer the question, Sugar.”

  “No, I’m not allergic. I’ll eat crab and other shellfish, but for some reason, shrimp grosses me out.” She led him to the second floor and to her door. “You know, all these people think you’re my boy toy.”

  He shrugged and held her screen door open as she unlocked the security door. The moment they stepped through, her phone buzzed. She tapped a pattern into the program, and the buzzing stopped. Rather than pretend ignorance, he asked point-blank. “Is that a laser alarm linked to your phone?”

  “You can never be too careful.”

  “You just said my car was safe.” He set the paper sack of food on the counter.

  “Safe enough.” She got out plates and flatware. “I’m more concerned about a surprise visit from my landlord.”

  If he hadn’t researched her, he would have interpreted that as fear of an unscrupulous landlord. Since he had, he knew she wanted some warning before eviction happened. This time, he played ignorant. “What concerns you about a surprise visit from your landlord, and do I need to kick his ass?”

  Her movements slowed, and he knew she was formulating a true statement that didn’t reveal things she didn’t want him to know.

  “Sugar, answer me right now.”

  “I, um, I don’t always pay my rent. Landlords tend to object to that sometimes.”

  “Why not? This palace can’t be all that expensive.” He opened the containers and lined them up on the counter.

  “The bills for Summer’s care are sometimes a bit much. As long as I catch up within four months, they won’t evict me.” She looked at him, her eyes wide, beseeching him for understanding. “That’s generally when I take a job with Ms. B. It’s easy money.”

  “And you get to stretch your dominatrix muscles. It’s hard for a switch in a relationship with someone who doesn’t switch. I get it.”

  She paused, empty plate in hand, and studied the food choices. “I’m glad you get it.”

  “I’m going to want details after every session. And if you need to discuss planning, I’m willing to give you pointers.” He took the other plate and began piling on the food.

  Snorting, she followed suit. “Thanks, Sir, but it’s not the same thing. The scenes are almost scripted by the client. They pick what they want, and as long as it’s within my limits, that’s what happens. There’s rarely negotiation.”

  He looked around. The sofa was the only place to sit, so he crossed the tiny space and settled there. “Do you think there will come a time when you’ll want a regular sub to scene with?” As he asked, he wanted to rewind time and take it back. If she did that, then she’d be establishing an intimate—even if it wasn’t romantic—relationship with someone else. That was not acceptable.

  “Never thought
about it.” She set her plate on the low table next to his and went back to the kitchen for napkins. The sofa bounced as she sat heavily next to him. “To be honest, before you came along, the idea of having a relationship of any kind was the farthest thing from my mind.” She tied her hair back with a rubber band and dug into her food. “This is really good. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Tomorrow, we’re going to have a home-cooked meal that we prepare together.”

  “I’m better at baking,” she said. “I love to bake. It’s both exciting and relaxing.”

  He thought about the brownies she’d made. They were tasty, but they were from a box. “I’ll pick up some cake mix.”

  She nailed him with a glare that said she knew exactly what he’d been thinking. “I’ll text you a shopping list. When I have the time, I prefer to bake from scratch.”

  “Then you’ll bake from scratch. Hey, listen, I wanted to talk about protocol.”

  She swallowed the forkful of lo mien she’d been eating. “You want me to get naked?”

  “Sometimes. I’ll tell you when you can and can’t wear clothes.” When they were finished negotiating, he was going to make her strip down. Right now, they were outside of the dynamic. “You naturally fall into calling me by a title when we’re alone together. I like that. You’ll keep doing it. In mixed company, you can use my name, but if we’re with friends who know about our lifestyle, then you’ll continue to use my title.”

  “Yes, Sir.” She put her hand on his knee. “I want to kneel when we start a scene.”

  Surprised that she’d take the lead on that, he nodded. “I prefer that as well. When we eat at home, I’ll expect you to serve me, preferably on your knees. You know what I’m talking about?”

  “Yes. And when we’re hanging out, do you want me to kneel in a relaxed position at your feet?”

  His pants were growing uncomfortably tight as images of that kind of domestic bliss flipped through his mind. “Yes, though a lot of the time, you won’t stay there. I like to cuddle.”