The Money Block

by Holly West

  She had the power to change things back. She and Sam had a great life together and she wanted to keep it that way. It seemed an easy decision. So why was she so conflicted?

  Rachel returned to the bed. It sank when she got back into it and the movement made Sam stir. He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Good morning, beautiful.”

  I’m pregnant, Sam. What will we do? She wanted to say it so badly, but the words stuck in her throat.

  Chapter Eight

  The next day, Arjun sent a group text to Sam and Rachel: Potential problem. Need to talk ASAP.

  They never discussed details over the phone, so they agreed to meet during Arjun’s lunch break. Sam and Rachel arrived at the Starbucks early for breakfast, and by the time they sat down with their muffins and drinks—coffee for Sam and tea for Rachel—she was ravenous. Unbeknownst to Sam, she’d already thrown up twice that morning. It was getting harder to hide her discomfort from him.

  “I’m worried,” Rachel said for the umpteenth time since they’d gotten Arjun’s text. “Tell me again why I shouldn’t be.”

  Sam swallowed the bite he’d just taken and said, “It can’t be an emergency if he thought it could wait until his lunch break.”

  “Right…still kinda worried, though.”

  Arjun came in wearing his usual hoodie, jeans, and Nikes, his backpack slung over his shoulder. As he took out his laptop and opened it, Rachel pounced. “Spill it. What’s going on?”

  “Can it wait until I get some coffee?”

  “No!”

  “Okay, okay. It’s not a huge deal—I hope not, anyway. But we’ve got a second investor. Someone named Raymond Tully purchased ten thousand dollars’ worth of Yellabux last night.”

  “How is that even possible?” Rachel asked. “I thought there were safeguards to prevent this.”

  Arjun put his hand up. “Guys, I’m starving. Let me get something to eat and I’ll explain.”

  “Hurry up.”

  While he was away, Sam said, “Cool it, will you? He said it’s not a big deal.”

  “He said it wasn’t a huge deal. It’s still a serious situation.”

  Sam shrugged. “It sounds like more money to me.”

  Arjun returned with an egg salad sandwich and a large frozen coffee drink. Egg salad, of all things. Watching Arjun unwrap his lunch, Rachel felt nauseous again. He noticed her looking at the meal. “Want some?” he asked her.

  “I’m good,” she said. “Tell us what’s going on.”

  He took a bite and tapped the laptop’s keys while he chewed. He analyzed something on the screen, then turned the laptop around so they could see it. “It’s like I said. We’ve got a second investor. At this point, I don’t know how. Mack’s app was encrypted so that only he could use it.”

  Rachel examined the screen. Raymond Tully had a Sacramento address. Probably someone Mack knew. “Could he have let someone sign up using his phone?”

  “It’s possible. I haven’t had time to look into it yet.”

  “Ten thousand?” Sam said. “Jeez. I say we keep it.”

  Rachel ignored Sam and focused her anger on Arjun. “I thought you knew what the fuck you were doing.”

  Arjun was unperturbed. “I know exactly what I’m doing.” He sucked the straw in his drink and swallowed. “I’m good at my job. With that said, there are sometimes unforeseen glitches that don’t come up during testing. This is one such glitch.”

  “A bug?” Sam asked.

  “Yes.”

  “We agreed to one mark,” Rachel said. “Every additional mark raises the chance that someone goes to the cops. I don’t want to get nailed for fraud.”

  “C’mon, Rachel,” Sam said. “At our level, the chances of getting charged with fraud are minimal when there are serious cryptocurrency fraudsters bilking investors out of millions. Nobody’s going to fault us for stealing a hundred thousand.”

  Rachel stared at him, incredulous. “Are you seriously that naive? The truth is that none of us know what the chances of getting caught are, so we need to minimize the risk as much as possible.”

  “She’s right,” Arjun said. “We need to take control of this situation.”

  “What do you suggest we do with this guy’s money then?” Sam asked.

  Rachel addressed Arjun. “Can we refund it?”

  “I can cancel the transaction, yes.”

  “Do it. Then shut this thing down.”

  Rachel knew Sam wasn’t happy that she’d overridden him, but she didn’t see any other way. All he could see was the money, and while she hated to give it up herself, she couldn’t justify risking everything for it. She’d seen too many grifters get greedy on an operation and reach for just one more dollar, only to see a cop slap a handcuff on their wrist, or worse.

  Arjun slurped up the last of his drink and raised his hand to shut his laptop. Then, he stopped. His eyes popped open as he read the screen.

  “Uh, guys?” he said. “We’ve got a third investor.”

  Arjun told them he’d contact them as soon as he had any news. With Sam still sulking and the weather gloomy, Rachel didn’t feel like being holed up in the hotel room all day, worrying. She suggested they go for a drive.

  Sam’s mood improved as they drove up the coast toward San Francisco. Route 101 offered a view of the bay for much of the drive, and even Rachel felt better as they headed north. “It’ll be good to move on,” Sam said. “But I’m going to miss California. I like it here.”

  “We’ve had nothing but bad luck here. I’m starting to wonder whether we’ve over-stayed our welcome.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Everything’s gone wrong.”

  “That’s not true. The way I see it, everything’s gone right this time.”

  “We didn’t count on three investors, Sam.”

  “No, but it’s probably an easy fix. And even if it’s not, I’m having a hard time seeing the problem with an extra twenty grand dropped into our laps.”

  “If Arjun made one mistake, who’s to say he didn’t make more? Like what if our identities are compromised?”

  “We’re covered, babe. Relax and let Arjun do his job. He’ll get this resolved.”

  They were in the city now and the Golden Gate Bridge was visible in the distance. Seeing it always buoyed Rachel’s spirits but today she felt like she had anchors tied to both feet. It didn’t help that Alcatraz was also on view. She didn’t appreciate being reminded of prisons at the moment.

  “Don’t you ever get tired of living like this?” Rachel asked.

  Sam glanced over at her. “Everyone gets tired of their lives sometimes. But if you’re asking me if I want to live any other way, the answer is a hard no.”

  When he put it this way, Rachel had to agree. Their lives were exciting. Chaotic, maybe, but never boring. “I love you, Sam,” she said.

  “I love you, too.” He stopped at a light and reached over to squeeze her knee. “What’s going on with you, babe? You haven’t been yourself for weeks.”

  It was the perfect opportunity to tell him about the pregnancy. Keeping it secret was a heavy burden, and anyway, he had a right to know. Figuring out what to do was a decision they needed to make together.

  She knew all of this and yet the words wouldn’t come. What if she decided she wanted to keep the baby and he didn’t want to? Or, maybe worse, what if he wanted to keep it and she didn’t?

  “I’m okay,” she said. “I’ll be glad when this is all done with and we can hit the road again.”

  The light changed and Sam hit the gas. “You’ve lost weight.” He glanced at her sideways. “Don’t get me wrong, you always look great, but if you’re not feeling well—”

  “I’m fine, really, Sam. I’m just ready for a change of scenery, aren’t you?”

  He smiled. “Definitely. But I was thinking. Now that we’ve got Mack’s money—why don’t we get a hotel in the city for the night and live it
up a little? Forget about the world for a while.”

  “I didn’t bring a change of clothes—”

  “Believe me, darlin’ you won’t be needing clothes tonight.”

  Chapter Nine

  Arjun’s early morning phone call woke them both up. Sam put his phone on speaker. “Problem solved,” Arjun said. “How soon can you be here?”

  An hour later they were at Arjun’s apartment, drinking bad coffee. Rachel suspected it was left over from the day before and he’d microwaved it. Arjun spoke quickly. “When I designed the app, I used some off-the-shelf software to configure part of it. Its default setting offers three invitations for the investor to send to whoever he wants. Our second and third investors must be people he knows.”

  He was animated, as though energized by his discovery. But Rachel did the math and was immediately alarmed. “So, Mack might’ve sent an invitation to a third investor, and the other two might’ve sent out three each. This could get out of control quickly.”

  “Not to worry. I already deactivated the system so that nobody else can get in. And I sent notifications to the other two investors terminating their accounts.”

  “We have to assume they know Mack,” Sam said. “At least one of them does. What if they discuss it with him?”

  “As far as the new investors know, the ICO has ended. Even if the subject comes up with Mack, he’ll just think he got in at the right time.”

  "Yeah,” Sam said. “He’ll probably pull a muscle trying to pat himself on the back.”

  “You really think we’re safe?” Rachel asked.

  Arjun sipped his coffee. “Eventually, he’ll know he’s been conned. Probably sooner than later.”

  “We knew that going in,” Sam said.

  “Right. But systems-wise, I’ve tied up all the loose ends. There’s no link from Yella to you. In fact, as far as the rest of the world knows, Yella never existed at all.”

  “So that’s it,” Sam said. “We’re cool?”

  “I transferred the money. All you need to do is sell your coins.”

  “Already done.”

  “Looks like we’re done here, then,” Arjun said. “Where’re you off to next?”

  “We’re not sure, yet,” Rachel said. “Guess we’d better decide.”

  Sam and Rachel had already agreed their next stop would be Dallas, but they preferred to keep that to themselves. They trusted Arjun, but he didn’t need to know their whereabouts, especially since he was going civilian. Now that everything was resolved, they’d buy their plane tickets tonight.

  The three of them exchanged awkward hugs goodbye. “Good luck finding that wife,” Sam said.

  “From my mother’s mouth to God’s ears,” Arjun said.

  Chapter Ten

  After investing in Yellabux, Mack followed all the tech news he could. He set up Google alerts for Yella and Yellabux, cryptocurrency and anything related, even remotely. A couple of days passed with no news and he realized he was being foolish. This thing wasn’t going to pay off overnight—in fact, nothing was going to happen until the app was released, and that wasn’t scheduled for a couple of weeks. Unless he wanted to drive himself crazy, his best option was to sit tight, get on with his life, and hope Geena didn’t check the balance on Maverick’s college account before he could put the money back.

  He couldn’t help fantasizing about the money, though. His fifty-thousand-dollar investment could easily yield a return of a hundred million dollars or more. Mack always knew he’d be well off some day, even rich, but he never dreamed he’d get close to the money Yellabux could net him. Forget first class, this was private jet money. Maybe even yacht-on-the-Riviera money. And the women. He was already up to his ears in beautiful women, but it was hard to imagine the sort of quality female a hundred million dollars might catch. He looked forward to finding out.

  Mack was driving to Foley’s Roseville location when he got the phone call from Ray Tully. He and Ray had been friends since high school. Played football together, chased girls together. Back in the day, they ruled the school and their conquests were legendary. But Tully was one of those guys who put on weight after graduating. Mack guessed his old friend clocked in at around three hundred now. Not that it stopped him from trying to get women. Married, with three kids, and ol’ Tully was still on the prowl.

  Mack had sent Ray an invitation to invest in Yellbux along with an email: Trust me, you want in on this. Call me. When he answered the phone he said, “Yo, you get my email?”

  “Yeah, I got your email. What kind of fucked up joke is this?”

  Ray’s voice boomed so loudly from the car’s speakers that Mack had to turn down the volume. “Quit shouting, man. Use your inside voice.”

  “Fuck you. What’s up with this Yellabux thing?”

  “What do you want to know about it?”

  “I tried to invest but I got some bullshit notice saying they weren’t taking any more investors.”

  No wonder Tully was pissed. He’d always been a hot-head and he was probably mad he was too late to get in on the action. “Sorry, man. I didn’t realize there was a deadline.”

  “Sorry, my ass. How much did you invest?”

  “Enough.”

  Tully laughed. “Cagey bastard. Next dinner’s on you.”

  “Hell, this thing goes the way I think it will and I’ll buy you a whole fucking restaurant.” Mack signaled and merged into the right lane. He wondered what Tully’s transaction being canceled meant. Why would any company say no to more money? “Tell me more about this notice you got.”

  “It said the ICO had ended. Sucks, too, because I sent an invite to my father-in-law. Thought I’d keep the wealth in the family. But he got the same notice.”

  “You set up an account and initiated a buy?”

  “Yeah. Looked like everything was copacetic until I opened the app this morning and got the cancellation notice. Now, I can’t open the app at all. When did you invest?”

  “Couple days ago.”

  “I’d check on your account if I were you. Maybe they canceled your ass, too.”

  “Hang on, Tull, I’m driving. I’ll check on it and call you back.”

  He ended the call without waiting for Ray’s reply and got off the highway at the next exit. He pulled into a gas station parking lot and opened the Yella demo app. It tried briefly to connect before he got a message: Unable to Connect to Server.

  He re-booted the phone and tried again. Still unable to connect.

  Fuck me.

  He threw the phone onto the passenger-side floor. Then, realizing he was overreacting, he released the seat belt and reached for the phone. His conversation with Tully had wound him up. This was a demo app—it could be down for any number of reasons. Maybe they were updating it in preparation for going public earlier than anticipated. Ironing out last-minute bugs, that sort of thing.

  He opened his phone’s browser and went to the Yella website. This site can’t be reached. He searched for the Yellabux white paper and got the same result. YouTube: Nothing. Any link he’d used to access information on Yella or Yellabux no longer seemed to exist. The cloud had swallowed up all of it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Esme Adams assured Mack he could contact her if he had any questions. Boy, did he have questions.

  He looked up her phone number and pressed “call.” It was disconnected. He sat behind the wheel of his Range Rover feeling numb. What now? Wait a few hours and try again? It was still possible the app and website were down for maintenance. That didn’t explain the phone number but…

  Who he was he kidding? That fucking bitch had played him.

  He could call the police or the Better Business Bureau. Or maybe the FBI. They handled fraud cases, didn’t they? But what would he tell them? He didn’t have so much as an email receipt. Everything was stored on the Yella app and that no longer worked. Beyond a couple of texts with Esme from the same number that was now out of service
, he’d had no other contact.

  He placed a call to Evergreen-at-Tahoe. He didn’t think they’d release any information, but it was worth a try. When it connected, he asked to speak to the manager. Might as well go straight to the top. A few minutes later, a man came on the line. “Good afternoon, Mr. Foley. How can I help you?”

  “I need some information on a former guest. It’s important.”

  As he predicted, the man said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t give out any information on our guests. Privacy policy. You understand.”

  “I do, but this situation is…unique. I’m hoping you’ll make an exception.”

  “I’m very sorry. Perhaps I can help you with something else?”

  He thought for a moment. “I met a woman named Esme Adams at Evergreen this past weekend. I know you can’t give me any information about her, but can you at least confirm she was a guest?”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Foley, I can’t—”

  Mack didn’t have to work too hard to manufacture the desperation in his voice. “Please, will you check? I think my fiancé is cheating on me. All I need is a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Nothing else.”

  Mack heard the man let out his breath. For the amount of money he spent at that fucking place, the least this cocksucker could do was give him a simple answer. He heard the clicking of a keyboard, then, “No.”

  “No, what? You won’t tell me?”

  “I mean, no, there’s no record of an Esme Adams staying at the resort last weekend.”

  The negative reply gave him no joy, but at least he was getting somewhere. “Thank you,” he said.

  “Is that all, Mr. Foley?”

  “Yes—no, wait. What about a man named Liam White?”

  Click, click, click. Pause.

  “There’s no record of him, either.”

  Mack hung up without a word.

  Mack wasn’t the sort of man who liked admitting when he made mistake. But he didn’t like being cheated, either, and with most of Maverick’s college fund on the line, not to mention his own savings, his pride could take the hit. His next call was to his brother, Donald, who had connections Mack had never found it necessary to cultivate. Until now.