“Our money, yes.”

“Reyes.” I dragged him over to the bed. I needed to sit down. “Why on earth would you put everything in my name?”

His head tilted as though he didn’t quite understand the question. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You can’t just put money in someone else’s name. What if something happens and you need to get to it? You said you put everything in both our names.”

“No, I said it was our money and assets, not mine. I didn’t say whose name it was in.”

“But there’s thirty billion at stake.”

“Not enough?” he teased. “I can make more. I do, actually, on a daily basis. The interest alone is astronomical.”

Cookie sat at our counter, and I heard papers shuffling. She had information. Was bursting with it. But even she drew the line at barging into our bedroom. Thank goodness, because I was going to have another meltdown.

“No.” I stood and stepped out of his reach. “I forbid it. I refuse. You go to your seven accountants and you tell them to take it out of my name.”

“If you’re worried about the taxes—”

“This isn’t about taxes.” I could not believe this was happening. “It’s about you getting and keeping what is rightfully yours. What you worked for and you deserve.”

“Well, I am listed on the accounts. You’re just the owner of said accounts.”

This was not happening. This could not happen. “Reyes, I won’t take that money. Any of it. It’s yours. I can make my own living.”

“You are the strangest most perplexing human I’ve ever known.”

I let out a long breath. “Reyes, please, take my name off. It’s yours.”

“Dutch,” he said, standing in all his naked glory. “I started making that money from prison.”

“I know. You hacked servers all over the place and made a fortune on the stock market and other investments. You. Not me.”

“What I’m trying to say is, it’s always been in your name.”

A gentle breeze could have knocked me over, I was so stunned. “What do you mean?”

“When I started all this, when I figured out how to hack the markets, I put everything in your name. Well, everything but what I gave Kim and Amador and Bianca. I was always going to take care of you one way or another.”

I clamped my teeth together. He had never had anything growing up. He had been abused and exploited and framed for murder before he even got a start in life. He worked hard for what he had. He earned every penny. I would not take it from him.

“Dutch, I’m not changing the accounts. It’s yours. It’s all yours. And that’s final.”

He started for the bathroom again. I put my hand on his chest. He instantly covered it with his own.

“Please, Reyes, please take my name off.”

He bent until his mouth was barely a centimeter from my own and whispered, “Never.” Then he went into the bathroom and closed the door as I stood in the middle of our bedroom on the verge of hyperventilating.

After I was able to breathe without almost passing out, I rambled into the kitchen.

“Well?” she said when I took down a clean cup, having left mine in the bedroom. But, hell, I could afford a dozen cups. I could afford a thousand. No, I could afford thirty billion. “How was your night?”

I put the cup down, ran to her, and cried in her arms for a solid thirty minutes. One for each billion in my bank account.

21

Coffee

Debauchery

Madness

One down. Two to go.

—STATUS UPDATE

By the time Reyes came out, Cookie and I were at the kitchen counter drinking coffee. Well, I was drinking coffee and going over some articles she’d printed out. Cookie was staring off into space, in total shock. She had a bit of drool leaking from one corner of her mouth. I reached over with a napkin and sopped it up. She didn’t move.

“You told her?” he asked, getting a fresh cup himself.

“Should I not have?”

“Not at all. If anything happens to me, she will be the one you rely on most. She needs to know this stuff just as much as you do.”

He turned toward me and leaned back against the counter. He wore a dark red button down and his signature jeans. They weren’t tight, but they weren’t loose. They had the perfect fit around his hips. Over his ass. Through his crotch.

“Do we need to go back to the bedroom?” he asked from behind his cup.

I straightened and cleared my throat. Then I offered him my best pleading face. “Reyes, please take my name—”