A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville (best time to read books .txt) 📗

was right, and I knew exactly what they’d do as soon as they took command. They hadn’t gone to all these lengths to install better management, improve services, or increase corporate assets for the other shareholders. When they got their hands on a business like that—they’d milk it dry, and not only of dividends. They’d do what had been done to Bibi’s bank. But this time, on an inconceivable scale. What they were proposing might topple the entire U.S. economy. And thanks to the fact we’d handed a brand-new country over to them, everything they did would remain entirely within the parameters of the law—laws that they would clearly be able to write all by themselves!

The biggest mistake I had made in all of this was in failing to recognize genuine evil when it stared me in the face. I’d been pussyfooting around with Lawrence, trying to slip one over on him by proving the bank’s security was no good. What a fool I’d been—when the corruption itself started at the top; not in a computer system or a steering committee, but in the black and power-hungry mind of a single man. I might not be able to stop him—but I certainly wasn’t going to help him get away with this.

But suddenly Tor appeared at my elbow, handing me a glass of champagne with a smile. What came next was a real surprise.

“My dear Verity, let’s have a toast to the better man, and try to assuage our failure with the million he’s offered. After all, we put up a good fight, but even the cleverest among us can’t always win.”

I stared at him, but for the life of me couldn’t imagine what he was doing. Tor never gave up without a fight. Indeed, I’d never seen him give up anything—including his courtship of me—until he won.

But he clinked his glass against mine and raised it aloft as Lelia, in confusion, did the same.

“To Lawrence, and his compatriots who are still off exploring the isle. Too bad they can’t be here as well to witness our capitulation. But their celebration will surely be just as joyous when they return to see these contracts duly signed and witnessed.” He took another sip of the wine and gripped my arm with unnecessary force. “And to Verity, our silent partner, whose cleverness put this deal together. Though it isn’t the prize you’d hoped for, I’m certain the million you’ve earned will compensate somewhat for the billion or so you’ve invested these three or four months—”

“What did Banks have to do with that capital?” demanded Lawrence. “I thought that the baroness was the backer of this deal.”

“Not in the back, but in the front,” said Lelia, gracing me with a conspiratorial smile.

Obviously, everybody knew what was going on but me.

“What the baroness means,” Tor explained, “is that she was the front for our whole investment—the purchase of the bonds we used as collateral, the acquisition of financing, as well as the island’s purchase and creation of the business. But the mastermind—and financial angel, if you will—was Verity Banks.”

“That’s completely absurd,” said Lawrence. “Where could Banks raise capital of that magnitude? You’re talking about a billion in securities!”

He looked more than a bit uneasy. It was clear even to him that things weren’t as they should be. But I myself was still at sea.

“Perhaps you should tell him how you raised the funds,” suggested Tor, with that ravishing smile. He pressed my arm more firmly, and added, “Exactly how you raised a billion dollars—and on such short notice, too!”

And then, of course, I knew, and I smiled myself.

“I stole it,” I said sweetly, polished off my champagne, and went to replenish my glass.

“I beg your pardon?” said Lawrence. When I glanced up from pouring, his pupils had disappeared in tiny slits. He actually removed his glasses and polished them, as if that would help him hear better.

“Do I stammer?” I asked politely with raised brow. “I stole a billion dollars from the bank’s wire services—oh, and a bit from the Fed Reserve as well, which I shouldn’t forget to mention. We used it to buy securities—but we’d planned to return it all as soon as we made our thirty million. Of course now that you’ve reneged on your part, that won’t be possible.”

Lawrence stood there silently, as we three beamed at him.

“Of course, it really won’t matter—since I obviously didn’t move the money through accounts in my own name. Those stolen funds will never be traced to me,” I explained. Then I paused a beat. “They’ll be traced to you, of course—and your little friends.”

Everything was so silent there on the terrace, it seemed we’d been sucked away into a vacuum. Lawrence was deathly pale and he gripped his glass so tightly I thought he might crush it in his hand. Surely it had dawned on him that no court of law in the land would believe a man who could put together a leveraged buyout of a major bank and a country—but who tried to pretend he knew nothing about how a billion in stolen money had wound up in his own bank account.

Suddenly, Lawrence flung his glass across the terrace—directly at my head—and Tor shoved me out of the way as it struck the wall behind.

“You miserable goddamned bitch!” he screamed in a voice so shrill, for a moment I thought it was an animal.

I recovered from my shock, but Tor had raced to Lawrence’s side and pinned his arms as he screamed and screamed. Then all at once, everything was pandemonium as Pearl and Georgian came rushing down the road to the parapet, the Vagabonds just behind. Everyone was shouting at once and trying to hear at the same time as Tor wrestled the shrieking Lawrence into a nearby chair.

Lelia banged a spoon on her champagne glass until we all came to order.

“Gentlemen,” she said quietly, smiling at them, “I suggest you all are having some seats again. Our class is not