“Jake. It’s good to hear from you.”
“Why’d you do it, Matty?”
“Jake, we had no idea she was your girl. We thought she was like your business partner, just a friend. She never gave us the impression there was something serious between you two.”
“No, Matty. I’m not talking about Greta. Why’d you pay my lawyer?”
“Um, well, to get you out of jail, of course. And, I’d do it again, Jake.”
I sighed. “Thank you. I get that you did what you did to get me out of jail. But I’m out of jail now. Why’d you pay the lawyer again to fight the identity theft charge?”
There was a long pause.
“Matty?”
“Yeah, I’m here. But I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never made another payment beyond the initial retainer.”
“Who then? Austin? Erik?”
“Money’s a bit tight at the moment, I’m afraid. For me. For all of us. But listen, Jake, if you’re in trouble, you know we can go back into business. Just say the word. But we’re not going to do it without a green light from you.”
“Thanks, Matty. I’m not in trouble - at least nothing I can’t handle.”
“Are you still upset? I mean, we can’t let this ruin our friendship. It was just—”
“Listen, Matty,” I interrupted. “I’m going to have to call you back.”
I ended the call and phoned my lawyer.
“Mr. Moore.”
“Hi, um, excuse me. But, when you said my friends already paid your retainer, who exactly? Which friends?”
Her answer was direct, matter of fact, and it knocked the wind out of me. “The Handsome Agency.”
I stared blankly at the wall, unable to respond.
“Mr. Moore, are you there?”
“Um, um, yeah, I’m here.”
“I’m going to need all the documents you have. You mentioned you kept records.”
“Um, yes. That’s right.”
“Good. Because I don’t get paid to make deals with prosecutors. And I don’t get paid to lose.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
Change of plans.
I decided to listen to the prosecutor—not when she said I should take her deal and plead guilty to identity theft. No, that was a desperate offer. I would have been foolish to take it. No, I paid greater attention to what she’d said to me before that—I do have good friends.
I’d let a stupid mistake push me into hiding for years. I wasn’t about to let my pride and my hurt feelings push me into jail for another few years. It turned out I still had some fight left in me, now that I understood there was something worth fighting for.
I was ready to fight, not just for my liberty, but for the chance to actually do something with it. And the first battle in that fight—my ego.
I picked up the phone. “Austin, it’s Jake.”
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
“Better. Thanks. Listen, Austin. You were right.”
After a long pause, he said. “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific. I’m right about a lot of things.”
“You’re right about our team.”
After another pause, he said, “Go on.”
“I had it in my head that it was me and Greta against the world. I was just so caught up in my fantasy, I never imagined it could be anything but that. Do you know what I mean?”
“And when reality turned out to be different from your dream,” he said slowly as if he was piecing it together for me, “you rejected it out of hand.”
“Yeah, I didn’t stop to try and imagine a different kind of team, a team with you and me and Matty and Cameron, Erik, Dalton, and Gabriel...”
“And Greta,” he added.
“And Greta.”
“That sounds like one hell of a team,” he said.
“It sure does.”
“We could probably take on more than a few worlds with that team,” he said.
I chuckled. “For the time being, this one’s giving me about all I can handle.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’ve got you.”
Instead of spending the last of my savings on a bus ticket for Colorado, I bought a bus ticket to North Dakota. From there, the seven of us drove down to New York. It should have been a twenty-four-hour drive, but I suggested we stop off in Minnesota to spend a day fishing.
Between Austin and Cameron, there was enough fishing gear for all of us. That, along with the masks and chains I’d brought for us and the bridles, reins, and harness Matty borrowed from his cousin’s ranch, the van we’d rented was packed to the brim. If ever we got pulled over, we’d have a hell of a time explaining our cargo to the trooper.
Erik, the least broke among us, emptied his bank account to rent us a house in Long Island for the month. If things worked out right—and we were highly confident they would—it would be the best investment he’d ever make.
27
Greta
I had taken some risks. None of them were planned or anticipated, and they didn’t exactly work out the way I had hoped. But I had no regrets.