Green-Eyed Monster by Gill McKnight Page B

would have been firm friends. It was this base foundation of actually liking each other in their expensive, shallow, high-maintenance world, where honest feelings never flourished, that held them tentatively together—even now. Especially now, when in the midst of their acrimonious split, they shared a joint problem. They’d both been played for fools. They had both been belittled and beggared by the same scourge. Now they had a common enemy and a common goal. And they knew they worked well together—like the tag team from hell.
    “You realize I had to hire practically an entire corporate law firm to broker a deal over my back taxes?” Victoria finally snapped. “The world and his wife noticed the way my money was whizzing around the globe this week. I might as well have stashed it on a roller coaster with fireworks.” Victoria shook her head, exasperated. “Of all the stupid, selfish, ill-thought-out schemes. Why did you do it, Ginette?”
    “I wanted more than you were offering.” Ginette explained as simply as she could. What was the problem here? You move in with a millionaire and you become used to the luxury. You become addicted to the lifestyle. What’s not to understand?
    “I mean, the offer of my own place and a secure job was fine…” Her finger traced an imaginary pattern on the bed cover. “I still have that, right?” She popped a panicked glance at Victoria.
    Victoria sighed and merely nodded at her ex’s audacity. She just hadn’t the energy to scream at her until she turned blue and a nurse with a lot of drugs had to be summoned. So instead she muttered, “Just tell me every stinking little detail…again.” Ginette’s shoulders relaxed a little.
    “I met her at work. She was another one of those big geeky weirdoes we seem to breed. Anyway, by that time, I was looking for a better settlement. Our arguing had gotten us nowhere, and I knew you were never going to budge. I just wanted some of the surplus money that always seemed to be lying around. Tons of it sitting there all unspent, doing nothing but earning boring old interest.” She had a dreamy look on her face as she remembered all those beautiful zeros.
    “So you had her fired and withheld the bonus on the code she delivered? Then you used that same money as a bribe for helping you stage a phony kidnapping, so you could strip my accounts.”
    “Yes. It was a fantastic, uncomplicated little plan. In fact, apart from my withholding her bonus, getting her fired, and blaming you, the rest of it was more or less her idea. All I wanted to do was empty an account or two. She thought up the fake kidnap as a decoy for a huge ransom. It was the perfect cover for the withdrawal of all our funds and meant I could fleece you for even more.” Ginette was very frank now that the cards were on the table and at least some of her chips were safe. “All she seemed interested in was her ‘honor’ and her bonus. Fixated would be the word I’d use. Like I said, she came over as a big geek.”
    “Except all along she was playing you, turning the plan to her own advantage. You dropped me and all the ammo she needed right into her lap. You said she was ex-FinCEN. She’s probably been monitoring me for years, building up her own private profile, planning a move like this.”
    “If I’d have known you were so crooked, I might have loved you more.” Ginette sighed. She was working her way back to Victoria’s good side, she could feel it.  “Why on earth did you trust her? How did you know she wouldn’t just run for the hills with the money, leaving me locked in a car trunk somewhere?”
    “I checked her out. Jeez, I’m not that stupid, Vic. The FinCEN  information was correct. She’s Michaela Rapowski, a technical analyst, and she didn’t seem too greedy or creepy or anything.  I mean, credit where it’s due. She had me running around those woods popping off my pistol so she could drag you out of that furnace. So don’t tell me I