Thankfully, Theo had thought to stash some money in his room. It hadn’t lasted long, however, and he’d had to find another place to live. He despised working at the bank without Clarington, and he struggled to find a new job too. Thinking back on his desperation at that time made Theo all the more driven to make Lucas pay.

Two years after his friend and mentor went to prison, Rafael Clarington had died. No one ever said how, but Theo figured someone had it in for him. Theo had been truly heartbroken. Rafael had been more of a father to him than his own. Now, twelve years after their thievery had been discovered by then eighteen-year-old Lucas Carson, Theo still blamed him for the death of his friend. Theo wanted Carson to pay, and pay big.

For years he had wondered how to get the upper hand. He wanted to kill Carson, but not until he made him suffer in shame just as Theo had suffered when he was forced to leave his home with nothing but what he could carry. The way Rafael had suffered when he’d been sent to prison. He wanted Carson to know the pain of loss. If Theo could get the position as his personal secretary, that would put him in close enough proximity to make a plan and see Carson dead.

It was infuriating to imagine a boy, barely a man, having the ability to figure out what Clarington had done. His father had brought Carson in to work a summer position, hoping Carson would one day take over running the bank. Because Carson did nothing by halves, he dove into the work with gusto, and it wasn’t long before he was making changes to improve efficiency. When he started staying late to give the books a thorough audit, Rafael hadn’t even batted an eye. He’d assured Theo there were too many safeguards built into his scheme. No one, much less an eighteen-year-old child, would be able to figure it out. But Lucas Carson had done it, and worse yet, he’d done it in less than forty-eight hours.

Rafael had been stunned. He had no warning, but when the Carson men showed up with guards, he had known his scheme was uncovered. He tried to deny it, but in the end, in order to reduce his sentence, he admitted to what he’d done. He also made it clear he had acted alone.