Ah, Zane thought. Cass was going to have to give up her brother to explain those financial issues, but Zane was relieved that he already knew the truth.
“What exactly did you find?” she asked.
Zane didn’t blame her for trying to feel this out a bit before she opened up.
Mason rubbed his chin. “Cass, it’s not good. We know all about the three loans and the amount of debt you’ve accumulated. You know you should’ve disclosed that financial distress to me immediately.”
She nodded.
“But it gets much worse than that. We have hard evidence of you depositing five hundred thousand dollars into an offshore account that you probably assumed was not traceable.”
“What?” Zane asked. “That can’t be right. Cass, tell him the truth. Tell him what’s going on.” He looked at her, but her eyes darkened, and she didn’t immediately speak. “Cass? C’mon, tell him.”
“Zane, what’s your role in all of this?” Mason demanded.
“Zane doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Cass said. “Nothing.”
“You both better start talking ASAP,” Mason said.
Cass averted her eyes. “It’s complicated.”
“Can I have a moment alone with Cass?” Zane felt like he needed to intervene before this went completely off the rails.
Mason slammed his fist on the table. “Absolutely not. I don’t think the two of you realize how much trouble you’re in. I need some explanations right now before I have to call in reinforcements and haul you both off to a holding cell for a full interrogation.”
Zane had never seen Mason lose his cool like this. “Let’s just calm down. There’s nothing criminal going on here.”
“I beg to differ,” Mason said.
“Enough!” Cass shouted.
Her words shut up both of the men.
“As I said before, Zane isn’t involved in this.” She turned from Mason and looked directly at him. “Zane, I’m sorry about everything.”
“What are you talking about, Cass?” Zane asked.
Cass gripped her coffee cup. “I told you that my brother had a gambling problem and that is why I got into some dire financial trouble, because I was helping him. But that wasn’t the extent of the problem.”
“What else is there?”
“A lot.” Her voice cracked.
Mason cleared his throat. “As touching as this moment is between the two of you, I need you to tell me the complete truth right now.”
Cass didn’t seem fazed by Mason’s words. Instead, she put her hand on Zane’s arm. “My brother got into even deeper trouble. Massive. They were threatening to kill him if he didn’t pay up. He owed a lot of money. I feared they were actually going to carry out their threats.”
Zane couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to pull anyone else into this.”
“So the five hundred thousand was to help bail out your brother?” Mason asked.
“Don’t answer that,” Zane said.
Cass’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say a word.
“Cass needs a lawyer,” Zane insisted. “You’re talking about some serious charges here.”
Mason turned to him. “I’m trying to help her by not making this official yet.”
“And I appreciate that, but you and I both know that if she admits to anything now, it can and will be used against her with both of us as potential witnesses, and I’m not going to stand by and let that happen.”
“Don’t I get a say in this?” Cass asked.
“Cass, please,” Zane insisted.
Silence filled the room for a minute before she straightened in her chair. “I want a lawyer.”
Zane blew out a sigh of relief.
Mason stood. “Fine. But this has now moved from informal to official. I’ll give you two a minute, but then I’m taking you into custody, Cass. You’ll be able to get an attorney, and we’ll move on from there. Understood?”
She nodded, and Mason walked out of the room.
After a moment, Cass broke the silence. “I know you must hate me for keeping you in the dark.”
“Of course I don’t hate you.”
“Things just got out of control. One thing led to another, and the next thing you know, my brother is in a dark, black hole that he can’t get out of, and I was right there with him—I had to save him. He’s the only family I have left. You know both my parents are gone. It’s just me and him. He lost his way, and I felt this was my only option to help him.”
“Is he in the clear now?”
She sighed. “For now, yes. Obviously, it was a big price to pay—both financially and emotionally, but he’s trying his hardest to get his life back on track. I have to keep close tabs on him to make sure he doesn’t fall back into bad habits.” She swallowed. “Which will be a lot harder if I’m locked up. Anyway, I didn’t want to drag you into my family mess.”
And that was what hurt him the most, that Cass thought he wasn’t to be trusted. That she couldn’t come to him with her biggest and darkest secrets. “You could’ve told me.”
“Could I, really? Zane, you’re beyond reproach, and everyone knows it. A rule follower. I knew you would not approve of my actions even if they were to help my brother.”
Was that really how she saw him? Yeah, she made jokes about him being too by the book, but this went much deeper. “I’d like to think, after all these years, that you’d see me as more complex than that.”
She sighed. “You are. I’m not trying to argue with you. I’m just telling you how I felt. I didn’t think I could tell you.”
“Cass, you could’ve told me anything. You still can.”
She hung her head. “I know that now, but at the time, I made the decision I thought was best in a difficult circumstance. I wasn’t sure how I was going to help him, given I’d already maxed out everything I had. Then we went on the op. . . .”
He gripped her hand. “Don’t tell me anything about the op, okay? Nothing. We’ll get you an attorney and figure this out. But I can’t be a witness
