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sat up and clicked his seatbelt on. “That was awesome, sis. Just like the old da—hey!”
    I reached back and hit him. I kept on hitting him as best as I could with one hand on the wheel, nearly swerving into the next lane. “That was not awesome.” Slap. “I can’t believe I’m related to you.” Slap, slap. “You’re such a fucking idiot.” Slap, slap, slap.
    He tried to dodge me, but he was so big I landed more smacks than I missed.
    “Jesus, stop! Goddamn it, Maggie. You’re as bad as Mom.”
    That earned him three more whacks. “You think I wanted to fly up here to save your sorry ass with Sergei as a chaperone? I’m out of vacation days so this is coming out of my sick pay, and I was planning on using them for a trip to Mexico. I can’t believe you were dumb enough to cheat Kostya out of two and a half million fucking dollars. What were you thinking?” I hit him once more to drive the message home.
    “I didn’t take Kostya’s money.”
    “Right. And I’m not Queen of My-Brother’s-a-Fucking-Idiot-Ville.”
    “I swear to God, Maggie. I didn’t steal his money. Sergei did.”
    And suddenly it all made sense. Sergei must’ve said something to Kostya back at the restaurant to get himself in on the hunt for Miguel and then played it off as Kostya’s romantic side. Add to it his willingness to help me find Miguel and get him away from Kostya’s goons. There was only one reason why. He wanted to find out how much Miguel knew and then he’d get rid of Miguel himself.
    “Are you shitting me? Because I swear to God, Miguel, that if you’re lying to me I’m going to mule-kick your nuts so far up into your head they’ll replace your eyeballs.”
    “Jesus, you’re such a bitch.”
    “I don’t like being played…by you or Kostya or Sergei. Now tell me what the fuck happened with Kostya’s money before I turn this car around and deliver you right into his lap.”
    Miguel laid it all out. Sergei was the one behind the Ponzi scheme. He’d gotten his uncle to invest a butt-load of cash and then fixed the books so it looked like Miguel had taken off with the money.
    “Only I’m smarter than Sergei thinks,” Miguel said.
    I highly doubted that. Sergei had counted on the fact that Miguel had built a reputation for fucked-up deals and less-than-honest business practices. From the beginning I’d wondered why Sergei would go into business with my brother. Now I knew. He needed a fall guy and Miguel was practically perfect in every single way.
    My gut burned, thinking about how I’d nearly broken down in front of Sergei. He’d played on my sympathies and sentimentality. And I’d let him. There was more than one idiotic Castro sibling in this car.
    “I found the offshore bank account where Sergei hid the money,” Miguel continued. “I have the account number. He doesn’t know I found it. I took off, trying to buy some time so I could hack into the bank account and get Kostya’s money back. Then Ivan and Andrei showed up and I was out of time.”
    “Instead of going to the police?” I couldn’t believe this guy had procreated. Just what the world needed…more Miguels. I pulled the car over. “Get in the front seat.”
    “You’re not going to drive off as soon as I get out of the car, are you?”
    “You have ten seconds…ten…nine…”
    He quickly climbed out of the back and into the front and we were once again speeding down the highway. I continued up Highway 101 to the 5 Freeway heading north back up to Eugene and the airport. As everyone would expect.
    And then it hit me.
    Oh, damn. I resisted the urge to smack myself in the forehead. I was so dumb. I’d played right into Sergei’s scheme.
    My escape with Miguel had gone off without a hitch. Pretty much right on cue. Looking back, I realized everything that had happened since I’d approached Sergei’s club had fallen together almost as though things were going according to plan. Sergei had been too complicit and too cooperative