Page 44 of The Gambler
Some of the biggest names in the world were sitting at those tables. They had no idea that they were playing against someone with Jenna’s abilities. People lives were destroyed, some lost everything; when word started getting around about her, there were threats made against her life. But that’s not why I did this, I did it because of what I found when I started digging. Jenna unwittingly turned me on to some of the things that were going on.
On one of the rare occasions her mother let her visit my home, she was on the computer with Hal. Let’s just say she scared the ‘you know what’ out of him when she cracked into the pentagon’s database. He knew what he was looking at because of my prior work with the defense commission.
He didn’t let on to her that he knew what she was looking at, or that it was wrong, but through a series of questions, he was able to get out of her what she’d been doing. Up until then we thought it was just the gambling thing, and like you said, it’s not illegal per se, but it was still wrong for her to be used in that way, and I was going to find a way to put a stop to it. But when we found out what all they had her and some of the others up to, we had to make a move. It would’ve been unethical not to as a grandmother, and as a representative of our great nation.
I don’t know how much you know about the autistic community, but some of these kids and some adults as well, have amazing talents. Some we haven’t even tapped into yet. This Bonata character somehow convinced some very influential men and women to exploit these people. We’re talking children being ripped away from their families and being placed with others that were handpicked by him, or whoever else was working with him. He has families who were being paid by these unscrupulous men to foster these poor kids.
They would target them, in the beginning we didn’t know how they knew who was who, but I suspect that the operation was very sophisticated. We found school officials, doctors, lawyers and the head of DHS. They were all in bed together. You might wonder how they found each other, or how they were able to convince these people to sell their souls, but in the end it was all about the money.
They’d have someone bring a trumped up charge against the biological parents so that they could remove the children from their homes and place them. Can you imagine a child like Jenna, so unassuming and innocent being taken advantage of like that? It broke our hearts; we had to do something.
It started with my granddaughter yes, but I couldn’t sit back and let this go on after learning these things. The more we dug, the dirtier it became. A sanctioned government organization that had been set up to help children and families in need, was being used as a front for this…I don’t even know what you’d call it. So I got the idea for the expose`, I knew the only way to flush the guilty parties out was to shine the spotlight on the whole sordid affair.”
“Did your daughter know about this?”
“I didn’t want to believe it, not at first. But when I brought some of it to her attention she seemed, I don’t know. Either she didn’t want to believe me, or she just wanted it to go away. When I started getting threats I didn’t think anything of it. We always get threats when we’re working on a cause. And no one else knew what I was doing; I kept this one close to the vest. I thought we were covering our tracks pretty well, because of the sensitive nature and of course to protect the innocents.”
Jenna chose that moment to start her speed texting and Andros looked down at her little fingers as they sped across the letters. No one else had said anything once the senator started to talk, and the room was in almost complete silence, except for the tapping of her fingers.
He took his phone out when it chimed and read the message she had there. “Do you know a Spencer Dewitt?”
“Why yes, he’s my assistant, he’s the one helping me with the expose`; which I have to get back to by the way. The book’s being launched in a couple days with the documentary following after.”
“This guy have your documents, whatever it was that you were gonna use?”
“Why yes, yes he does.”
“He’s the one they sent to kill you.”
“What? That can’t be, he’s…what?”
Jenna started typing again and he waited. “Do you have backups for all this shit?”
“I don’t know, I have my notes and stuff, but Spencer took care of all that, I had other things that I’ve been working on. What are you saying? The book’s launch is coming up soon, wouldn’t the publisher have contacted me if there was a problem?”
“Not if your assistant used your name to squash it.” She seemed genuinely flustered and upset; her husband put his arm around her and tried comforting her. Andros meanwhile was trying to work his mind around all the shit he’d learned. He didn’t doubt that the shit she’d said was true. His only thoughts now were finding those who’d been exploited, and seeing to their care. He wasn’t interested in theexpose` and other bullshit.
People paid interest in those things only for as long as they were in the spotlight, as soon as the news stopped running it, people copped the attitude of, out of sight out of mind. Some of them even believed, that as long as it was no longer a running stream on the six o’clock news that the issue had been dealt with. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
“Jenna.” The grandfather had gotten up from his seat next to his wife and gone to retrieve something from the bag he’d packed in a hurry. He handed Jenna a laptop before going back to his seat. Andros was about to ask him what the fuck, but the other man answered before he could open his mouth.” Cathy used that for her work, if the records, manuscripts and all that are gone, Jenna can get them back.”
“How?”
“You’ll see.” He smiled at his granddaughter with pride, much as gramps did on occasion when Andros had pleased him. Usually when he’d burned someone or fucked somebody’s shit up for being stupid; but you had to take your proud moments where you could get them. Not everyone was a damn computer criminal.
She started fiddling with the thing and he looked over at his boys. “Find Spencer, add any names she gives you to the list.” He was sanctioning a hit in front of a United Stated senator, but he pretty much didn’t give a fuck. He was gonna eliminate every last motherfucker that had anything to do with this scheme. One because of the part she’d been forced to play in it; and two because of all the innocents they’d no doubt fucked over.
Bonata’s files had given up some things but not all. Now maybe he could fit the pieces together and get this shit over with. And hopefully put it behind them for good.
The gambling thing in itself was no big deal to him, but the other shit she was capable of might put her in danger. He knew many who would give their eyeteeth to get their hands on someone like her. They’d have to go through him first.
She was totally absorbed in what she was doing. He’d long since given up in trying to figure out how her mind worked. On the screen all he saw was gibberish and dashes and symbols. She read it the way he’d read a book, totally fucking insane. He wondered what their kids would be like? Will they have their mother’s genius? He’d have his fucking hands full if that was the case; but he couldn’t wait.
Thinking of getting her with child, his child only sent his mind and body down a whole other path. It might be hours before she was done here, but he couldn’t wait to get her upstairs behind closed doors, so he could reacquaint himself with her amazing body.
He felt a rush of gratitude in that moment, that she was his, that everything that she was, belonged to him, only him. In her way of always knowing, somehow she knew his mood had shifted, because she looked back at him over her shoulder and smiled. Then she puckered up for a kiss. He tried to make it short and sweet because of their audience, but his Jenna only knew one way to kiss.
He held her little face in his hands to soften the kiss before it got out of hand. Whispering gently in her ear, he promised to give her all the kisses and loving she needed once they were alone. He hoped that would suffice her somehow, but she came back for more. It was the throat clearing from her nana that finally broke the spell and she lifted her mouth from his with another one of her smiles that went right to his gut.