Consequences

Part 22

"Thought you might want to have a look at this." Ryan held out a sheaf of papers. He was not smiling. That in itself was interesting. For Doug's younger brother usually wore a perpetual grin.

"What is it?" Doug placed his beer down on the kitchen worktop and flicked his brother a look.

"I did some digging." Ryan said calmly, his head bobbed from side to side as if he was weighing up his next statement. "More digging actually. Into the Soujour D'Sa family."

Doug narrowed his eyes. "What for?" He shook his head and warned. "No hacking." The main reason that Doug had set up the company was to keep his brother out of trouble! That's how their business actually got started. Doug needed to give Ryan something to focus on, because at 10 he was becoming a well recognised and respected hacker! If something needed to be cracked, Ryan could manage it. But at fifteen he'd been caught! And nearly ended up in jail. In fact it was how they came to meet Jethro.

But that one pivotal moment had resulted in Doug setting up a company a year later, when Ryan turned 16 and Doug turned twenty three. So much had happened in that intervening period of time between that precarious start and their current position.

But ten years on and it would appear that he was still hacking.

"Just curious!" Ryan grinned at his older brother, knowing that Doug would not be pleased to learn that Ryan had indeed gone into places he had no right to be! But Ryan was not about to allow his brother to get involved in something shady! Ryan shrugged when Doug scowled in annoyance. "It isn't often one's brother gets hooked up with an heiress of old money. I just wanted to know how rich!" And why she'd want to hook up with his brother, a man she had never met!

"I'm not engaged to her. I told you that." Doug growled.

"Yeah, you did." Totally unfazed Ryan continued with his reason for handing his brother the small bundle of paper. "But it makes fascinating reading. Really, really fascinating." He reached for his own beer, and took a long slow sip before casually adding, "Amazing woman your Isabelle."

Doug scowled at Ryan again, just for impact and then began to read the first of the A4 print outs. His scowl deepened. His eyes narrowed. His brow furrowed. He blinked a couple of times. "Shit!" He looked up, puzzlement written clear across his face. This was not what he was expecting. She had nearly had him fooled. Nearly. "No wonder her grandmother wants our connection." He growled as he began to feel as if he'd been taken for a ride. "They're broke." He snapped.

"Were." Ryan corrected and rolled his eyes, seeing that his brother had only perused the first couple of pages and already reached a conclusion. "Read on."

Doug focused on the text in front of him and flipped through to another page. His eyes went wide. Her financial statements showed how she'd schemed, juggling like crazy on occasion. She'd kept her family afloat, even though debts were being called in at a rate of knots. How the hell had she managed? He kept reading. His eyes skimmed the rows of data. She must have been very lucky or very good, he couldn't remember even a whiff of any talk about the Soujour D'Sa family being in financial trouble. Nothing had come to the public arena about the family being strapped for cash. Not surprising given the way she was fighting financial fires behind the scenes.

"Shit! She's good." Doug finally muttered. More like brilliant, he added quietly as he noted just how close to the wire they had sailed for significant periods of time.

"Yeah, not bad for someone just out of her teens." Ryan agreed. "Almost as good as me when I was fifteen." He announced without a trace of modesty.

Doug lifted a brow prompting more information.

"Her parents died when she turned twenty, just finished two years of her degree." Ryan announced as if feeding information gleaned from various sources was the norm. "She left Uni to keep the Soujour D'Sa family name intact. Not a hint of bankruptcy. The family name made it. That is one hell of a woman."

Doug finished reading the statements. He saw that she was secure now, well and truly secure. Though she still seemed to be taking risks with unlisted firms, including theirs! Doug looked at Ryan and said with a hint of humiliation, "I was teasing her this evening about getting a real job."

Doug now felt guilty about that quip. She was one of those women who appeared to be sailing through life. Yet beneath the surface she was paddling hard to stay afloat. And he'd simply taken her at face value and made a judgment call. Up until now he'd seen her as a social butterfly doing what they did to appear busy but doing nothing of real worth. How wrong could he be? He sipped his beer and considered their previous meetings through fresh eyes.