When Dawn Breaks 56

“So now that everyone has their assignments remember if you have any questions see Rosalie as she is the one in charge of the surveillance.”Bella told the group once again gathered in the ballroom. The night before most of the shifters minus the children went hunting with Bella and she felt by the end of it most of the shifters were more comfortable around her.They were still all respectful and polite but at least most of them would look her in the eye now. There was still a bit of stuttering but that was to be expected.If Bella was in their place and met someone that was nothing more than a story passed down from generation to generation she would be a little nervous about speaking to them as well.

“We need you to get some cash out of the vault for us.”Rosalie said as she and Bella made their way off stage.

“Why do you need me to do it?”Bella asked.

“Because I don’t know which vault it’s in sweetheart.” Rosalie had tried to figure out where the cash Bella mentioned having was but there were to many vaults with to much stuff to figure out exactly which one had cash in it.

“Good point.”Bella hadn’t thought about if Rosalie would know where all the things they needed were. It was just so natural to have her in charge of the house that Bella forgot that she hadn’t been there that long.”How much cash are you needing?”

“I really don’t like saying the number out loud.”When Rosalie had done the math on how much they would need to give each shifter to have while they were on surveillance duty it had made her loose her breath for at least a minute.

“I need to know because if it isn’t that much we can take it out of petty cash.”Bella said.

“What do you mean petty cash?” Rosalie asked.

“Well we have cash in a couple places in the house and in the secure wing.Depending on how much you need will depend on where we go because I doubt we need to go to the vault in the basement for this.”Bella knew they didn’t need that much money.

“How much cash is in the basement?” Rosalie knew she wasn’t going to like the answer because that was just more valuables she had to worry about.

“Last check there was at least 75 to 100 million.” Bella told her.

Rosalie’s looked at Bella wide eyed.”You have that much cash in the basement.

“At least.There hasn’t been an official count in decades and I know my grandfather has added to it.Luckily none of the continents of the vaults were considered during the custody hearing. My mother would have gone nuts if she knew how much all the stuff in each one was worth.”Bella figured her mother would have been even more demanding if she knew what Bella was actually worth.

“Are you saying that the contents of this house aren’t included in your total assets?” Rosalie asked.

Bella shook her head.”No, none of my ancestors felt comfortable having strangers coming in and going through all of our things.”

“So you are saying the 4 billion dollar fortune you inherited doesn’t include anything in this house?”Rosalie couldn’t even imagine how much the things in the house she had seen so far were worth.The jewelry in Bella’s grandparents room and Bella’s old bedroom alone had to be worth at least 100 to 150 million dollars. The piece from the queen being almost priceless.

“Maybe a couple things, the car collection could be?”Bella really wasn’t sure.”We have never been that interested in how much things are worth. It’s the history that we care about.”

“I know but you have some seriously expensive antiques in this house. Just the few rooms I’ve look over are filled with stuff that isn’t properly stored.I was actually going to ask you if you would be ok bringing some people in to not only store but catalog what’s here.I’m worried about any damage could be done simply from not being stored properly.” Rosalie said.

Bella sighed.”Just another thing we don’t have time for.”

“I know.It will take a while as well so we would need to interview people and maybe hire some shifters to oversee the people who come to make sure nothing is broken or stolen.” Rosalie could already imagine how stressful this project was going to be.

“Let’s worry about it later. Now how much cash do you need?” Bella asked.

“I want each shifter to have $2000 to cover things like car rental, hotel, food and getting into any place they would need to pay to follow their target.We are sending out 40 of them while the remaining will stay here. So in total we need $80,000.”It hurt Rosalie just as much to say the number out loud after coming up with it the first time.

“So petty cash it is.”Bella led Rosalie to her office and once inside moved one of the bookshelves to the side.

“I’m not going to like what I am going to see in here am I?” Rosalie hadn’t seen the contents of this vault on her tablet but was sure it was going to give her even more stress than the other ones did.

“Probably not.”Bella said as she went through the process to open the vault.Once open she laughed hearing Rosalie sigh.”It’s not that bad sweetheart.”

Rosalie groaned as they walked inside the vault and she saw a room filled with not only shelves full of cash but gold and silver bars as well.”Is there a reason you need gold and silver bars in a vault in your office?”

“This isn’t the only one in the house like this. It’s just the smallest.”Bella told her as she began counting out the money that was bundled in piles of $5000 in hundred dollar bills.

“How many are there?”Rosalie asked.

“Any room that has the words rooster statue in the inventory has a vault like this.”Bella told her as she stuffed the money into one of the many leather bags that were in the room for such purposes.

”I have seen that listed numerous times.I think even in one of the bathrooms.”Rosalie wondered why they had so many rooster statues in the house when she hadn’t physically seen one.

“One of my ancestors didn’t initially trust banks when they became more common.He instilled that distrust in his children and it has pretty much continued to this day.I actually wonder if some of the bills and coins that are locked up are worth something.I think we still have some from England when the first Duke was around.I know that there are rooms like this in the castle that no one knows about.” Bella had seen a couple when her grandparents had taken her to the castle.

Rosalie rubbed her eyes convinced she had a headache coming on.”So let me get this straight. You have vaults filled with money dating all the way back to when the first castle was built in England and each generation added to that with bills from their time period?”

“Yeah that’s what I’m telling you.” Bella said.

“Now I’m going to have to add money expert to the list of people I need to hire.Does anyone have access to the castle’s vaults?”Rosalie asked.

Bella shook her head.”No, those places were only told to each tiger shifter.Even my grandmother didn’t know about them.”

“Are there more of these stashes at your other properties?”Rosalie wasn’t sure she wanted to know because she figured it was going to be a lot of them.

“Each property has at least two.”Bella winced when Rosalie growled.

“At least two? How much cash do you have hidden in the properties you own all over the world?” Rosalie asked.

Bella shrugged.“I don’t know.My grandfather added his cash, jewels and precious metals here like all the other tiger shifters that lived here since the house was finished. The other properties have the money whoever lived there left.”

“Wait, you are saying there is gold and silver in these other places and you have random jewels as well?”Rosalie was now positive she had a headache.

“Yeah, we buy when the market is low and put it in the vaults.”Bella honestly didn’t see what the big deal was. “We haven’t stayed wealthy all these years because of just investments and earning interest on the money in the banks.It’s every generations obligation to protect not only our legacy but to make sure future generations flourish.That’s why we buy real-estate and stash jewels and precious metals.If the banks fail we will still thrive.With the set up in the secure wing alone someone could live a century there if nothing goes horribly wrong. Shurlongs don’t only care about their own families they care about the ones that came before and the ones that will come after.”

Rosalie put her arms around Bella and stood on her tiptoes to kiss her.”That’s what I love most about you you know.That you care about more than just what happens to yourself.I know that because you love me I will be safe not only physically but in every other way as well.It’s in your blood to make sure your family will thrive no matter what happens.”

“I don’t only care about our children but I care about their children’s children. No Shurlong after us should have to struggle.”Bella said leaning down for another kiss.

“They won’t with you around.”Rosalie sighed.”As much as I would love to stay here with you and learn about more valuables that you have hidden around the world, we need to get everyone on their way.”

Bella chuckled.”Just wait until you see the basement vault and the secret rooms of the castle.”

“I don’t even want to know.”Rosalie just ignored Bella’s continuous laughter as she grabbed the tiger’s hand and pulled her out of the room once the vault was closed and the bookshelf was put back in place. They had more things to worry about then their wealth because that wealth wouldn’t mean a thing if they didn’t shut down the vampires in charge of the shifter experiments.Now they needed to get the shifters what they needed to head to their destinations so they could get to work. The sooner they got some leads the sooner Bella and Rosalie could take out the bad guys and finally begin their lives together.