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KATIE
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I GOT INTO THE CONFERENCE room right before the meeting started, breathless with having run all the way here.
Adam, of course, was the only one who gave me any trouble for it. He looked up and gave me a questioning look, glancing up and down my body once and leaving a trail of fire after his gaze.
The memory of what we’d done the other morning in my bed shot through me, leaving yet another trail right through my center.
Get it together, woman, I told myself firmly. You’re here to do business, not think about the things you shouldn’t be doing with your boss.
Still, I allowed my lips to curve into a suggestive grin in his direction—and was gratified to see his eyes go dark with sudden lust.
I’d been right when I thought that adjusting my thinking a bit and allowing myself to have some fun with Adam would be a rewarding experience. No, it hadn’t been helping on the case. But it had certainly made flirting with him more rewarding—and less guilt-inducing.
“Sorry,” I huffed, trying to get my breathing under control. “I was knee-deep in files about someone in sales using way more office supplies than they should and lost track of time.”
It was mostly true. This wasn’t a suspect on our official list, though, so I hadn’t yet brought him up in any of our meetings. Just a guy in sales using about five times as many supplies as he should.
Not millions of dollars’ worth, certainly. But if he was overordering and then selling the excess on the company’s dime, Adam and I had still thought it worth looking into.
“No problem at all,” Samuel, the head exec from this office, replied with a kind smile. “Though if you keep working that hard, you’re going to find yourself burning out. I’d suggest at least taking your lunch break off.”
Taking my lunch break off. Ha. He didn’t know the half of how much work I still needed to get done. I’d barely been touching my day-to-day tasks because I had so much to take care of for the case. I didn’t have time to take lunch off.
“I’ll do my best, sir,” I said with a smile. “But you know how it goes. Once you get into the groove...”
“It’s hard to pull yourself out of it,” he agreed. “Believe me, I know. Now, shall we get started? What do we have so far?”
“I’ve been spending time with Arthur Smith and Joseph Parissimo, and they’re both starting to open up,” Adam said quickly. “Arthur says he doesn’t actually need to work here, since his wife evidently has money, but Joseph is in over his head when it comes to debt, and I think that might be the driver. He’s just newly separated from his wife, and she’s already hitting him with child support. And while Arthur might not need the money, he’s still gone out of his way to rise quickly in this office. There’s something there that doesn’t make sense to me. I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“Could be that Arthur is working here specifically to help Joseph,” I said quickly. “If he doesn’t need the job but he’s still fighting to keep it, there might be an ulterior motive. He’s not willing to actually loan Joseph any money, but he’s willing to cover his tracks for him?’
“Or maybe even help him with whatever con he’s running, more directly,” James broke in. “Arthur has access to everything. He could be telling Joseph what to do and how to do it.”
“And that could be adding to the amount Joseph is already lifting off the top by offering more returns than he should,” Samuel replied, nodding.
“Or,” I broke in again, “the con Joseph’s running in the customer service department, with the returns, could just be a front. Maybe he’s not actually providing those returns. Maybe he’s just registering that he’s provided them, and then Arthur is arranging for the money to go to another account rather than back to the customer. It would make a lot more sense than Joseph actually making a deal with every customer to return money to them and then collect it himself. That seems too risky. Any of those customers could turn him in at any time.”
“Unless he’s paying them not to,” Samuel noted.
I snorted. “One thing I know, Samuel, is that people aren’t that loyal, especially to someone they don’t know. He might be paying them, but if they thought they could get more money from someone else, or suddenly started to feel bad about it, they would turn him in like that.” I snapped my fingers. “The more people have your secret, the more dangerous it is. It’s the first rule of being a crook. I just don’t see him involving that many people and still managing to get away with it.”
“So we think they might be working together,” Samuel concluded. “Interesting. Adam, has that seemed like a possibility when you’ve met with them?”
“Sure has,” my boss replied. “They’re thick as thieves, if you’ll forgive the saying, and Arthur is already taking care of Joseph in a number of ways. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was doing this for him, too.”
“Right.” Samuel turned to me, moving the meeting right along. “So that takes care of them. How are you doing with Rachel? Anything there?”
“She’s not exactly pouring her heart out to me about how she’s stealing money from the company by padding her accounts, if that’s what you mean,” I said with a smirk. “I know a bit more about her background. And the guy she currently has a crush on. Nothing that useful. Still, I’m going out with her again tonight. I’ll try to get more then.”
***
KATIE: Hotel room service and movie tonight?
It was still the middle of the workday, so I didn’t expect an immediate answer. It was also the Monday after an extremely wild—at least, for me—weekend, and so I doubly didn’t expect an answer. If Rachel was anything like me, she was wading through today like she was trying to get through a swamp. On foot.
So I was really surprised when the reply came back immediately.
“Hell, yes!” she shouted from the other end of the room. “I’ll bring the wine!”
I grinned, sitting by myself at my desk in my little cubicle in an office building where I didn’t actually work.
I’d known Rachel a grand total of a week, and I was already starting to think we could become really good friends, given the chance. The girl just didn’t know when to quit, and it was impossible to be around her without having a good time.
I really, really hoped she wasn’t the one stealing from the company, because I didn’t know how I was going to handle it if she was.
I also hoped that when I went back home, I could keep in touch with her. Maybe even visit sometimes. Go out for food that was too hot and margaritas that were too strong and let her talk my ear off.
So far, it was my second-favorite part about Houston. Not the hot food but Rachel herself.
My first favorite part? Adam. Obviously.
“Make it rosé!” I shouted back. “I don’t think I can handle anything tougher than that after this weekend. I’ll see you at 7!”
A split second later, I realized that I’d just shouted across the room to finalize plans for a movie night in my room that night, and I hadn’t even thought twice about it.
Rachel was starting to have a really, really strange influence on me.
***
THREE BOTTLES OF ROSÉ later—the extent of what Rachel had brought with her—and two rom coms in, we decided that we’d better call it a night.
“I am going to be so dead in the morning,” she moaned, leaning her head on my shoulder and slumping back into the couch, where we were sitting in our pajamas, bowl of popcorn and bag full of candy at the ready.
Well, it had been a bowl of popcorn and a bag full of candy. We’d eaten most of it.
“You?” I asked, amused. “I thought you were the Energizer Bunny dressed up as a human woman, after this weekend!”
She groaned theatrically. “Only a mask, kid. A really, really good mask. The truth is, I get tired, just like every other human. And right now, I feel like I might actually fall asleep on my feet if I try to stand up.”
I could definitely understand. I wasn’t feeling so hot myself. Too much wine and candy. Not enough real food. And popcorn didn’t count.
“Want to spend the night?” I asked. “Wait, now that I think about it... How did you get here?”
“Drove.”
I shook my head. “You drove to my hotel room, where you knew we were going to be drinking. And here I thought you were smart.”
At that, Rachel sat up to argue... and then clutched at her head.
“I’m going to die. Why did you let me drink so much?”
“Why did you bring so much?” I retorted. “You wouldn’t have brought it if you didn’t already have plans to drink it.”
She just scowled at me, which I assumed meant she knew that I was right.
“Want to spend the night?” I asked again. “You can get up early and go home for clothes. I have lots of pajamas you can borrow.”
She twisted her mouth, but I could see from her eyes that her mind was already made up. “Yes. But are you sure I won’t be in the way? Adam doesn’t make midnight visits to this room, does he?”
I snorted. “Not unless he has important business to talk about.”
Wait. I hadn’t meant to say that at all. No one was supposed to know that we were also meeting here in the hotel. They were just supposed to think that we worked together and shared a cab on occasion.
My eyes went to my wineglass, accusing, and then flew to Rachel... who didn’t seem like she’d even noticed that I was talking. She was already asleep, leaning up against the back of the couch like it was the most comfortable thing in the world.
I smiled softly, falling into the easy feel of having a friend spend the night on my couch, and then got up and covered her with a blanket. She wasn’t going to thank me for letting her sleep in her clothes—and her makeup—but I also wasn’t going to try to wake her up. Sleep would be the easiest way to cure the headache she must have had starting.
Besides, it also left me free to get ready for bed and go to sleep myself.
It wasn’t until I was in the bathroom washing my face and already counting the seconds until I could get into bed that I realized I’d had Rachel over here specifically to get more details about her and had completely failed to do anything like it.
Instead, I’d had a fun night with one of my girlfriends... and had completely forgotten that I was supposed to be working.
