Page 61 of Office Affairs

“The blond one. Anyway.” Miranda waved a hand. “The point is, I saw him again today.”

“Here?”

She nodded, eyes wide. “Here. And this time, he looked out of sorts. Nervous. You know?” Her hands fluttered over her coffee cup. “Real twitchy-like. Wouldn’t look at anyone and hurried to the elevators like his shoes were on fire. Never seen a more awkward nerdy boy run.”

Yeah, I’d seen it a time or two through the years. “You called me because you saw one of my half brothers come through.” I tried to work out what it meant. Everything I’d dealt with already today took up so much space in my brain that this skipped over my head without landing. “Where did he go? Did you tell him I wasn’t here?”

“Couldn’t. By the time I recognized him, he was already in the elevator. But I saw that it stopped on the fourth floor, and when I followed him up, I thought I saw him going into a closet.”

Holy shit. The fourth-floor closet where Chase kept all the old equipment? Was it really going to be this easy?

Miranda grabbed my hand. “I tried to watch for him to leave, but my boss called me into his office and spent the next hour breathing down my neck about a project. I’m sorry, Sabrina. I’m not sure if he’s still here. But I had to call you.” Her fingers squeezed tight enough to pinch. “My lunch is over. I have to go back now.”

“Okay.” My tight smile pulled my cheeks, but Miranda didn’t seem to notice the unease rushing through me with every heartbeat.

Keith kicked his legs back and forth. “What’s on the fourth floor?”

“Security.” I tucked his backpack strap over his shoulder before it slid off. “I need to make a call.”

Miranda stood and eyed me with a strange look. “Be careful. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I’m not the one potentially stealing from a major corporation.” My laugh scraped my throat as I took in the full implication of her words. “Wait. You think we’re working together? Miranda, I would never.”

“People do strange things.” She scooped up her coffee cup and turned away. “I’m not judging you. Just saying you should be careful.”

If even my best friend didn’t believe in my innocence, why in the world did I think that Russell would? I chewed on my inner cheek and considered my options. The way I saw it, I didn’t have a choice. Russell was my best option, and I wasn’t about to ruin everything by trying to confront my half brother alone.

Keith watched me, worry clouding his eyes, as I tapped Russell’s name on my phone and held it to my ear.

He answered on the first ring. “Sabrina. I was going to call you in a few hours.”

“There’s a potential problem at Grady.” I rushed ahead before he cut me off. “Miranda noticed some suspicious activity and called me. I’m here now, in the coffee lounge.” Throat tight, I gulped air and kept going. “I think one of my half brothers has gotten into the storage room on the fourth floor. Can you come? I don’t want to confront him by myself, and if you’re not there, no one will believe that I’m innocent in all this.” Please believe me. Please. Please. My heart threatened to leave my body as I waited in tense silence.

The line remained quiet. So quiet even his breaths were lost in the silence. I pressed my thumb and forefinger into the bridge of my nose, my eyes falling closed.

“It’s okay, Mom. I believe you.” Keith’s little voice sparked a burst of protective instinct that forced my eyes open to meet his.

I knew it was a long shot for anyone to believe me, even Russell, especially considering what I’d just told him. But to have Keith’s complete confidence bolstered me. “Russell, please. You have no reason to trust me, but I’m not the bad guy. Hurting you …” I sniffed back the tears. Damn pregnancy hormones had me all kinds of emotional. “I’m the perfect scapegoat for this. I get that. It would be easy to believe that everything I’ve said is a lie. Trust is hard, but I promise I would never lie to you.”

“Not outright,” he breathed into the phone. “But you are good at withholding information.”

“Yes. I am.” And I still had one major secret left to reveal, one that I’d never admit to over the phone. “Will you come?”

“I’ll be there soon. There’s something I need to take care of first.” The dark notes I’d heard in his voice earlier lightened. “Stay in the office until I call you back. I’m going through the tunnel, so I’ll probably lose you.”

The call dropped with a crackle of static.

Warmth bloomed in my chest. He might not believe me, but he was coming here to check out my story.

“Can we go to the fourth floor now?” Keith finished his hot chocolate and licked his lips.

Miranda hurried our way, her face drawn tight. “Come on. I convinced my boss I needed something from storage. Let’s go see if he’s still there.”

“Markus. It has to be Markus.” Rising, I took Keith’s hand and followed Miranda to the elevators. Russell told me to stay in the office. He’d failed to specify which part of the office. Facing Markus alone was out of the question, but Miranda needed to see for herself that I had no part in this scheme, and her opinion mattered. Russell would trust her to tell the truth, even though she was my best friend. God, I hoped I had it right and wasn’t about to get myself in even more trouble.

Keith kept pace with me to the elevator, his excitement at a new adventure sending him rushing ahead to jab the button. “Bad guys better look out. We’re gonna get ‘em.” Pure glee brightened his eyes. “Even if it is Uncle Markus.” The light dimmed and he scowled. “Stealing is bad.”

“Yes, it is.” I ushered him into the elevator ahead of me and waited for him to press the button. Miranda knotted her hands together at her waist. “Should we record this or something?”

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