Page 117 of Ruining Vanessa

“I have to… I have to talk to Damien,” I say. “I’ll come back to finish helping you once I’ve done that.”

I can’t believe it was that simple. I guess we all suspected somebody had to have been stealing, but somehow, I didn’t suspect Paul—not because I think he’s incapable of it, but more that he always seemed so afraid of Giulio.

I’m halfway up the stairs when I realize exactly what this all means. If I tell Damien, if I tell Giulio… I’m sealing Paul’s fate.

But I can’t not say anything, not when I’ve been looking for the answer to this very problem for weeks now. I hesitate instead of continuing up the stairs, looking down at the piece of paper. He had to have printed off new copies of the invoices or covered the totals and made copies to make them look original. This one does look identical to the others I’ve seen. I should know; I’ve looked at them countless times trying to find anomalies.

The upper door to the stairwell opens, but I barely register it.

“Are you going to move?”

I jerk and look up, finding Traci standing a few steps above me. “Yeah. Sorry.” I squeeze to the side so that Traci can walk past me.

She doesn’t, though. “What are you staring at?”

“Nothing important,” I say evasively, folding the paper in half. “Just bringing something up to Damien.”

Traci snorts. “Yeah, might as well turn around. Damien’s in the office with Donny. Sounds kind of heated—you know it’s bad if you can hear Damien through the door. He’s fucking pissed. What did you do?”

“Me?” I’m a little surprised. Damien had seemed to be in a fairly good mood when we’d arrived, but then… There had been the near-constant texts from Giulio while we’d been at the office demanding he figure out the accounting and mole problems. The idea of him actually being heard through the door is almost incomprehensible. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Then why are you here again? I thought you got upgraded.” Traci’s voice is dripping with malice.

“He had to stop by to talk to Donny,” I say, feeling defensive even though I don’t understand why. I’m not doing anything wrong.

Even if I am potentially sentencing someone to death. Fuck. I need to just go downstairs and leave the invoice somewhere Paul can alter it…

But I know I can’t do that. I can’t pretend this didn’t happen.

“Yeah, I got that. It’s the same shit right, the accounting, blah blah. It’s the only thing Donny’s been going on lately. Giulio’s been breathing down his back, threatening to demote him.” Traci makes a disgusted noise. “I’d think it was hilarious if that didn’t mean Paul would probably get promoted.”

“Paul’s definitely not going to get promoted now,” I say without thinking. Once I realize what I’ve said, I wince, but it’s not like it’s going to be a secret for much longer. At the very least, Giulio will be kicking Paul to the curb. Hopefully I can talk him into just doing that and nothing more…

“Oh?” Traci comes down a few steps, so she’s only one step above me. “Why would you say that?”

“No reason!” I say quickly, as brightly as I can. “Just… He keeps doing stupid shit, you know. One day Giulio’s going to get tired of it.”

“No,” Traci says. “You know something. What did Paul do?” She looks me in the eyes.

Even though we’re at the same height now—Traci needs that extra step to be at eye-level with me—I still feel the urge to shrink back.

After a pause, Traci smirks. “He’s the fuck-up, isn’t he? The accounting fuck-up. What, he sucks at math? I don’t think that’ll save him from Giulio’s wrath.”

I sigh. “There are problems, yeah. Just… Don’t tell Paul I’m talking to Damien, okay?”

Traci laughs. “Sure. Not that I’m shocked. Paul’s a squirrelly bastard. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was shacking up with the competition, too.”

That’s such a strange thing for her to say. I frown at her. Does she know someone’s talking behind Giulio’s back? Or was that just a guess? “You think it’s him?” I ask, just to test the theory. Maybe she’s just speaking hypothetically.

Traci waves her hand a bit dismissively. “Oh, sure. Paul’s easy, right? If somebody came in, offering cash in return for some info, he’d absolutely go for it. He has to be the guy.”

I try to keep my expression blank, though my thoughts are whirling. The guy. She… shouldn’t know about this. No one should know about this. So how does she? “Oh,” I say quietly. “Anyway, I should… I should go.” I’m not good at keeping secrets, and I don’t want her to realize what she’s said—and to who.

Traci blocks my path, one hand on each stair rail. There are obvious bruises on the insides of her elbows from where she’d injected.

“Oh no. You think you know something now, don’t you.” Traci’s lips thin out into a creepy grin. “Whatever you think you know, you don’t.”

“Okay,” I say quickly, raising both hands up, one palm out while the other hand clutches the folded-up invoice. “I’m not going to say anything that’ll get you into trouble. I promise.”

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