Page 75 of Packed Up In Vegas

“Why are we awake so early for this?” I asked.

“I wanted a chance to discuss everything with you before Callie woke up,” said Miles.

“What’s the meeting about?” Kai took a sip of his coffee.

“Callie came to me yesterday and said her account was empty.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Why would her account be empty?” Amir asked. “She hasn’t had to pay for a single thing since the bonding.”

“It shouldn’t be,” replied Miles. “I looked into everything with the company. Everything she was owed was deposited into the account she gave us, but she’s telling us she never got paid.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would she lie about that?”

Miles shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“That’s such an easy thing to check, though. If she were lying, shouldn’t she know we would be able to tell?”

“As someone who has dealt with a lot of liars in my life,” said Miles, “not all of them are that smart.”

“Watch it,” growled Kai.

“I’m not calling Callie stupid, and I’m not saying she’s lying,” Miles defended. “But the fact remains the company did pay her.”

I could practically see the walls Amir had lowered around her snap back into place, and Kai looked lost, eyes unfocused as he stared past us.

“Have you talked to Callie about this yet?” I asked.

Miles shook his head. “Not yet. I wanted to talk to all of you.”

“I’d like to look her in the eye when she tells you she didn’t get paid,” Amir said.

I couldn’t wrap my head around why Callie would lie about something like this. If she was trying to get more out of the company, she had to know they weren’t going to pay any more than they had to. Financial records said they’d paid what they owed, and that was that.

The four of us slipped back into the kitchen, and at some point during our meeting, Callie had emerged and was making herself a cup of tea. She looked rough with purple shadows under her eyes.

Callie turned toward us, immediately clocking that something was wrong. “Why are you guys looking so ominous coming in here like that?”

“Callie,” Miles hesitated.

“Okay, the vibes are seriously off. What’s going on? Is this because I locked everyone out last night?”

“No,” I said, though I certainly hadn’t enjoyed that part. “You’re more than entitled to your own space whenever you want it.”

Miles stepped forward. “The company records show all five payments going through and being deposited.”

She stared at him for a long moment. “Well, their records are wrong because nothing’s in my account.”

“They contacted the bank to make sure. All the payments cleared.”

Her hackles went up. “Well, they’re lying, then. Or there was a glitch.” Callie snatched up her phone and poked at her screen before eventually turning it toward Miles. “Nothing’s there! And there’s nothing in the account history, so wherever they sent it, it wasn’t to me.”

“Can I have a look?” I asked.

She leveled a glare on me and slid her phone across the counter toward me. “Loving the level of trust here.”

“Sweetheart…” Miles began.

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