Page 148 of Love Me Reckless

“We have reason to believe you’re behind it.”

Hello, curveball. “Uh, that’s bullshit.”

Stu’s jaw tenses.

“Sir,” I add quickly. “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“This member had money transferred to an account. Tracing that information will take time, or we could solve this right now.”

Words dance around on my tongue. This is getting scary. He thinks I somehow stole from a ranch guest, then cashed it out?

“I’ve never stolen money in my life. I wouldn’t even know how to steal someone’s identity. Don’t you have to have a person’s personal information to do that, like credit cards, ID, passwords?”

“Yes.”

“I would never steal from a member.” I shake my head. “Not only because that’s not the kind of person I am, but the logistics are pretty much impossible. Not sure you heard about today, but it wasfull court press with the strong winds and a non-start of the Glory Basin backup motor.”

“It’s Kirilee St. Claire,” Stu says.

I lock eyes with Stu. “What?”

“Her personal information has been compromised.”

“When?”

“Fortunately her family realized what was happening before things got out of control, but her personal accounts have been breached.”

Oh shit. “Wait, you thinkIstole from Kirilee?”

“It’s been brought to my attention that you two have been spending quite a bit of time together.”

He might as well have opened a hole in the floor for me to fall through. “Is this coming from Birch?”

Stu doesn’t answer.

“I did not steal or tamper or use Kirilee’s information in any way. This is a mistake.” My panic is like a caged animal getting poked on all sides. “Let me show you my bank statements. I can pull it up on my phone. You’ll see I’m not lying.”

“All right.” Stu gives me a grim nod.

I pull up my bank’s website and log in, then navigate to my checking account transactions tab, then hand over my phone.

Stu sits back, slipping on a pair of black-rimmed readers from his desk to study the information. He scrolls, stops, scrolls.

“Going somewhere? You bought a bus ticket.”

Shit, this is not the road I want to go down. I huff a breath. “It was for a family member.”

Stu frowns. “What family member? You didn’t list any next of kin on your application.”

I grip the armrest of the chair. So they’ve done some homework on me and my personal life already? If they go any deeper, they’re going to get closer to my past and everything is going to fall apart.

“My half-brother, Sheldon.”

With a frown, he goes back to scrolling, then grimaces beforeglancing up again. “You also made a withdrawal of ten thousand dollars.”

“It’s money I’ve been saving. I also took out a cash advance for five thousand.”

“Why?”

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