Page 76 of Hold Him Like Gravity

It didn’t matter that I didn’t even know where he was at this time of night.

I would find him, damnit.

I could start at the meat shop in case he was there after hours doing some work.

“I’ll be back, buddy. I’m going to go make this right,” I told Evander. “But you might never get to see Rico again after this,” I added. I swear he looked at me like he understood. And that he would never forgive me for fucking up his life as well.

I’d let down everyone down.

But I would have to deal with Evander later.

I had to find Rico now.

I made my way to the door.

I pulled it open.

Only to find Rico standing there.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, babe?” he asked, his voice tight.

He knew.

Oh, God, he knew.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Rico

I could look past one week where the books weren’t right. But the second week of a few grand missing had alarms going off in my mind.

“What’s going on?” Bass asked as he walked into the office at the meat shop after hours.

“I think I got a problem,” I admitted as he dropped into the seat across from the desk.

“What kind of problem?” he asked, leaning back.

“A problem where my books aren’t balancing right,” I told him.

“How imbalanced are they?” he asked, leaning forward.

“Couple grand last week and this week.”

“You’re sure it’s the books, not the calculator?”

“You got something to say?” I asked, tone going cold.

“Look, I’m happy to see you distracted. Kick’s been good for you. But if your head isn’t completely on the books when you’re working on them, you could fuck up the math.”

“Been counting since I was five. Been balancing books since I was in my teens. I didn’t fuck this up twice in a row,” I said, pushing the books across the desk to him. “But go over ‘emyourself. Let me know if I fucked something up. Because if I didn’t, I have a big fucking problem.”

I sat there waiting as Bass went over the books line by line. Starting at the most recent week, then working backward.

He sucked in a deep breath, looking up at me.

“You’ve never misplaced a dollar before,” he concluded. “Until the past two weeks. It looks like seven grand total.”

“Fuck,” I sighed, leaning back in my chair.

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