Page 41 of Samuel

“It’s just small discrepancies between invoice quotes and receipts. There are also withdrawals from various accounts I can’t verify.”

“Do you know who’s behind it?”

“It’s…I don’t really know how to explain it. I-I don’t think…I mean, it’s not right.”

“Evie. Just tell me. I’ll handle whatever it is. If someone is breaking my trust by stealing from me, I’d like to know so that I can fire them.”

He watched all the color drain from her face. Her legs were shaking as she stood and stared pacing around her apartment.

“I understand why you would feel that way. But it doesn’t make sense. I need to look at the paper trail for a longer amount of time. I was only looking at recent months, but I’m sure if I open the ledgers from before I got here it would show that it was going on then too. It’s too weird of a coincidence and I know it’s not true…” She placed a hand on her chest and froze in place. Sam stood and walked towards her, grabbing her waist before she could topple over. He’d never seen her that worked up before, and it was freaking him out.

“Stop for a second, sweetheart. You’ll pass out if you keep going like that. Just breathe.”

After he made sure she’d taken a few deep breaths, he pressed for the information he’d asked for only moments before.

“It’s clear you think you know who it is. I just need a name, Evie.”

Frozen for a moment, she looked like she might not reveal anything to him. Nothing could have prepared Sam for what she said next.

“It’s mine.”

“I just need a name, Evie.” Oh lord, she was going to throw up, or pass out, and she didn’t know which one would be worse. This could not be happening again. Her last employers had been so quick to fire her, even after she’d shownevidence that it wasn’t her, they had stuck with the decision to terminate her employment.

She loved working at the Red River Ranch, everyone was so kind and it truly felt like they’d grown to respect her in such a short amount of time. How was she going to say goodbye to all this? How was she going to say goodbye to Sam?

“It’s mine.” She swallowed down bile as the words forced their way out of her mouth.

He stared at her for a second, blinking, and then he released his hands from her arms. Cold air swirled around her and she immediately wished his hands were steadying her once more.

“What do you mean it’s yours?”

“It all starts right around the time I came to work here.” Dark dots danced in her vision, and she worked overtime to blink them away.

“If you are stealing from me, why are you telling me about it?”

“Sam, I’m not. I’m not the one stealing from you, and I have no way to prove that to you right now except my word. Which I know doesn’t mean much because you’ve only known me for such a short amount of time, but I swear on my life, it is not me. I think someone is trying to make it seem like I’m taking funds from the business. ”

Evie desperately searched Sam’s face for any indication of his thoughts or feelings, but it was like trying to read a block of granite. He was giving her no signs of whether he believed her or not.

“Show me.”

“What?”

“Can you show me the withdrawals?”

“Yes.” She blinked for a moment, forcing her legs to carry her to the sofa where she sank down against the cushions. “Could you hand me that stack of papers right there, I don’t trust my legs at the moment.”

He studied her, heat rising to her cheeks under the scrutiny, and then handed her the pile of paperwork she’d requested. When he sat next to her, the heat from his leg pressing into hers radiated up into her body and grounded her.

She swallowed thickly. “The differences are small at first, but the last entry I can find, like I said, it’s bigger. I swear to you, it wasn’t me. I just need to do a little more digging. It’s too much like last time.”

She watched understanding flash in his eyes.

“Your last job.”

“Yes. I haven’t said anything to anyone about what happened before. But if someone searched my name, they’d find the article where I was accused. Maybe whoever is doing this thinks I’m an easy target to pin this on because even though I was cleared, there is a history there of me being accused.”

“Evie. I believe you. You’ve never been anything but upfront with me, and even now, I doubt you would come to me after just taking a few thousand dollars. If you hadn’t caught this, by the time I caught up on balancing the books on my own, tens of thousands of dollars could have gone missing.”

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