Page 13 of When We Break

I sit back in my desk chair and frown at the windows of my office that look out onto Wall Street. “There must be some mistake.”

“No, sir. I went myself and asked to speak with a manager. I was told the same thing.”

“You keep the flowers for your trouble,” I tell her, then hang up and make a call to the ballet myself.

“New York City Ballet, how can I direct your call?” a woman answers.

“Hello, I was wondering if I could interrupt Skyla Gallagher’s rehearsal for a family emergency?”

“I’m sorry, Skyla hasn’t danced here in quite a while now. God, I hope her family’s okay.”

“Yes, they will be. I just need to reach her. Has she gone to a different dance company in the city?”

She must have switched to a more prominent company. What a brilliant woman my tiny dancer is. I’m so proud of her.

“You know, I’m not sure. I lost touch with her, to be honest. It’s just been really busy around here, you know?”

“I understand completely. Thank you for your help.”

After hanging up, I stand and walk to the windows, shove my hands in my pockets, and frown.

Where is my girl?

She needs me. She couldn’t have coped well without me all this time.

I have to find her.

Immediately.

ChapterFive

BECKETT

“Jesus, people are filthy.” Grimly, I turn to Abbi Wild, who I hired to clean my vacation rentals. Well, I hired her company. She usually sends other teams out to do the actual cleaning, but she came today, and she’s as unhappy about the state of cabin number three as I am.

“This one only sleeps two, right?” she asks.

“That’s right. So how did two people make this kind of a mess during a two-night stay?” I shake my head as I take in the amount of trash, the linens strewn all over the cabin, and the broken glass on the floor.

“At least the windows aren’t broken,” Abbi says, then shrugs when I stare at her. “I’ve seen it.”

“Jesus, why did I think this was a good idea?”

“Itisa good idea,” Abbi assures me. “How much is your security and cleaning deposit on these rentals?”

“I just do a cleaning fee.”

Abbi shakes her head. “You need to add aconsiderablesecurity deposit, and I suspect you need to increase the cleaning fee. If people have a bunch of money to lose, they’re less likely to act like this. You need a manager.”

“I know, and I have my eye on one, but she’s not available for a few months. She’s finishing a contract in Aspen, so I’ll have to figure it out in the meantime.”

“You can do that. And don’t worry, this isn’t as bad as I’ve seen in some other rentals. I’m going to call in another team to help me out here, though. Also, you need to add to your rental agreement that you will press charges if they destroy property. Even if you reallywon’t, the threat of it is there.”

“Hey, I like that. I’ll add it. Thanks, Abbi.”

“You bet.”

As she pulls her phone out of her pocket to call in some help, I make my way through the other two cabins vacated this morning. Thankfully, nothing is out of the ordinary in either of those.

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