Page 17 of Furever Loyal
“No,” he said firmly. “We need to check it out.”
“We?” she exclaimed, keeping her voice down. “What is this we business? I did check it out. It’s closed.”
“That just makes it easier,” he said, coming up and knocking on the door.
Haley experienced a sinking sensation. “It makeswhateasier, Kincaid?”
“Breaking in of course. I need to see their records, find out what’s going on here.”
“Nuh-uh. No way. That’s a crime. You’re breaking the law. We can’t do that. The police will come.”
Kincaid rolled his eyes, directing the exasperated look squarely at her. “Trust me on this one, the owners are not going to call the police. They don’t deal with the law like that. We’re fine. As long as we don’t get caught.”
“There you go with thatwebusiness again. I am not a part of this. I am not going to break in. Do you understand—what are you doing?” she half shouted as he leaned back on one leg, bringing the other knee into the air.
Kincaid paused, looking over at her. “The breaking part of breaking and entering?”
She shook her head. “Absolutely. No way. We are not doing that!”
Foot still in the air, his shoulders dropped back slightly, Kincaid lifted his eyebrows. “Do you mind? I’m in the middle of something here.”
“Idomind,” she said, ignoring the bored expression that came over his face as he balanced on one leg. “A lot. I like my criminal record the way it is, okay? I don’t want to have anything put on it.”
“You have a criminal record?”
It was her turn to look up helplessly. “We are not doing this. Okay?”
Kincaid thought it over, and Haley sighed. She’d gotten through to him. Now all she had to do was get the reckless man back to her office and they would be safe. Safe among her numbers and her spreadsheets, where she was in control.
“No, we’re doing this.” Kincaid’s boot crashed through the door at the handle, breaking it easily.
“What thefuck!”
But he was already inside. Wringing her hands, she looked around, but the place was mostly empty. At this time of day, everyone was elsewhere, probably doing work. It didn’t appear anybody had noticed. She almost reached out to touch the door, to pull it closed, but stopped herself. That would leave fingerprints. Fingerprints the police could use to find her.
Nervously, she pulled up her hood, trying to hide her face as well. The last thing she needed was a run-in with the law.
“Are you coming?” Kincaid’s head poked out through the door so fast she jumped, squealing in surprise.
“Seriously, you need to calm down. The only way the police are going to get called is if you stand around outside looking all suspicious, pacing back and forth, hood pulled up, looking around at everything. Just come inside.” Then he disappeared back into the office.
Haley walked up to the doorjamb but that was as far as she could force her legs to go. “I’m staying here.”
Kincaid sighed. “Whatever.”
“You aren’t going to find anything in here,” she said. “It’s not like there’s going to be a confession written on a chalkboard or something. Just leave.”
“I’mdefinitelynot going to find any evidence that way.” He was rifling through various boxes and filing cabinets in an office just past the reception area.
“It was a bank transaction, Kincaid. It’s highly unlikely they left anything here, and even if they did, just finding the printout of it wouldn’t be enough to help your case.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But you never know. It might lead me to whoever made the deposit, who I could then question, who could tell me who ordered them to do it, etc., all the way up the chain to the person at the top.”
She bit her lip as he talked and ransacked the place all at once. The sunlight shining through the door from behind her helped illuminate the unlit interior. This wasnotsomething she was comfortable with. Haley wanted to go, and she wanted to gonow, as far away from here as possible. Breaking the law was not how she was going to keep her job. Even if she lost the Ursa account, she could still find another job somewhere, working for someone else—for a hell of a lot less money. Maybe.
“There’s nothing here,” she repeated a minute later. “So can wepleasego now, before someone shows up? This is not what I signed up for when I became an accountant, okay?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
