Page 99 of So Steady

“I…just…come here.” Sam stood and steered her toward the dining table. “Do you want a cup of tea?”

“I want to know what’s going on. Why do we need to call the cops?”

There was a loaded silence.

“What?” Nicole snapped. “Is this about Noah’s housemate? Because I think we should give him a chance to deal with the situation before we go running to the cops.”

It felt weird to be arguingagainstgoing to the police. All her life,shewas the one who wanted to call the law when things went wrong, while Sam shouted about police corruption and Tabby hid whatever drugs she had on hand. Sam rubbed her lower lip. “Nix, I know you and Noah have a thing going, but there’s something you don’t—”

“What?” Gil laughed. “You’ve been fucking Noah?”

Both she and Sam glared at him. Gil mock-shivered. “Twin chills.”

Nicole didn’t have time for this. “Is this about Noah being an ex-bikie? Because I know you must be upset that he didn’t tell you, but that’s no reason—”

“It’s not that,” Sam interrupted. “He’s been stealing money. That’s how we got so deep in the hole before you showed up.”

Nicole felt like she had a paper jam in her brain. “What? How do you know that?”

She hated Sam’s look of sympathy, as though she was about to say something that would break her heart. “Noah’s been reducing his hours on the computer and stealing cash out of the till.”

“No, he hasn’t!” She wasn’t defending Noah out of loyalty. The idea of him grifting from the till was as ridiculous as if Sam said he’d killed someone with a candlestick.

Her twin’s moo-cow look of compassion didn’t budge. “Tabby’s got a better read on the facts than I do, but his login’s been used almost every night around closing time to change his hours. And Gil was saying he’s always telling clients to pay cash if they can.”

Gil nodded vigorously. “I swear I’ve seen him lurking by the till after hours. Sam needs to sack him. Call him up and tell him to stay away before he rallies his bikie mates and breaks in or something.”

Nicole scowled at him. “Is there a gas leak in here? Noah wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t do anything like what you’re saying.”

“Don’t blame yourself for not spotting it,” Sam said, missing the point. “It was easy for Tabby to find proof because she had an idea of what to look for.”

“Because Noah’s a criminal,” Gil added. “He’s been to jail. Plus, that Paula bird told Sam he owed her money.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Nicole said, feeling like a broken record. “He gave Paula a place to stay while she was trying to leave The Rangers. Now she’s back with her ex, who’s the Sergeant at Arms. Are you going to believe her over Noah? The guy you’ve worked with for years?”

Gil leaned on the back of a chair. He had sweat circles under his arms. “That’s what he told you. Face it, none of us knows what he’s like, Nikki.”

“I did! And don’t call me Nikki!”

Gil took a panicky step backward. “Sorry. Jesus.”

Sam walked over, rubbed a circle on her back. “Hey, calm down, okay? I know this is hard—”

“It’s not hard! You’re not listening!”

She remembered the words spray painted on Noah’s door.Dog cunt.He’d said she wouldn’t understand, and she hadn’t. She hadn’t understood that in telling Sam and Gil and the rest of them that he was an ex-bikie, he’d have friends—people who’d known him for years—so ready to believe he was scum.

She shrugged off her sister’s hand, stepped back so she could look at her and Gil. “Noah became a Ranger because his dad ran the club, but helefton his own, way before he met any of us. Why would he throw in a life of crime just to steal out of our cash register?”

Sam’s face tightened. “Why don’t you ask him? He’s the one who lied to us.”

“He didn’t lie! He just didn’t tell the truth, and with the way you lot are all carrying on, can you blame him?”

She knew she sounded shrill and accusing, and doing so was undermining her credibility, but she didn’t care. Noah wasn’t a dog c-word and he wasn’t a thief, and she was going to yell at her sister until she believed it.

“Okay, Nix.” Sam’s cheeks were red, a dangerous sign. “So, he shouldn’t have told me he’s an ex-bikie with a record? Even when I became his boss?”

“If you’ll remember,Itold you I thought he’d been to jail the moment I met him. He’s got a spider web tattoo.”

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