AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He pulled up and parked. Rushing around, he opened the door for me.
I was so weak he had to help me out. I collapsed into him. “Don’t let me go.” I lost control of my tear ducts again.
He held me tight. “I’ve got you.” Ten seconds later, he swept me up and carried me to the front door, setting me down only long enough to unlock, before carrying me the rest of the way to his couch. “I’ll be right back with your drink.” He returned in record time with glasses and a bottle of Black Label.
I’d been picturing wine, but this was better. I took the glass he poured and chugged half of it immediately. The burn didn’t bother me. It was just a signal that relaxation was on the way.
“Slow down there, Sugarbear.” His arm snaked fondly around my shoulder.
I shook my head and held out my glass for more. “They think I stole the jewels.”
“What are you talking about?”
I appreciated the warmth of being against him. It wasn’t as good as a hug, but I was getting the booze down, and that was priority one. “Or that I helped Evelyn steal the jewels—Yolanda’s exhibit jewels.”
He didn’t catch up with me, but he did sip his drink. “That’s ridiculous. You’ve been with me the whole time.”
“Saturday during the inventory shutdown.” I downed the rest of my glass, and the liquid warmed my belly.
His grip on me tightened as he pulled me closer. “It doesn’t make any sense. SMK’s last email said nothing was happening until next week, right?”
Was he questioning my honesty? I pushed away. “How can you ask that? I told you everything I’ve gotten from him.”
He put a hand on my thigh. “Sugarbear, that didn’t come out right. I’m just talking through the problem.”
I relaxed back into him. “I know.”
After having learned the real Adam, I should have known better than to jump to a stupid conclusion. He was the one person right now I could count on, the one solid rock in my world.
He planted another of his sweet kisses on my head. “It’ll be okay.”
From my vantage point, the future didn’t look so sure. “It doesn’t make sense. They have to have the timeline wrong. Nobody left the building Saturday with anything. It has to have happened either before or after.”
* * *
Adam
If Kelly saidnothing left the building while she was there Saturday, that would be the one truth we had to start with.
“The fucking SIM cards,” I blurted. It was so obvious I’d missed it.
Kelly sniffled. “Another reason I amsofired. They were due in the office yesterday.”
I rose and pulled her up.
“What?”
I pulled her along behind me, toward the door. “What’s on them?”
“Slow down.” She hobbled along behind me with only one shoe on. “Pictures of everything in the inventory.”
I extracted my car key while opening the front door. Two presses of the button, and the trunk clicked open before we got there. “Show me?” I lifted the trunk lid.
She unzipped and rummaged around in her purse, extracting a sealed envelope, which she handed me.
I took the envelope and tore it open. It contained a zillion SIM cards, each one numbered. Two of the cards escaped into the bottomless mess of her purse.
“Hey, don’t do that out here. I can’t lose any. I’m responsible for them.
