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She shrugged as she tightened the stud. “Guys like it.”
“Some guys maybe,” I countered. “But not bosses.”
“All guys. They see it and drool, just imagining how it will feel when I blow them.”
I shook my head. I didn’t need that visual.
She opened up the Swiss Army knife Uncle Ernst had given her.
I’d lost the one he gave me years ago to a TSA check at the airport.
She started with the nail file on the badly torn middle finger of her right hand.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Tore it in a fight.”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You’ve got shit for brains getting into a fight with the kinds of women who are locked up in there.”
“What would you know about it? Backing down is more dangerous.”
It didn’t seem like an argument I was going to win. So I said nothing.
She pocketed the knife, crumpled up the empty envelope, and the real trouble began.
“I’m gonna kill him,” she announced. “He’s been out to get me since forever.”
Himwas obviously Uncle Ernst, and we’d gotten to the root of her anger.
“Slow down. Nobody’s killing anybody. Now what the hell happened?”
Her mouth became a fire hose as the words spilled out. “I started noticing the money going out, and I was logging in every day—”
I grabbed her arm. “Get a grip and slow down so I can understand.”
She took in a breath through gritted teeth. “Okay.” She wrung her hands. “I saw money leaving the accounts, and I started to check every day to figure it out.”
“When did this start?”
“I don’t know. I noticed it two weeks ago,” she answered.
“And who’d you tell?”
She huffed. “Like that would have done any good? Stephanie—I mean, Mrs. Quantell—was out of town. You were too busy, and then you were gone, and I’m not even allowed to talk to the creeper.”
She’d never once called her stepfather anything but Ernst, orCreeper, although she did have the good sense to not call him Creeper to his face.
I didn’t buy her excuse. Her not talking to her stepdad had been my idea, but not a real rule. It was just meant to keep the peace and keep her from getting herself fired.
Ernst had not been a fan of my hiring her, but it was my call and not his. And besides, it had been good for Lara.
“Go on,” I urged.
“Late last week, Mrs. Quantell came back, and that’s when I told her.” Her face screwed up in anger. “She took it to Ernst. We had a meeting. I tried to explain. Two hours later they arrested me. He’s always been trying to ruin my life.”
“Uncle Ernst?”
“Who else?”
