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Cade’s sideways glance said he wasn’t buying it. “They babysit you.”

The accusation caught me off guard. “That’s not fair.”

“But it’s true. You think I don’t know how often Kendrick covers for you? You wouldn’t even make it into the building half of the time if it weren’t for him.”

“He told you that?” I couldn’t help feeling betrayed.

“He didn’t need to. I make it my business to know everything that happens here.”

“You didn’t know I was here, though. Before, I mean. You didn’t know all the things Calisto was hiding.”

Cade shook his head. “We’re not talking about the past. We’re talking about now.”

“I assume you didn’t drag me back here just to tell me how much you regret hiring me.”

Cade stopped by the window, staring out over the London skyline for several seconds that stretched uncomfortably long. “What happened this afternoon?”

I considered several lies. I could claim an emergency had come up. Only, who was I close enough to that rushing to their side would be believable? Asher would know I was lying if I said something had happened to Calisto, and who else did I have?

Cade stepped closer, nose wrinkling. “Jesus! You smell like a distillery.”

“Yeah, well,” I shot back. “It never bothered you with Griffin.”

“Griffin never walked away halfway through a job.”

“No. He just didn’t bother turning up for them in the first place.” Cade’s expression suggested he wished I hadn’t either. “It was wrong,” I admitted quietly. “And I’m sorry. But is it really that big a deal? It was shoplifting. You’ve been deliberately giving me all the nothing jobs.”

“For good reason,” Cade said.

“And the most dangerous thing that could’ve happened was some old dear tripping over a basket.” I knew I wasn’t treating Cade with enough gravitas as my boss. But alcohol, exhaustion, and irritation had joined forces to give my tongue a life of its own. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have taken a breath. I would have read Cade’s mind before continuing to find out how he really felt. But I was like a train careening downhill that had lost its brakes. “Or maybe while I was gone, a dog got loose and ran in there. I hope not. I would have hated to miss that excitement. Or maybe―”

“At half-past two,” Asher cut in calmly, “a gang entered the store. One member provided a distraction while the other two made off with a large quantity of cigarettes, tobacco, and alcohol. The owner estimates the loss at over five hundred pounds.”

“Oh.” There wasn’t much else I could say.

“Where were you?” Cade asked. He leaned forward and inhaled deeply.

I stepped back automatically. “I’m fairly sure the workplace doesn’t allow sniff-testing employees. I should talk to HR about that. See what they have to say about it.”

It was already too late, a look of distaste settling on Cade’s face. “I see. Not just alcohol.”

“It was just shoplifting,” I said weakly. “I’ll…” I cast about for something that would make it better. “I’ll pay for the missing goods. Then there’s no harm done.”

It was the wrong thing to say, Cade’s cheeks taking on a ruddy glow. “No. Harm. Done.”

“I just meant…”

“Do you have any idea how many hours I worked to build this business? How many people told me it wasn’t viable? That it would frighten clients? How hard it was to secure investors?” When Cade’s torrent of words didn’t leave an opportunity for me to answer, I settled for shaking my head. I’d be lying if I said I’d given it a moment’s thought. Cade was just Cade. There to make people’s lives difficult.

“Do you know how many hours I still work to keep this place running smoothly? And that was before all the O’Reilly mess. Do you have any idea how much extra paperwork she and her psycho son added to my workload?”

I shook my head again.

“So what you dismiss as ‘just shoplifting’ is my reputation that I’ve worked so hard to build. They requested a psychic, and I provided one. I trusted you with a simple task. Stand there. Read minds. Report any ill intent. And even that was too much, apparently. You couldn’t go one afternoon without picking someone up.”

Once, when I was nine, the head teacher summoned me to his office. A girl in my class had told me to put a plastic bag over her head, and I had. Mr. Whitehall had subjected me to a lengthy lecture about the perils of suffocation and the importance of not just following instructions. How ironic, then, that I was currently being harangued for not doing what I was told. It just goes to show you could never win.

“I should have listened to Kendrick,” Cade said.