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  “I’ll be damned,” Riley said. “Good for you.”

  “No, not good for her,” Gabe said savagely. “I very much want to talk to Lynnie, which may be a little harder now that she knows we’re on to her.”

  Nell put the money on the desk. “I’m sorry I let her know we knew, but I got you the money back. I helped.”

  He didn’t look impressed. I’m fired, she thought.

  “Okay, listen,” she said, talking faster than she ever had in her life. “I know you’re mad, but I still think I did the right thing. I think this is a great agency, but it needs some help with the office, and part of that is getting the finances back in shape, and they’re in a lot better shape now because of what I did, and I did not break the law, I didn’t even break all the agency rules, and anyway the third one doesn’t count because I didn’t know about it.” She stopped as Riley closed his eyes, and Gabe jerked his head up.

  “I really think this is a great agency,” she finished.

  “Thank you,” Gabe said, his voice grimmer than she’d ever heard it. “I want to talk to you but I have to see Riley first. We are going into his office. When I come out, you will be here.”

  “Certainly,” Nell said, sitting down.

  He turned to Riley and pointed to his office. “In there.”

  “Don’t take this out on me,” Riley said. “You hired her.”

  * * *

  Gabe slammed the door to Riley’s office and said, “Here’s some good news. Not only did our secretary steal that damn dog, she vandalized her husband’s office. I just had to pull the cops off her. And Lynnie now has a pretty good case for extortion, so they may be back. She’s out of control and she has to go.”

  “No,” Riley said, and Gabe stopped, surprised. “Yeah, I’m surprised, too,” Riley said, sitting down behind his desk. “But I’m going to fight you on this one. She’s good. She’s just having a hard time right now. Give her another chance.”

  “Why?” Gabe said. “So she can do something else to destroy this agency?”

  “She’s not the threat to this agency,” Riley said, “and you know it. You’re not mad at Nell, you’re mad at Patrick.”

  Gabe stopped, caught, and then said, “No, I’m pretty sure I’m mad at Nell,” but he sat down while he said it.

  “You think Patrick helped Trevor cover up Helena’s murder and you also think Lynnie found something he left behind that she’s using to blackmail Trevor and possibly Jack and Budge. And you can’t do anything about it, so you’re taking it out on Nell.”

  “No.”

  “She’s done more for this office in one week than my mother did in ten years,” Riley said. “She works hard, she’s efficient, and she deserves the job. She gets another chance.”

  “One more chance could bring us down,” Gabe said.

  “Talk to her,” Riley said. “Stop bossing her around and acting like your dad. Take her to lunch and give her a chance to explain. And if you come back and still want her gone, I’ll agree.”

  Gabe drew in a deep breath. He was not projecting his anger at Patrick on Nell, she was earning it all in her own right. But Riley was a good partner, and it wasn’t a lot to ask. “All right,” he said, and stood up.

  “I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong about Lynnie,” Riley said. “I think she found something, and I think she’s a good bet to blackmail the O&D three. You want me to go roust her now? She might open the door for me. She has before.”

  “You and women.” Gabe shook his head. “I can’t believe you slept with Nell.”

  “I can’t believe it, either,” Riley said. “She kind of gets you when you’re not expecting it. Watch yourself at lunch.”

  “Funny,” Gabe said, and left.

  * * *

  Nell was sitting obediently at her desk, praying that when Gabe came out of Riley’s office he’d see that she’d done the right thing and—

  “Come with me,” he said to her as Riley followed him into the outer office. “We’re going to lunch.”

  He sounded threatening, so she picked up her purse. “What about the money? And SugarPie?”

  “Riley will take care of the money and SugarPie.” Gabe pointed toward the door. “Now.”

  Riley looked at Nell with sympathy. “Sorry about that, kid.” He stuck the bank envelope under his arm, picked up SugarPie’s basket, and went back into his office.

  Gabe stood by the door, looking like Lucifer shortly after the fall, and Nell felt the hand of doom on her, all because she’d done the right thing, several times. It was so unfair.

  “If you’re going to fire me,” Nell said, sticking her chin out, “just do it here. Get it over with.”

  “I’m going to feed you,” Gabe said. “Then we’re going to discuss the depth of your understanding of the rules here, and then if that understanding is deep enough, I will not fire you and we’ll come back here and you’ll to do the office work we hired you for. If your understanding is insufficient, however, you’re going to need more copies of your résumé.”

  Nell tried to think of something scathing to say, but if there was a chance he wasn’t going to fire her, discretion was clearly the better part of her financial future.

  “Thank you,” she said and went past him and out the door.

  * * *

  The two-block walk from the agency to the restaurant was fortunately short because Gabe was silent behind his dark glasses. “Nice day, isn’t it?” she said once, and he didn’t answer, so she shut up and picked up her pace to keep up with him.

  At the restaurant, a local bar and grill called the Sycamore, they took one of the small tables near the front, and Gabe sat with his back to the light, leaving her the view around one of the big stained-glass panels that hung in the windows behind her. She twisted around to look at the place—lots of dark wood and Tiffany ceiling lights and old advertising prints on the walls—and then the waitress came for their drink order, and Gabe said, “I’ll have a draft and a Reuben.” He looked at Nell. “Order.”

  The waitress looked taken aback.

  “Black coffee,” Nell said to her, smiling sweetly.

  “She’ll have an omelet,” Gabe said to the waitress. “Four eggs, plenty of ham and cheese.”

  “I don’t want an omelet,” Nell said. “I’m not—”

  “Do you really want to have this argument with me right now?” Gabe said, and the waitress took a step back.

  “I’ll have a Caesar salad,” Nell said.

  “Good.” Gabe looked up at the waitress. “Put a double order of grilled chicken on it, and bring her a double order of fries.”

  “I don’t want—” Nell began.

  “I don’t care,” he said, and Nell shut up until the waitress was gone.

  Then she said, “You know, my lunch is none of your bus—”

  “You trashed your ex-husband’s office. His new wife swore out a warrant for your arrest.”

  “Oh, God,” Nell said, every nerve in her body turning to ice.

  “When I hired you, you didn’t have a pulse,” Gabe said. “Now you have a police record.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “What the hell did you do? She kept snarling something about icicles.”

  “Awards,” Nell said faintly. “Ohio Insurance Agent of the Year for the company. I broke them.”

  “Hope you enjoyed it. Jack and I spent the morning fixing that for you. He argued that since you still own half of the agency the warrant was no good. Your ex-husband finally gave in. The police are no longer looking for you.”

  “Thank you,” Nell said politely and began to shred her paper napkin in her lap.

  “Then there was Wednesday night when you tried to sleep with a client’s husband.”

  “That was a mistake,” Nell said. “I apologize.”

  “And I gather you did sleep with Riley.”

  “Hey, I’m clear on that,” Nell said, rallying a little. “You didn’t tell me not to fuck the help.”

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