Page 139 of The Reluctant Hero

I’m already shaking my head in denial.

I start pacing, trying to calm my nerves. “Just tell me if Jake is okay.”

“Sit down.” The dark words barked out of Mikael’s mouth makes my feet freeze as my eyes widen. I look at them again. This time, the concern is almost overwhelming. If something happened to Jake, the guilt will crush me. I haven’t been nice to him the entire time I’ve known him, even when he’s being sweet. I’m trying not to imagine him on a concrete floor with torture tools around him and failing.

“What happened?” My voice drops to a hoarse whisper as I fall into the seat across from them.

“Someone hacked into my personal bank account and stole quite a bit of money,” Matthias says casually.

I blink in surprise. That’s all? This is not what I was expecting and does a lot to raise my hopes sky-high. “Jake is ok? He’s just late?”

“He’s fine,” Cade says with a sneer. The way he’s looking at me makes the doom feeling start to riot again.

This is the first time I’ve had this reaction to any of them. What does it mean? Why didn’t this stupid warning power come with instructions?

I’m beyond questioning it now. This thing has been warning me, and I’ve been ignoring it. That stops now. Or does it? Why am I feeling this waynowof all times?

Gabriel’s lips turn up in a cold, unfeeling smile that brings my attention back to him. He acts like he doesn’t know me. After Friday I kind of thought this might be his reaction.

I eye each of them carefully now. Each one of them is focused on me with blank expressions, except Ace. He can’t meet my eyes or even look directly at me. His attention is firmly pointed to the floor. The sudden loss of his fierce attention is like a slap by itself.

“What’s going on?” I ask warily. It’s not supposed to be like this. Not with them. I ruined it by sleeping with Gabriel. Is this my brush-off? He can’t. Notnow. I need their help!

“Someone from the office opened an easily traceable account and transferred over three million dollars. All easy to find.”

“Ok?” I frown in frustration. I don’t care about his stupid money. It’s not like he doesn’t have a ton more somewhere. He’s determined to talk about it. If I let him rant and get it all out, I’ll be able to tell them thereally important shit!

“Do you know who?” My voice is impatient. I wave my hand around to get him to hurry the hell up.

“Oh, yes,” his smile gets broader and more menacing. “Like I said, it’s all easily traceable. I have parameters set up to catch that kind of thing.”

“That’s great,” I scoff and rub my face with my hand.

“I already got the entire amount back,” he assures me smugly.

“Sweet. So who’s going to jail?” Hurry up and tell me so we can focus on thedead bodyI found yesterday! Not to mention everything else!

“You,” Cade smiles at me sweetly.

I blink at him. My chest tightens unbearably, and my brows start to furrow. It hurts bad enough that I straighten my face out quickly. My heart has begun to hammer double-time in my chest. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t have to act anymore,” Gabriel assures me with a smirk. “If you were smarter about it, you could have gotten away with it. We have plenty of proof.”

“I didn’t steal any money,” I protest in confusion. “Are you guys serious? Ace?”

He shakes his head and still won’t look at me. The doom feeling gets stronger.

That’s the warning. They planned on accusing me as soon as I walked through the door. This makes no sense. There’s no way I could hack anything. I can barely understand my phone. Wouldn’t an intelligent thief havebailedby now?

“The thing is, I would have given it to you if you had asked.”

My eyes go wide on Gabriel’s cold face. The words sounded like they went through a shredder before they could come out. “Are youcrazy?”

“You could have gotten so much more if you had been patient,” Cade laughs as my face pales. On the surface, he sounds like he finds it hilarious. But I can hear an undertone to it that’s deadly.

“I did not steal anything! Shut up and listen to me!” My rage-filled shout gets cut off.

“Stop,” Gabriel barks and slams a hand onto his desk, which makes me jump in surprise. My nerves are shot after theweekend I’ve had. I’m starting to shake, and I can’t stop. “The distractions are over.”

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