Page 92 of Easy Steal

“Oh my god,” I mumbled, rushing towards him and snatching it from his grip.

I slung it over my shoulder and felt comfortable again.

My heart rate calmed, and so did my breathing.

I unzipped it, and ruffled through all the things inside of it, making sure nothing was missing.

“You’re very attached to a backpack,” Toni frowned, sipping from a mug of coffee.

Sam elbowed him in the ribs and shook his head, and Toni rolled his eyes.

“Thank you,” I said, looking up at Sam.

He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets, “you left it in Jolene, I knew you’d be looking for it.”

I nodded.

“Thanks.”

He nodded.

There was only silence as we both looked towards the ground.

Things were still weird between us, even weirder now that I had ditched him at the beach. I didn’t know what he wanted to say when we were standing in the ocean, all I knew, was that I didn’t want to know.

“Talkative pair,” Toni mumbled into his cup.

We looked at each other, and both shrugged at the same time, and a small smirk drew on Sammy’s face. The back door creaked open, and Larissa stepped inside, hair whipping around as she looked at everyone.

“Oh Samuel,” she gasped, eyes falling on him. “I heard about the shop. I’m so sorry,” she said, slinging her slim arms around his neck.

He patted her softly on the lower back.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Nothing I can’t fix.”

She pulled back a little to look at him, “are you okay?”

He nodded.

She looked over her shoulder, at the three of us standing around watching them and she cleared her throat.

“Toni, what happened?”

Antoni frowned and shrugged.

“We don’t know what happened yet, but we’re gonna find out,” I said.

I knew I shouldn’t have spoken. I regretted opening my mouth.

Larissa looked at me properly for the first time since standing in the room, and her eyes moved up and down, considering me.

She didn’t reply, didn’t answer me, didn’t acknowledge that I had said a word.

Instead she turned back to Antoni, asking him questions about the whole ordeal as Sam stood behind her with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on my backpack.

“I’m gonna go check on everything,” I said out loud to no one, and Rome nodded as I turned and left the room.

I headed upstairs, back towards the office, and hugged my backpack tightly as I walked down the hall. I closed the office door behind me and sat on the couch, pulling things one by one out of my bag to check that everything was there.

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