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Ella sniffed and stared at the wooden bench in front of the row of lockers, brow furrowed as she reflected.
“Pris has had it in for me since we were in high school. She and Stina got back at me for the whole Derek thing, but now that I bailed on them on Christmas Eve, I can fully believe that they rigged this to get back at me for that, too.
“They blocked me from seeing my dad on holidays. I wouldn’t put anything past them.”
This blew my mind. Though my parents’ relationship with one another were terrible, to Gemma and me, my family was as loving as they came. I couldn’t imagine parents treating their kids so badly.
“If they managed to manipulate the security feed, that means they had some help,” I said.
Again, I thought of the threat Pris had made to Ella about not being able to be with me. About The Pact.
Something more was going on here than was onthe surface.
“Is there any way to check their correspondence?” she asked.
I rubbed my jaw. “Not when it looks like you’re the one I should be keeping tabs on.”
“What if you just included the whole custodial crew?”
“I can’t monitor everyone’s texts and phone calls. Not without just cause.”
“And you don’t have it on Pris.”
I didn’t. There had to be a way to dig deeper into this. To get some dirt on her.
“Is there anything you can do?” I asked her.
As her stepsister, she knew her better than I did. Maybe she could think of something I didn’t.
The most adorable line appeared between her brows as Ella reflected.
“Short of actually committing a crime, I can’t think of anything.”
Committing an actual crime was the last thing either of us should do.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said.
I waited a few moments. She clasped my hand, squeezing it a few times.
We were prisoners in one another’s gazes, in a moment where neither of us wanted to move because things were changing more rapidly than either of us could control.
“You’d better go,” I said. “I’ll be in touch.”
She tucked that bottom lip of hers into her teeth. And then she crept in and tipped a kiss to my cheek before ducking out.
Exhaling, taking a few more moments in the breakroom and staring at the stolen items strewn haphazardly around, I strode out.
Stina stood outside the breakroom.
“Well?” she said expectantly.
I was typically a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but this was dangerous. I didn’t like this woman after the way Ella told me she’d treated her—but if she’d really gone far enough to set her up like this?
“I haven’t had any problems with the quality of work your company does, Mrs. Malus,” I began, setting my teeth so she couldn’t mistake my meaning.
She smiled. “I make sure my crew?—”
“But I won’t tolerate dishonesty, especially at the expense of someone’s reputation. I think you know what I’m getting at.”
