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“That’s strange,” Dougal boomed as they rounded the corner to Agnes’ office. “The lights aren’t on. She can’t be in there. Are you sure you’re meeting her tonight?”
“Pretty sure,” Logan said, checking his phone again. Still nothing.
“You don’t think she’s working in her room again, do you?” Dougal frowned. “I’ve told her to stop doing that. I don’t expect her to work in her sleep. She needs time off, the same as everybody else. That girl just doesn’t take care of herself. Come on. We might as well go see.”
“I don’t think it’s wise to call her a girl. She might take offense at that, seeing as she’s a full-grown woman.”
“She’s a girl to me,” Dougal huffed. “I’m old enough to be her grandfather.”
“She’s thirty-two.”
“Okay, then a late-in-life father.”
Logan shook his head—this conversation wasn’t the one they needed to have. He’d gone off track. “I can deal with this on my own,” he said. “I expect you want to get back to the bar, anyway.”
“Nonsense, it’s no trouble.” Dougal started up the stairs. “After all, this is my hotel, and I like to keep abreast of everything that goes on in it.”
“A breast?” Logan was thirteen again, blushing at words with even the vaguest sexual connotation.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know what abreast is?”
This was not happening! Aye, he knew what a breast was, and he’d been hoping to get his hands on a couple until Dougal butted in.
“It means keeping up-to-date on a situation,” Dougal said with disgust. “Young people today, you’re so busy texting, you’ve forgotten real words. When I was your age, I had an amazing vocabulary. Still do, mind you.”
“I know what abreast means, Dougal.” Logan shot off another text as he spoke: URGENT Dougal and I are outside your door. They weren’t, not yet, but they were damn close.
“Then why did you ask about it?” Dougal huffed.
Still no reply from Agnes. All Logan could do was hope she checked her phone before opening the door. Otherwise, this could go south pretty fast, and any plans she had of keeping things between them off the town’s radar would be gone.
“Good,” Dougal said, “there’s light coming from under the door, so she must be in.”
Before Logan could come up with anything else to derail Dougal, the hotel owner thumped Agnes’ door. For a second, Logan thought he might faint from the stress of the situation, but then the door swung open, and Agnes beamed at both of them.
“Good, you’re both here,” she said as though she’d been expecting them. “That saves me the trouble of updating you separately. Come on in.”
Agnes had been in the shower, shaving her legs, while Logan was sending her desperate messages. She’d barely had time to throw on some clothes, and even then, not all of them, as she had nothing on under her buttoned suit jacket, when there was a knock at the door. After twisting her wet hair into a knot and clipping it in place, she slipped her damp feet into her shoes, kicked her bra under the bed and opened the door, all the while praying that this wasn’t happening.
Bloody Dougal. He should just go back to running his own hotel. It would be more efficient than poking his nose into everything she did.
Not that this get-together was about the hotel. No, this one should have been about her and Logan. Who was currently eating her up with his eyes while Dougal waited for a nonexistent report.
“What’s this all about then?” Dougal boomed.
“Well.” There was nothing she could do but start talking in the hope that something would come to her. “I was going over the list of stolen items, and I found a…”
What? What the hell had she found?
Logan cleared his throat. “Is this about that pattern you mentioned?”
“Yes, yes, the pattern!” What pattern? “Perhaps you could explain about the pattern while I switch off the monitors. They’re very distracting.”
That’s when she realized the monitors weren’t on. And that Dougal didn’t know about the cameras. For a second, she just stood there, frozen midstride, completely at a loss as to what to do next.
“What are you talking about?” Dougal boomed again. “And why do you have so many screens in your room anyway?”
“About that pattern,” Logan said loudly, attempting to save her. “Agnes mentioned that all of the items have gone missing during daytime hours. So we can definitely rule out night people. I mean people at night. As in, hotel guests.”
