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“No! We’re going to talk right now. Right here.”
Zeke fought for every ounce of control he could muster. “I’m not proud that I lied to you. But I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Well guess what? I’m not hurt. I’m pissed!” She turned to Mimi. “Did you know, too?”
Mimi started to answer, but Zeke cut her off. “Mimi begged me to tell you. She even threatened to tell you herself, so please, don’t blame her.”
“Well, that explains a whole hell of a lot! No wonder you kicked him out of the house!” She looked at Zeke as if she couldn’t stand to be near him. “Who died and made you king of the world?” The tears were coming faster now. “I have to get out of here,” she said to Tom.
Tom tossed Zeke a look that wasn’t too hard to interpret. If they weren’t in the middle of a crowd, his future brother-in-law would have gladly kicked the shit out of him. Morosely, it only made Zeke like Tom more. He put his arm around Allie and led her away from the curious eyes of the crowd who’d gathered to watch the scene.
Zeke glared at the bystanders. “Everyone go mind your own business!”
They scurried away like they were afraid of him. He didn’t blame them one bit. He was a little afraid of himself right now, too.
“Zeke, son, I’m so sorry,” Sam said.
“Why don’t you leave? Are you happy now? Why don’t you crawl back to wherever you came from and leave us the hell alone!”
“Sam,” Mimi said quietly, “I think you should go.”
He nodded in a dejected way, meant to get everyone to feel sorry for him, then shuffled off into the crowd, looking like some lonely old man. Was Zeke the only one who could see Sam Grant for what he really was? Good riddance.
“I have to go find Allie,” Zeke said, already taking off in the direction she and Tom had gone.
“No,” Mimi said firmly. She planted herself directly in front of him. “You need to give her time, Zeke. She’s in shock. It will only make things worse if you follow her now.”
He raked an agitated hand through his hair. Mimi was right. Letting Allie go was the right thin
g to do. She had Tom now. He’d help her get through this.
“C’mon, we have some major clean up to do.” She led him to the tent in the center of the festival grounds.
Viola and the rest of the festival committee were already waiting for her. There was a strange vibe going on that caused his internal cop radar to start beeping.
“Mimi!” Viola said, “Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you!”
“I had a little family crisis,” Mimi said, glancing at Zeke.
Rusty and another one of his officers were talking to a short blonde woman, whom Zeke recognized as Wendy Tallman. She was wringing her hands and…tears rolled down her cheeks.
Shit. His instincts had been right on.
“What’s going on?” Zeke asked.
Rusty’s eyes had that bugged-out look they got whenever he was too excited.
“This has simply never happened before in the entire history of the festival!” Bettina Bailey said.
“What’s never happened before?” Mimi asked. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on here?”
“Well,” Bettina said, “Considering that everything tonight is your responsibility, as you so graciously told everyone when you were up on that stage, I’m surprised you don’t already know.”
“Know what?” Mimi asked again, exasperated.
“Someone stole all the money from the ticket booth!” Rusty said. “I swear, Zeke, I have no idea how it happened. That booth was locked down tighter than Fort Knox. And I never left my post. Not once. Not even for a second.”
Wendy’s voice quivered with tears. “Over twenty-thousand dollars gone! Oh, Mimi! What are we going to do?”
