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Chapter 15
Sunday
Julia slumped against the seat of the car, exhausted and overwhelmed. Streetlights and darkened buildings flashed by, light, dark, light, dark as she stared out the window at the familiar route.
Catching Carole stealing money from her, firing her, then finding her breaking into her safe? Watching the police lead her away in handcuffs? It was almost too much to wrap her head around. How could she have been so blind about her hostess and two of her servers?
Discovering why Madeline’s was floundering was a huge relief after months of worry about her finances. She’d lain awake too many nights, wondering what she’d done wrong with her restaurant. How she could’ve mis-managed Madeline’s when she’d been so careful. She’d spent days working through every move she’d made, searching for mistakes.
She’d thought about the possibility of employees stealing from her. Although she’d built in safeguards to prevent that, and kept a close eye on both the kitchen and the front of the house, she clearly hadn’t thought of everything.
She’d never imagined someone would load spyware onto her computers. Hide cameras in her office. But whoever it had been had seen everything she’d done on-line. Probably watched her open the safe through the cameras hidden in her office. Easily captured the combination.
She slumped against the headrest. Changing all her passwords would be a huge job. But Nico had promised to help.
God! She didn’t have time to spend hours resetting passwords for every internet site she visited.
Carole’s betrayal left a bitter taste in her mouth. Julia thought she’d treated her hostess fairly. She’d promoted Carole when she asked to be the hostess, and paid her a generous salary. She’d given Carole lots of latitude in how she ran the front of the house. Julia had been happy with the job she’d done. The servers and bussers were good workers. Attentive to their customers. Friendly. Helpful.
How and why had she misjudged Carole so badly?
She had no idea, and the realization terrified her. If she couldn’t figure out where she’d gone wrong with Carole, how could she trust her judgment when hiring any new employees?
The realization was a blow to her self-confidence.
“Hey.” Nico reached for her hand, wrapping his warm fingers around her cold ones. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?” Enjoying his firm grip, the warmth from his hand, she turned to look at him. Nico wasn’t watching her, though. He was doing his job. Watching the street in front of him. Looking for any threats as he drove toward her house.
“Stop second-guessing yourself,” he said, squeezing her fingers before letting her go. “Don’t beat yourself up because those three thieves took advantage of you.”
“Hard not to beat myself up about it,” she said, watching the streetlights flash on Nico’s face every few seconds. “They were stealing from me. Right under my nose. I should have caught it. But if Zoe hadn’t found the spyware on my home computer, if I hadn’t hired Blackhawk Security, if you hadn’t come here to try and figure out what was going on, Carole, Ruth and Andra would still be stealing from me. And if it had gone on for another month or two, Madeline’s would have had to close.”
That knowledge had haunted her for the past few months. Terrified her. Knowing she wasn’t in control of what happened to her restaurant had been a huge blow.
They had found the reason, though. It would be a tough slog, but Madeline’s would recover. She looked down at her hands, clenched together in her lap. Closed her eyes and loosened them. Pressed her palms flat against her thighs.
Nico shook his head before she was finished speaking. “Wrong way to look at it. This all started because you were alert enough to realize someone had been in your house,” he reminded her. “So you took the first step.”
Julia closed her eyes as she leaned against the headrest. She wanted to hold tight to his words. To let herself believe she’d been the trigger that led to the discovery. But she knew it wasn’t true.
“You were the one who picked up on what Carole was doing,” she said without opening her eyes. “If you hadn’t gotten involved with the Barrett situation, who knows how long it would have taken for me to figure it out.”
“That’s why you hire people like me,” Nico said. “I have different skills than you. A different way of looking at things.” He plucked her hand from her thigh and twined his fingers with hers, then brushed his mouth over the back of her hand.
Her eyes fluttered open as she tightened her grip on his hand. She wanted to cling to him. Press her palm against his warm one. But he gently untangled their fingers. He needed both hands on the steering wheel. That was his job. Not comforting her.
“I might have noticed what Carole was doing, but you were smart enough to hire Blackhawk Security in the first place,” Nico said quietly.
She stared out the window, wishing she could take his hand again. She wanted so badly to believe what he was saying. To accept that she’d been the one who’d started the process of discovering Carole’s theft.
Julia looked down at her hands, curled together in her lap, and admitted the pitiful truth. She wanted to lean on Nico. To pour out her heartbreak at Carole’s betrayal. To confide her fears to him. Confess her crumbling confidence.
But he wasn’t her lover. Or even her friend. He was an employee who was being paid to protect her. It wasn’t his job to boost her morale or self-confidence. His job was to keep her safe and figure out why all these odd things were happening in her life.
Nico had been instrumental in helping her discover Carole’s deception. But that still didn’t explain the spyware on her home computer. Or being shoved in front of a bus after she’d left Zoe’s office.
Was everything that had happened connected?
