Chapter 9 · He Recites the Rows

"Say the number again." Luca didn't look up from the ledger. His hand was already on my wrist, thumb pressed flat over my pulse like he was counting it as a line item too.

"Row four-forty-one," I said. "Vitale Imports. Forty-two thousand, paid twice in the same week. That's not a typo, Luca. That's someone skimming under your name."

"Under my name." He finally looked at me. "That's the part that should scare you."

He pulled me around the desk until my hip hit the edge of it, until the ledger was open between us like something on trial. I didn't pull away. I'd learned that pulling away just gave him a reason to close the distance faster.

"You think I did it," I said.

"I think you found it." His voice dropped, quiet in the way that meant he was done being patient. "Which means someone in my house let a woman I signed a year-long contract with catch what my own accountant didn't catch in three years."

"CFO," I said. "Not the woman you signed. You tore that up, remember? Front row, cameras rolling."

"I remember everything, Nora.