Chapter 30 Kira #2
“What?” Beckett stood up. “No. That’s not what I’m saying.”
I shook back my hair. “It’s my responsibility to make sure this taproom—”
“Our responsibility, Kira.” Ronan’s voice was sharp. “Not just you.”
I turned away from Ronan and toward Beckett. “It’s my job to make sure inventory is accounted for. My responsibility.”
“No.” Ronan moved beside me.
“No, I’m not letting you get into trouble.” I couldn’t look at him right now. He must think I was so incompetent. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
Beckett stepped in front of me. “Key. I’m not saying you stole anything.”
My breath stalled. “I know it,” I said on a whisper. “But it’s still my fault.”
“It could be my fault.” Ronan caught my hand again. “Sunsh–Kira—I’ve been bringing the cases over in my truck. I could have miscounted somewhere.”
I shook him off. “No, you couldn’t, because I check you in. My responsib—”
“If you say responsibility again, I’m going to tape your damn mouth shut. This is on both of us, and we’ll figure it out together. Period.” Ronan turned me and cupped my face. “Together.”
I tried to shake my head, but he lowered his forehead to mine. “We’re in it together, remember? I don’t bail on you, you don’t bail on me.”
“You shouldn’t get in trouble for me,” I whispered.
“Key. No one is in trouble. I promise. Except for the person who is stealing from us. And that isn’t you.” Beckett’s voice was firm. “I know you’ll figure it out because you’re the best numbers woman in this damn county.”
My eyes burned and a tear slipped down my cheek.
“Dammit, Sunshine. Don’t you cry on me.” Ronan looked over at Beckett and held out his hand for the folder. “Give us a minute?”
I couldn’t look at my best friend. I wanted to push them both out of the room and scream so I could get all this emotion out so I could focus.
Beckett sighed and handed over the folder. Ronan passed it to me and I hugged it against my chest.
“Key, you didn’t do anything wrong, but we might have someone in the taproom who did.”
“I’ll—” I locked eyes with Ronan. His dark eyes were fierce with anger, but there was something more swirling with it. It wasn’t directed at me. Was it for me? “We’ll figure it out.”
Some of the rage simmered down. “Goddamn right, we will. Together.”
Beckett put a hand on my shoulder and he and Ronan had some silent conversation, then I heard the door open and close quietly.
I closed my eyes and Ronan enveloped me into his arms. “Let go.”
“No, I might not stop.” My shoulders were already shaking as I tried to hold on.
“I’m here. Just let go.”
I curled my arms under his and gripped his back. The folder crumpled under my hand, but I did let go. The tears, memories, and fear coalesced into a shame knot, but he held on. He didn’t let go. In fact, he only tightened his hold and tucked the top of my head under his chin.
He didn’t tell me to stop.
Just let me cry it out until I was wrung out and the consistency of silly putty in his arms.
Finally, when there wasn’t a tear left in my swollen eyes, I eased back.
He looked down at me. “Better?”
“I have a headache, but yeah.”
“My sister’s the same—holds it in until there’s no room, then bam! No one is safe.”
I gave a watery laugh. “So, does that mean you’re not running?”
He shook his head. “Not even close.”
“Which sister?”
“Norah.” He thumbed away a tear from my cheek. “You’ll like her.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
I sighed and licked my salty lips. I held up a finger to him and took the folder with me and put it on the desk. I opened a drawer where I kept wet wipes and cleaned up my face. “I’m probably blotchy as hell.”
He smiled. “Maybe.”
“Great.” My laugh was a little rusty, but the torrent of tears left me a little more even. I tossed the wipe away and went back to him. I took his hand. “I suppose I should explain some of this.”
“Would be nice.”
That was my Viking. Sturdy and direct. I owed him this at least. The whole truth to give him one last out. “Remember when I told you Kaylee left me high and dry?”
He nodded. “Right. Ruined your business together.”
“Well, that’s not quite all of it.”
“I kinda figured.”
“And no one told you?”
He shook his head. “I’m not one for gossip. But I gotta tell you, Sunshine. No one talks badly about you that I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s been a few years. I’m sure some have forgotten.”
“More like no one says anything about you.”
“Unlike Anne Montgomery in the bar when we first met?”
He frowned. “That plastic blond?”
I laughed and went onto my toes to brush a kiss over his mouth. “Yes, her.”
He settled his hands on my hips. “She’s nothing compared to you.”
“It’s sweet of you to say. Her family might not agree with you.
” I sighed. “The Montgomerys were one of the families that were hurt in the fallout. My sister didn’t just leave me hanging with the business.
She stole over a hundred thousand dollars from the accounts of all the businesses we took care of. ”
“Dear God.”
“Yeah.” I looked down at his cross and traced my finger around the shape. “My mom begged me to find a way to fix it. So my sister wasn’t arrested or a warrant put out for her.”
“But how?”
“Loans. Lots and lots of loans to pay back the businesses, and in return they didn’t press charges.” I swallowed hard. The memories of those stress filled days made my stomach churn. “I paid every single person back. I took out loans from places I had no business taking from.”
His eyebrows snapped down. “What kind of places?”
“Not a loan shark or anything.” I was shocked to find a laugh inside me, but there it was. “But there are tons of places who will charge you two arms and a foot’s worth of interest.”
“Oh, babe.”
“Yeah. We tried to keep it as quiet as possible, but Kaylee disappeared and I suddenly didn’t have any clients. It didn’t take much of a leap to figure out I fucked up in a big way. Stories built and some of it was true, but a lot of it was just gossip.”
“And you didn’t defend yourself? Why?”
“She’s my sister. Not that I feel much in the way of love for her anymore.
She was always looking for the easy way out.
I worked way more than she ever did, which just made it worse in the end.
” I tucked his cross back under his shirt, then looked up at him.
“But my sister was a damn genius when it came to spreadsheets. If she hadn’t been so selfish and calculating, she could’ve made her money the legal way. ”
“And that’s why you had so many jobs.”
I nodded. “I worked part time at the orchard, but went full time after everything imploded. Beckett believed me. Believed in me when no one else would. He co-signed a loan at the bank that got me the first bit of settlement money. I did the others on my own.”
Ronan tugged me into his arms. “And didn’t tell anyone.”
I laid my cheek on his chest. “Beckett figured it out, but it was too late. I’d already signed the papers to get the rest of the money. He wasn’t exactly in a position to help me out at the time, and I wasn’t going to take money from him. He’d done more than enough.”
“And your mom let you do this?”
“She asked me to.”
His whole body vibrated. I looped my arms around his waist and hung onto him. “Don’t get mad for me.”
“And who should then?”
“Me. But I just took it on and I shouldn’t have. It took me a long time to figure that out. Until about twenty minutes ago.”
“You don’t have to do anything alone anymore, Kira Webb.”
“Handily, I have paid off most of it. I do have one last loan, but it’s manageable.” I tipped my head up to look at him. “That’s why I started doing the bartending flair. I had a balloon payment due on one of the loans or I was going to be locked into ten years of shitty interest.”
He shook his head. “And you won an expo in Las Vegas.”
“I won an expo in Vegas,” I said with a laugh. “I was tempted to do a few more, but the taxes were just killer. It wasn’t worth all the practice or the bruises. That was Mason’s brain child anyway. He bought the ticket and sent me there.”
“So, that’s two people in your corner.” He rubbed my nose with his. “And there are so many more. You just need to believe it and see it. I’m the number one though.” He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, maybe Beckett can stay number one.”
I went onto my toes and kissed him. “I love you, Ronan.”
He stilled. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. I’d kinda figured it out already.
I definitely did when we were in the storeroom today.
But when you stood up for me.” I couldn’t believe there were any tears left in my body.
“When you wouldn’t let me take the blame.
No one has ever stood for me like that. Even Beckett.
He supported me after it all went down, but he didn’t know about it when it happened. ”
“Because he wouldn’t have let you.”
“You know him better than I thought.”
“Because that’s what I would have done. It wasn’t your responsibility.”
“But this thief problem we have is.”
“It’s our responsibility. We’ll figure it out together. But let me tell you one thing—you aren’t paying for it. Businesses take losses for bullshit that happens all the time. Believe me. But we won’t let it happen again.”
I didn’t really like that answer, but he was right.
“No, we won’t.” I tried to step back and he held me tight. “We have to figure out what the heck happened.”
“We will. I just need you to say that one thing one more time.”
I smiled up at him. “Which part?” He lifted me up along the back of my thighs and I grabbed onto his shoulders. “Okay, okay.”
“Say it again.”
I lowered my face to his, my hair falling forward to curtain around us. “I love you, Ronan.”
“Again,” he said against my mouth.
“I love you, Viking.”