Chapter Twenty-Three Caught
Lydia
The hand on my forearm was warm through my sleeve. Firm enough to stop me, careful enough not to hurt.
“Lydia.”
I knew the voice before I fully saw the face. I turned, heart racing, and there Ephram stood in the dim hallway light. He was composed and steady, his brown eyes trained on me with the kind of focus that made me feel both caught and seen.
For a moment, I couldn’t decide whether to be relieved or furious. Relief won first, then fury snapped right behind it like a rubber band.
“You,” I whispered, then corrected myself because whispering felt ridiculous when my pulse was trying to climb out of my throat. “You scared me!”
His expression barely shifted. “Good. That means you understand you shouldn’t be back here.”
“I was following Gavin.”
“I know." Ephram loosened his grip but didn’t let go. “That’s why I stopped you.”
I pulled my arm back, immediately missing the contact from his hand and resenting myself for it. “He was in restricted areas.”
“And you were too,” he replied calmly. “This isn’t a game, Lydia.”
I folded my arms, partly to keep them from shaking, partly because I needed something physical to hold onto. “I’m not playing. I am trying to make sure he can’t do what he did to us to someone else.”
Ephram’s jaw tightened slightly, the only sign that my words landed. “I am handling it.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “That is what men say right before women get blamed for things.”
Ephram’s eyes narrowed. “I am not saying you are wrong to be alert. I am saying you can’t chase him through the staff corridors, especially alone.”
“I wasn’t alone,” I argued, then realized how thin that sounded. “I mean, there were guests and staff.”
“You don’t have any help, you don’t have authority to be back here, and if Wickham were to do anything, you have no means of protecting yourself,” his voice stayed low and controlled.
“What was I supposed to do? Just let him go?” I shot back. “He already tried to corner me out there. He wanted a dance. Like he was doing me a favor by pretending nothing happened.”
Ephram’s gaze sharpened. “Did he threaten you?”
“No." I swallowed, then forced the truth out cleanly. “He tried to make it sound like the whole thing was a misunderstanding and we should move forward because it would be convenient for him.”
Ephram nodded once, absorbing that. “All right.”
“All right,” I repeated, frustrated by how calm he was. “That’s it? All right?”
“What do you want me to say?” he asked quietly.
I opened my mouth before I closed it. What I wanted wasn’t reasonable.
I wanted him to tell me I wasn’t foolish.
I wanted him to arrest Gavin. I wanted him to explain why he was here in a suit after telling me he couldn’t come with me.
I wanted him to admit I mattered to him in a way that made this feel less uncertain.
Instead I lifted my chin. “I want you to let me help.”
His eyes held mine. “I’m letting you help by keeping you safe.”
“I’m not a child,” I snapped.
“I know." His voice softened a fraction, then steadied again. “That’s why I’m asking you to trust me.”
The word trust hit me harder than it should have. Trust was the thing I had offered Gavin without earning it. Trust was the thing he had turned into leverage against me. Trust wasn’t something I gave easily anymore.
I stared at Ephram, trying to read the edges of him, the intentions behind the restraint. He stood in the narrow hallway like a wall between me and the mess I was sprinting toward. He looked tired in a way most people wouldn’t notice. He also looked certain.
“I don’t step back,” I warned him, quieter now.
“I’m not asking you to step back from the truth,” he replied. “I am asking you to step out of the line of fire.”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t promise that.
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor. A door opened and voices were nearby, sounding brisk and managerial. The gala’s glossy surface hummed somewhere beyond these walls, music and laughter muffled by carpet and distance.
Ephram shifted slightly, angling his body so I was closer to the wall and less visible, his back to me. It was a small movement, instinctive, and protective. My chest tightened as I looked up at him.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Keeping you from being noticed,” he murmured back.
Before I could argue again, someone rounded the corner with purpose.
Carly Hale moved like she owned every hallway in the lodge, which she probably did. Her dress glittered under the dim lights, her hair pinned perfectly, but the expression on her face did not match the sparkle. She looked pale around the mouth, her eyes sharp and unsettled.
She saw Ephram and made a beeline for him, relief flashing across her face like he was the first solid thing she had found.
“Officer North,” she said, voice low but urgent. “I need you. Now.”
His attention snapped to her immediately. “What happened?”
Her gaze flicked to me, then back to him. “We have a problem. The donation box with the checks and the money from the silent pledges. It’s empty. All of the money is gone.”
The air seemed to change.
Gone.
I felt the word like a drop in my stomach. This was a repeat of our dance where money was stolen. My mind passed over the evening’s events. I had kept Gavin in view the entire time after our dance so if he stole the funds, he must have done it before then.
He had lured me, knowing I would follow him, the thought came suddenly. I pressed a hand to my temple. Gavin was going to blame me if he could.
Ephram crisply nodded once. “The funds were kept in the front office. Only three people had the key.”
“Only my event manager, the head of security, and I have keys. We were about to move everything to the safe but now it’s not there,” Carly replied. “We had it secured. I don’t understand how this happened.”
“Has anyone else been in that room?” he asked.
“No. They don’t have access,” Carly replied.
“I want to see the keyholders at the front office right now." Ephram pulled out his phone, dialing a number. “I want a review of the footage in the front office and of the charity box from the start of the event to now.”
“People are everywhere. I don’t want this to become. I don’t want it to become a scene,” Carly urgently said in a whispered voice.
“It won’t,” Ephram assured her as he tucked his phone away.
Carly and Ephram started down the corridor. I followed without thinking, because of course I did. My body was already moving before my brain caught up.
Ephram looked back once, his expression sharpening. “Lydia.”
“I’m coming,” I insisted.
His jaw flexed. He lowered his voice as Carly walked a few steps ahead. “Don’t make this worse.”
“I’m not making anything worse,” I whispered fiercely. “This involves my family too. We were stolen from as well in circumstances just like this.”
He held my gaze for one hard second, then turned forward again without arguing, which almost felt worse than being told no.
We emerged back into the brighter hallway that led toward the front offices. Music swelled again, the contrast jarring. People were laughing. The band slid into another polished song like nothing in the world had shifted.
Carly hurried toward the office door, where her manager stood like a guard. Ephram leaned in, speaking low, practical questions to them both. I hovered at the edge, hands clenched, trying to spot Gavin in the crowd.
Then I saw him.
He stood near the bar, drink in hand, posture relaxed, watching the small cluster around Carly with mild interest, like an audience member enjoying a performance. His gaze slid toward me and stayed there.
A knowing smile touched his mouth.
He approached me as if this was a coincidence, as if he had simply wandered over to check on an old acquaintance.
“Lydia,” he said warmly, voice pitched for politeness. “You look as though you have seen a ghost.”
I held myself still. “What do you want?”
He tilted his head slightly, eyes bright with amusement. “I heard something is missing. How dreadful.”
My stomach dropped further.
He leaned in just enough that his voice could be heard by anyone close, but not by the whole room. He wanted Ephram and Carly to overhear what he had to say.
“Oh Lydia,” he said, and his tone was almost affectionate. “Every time money disappears lately , you seem to be nearby. Such terrible luck. I do hope people don’t… misunderstand.”
The sentence landed like a slap.
I felt heat rush into my face, anger and humiliation tangled together so tightly I couldn’t separate them. I opened my mouth, but the words snagged together and I was left with a small outraged huff that didn’t do my anger justice.
There was a pause in nearby conversations. A glance. A subtle turn of heads, like sunflowers tracking light. People who hadn’t quite heard every word still caught the shape of the exchange, the tension, the implication.
Gavin’s smile widened by a fraction, pleased with himself.
I forced air into my lungs. Forced my voice steady. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” he asked, perfectly innocent.
“Act like I’m the problem,” I replied, louder now, not shouting, but clear. “You know exactly what you’re doing.”
He lifted his hands slightly. “I am only concerned for you. Perception can be so cruel.”
I hated him in that moment with a clarity that steadied me.
I stepped closer, lowering my voice so only he could hear. “You are not going to pin this on me.”
His eyes gleamed. “I can’t believe you would think that of me. Lydia, I wonder how your mind comes to such ideas?”
Behind me, I felt Ephram’s presence before I heard him. The crowd shifted again as he approached, his calm cutting through the moment like a blade.
“Step away,” Ephram told Wickham, voice flat.
Gavin looked at him with exaggerated surprise. “Sergeant North. What a pleasure. Blending in tonight, are we?”
Ephram did not react to the jab. His gaze stayed on Gavin, steady and unreadable. “Step away. Now.”
For the first time, Gavin’s smile faltered. Only slightly. Then he smoothed it back into place and took a slow step backward, as if he was doing Ephram a favor.
I stood there, breathing hard, my hands clenched at my sides, aware of every set of eyes that might be watching, aware of how easily a lie could become a story if enough people repeated it.
Ephram angled his body closer to mine, not touching, but shielding. His voice dropped, meant only for me.
“Stay here,” he said.
I looked up at him, furious and frightened and determined all at once.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered back.
Ephram gestured and a couple of people came forward out of the crowd. “I want Gavin Wickham here in the office under supervision while I investigate.”
Gavin lifted an eyebrow. “Am I being arrested?”
“No, but you are being detained,” Ephram told him.