Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes #3)(14)

He’d made a breakfast strata, potatoes, and bacon, along with muffins and the fruit. It looked and smelled delectable, and she wasn’t such a fool that she was going to let it go to waste just because she didn’t appreciate the way he’d swooped in and saved the day.

Not able to stifle her ecstatic groan, Grace finally looked up at Cam again. “You really went to far too much trouble, but it is sort of nice.”

“There’s no way I’m getting another thank-you, is there?” he asked.

“Nope. If I gave you another one, you’d think I want or expect this sort of thing, and I don’t.”

“All righty, then. When you’re finished, we can get down to business,” he told her.

She took her time eating, because she knew what he was going to say and she didn’t want to have this fight with him again. It had been going on all year, and he was starting to wear her down. But it was all so stupid. She hadn’t opened that damned nonprofit, so she had nothing to worry about.

The innocent didn’t get accused—that would just be wrong, she assured herself.

The two of them finished in silence, and she made sure to be the first one up, gathering the plates and empty dishes and going with them to her sink.

“I’ll do those,” Cam said, stepping right up behind her, far too close. “You’re still not one hundred percent.”

“No. You’ve done enough for me. Sit down and drink your coffee and I’ll take care of the dishes. Of course, if you need to go to the office, you can go ahead and take off.”

“I don’t have a single place to be today,” he said, brushing against her back before moving away and returning to his chair. That small contact sent a delicious tingling sensation through her entire body.

She wasn’t in any hurry—with luck, he’d grow bored and leave. She knew better, though. Cam wasn’t one to give up once he had his mind set on something. When she’d finished with the few dishes they’d dirtied, she poured herself a fresh cup of coffee and returned to the table, where he had that blasted file sitting in front of him.

“There’s really no use in going over this again and again, Cam. I didn’t open that nonprofit—Youthspiration or whatever it was called—so I’m not worried about facing the law,” she told him, pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging them, her way of trying to protect herself.

“I’m not going to tiptoe around this anymore, Grace. Even if you weren’t the one to open this thing up, it’s in your name. This is money laundering, dammit—it’s not Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders—and everything is pointing right at you. You need to talk to me so we can figure this out.”

“But I didn’t do it,” she said, doing her weary best to sound like a broken record.

“Well, then, you need to give me a list of people who you think are capable of coming up with something like this and using you as their scapegoat.”

She glared at him for several heartbeats. She didn’t like being pushed into this corner, didn’t like having to answer to something she hadn’t done. But he was right. She hadn’t told him she had done so, but she’d finally gotten around to reading through the copies he’d left with her. It really did look like all roads led back to her. Suddenly her shoulders sagged as she looked at him.

When she took too long, he spoke again. “Did you know that in most jurisdictions, embezzling is punishable by prison time and, of course, fines, including the money taken? And do you remember Bernie Madoff, the stockbroker and investment adviser who got away with about sixty-five billion dollars from various investors? In 2009, he was sentenced to one hundred and fifty years in prison. Sure, that’s an extreme case, but it shows that the courts aren’t smiling on people guilty of fraud, not even the rich ones who can afford lawyers. So you need to tell me, and tell me right now, who you think is behind this. I promise you that this is no joke, Grace.”

Nausea took up permanent residence in her stomach at the thought of prison time. She wouldn’t survive being caged up. No way. No how.

“I have no idea who would do this to me, Cam.”

“Somebody did, and it’s my job to figure out who. The only way I can do that is if you cooperate with me.”

“Why do you even want to help me with this? How do you even know I’m innocent? I could be playing you.”

“Innocent people don’t make comments like that,” he told her with a wry smile.

“Ugh. You think you have it all figured out. Well, you don’t. I have no clue what is going on with this, but I didn’t steal any money. I don’t need to! My grandfather left me a generous trust fund that’s more than enough for me to live off. And my poor excuse of a father left me property. I make a modest income from work, but you know that I don’t have to work at all if I don’t want to.” She was practically yelling now. “There’s just no reason I would ever need to embezzle money!”

“Slow down. Let’s just talk. We’ll figure this out. But you’re going to have to open up to me. You’re going to have to tell me about your life over the past ten years. Well, at least the years that you weren’t here in Sterling,” he said, reaching out and patting her hand.

“I don’t want to talk about my past. I made a lot of mistakes. It’s not something I’m proud of.”