41. Angie

41

ANGIE

A t first, Emma refused to talk, but after Detective Carter arrived, and I started crying, Emma started confessing from where she still sat on the road, cuffed to the back of the truck.

"How did you know it was me?" Emma asked.

"You didn't secure your wig well enough. A strand of pink hung out."

Emma grumbled.

"So tell me," I said. "Where's Jularin?"

"He ditched me six months ago," she said with a scowl.

Elrik—a rather gorgeous, though slightly icy-appearing guy about Tuvid's size, though without his glorious wings, leaned against the back of the wrecked truck. He watched the interaction intently while Tuvid stood beside me, facing Emma.

We'd moved the kegs to the back of the rental vehicle where they'd remain cold. It didn't look like they'd been tampered with, though I would run some tests before I entered them in the contest this afternoon.

They were my kegs. If Detective Carter agreed I could take them, then I wouldn't have to back out of the contest.

It looked like we'd caught our thief, yet life had just become more complicated.

"Jularin ditched me when he discovered I was in debt well beyond my eyeballs," Emma said. "I've got a gambling problem. I know I should get help, but each time I try, the slots call my name, and I can't resist. You know?"

I shook my head.

"If you'd taken Jasper's offer to buy you out," she said, "you'd have a ton of cash. You would've offered us bonuses and severance pay when you let us go. Then you also wouldn't have found out I've been siphoning money from the brewery for years."

"What?" I barked, stomping my foot on the pavement.

"I thought you caught on the other day when you asked about those supplies. I didn't return anything. They were never ordered; I just told you they were so you'd pay the bill."

My legs shook. Tuvid's arm went around me, holding me up.

"You're saying this has been going on for years?" I asked.

She nodded. "Even when your uncle was alive. I'm sorry. I know it's wrong. I just couldn't help it."

"Is Jasper involved in this?"

"Just me. Sure, he hopes you'll sell the brewery, but I've done everything. "

"You sabotaged my business because you hoped it would make me eager to sell?"

"Stupid insurance company. They're too eager to reimburse you for everything."

Tears trickled down my face, and Tuvid handed me some tissues. "You stole my beer to sell it?"

"Of course. I put the word in with Jasper, using Jularin's nickname, and he didn't suspect a thing. If your fiancé here had just gone through with the deal and paid up, you'd have your beer, and I'd have the local loan snakes off my back for a little while."

"Sharks," I said blankly. "They're called loan sharks ."

"Around here, they're nagas. Snakes." She shivered. "I hope I'm safe behind bars. I'll have to ask Detective Carter about that. Anyway. This is all your fault. Don't you see?"

"I don't." I still couldn't believe this. I'd fallen for her niceness, for all the help she'd offered. I'd thought she was a good office manager and accountant when all this time, she was stealing from me.

"If you hadn't started snooping into the books," she said, "I could've kept pretending to order things, then say they were defective, and we were waiting for a restock. I decided to drive you out of business for that bonus you'd offer. It was better than nothing."

"You locked us in the chiller," Tuvid said.

"That was a warning."

"A warning for what?"

"That you needed to behave."

She was out of her mind, but she'd have to be to do this for so long .

Detective Carter arrived, and we filled him in on what she'd said. I didn't have much else to ask her. She'd done it all. I'd gotten my beer back. All I could do now was hope I didn't discover any other nasty things she'd done to my brewery.

The detective placed her in the back of his cop car and called for a wrecker to come get her truck.

Elrik's ice wall had melted, pooling across the road, the water absorbed by the sun and the dirt along the side. He'd left, and it was just me and Tuvid now, standing beside my rental truck thankfully still holding the beer Detective Carter said I could take.

"I feel so bereft," I said, tears trickling down my face.

He gently wiped them away. "I understand."

"I'll hire a new office manager and an accounting firm. I plan to keep a tighter rein on things from now on. I'll finish the repairs and get my microbrewery back up and running."

"And you'll enter your stout in the contest later today."

"Yup." I sniffed. "Why do I still feel sad?"

"Because your friend betrayed you." His arms went around me, and he took flight, soaring up over the trees and across the big open valley. Houses peppered the land below, and the town shone ahead in the sunlight. We'd have to go back for the truck, but it was locked and safe enough sitting beside the road with the engine running to keep the beer cold.

"She sucks," I said. "To think all this time, she was smiling at me while stealing from me behind my back. I can't imagine how much she took from the brewery, but I'm sure I'll discover that when I do a full audit."

"I'll help all I can."

"I know you will." I snuggled into his chest.

That's when I realized we were flying rather high in the sky.

"I wonder if my fake wings work," I said.

He tipped up my chin, and his smile was incredibly sweet. No wonder I fell in love with this guy so fast. "I'll hold onto your hand if you want to try them out. Maybe, just maybe, if you close your eyes, love, you'll soar."