She had to.
4
Fuck.
Connor stared at the monitor, watching last night’s feeds and hoping like hell he was imagining things.
Fuck. Fuck.
He wasn’t mistaken. The images couldn’t have been clearer. And almost as though she’d known it was there, she’d turned her face up towards the camera, giving him a perfect view.
He hadn’t guessed it was her. She wasn’t his main suspect. Hell, she didn’t even reach number five on the list.
He groaned and leaned his head into his hands. Every night, he’d studied the video feed from the day before, trying to see where the money was going missing, and who had their greedy hands in the till. After ten days of nothing he’d started to wonder if the thief wasn’t going to strike again.
He should be happy he’d found the culprit. His job was basically done. He’d inform Roarke, ask him how he wanted it handled and then he could write his report and walk away.
Fuck. This wasn’t going to be so easy to walk away from. And he knew there was one person he had to tell before he told Roarke. He shouldn’t. But this was going to kill him when he found out. And just his luck he got to be one the one to tell him.
He just hoped like hell Ajax didn’t believe in shooting the messenger.
“Are you sure?” Ajax looked up at him in shock. “Sophie is the thief?”
“Yep. I’m sure.” He wasn’t insulted by the doubt in the other man’s voice. Obviously, it was a shock. Connor had been surprised too.
“Caught her on camera if you want to see it.”
Ajax nodded, frowning. “Yeah, Roarke will want to see that too. Fuck. I can’t believe it’s her.” He looked pale.
“I know this is hard to hear, man,” Connor said sympathically.
“Why would she steal from the club?”
That was something Connor didn’t know. And it didn’t much affect his job. What mattered to him was that she was guilty.
“I never, for a moment, thought it would be Sophie. Was kind of hoping it would be . . .”
He trailed off before he said anything more.
“Trevor?” Connor guessed.
Ajax grimaced. “Yeah, nobody likes working with him much.”
“If it makes you feel any better, my money was on him too. And not just because he’s a douche.”
Ajax leaned back, looking up at him in interest. “Yeah, why’s that?”
“Because his finances don’t add up. He’s working as a bartender, he’s got a nice condo, drives a late-model Nissan Z, and wears two-hundred-dollar shoes.” Connor looked down at his own sneakers. Clothes and shit had never held much interested for him, but he supposed he could probably do with owning a pair that didn’t look like he’d dug them out of a dumpster.
Old habits die hard. Growing up poor meant he was now careful with every penny. But he might be headed towards miserdom if he wasn’t careful.
“Not a crime to have money,” Ajax said. “Family money?”
“Not that I can see. Grew up middle-class. Couldn’t see any investments. Looked into his bank account going back six months, just money coming in from this job.”
“Huh, that is suspicious.” Ajax gave him a look. “You look into everyone’s background that thoroughly?”
“Just doing my job,” he said easily. Trevor had been at the top of his shortlist because he had such easy access to the money. When he’d seen a few suspicious things, he’d dug deeper.