“Good thing I blackmailed you, huh?” Her finger taps my chest playfully and it feels like it throws off the rhythm of my heartbeat.
I swallow hard, hoping it might somehow get things thumping correctly again. “It does seem to be, yes.”
She stands close enough that she has to tilt her face up to look at me, and her grin is so beautiful, so magnetic, that it feels like I’m being compelled by some force outside of myself to lean in, to take her radiant face in my hands, to press my mouth against hers. Should I…?
No. No, I should not. That would be highly inappropriate.
I swallow again and take a step backward, hoping the added distance might be enough to reduce the pull. I reach over to adjust a Victorian-era gold beveled-framed mirror on the wall,though it’s already perfectly straight. “Anything else happen while I was out other than you selling half the store?”
“Oh, um, that real estate agent you mentioned? Genevieve, I think? Her assistant, Makayla, came by to get the stuff Inés put aside for her. I was busy with my customers and she said she knew where everything was, so I told her it was fine for her to go back and load up their truck on her own. I hope that was okay?”
I forgot that Inés left a note saying she’d organized a rental lot for Genevieve this week, discarding it as just another thing on my plate that I would deal with when it happened. “I didn’t realize she was coming today or I would have given you a heads-up, but yeah, that’s fine,” I say. “Inés always puts their stuff in the right corner of the storeroom, so it should’ve been easy enough for Makayla to figure it out.”
“The right corner?” Annie asks after a pause that feels strangely ominous. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. The right corner is where…” My voice trails off as I’m hit with a terrible swooping sensation, like missing a step when going downstairs.
“Cal. Isn’t that where we put the—”
“Shit,” I say, and make a mad dash for the storeroom.
Annie is right behind me as I reach the door and throw it open. Sure enough, the entire right corner is cleaned out—quilt-covered display case included.
My fingers thread into my hair as I clutch my head before it can roll right off my body. How could I have fucked up so badly? I mean, yeah, sure, I was exhausted, and hungry, and a bit distracted by Annie blackmailing me but also being sort of lovely about it. But I should still have been able to tell my left from myright. I should have remembered that the right corner is always,alwaysthe one Inés uses for her arrangement with Genevieve, due to its closer proximity to the loading area. The left is for things that need some extra attention or research before they can be put out on the floor. It’s been that way forever.
I stand stupidly in the empty space for a long time, then rest my forehead against the painted cinder block.
Annie comes to stand beside me, her back against the wall. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry, Cal. It’s all my fault.”
This absurd declaration pulls me out of my spiraling and I turn to face her. “No. Don’t. It isn’t.”
“But if I’d been able to manage things better, had my customers wait or had Genevieve’s assistant come back at a better time…if I hadn’t coerced you into leaving me alone at the store, then—”
“No, Annie, this is one thousand percent on me,” I say firmly. “Putting the goose here was a huge mistake and it was all mine. You had no way of knowing this wasn’t the right place. I should have…I can’t believe I forgot…” I drop my hands. And I thought having the goose on the premises was a problem. Now it’s out there in the city, off to some mansion where it will be displayed and inevitably noticed by someone aware of its illegality. They’ll alert the authorities, who will so easily trace it back to Virtu. The exact circumstance that I promised Harold would not happen in his absence is now almost an inevitability.
Annie’s hand comes to my shoulder. “We all make mistakes,” she says softly. “Especially when under a ton of stress like you’ve been. But this is one mistake I think we can fix without too much trouble, right? We can call Genevieve and let her know something was accidentally taken when her assistant picked the stuff up today. And then we can just go get it back from her. Noharm, no foul.” She pauses. “I mean no foul, f-o-u-l. There will be a fowl, f-o-w-l.”
My mind goes blank for a moment, too focused on the tingling warmth the contact spreads down my arms and through my torso. Then I finally register her words instead of just the soothing tone she’s said them in. “Yeah, okay. I mean, there’s a chance it’s too late, and we’ve already been discovered, but it’s also quite possible—likely even—that the truck hasn’t been unloaded yet. We can just go pick it up from her, hopefully without having to tell her what it is.” I take a deep breath and nod to myself. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that.”
I hurry out of the storage room and down the hall to the front of the store, relieved to find that no customers have wandered in during our little crisis. Beneath the counter is the old address book where Inés keeps track of contact info for other companies and organizations with which we do business, and I fumble with it until I finally find the page with Genevieve Gladhill’s number.
I put my cell phone on speaker atop the counter, and Annie and I both stare at it as it rings and rings.Pick up, pick up, pick up, I chant in my head until she finally does.
“Genevieve Gladhill.”
“Hi, Genevieve.” I replace the panic that wants to come out of my mouth with as much ease and professionalism as I can channel so as not to raise any suspicion. “It’s Callahan Leitner at Virtu Antiques. How are you today?”
“I’m well, Callahan. How about you?”
“Oh, I’m just peachy,” I say, hoping she doesn’t sense the sarcasm lurking just beneath the surface. “Listen, Genevieve, there was an issue with your pickup this morning. We have a new employee here and she didn’t know about the system you andInés set up so she inadvertently put something immensely important among the things Makayla came for earlier. We think she might have grabbed it by mistake.”
Annie narrows her eyes at me.Sorry, I mouth.
“I see,” Genevieve says. “What is it exactly? The team has probably already started staging, but we could try to keep an eye out…”
“Well, that’s the thing. It’s a bit, um, sensitive? And difficult to describe. Also, I don’t want this to be at all inconvenient to you or anyone who works for you, since it’s our own error. So could we perhaps come out to the property? That way we can find it quick and be on our way.”
“Sure, I guess that would be fine. I’ll send you the address. I’m meeting with clients for the rest of the day, but Makayla will be onsite into the evening. She can let you in whenever you get there.”
