The Right Thing (13 page)

Even the pained look on Thea’s face was logical to him.

By now Morgan knew that Althea Carmichael would definitely feel remorse for taking the money because he sincerely believed she was mostly a good person. Like so many others he’d seen over the years, Morgan figured this situation was just some error in judgment on Thea’s part. The only thing he didn’t know now was why she needed the money and what she did with it.

In the many years he’d been doing investigative work, Morgan had never walked away from a situation no matter how uncomfortable it was to delve into it. People he worked with thought he was a hard man with iron-clad ideas about what was right and wrong.

And Morgan mostly would have agreed with them.

Until today when he saw a woman he was sleeping with and genuinely cared about taking an envelope of cash from his father.

Suddenly, Morgan had no idea what was right any more.

He took his pasta ingredients and went back without a word to the SUV and drove away. It gave him time to check the files Morgan had downloaded from Thea’s computer and to go through electronic copies of her records one more time to find what he had missed, because he had to have missed something.

When he came back to the restaurant two hours later, it was with the single goal of discovering the truth before the evening was out. He couldn’t put it off, having seen what he’d seen, and Morgan was hoping to make Thea give the money back before she had a chance to spend it.

The only way to do what Morgan knew must be done was to put himself completely into investigator mode, which would mean giving up any further ideas he might have had about a normal relationship with Althea Carmichael.

Morgan pushed away the initial nausea this decision caused him, but couldn’t do much about the pain in his chest every time he thought about never being with Thea again.

Putting off the inevitable for a little while, he carried the ingredients to the restaurant kitchen and started preparing for dinner.

*** **** ****

At three-thirty, Thea flipped the new sign to closed, knowing she would be flipping it back to open in two and a half short hours. She turned back and sighed at the amount of work left to do to prepare for the evening.

Bussing the remaining three tables, she wiped them down and carried the dishes to the back where Morgan was busy boiling large pots of water and stirring sauce in two pans on the stove.

“Everything alright?” she asked, concerned more with his quietness than his cooking.

Morgan nodded. “Food will be ready when they get here. We’re doing instant salad tonight. You could cut costs by doing fresh romaine yourself, but there would be some additional prep.”

Thea nodded and loaded the dishes quickly into the commercial dishwasher, sending the last full load through the cycle.

“I’m going out to get the tables ready,” she said.

“Good luck,” Morgan said, keeping his gaze on the bubbling pots and not on her.

Ten minutes later, he reduced the pots to simmer. When Pete took a smoke break that Morgan knew would take at least another ten minutes, he walked silently down the hall and slipped into Thea’s office.

It wasn’t hard to find her purse in the bottom of the unlocked desk. On top of the purse was the envelope his father had passed to her with Thea’s name written on it in his father’s handwriting. Morgan glanced inside the envelope and saw a stack of bills confirming his intuition.

There was no time to count the bills, but also not much need, Morgan decided. The amount would be whatever amount had been withdrawn from his father’s bank account. He could easily guess it would turn out to be a number in the vicinity of seven hundred dollars like all the others.

He was just passing the freezers on his way back to the kitchen when Thea popped up in front of him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, searching his face and seeing concern there that she couldn’t define.

“Looking for extra cheese,” Morgan lied. “I found some, but it was the wrong kind. Don’t worry. Pasta will be fine without it.”

“I’m not worried about the pasta,” Thea told him, putting her hands on Morgan’s arms and rubbing. “I just don’t want you to be upset if no one shows up to eat it. That won’t be about your cooking. I hope you know that.”

Morgan looked into Thea’s earnest gaze and wondered how she could pull off such innocent caring and concern. She must be one of those people with an intense rationalization of her actions, he thought. After nine months of repeating the pattern, Thea had probably convinced herself there was nothing wrong in taking the money from his father.

Morgan went back to the pots on the stove and finished the preparations in short order. At four-fifteen, he walked out into the main area, looking in amazement at the tables covered in bright white cloths with glass bellied candles on them glowing softly.

It occurred to Morgan to wait until the end of the night for the painful discussion. Then he thought of the amount of emotional reaction Thea would probably have at being found out. A fair amount of acceptance would be needed to move her into dealing logically with it, so he decided putting it off would only delay getting to a solution.

Plus, Morgan was practically ill himself and just wanted to get the confrontation over with and done.

“We used these props for weddings when we used to do them. I figured setting the tables would be a nice way to kick off a special dinner offering,” Thea said, chewing her lip as she looked around. “Is this too much?”

“No—it was a good idea and it looks nice,” Morgan agreed. “Look, Thea, before we open the doors tonight I need to ask you something.”

“Sure,” Thea said, coming to stand in front of him.

“Look, I need to know this or I wouldn’t ask it. What are you doing with the seven hundred dollars my father gives you every month?” Morgan demanded.

First Thea looked shocked, and then she closed her eyes as she shook her head. Morgan’s heart fell. He braced himself to hear her answer.

“I honestly try to never take the money, but Gerald keeps insisting,” she said. “Your father is an amazing man, Morgan.”

“I know. But you can’t keep taking the money, Thea. It takes Dad to the edge of his income every month,” Morgan said harshly, her confession breaking his heart. “If you need money so badly, I’m sure you could come up with a better way to get it than taking it from an elderly man on a fixed income.”

“
What?
” The question came out of Thea in a squeak, the shock of his accusation flash freezing her solid as a ice cube. “What do you mean? You think I’m using Gerald’s money for myself?”

“Look, I investigate fraud for a living. I know even good people like you can act a little crazy when it comes to money. I like you Thea. If you give back the money Dad gave you today, I won’t report you to the authorities. You’ll just have to promise me that you will never do it again,” Morgan told her, his voice firm. It was his best offer, and he hoped Thea was willing to take it.

“
Report me to the authorities
,” Thea repeated dully, looking at Morgan Reed as if he were a stranger, which indeed he was she realized.

It was nearly impossible to believe that the man staring at her with such disappointment was the same man who climbed out of her bed that morning and chased her into the shower.

“
The authorities
,” Thea repeated again, because it was still hard to believe that Morgan was actually accusing her of a potential crime. “You’re planning to turn me in to the authorities for taking money from your father. How exactly do you know about the money Gerald gave me today?”

Shock, Thea decided. She was in medical shock because her mind literally couldn’t take it in. It was a surreal situation to think Morgan could believe her capable of such a thing.

“I saw you through the front door of the restaurant when Dad was handing the envelope to you. I left before either of you saw me. Then I found the envelope on top of your purse in the drawer of your office,” Morgan said, not really feeling much sympathy for her even though she was turning the color of the table cloths. “I looked inside the envelope to validate it was cash.”

Everyone panicked when they were found out, Morgan knew.

When they were good people, the panic was usually followed swiftly by a remorse that drained the fight and denial right out of most of them. If they weren’t so good, they would run. Thea was behaving so true to form that Morgan was wishing now he had waited until the end of the evening to confront her.

His idea had been to give her time to think about it—and maybe give him time too.

Morgan had been hoping at the end of the evening he could see his way clear to helping her, instead of being angry and hurt. He couldn’t let himself think yet about the fact that he was never going home with her again. Or the fact that he was never going to feel her hands on him or her kissing his face. That was a loss to deal with another day.

Thea turned her back to Morgan and made herself breathe, no matter how hard it was to keep doing so.

Think,
she ordered herself.
Think hard.

She looked at the bar, studying the flickering candles in the mirror backdrop. The soft romantic glow bounced off the glasses lined up on neatly ordered shelves. She would deal with this—had to deal with this. She had survived big losses before and she would survive this loss as well.

What had it been like when Angus died? Yes, she’d felt like this then. When her husband had died, she’d felt betrayed and left alone to fend for herself in an unfriendly world where people more often than not just used each other—the way Morgan had used her in the last couple of weeks.

The man she had been falling in love with thought she was scamming his father for money. How much more wrong could a woman ever be about a man? No telling what he really thought about her.

And oh God, how many times had she left him alone in her house? Stupid. So stupid to have done that with a man she barely knew.

“You went through my office. Did you search my house too?” she asked, not turning around.

“Yes. Not at first, but I was trying to rule you out. Until I saw you take the envelope today, I had decided it couldn’t be you,” Morgan said sincerely, letting his obvious disappointment come through in his tone and words.

Harsh laughter was her reaction. The pain was too deep for tears yet.

“I suppose if you hadn’t caught me and Gerald red-handed, you would have investigated Aunt Lydia, too,” Thea stated, turning back to Morgan as she realized what she feared was indeed a very real possibility.

Lydia would be so embarrassed. Her unconventional sexual relationship with Gerald was about all the scandal her aunt could face in a lifetime.

“Actually, I investigated all the other women before I even met you. They all came out completely clean financially,” Morgan told her, used to laying out all the facts for people. “Now I’ve told you what I know. Tell me what you’re using the money for, Thea.”

And please have a heart-wrenching reason that lets me like you again
, Morgan thought desperately. There was a full two minutes of silence as Morgan’s question hung in the air between them.

“No,” Thea finally said, her voice clear, her tone hard and uncompromising. “You want to know why Gerald gave me the money? Ask him. Ask your father. I’m not telling you a damn thing.”

“Thea, I’m asking you for an explanation, and I expect you to answer,” Morgan insisted, his voice demanding and without compromise on the matter. “Tell me. You already have an advantage because of our relationship. I
want
to believe your side of the story.”

Thea snorted. “No you don’t. If you wanted to believe me, you wouldn’t be thinking as you do. The truth is so far outside your horrible paradigm about life that you’ll think it’s a lie just because it’s so good. You’re a heartless, unfeeling bastard, Morgan Reed. I can’t believe I let you into my life.”

Morgan flinched at her words and the hurt radiating from her back. It was the only time in his entire career that he wished he hadn’t learned the truth about a situation. His need to go to her, to tell her it would be okay was strong—almost stronger than his need to know what was really going on.

“I’m really sorry things turned out this way. I really liked you too, Thea,” Morgan told her, words sticking in his throat because he really had.

In fact, he’d probably been falling in love with her. Or at least he’d never had feelings for anyone else like he had for Thea.

“
You liked me too?
” Thea asked in disbelief, turning around to glare at him. “Do you always investigate the women you like, Morgan? I’d hate to see how you treat the ones that you end up not liking.”

“You don’t have to be sarcastic. I hate this situation as much as you do,” Morgan told her, hurt making him defensive.

All he wanted was to know the truth and deal with that.

“Someone is going to knock the smug right out of you one day,” Thea told him. “Get out of my restaurant, or I might just do it myself.”

“You know I’m not leaving until I get to the bottom of this. I’ll stick around until the evening is over, and we’ll talk after you close about what to do to fix this. I’m sure when your emotions are calmer, and you’ve thought this through, that you’ll see telling me the whole unvarnished truth is the best thing in this situation,” Morgan told her. “I don’t want to hurt you any more than is necessary to clear this up.”