Talking to Nick last night had helped, and it helped now, too, to take the edge off her fears. She’d revealed her deepest emotions. Mia had never even told Claire about how she felt about her family. She’d never told anyone, but it was all true. That was how she was treated, and it would be worse now that, in the pursuit of her business, she’d managed to lose two million dollars and, damn it, she was sure the art collection was gone as well. Those gut instincts were shouting so loud her whole body tingled.

She pulled in a deep breath as she was about to unleash her biggest worry.

“Our grandmother left us some of the paintings she collected. Glenn and I were going to open a small gallery at some point, but we placed them in a storage facility in Rochester. Just until we had the time to set everything up.” She watched Nick’s expression change.

He was very aware of the types of paintings that her grandmother collected. He knew that Mia wasn’t talking about any old collection.

“Did he get the password for the facility?” Nick asked biting the inside of his lip.

Mia nodded, feeling the anxiety gnaw away at her stomach.

“Oh shit,” he said, standing up. “Mia, why didn’t you tell us about that? The money is a lot harder to keep track of. Something like paintings are easier to manage.”

He’d been incredibly sweet so far, and understanding, but it looked like she’d just lost that edge.

“I was scared. Nick, the paintings are worth billions. The password was in the safe with everything else.” She grimaced, feeling the impact of the fear weigh in on her. It nauseated her.

“Do you know if the paintings were stolen?”

“No. I tried to find out but I didn’t get anywhere.” She brought her hands up to her cheeks again. “Nick, if the paintings get taken and Glenn and my parents find out, I might as well jump off a cliff.”

“No.” He shook his head at her. “Don’t you dare think like that. Come on, let’s get to the station. I have a friend I work with. We can see what we can come up with and take it from there.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” She was grateful that he wanted to help, and for his understanding.

She quickly got up and grabbed her jacket and purse.

Glenn wasn’t in the living room when they went downstairs. She wanted to let him know where they were going and that she was doing something to fix the problem, but it seemed like he was in his room.

It was okay; maybe it was best that they didn’t speak. He’d never been so mad at her, so mad he would throw her out on to the street. She felt bad that it had come to this, and that she’d lost his trust.

Hopefully they’d have some news when they got back, and hopefully Alan hadn’t gotten to the paintings.

An hour later they sat in one of the offices at the police station with Nick’s friend Sawyer, who was a detective.

She explained all that had happened and was asked to provide all the information she had, from business documents Alan had dealt with to receipts. Thank God she’d had a majority of that stuff stored on a file that she had saved to a memory stick. She could give that to them later.

What was hard was showing Sawyer the pictures she had of Alan, and then feeling her heart drop into an abyss of shock when he showed her an actual picture of Alan in their system. Their system that listed all the people who’d been charged with various crimes.

But he wasn’t called Alan. His name there was Simon, and he had at least ten other aliases.

All Mia could do was stare at the computer screen, feeling fragile like if someone touched her she’d shatter. How could she have gotten involved with this person. It was all good and well to look back at mistakes and think of all the if only’s but she’d definitely exercised no care whatsoever in all her dealings with Alan. He’d been in prison for theft and embezzlement, had offenses built up from the same thing, and had the added bonus of drunk driving, drug-related offenses, and a host of other things.

If she felt like a fool before, she felt even worse now. And it was embarrassing because Nick was here. He saw her stupidity in choosing a shady accountant, but what was worse was he’d seen the poor choice of a man she’d been with.

“We’ll get the fraud and embezzlement team on this,” Sawyer told her.

She watched him straighten up in his seat, squaring off his shoulders that were nearly as massive as Nick’s. Nick had told her that he and Sawyer met when they served in the Marines.

“But there is some bad news. I managed to get through to the senior manager at Hamptons and he’s confirmed that the paintings were released.”

Her heart jumped into her chest at that declaration and she couldn’t breathe.

Shit! What was she going to do?

She looked over at Nick who was sitting in the chair next to her and couldn’t help the bout of tears that gripped her. He put his arm around her but she didn’t feel comforted.

“What am I going to do?” All she could think of was Glenn and her parents.

Nick gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze, then released her so that he could sit forward.

“When did they get released?” he asked Sawyer.

“On Monday, so well before the money went.”

Mia closed her eyes, shutting them tight. Alan had only been in her home Saturday making her dinner and acting like he cared for her. That was all part of his plan to get into her bedroom. What a damn mess.

“What can we do now?” Nick asked, breaking into her thoughts.

“We can track the paintings because they fall under our jurisdiction. Hopefully try to intercept any sales. The money is a different story. We’ll do our best to liaise with the police in Florida on that, but this could all become a federal matter.”

“Federal?” she asked in a weak voice.

“FBI, sweetheart. We’re talking about millions here and priceless paintings. And he’s working across states. There’s only so much we’re allowed to do. If he leaves Illinois they’ll have to be contacted.”

“Am I okay to work with you on this?” Nick asked. She could see that he’d noticed her further distress. “I’ll need access to your systems.”

“Of course, bro.” Sawyer smiled.

“Thank you. Both of you,” she told them. The tears still came, but she wanted to show her gratitude. “I know it looks bad, but how long could something like this take?” she asked.

“I won’t lie to you, or give you false hope, but this could take a while, especially since we’re dealing with a real con artist,” Sawyer answered and ran a quick hand through his short black hair.

“Alright, keep me posted. At least now we know what we’re up against. I’ll come back here in an hour or so and do my thing,” Nick said standing up, ready to go.

She joined him.

“See you later,” Sawyer said to Nick.

Mia followed Nick outside, back to his car in the parking lot. He didn’t say anything to her and there was a tenseness about him that told her he was put out by the situation.

“Nick.” She stopped just before they got to his Range Rover.

He turned to face her with an irked expression. “What is it Mia?”

“What’s going to happen?”

“Mia, I don’t want to rip into you the way Glenn did. But damn, didn’t you do a little research first before you got involved with that guy?”

She couldn’t answer, because she didn’t do much. She’d put out a job posting for an accountant and Alan responded. His references checked out, but then they were just from previous employers, which could have been fake, or set up to set her up. She didn’t bother with a criminal record check because the references were glowing. He seemed perfect.

“I wish that I could have done things differently. I trusted him.”

“Mia, babe. I know you think that’s an excuse but it isn’t.” He shook his head and walked away to get in the car.

With reluctance she followed, feeling numb because it now felt like she was alone again.

* * *

Claire came to see her later that evening.

She brought tubs of chocolate and coconut ice cream, Mia’s favorite. It was comfort food that could cheer them both up in their younger days. They’d been friends since birth.

Claire came to see her in Florida at the start of the year and actually met Alan. She hadn’t liked him and thought Mia could have at least gotten someone better looking. At the time, Mia thought the comment was cruel, but wished she could have been shallow enough to break up with him based on his looks. He was tall and lanky and had what she called average looks. He definitely didn’t have the gorgeousness of Nick, but then few people she knew had. If she’d been shallow she wouldn’t have been in the mad situation she was in now.

Claire tucked a wayward strand of her long black hair behind her ear. Mia noticed how well put together her friend looked the minute she walked in earlier. Her hair was silky smooth and smelled like she’d just been to the salon, her nails were perfectly manicured with a glossy pink color on them, and her eyebrows had been shaped to a perfect arc. It was all what Mia classed as simple things but knew that, while she could do a lot of those basic treatments on herself, it would be a while before she could afford to buy what she needed to do so.

Mia, who had always been the rich friend that bought everyone everything, was now completely broke.

Broke-broke, with no one to turn to. When she got back from the police she decided to call her parents.

The hollow in her soul had overwhelmed her the minute she heard that the paintings had been taken, and she just couldn’t keep the situation away from them any longer. So she told them everything, but withheld that Glenn didn’t know about the paintings.

It was like tangling herself up in a deadly spider’s web, but she did it for her sanity. She’d tell Glenn when she felt strong enough. Maybe by then Nick would have come up with something.

As predicted, her parents were furious and thought she showed lack of care by not carrying out the necessary checks she should have on Alan. When she saw how mad they were she conveniently left out the part where she’d actually been involved with Alan. Mia knew she’d made a massive mess and didn’t need to be reminded from them, too, that she’d shown complete incompetence.

Her dad had ripped into her, making her feel worse than Glenn had. Her mother was slightly more sympathetic, but still just as firm. Instead of offering to help they told her to get a job and try to find her feet again.

As if it was that simple. As much as she’d been hell bent on not taking any money from them and taking care of herself, she was actually hoping that they would offer her some money, at least enough to survive on.

But, no.

“This is oh so good,” Claire smiled, placing a decent-sized helping of ice cream into her mouth.

They both had a tub each. While Claire got through hers with little effort, Mia struggled. She hadn’t eaten properly in days and hoped the ice cream would offer some sort of comfort. It didn’t.

In fact, it was making her feel sick. She set it down and rested her head back against the bed.

“Mia, you have to eat. How about we go out? We could grab dinner.”

“Claire, I’m broke, I have to get by on whatever food is downstairs and hope that Glenn doesn’t stop me.” She rolled her eyes.

“I would pay. And relax, genius, I’m going to give you some money to help you out.” Claire nodded.

Mia straightened up and looked at her friend in awe. “You’d do that?”

“Of course I would. I’m offended that you’d ask me that. If it were me, you’d help me in a jiffy. I have a hundred in my purse and I’ll transfer some more in a few days when I get paid.”

“You’re going to Spain, though.”

Claire was leaving for Spain tomorrow. She was going to her sister’s wedding and wouldn’t be back for two weeks.

“Won’t you need it?” Mia gave her a little smile when Claire shook her head.

“No. I’m going to stay with family. Don’t worry about me. Let’s focus on you.”

“I really appreciate it. I can’t believe I don’t have anything, or that my brother is being so mean.”

Claire offered a sympathetic smile. “Give him time. He loves you and will calm down.”

“He’s going to flip when he finds out about the paintings,” Mia said in a low voice. Glenn was downstairs somewhere, well out of earshot, but she was still being careful just in case he ventured near her room. When she came back here with Nick earlier, Glenn was in the kitchen. He wasn’t talking to her and looked angry at Nick for being with her.

“Yes, he’ll probably go ape shit.” Claire widened her already huge brown eyes and shook her head. “Thank God you have your knight in shining muscles to take care of you.” A cunning smile lifted the corners of her mouth.

“Who’s that?” she asked, pretending not to know Claire was talking about Nick.

“Oh please, I know you aren’t suffering from the kind of trauma to give you amnesia. I’m talking about Nick,” Claire giggled.

“Well he thinks I’m stupid, too.”

“Does he?”

“He asked me if I didn’t do my research before I got with Alan.” Mia was still hurt by that, as reasonable a question as it was.

“Mia, I’ll ask you the same, but that doesn’t mean I think you’re stupid. I swear to God he likes you. And could he be any hotter?”

Man-crazy Claire. She was the same girl in any and every year that she’d known her with her crazy mind set to always get the guy. Claire’s crazy ways had only served to fuel Mia’s desire for Nick to notice her.

“Earlier he said if Glenn threw us both out we could get a gingerbread house.”

“He asked you to move in with him?” Claire gasped.

Mia glowered at her wondering how she could arrive at that. “Claire, that’s what you got from what I said?”

“Yes, he was talking about the two of you living in the gingerbread house, right? So that’s asking you to move in with him.”

Mia couldn’t help but laugh. She brought her hand up to her chest and her fingers brushed against the tiny diamond on a thin gold chain that was hidden beneath her clothes. The necklace was so much a part of her now that she forgot sometimes that it was there.

Nick had given it to her for her eighteenth birthday.

Up until that point she’d never had a present like that, and the fact that it was from him made it even more special. He was the only man to give her something so valuable. A diamond that was probably worth a thousand dollars but, like her grandmother’s paintings, it was priceless. Just for the sentiment. That was all.

“He doesn’t see me like that. He thinks I’m a child, and I have to say that I’ve given him cause to.”

“Mia, remember, you’re a victim here, not the bad guy. You messed up; it’s all about fixing the problem now.” Claire nodded.

“I need a job that pays well.” She’d been thinking about finding ways to pay Glenn back for his portion of money that was stolen. “I need to get that money back.”

“The two million?”

“Yes.” She thought of doing beauty treatments for a prestigious salon that probably catered for celebs.

“No offense, but unless you’re some sort of technician, a doctor, investment banker, or maybe a stripper, I doubt you’ll get that money.”

“Strippers get that kind of money?” Mia couldn’t believe that.

“They can. But don’t you dare even consider it. Obviously I was joking.”

Sure, that was a joke, but it wouldn’t be very funny when Glenn found out about the paintings and really did throw her into the street.

“I have to fix this somehow, and I can’t stay here for too long.”

“It’s your house, too,” Claire pointed out.

“I grew up here, but this is Glenn’s place.”

She wanted to move to Florida permanently when her business took off and thought of getting a house to go along with the spa retreat. She’d actually wanted something built so she could be onsite. Something by the lake or the beach. That was why she held off so long on buying a house down there and chose to rent instead.

“You can stay with me, but honey, if I were you I’d hang out here for as long as possible and let the gorgeous Nick take care of you,” Claire chuckled, nodding vigorously.

“You’re so crazy,” Mia laughed.

“I’m not. Just imagine running your hands all over that gorgeous body,” Claire squealed, making Mia laugh even more.

Claire was a serial dater and was out with a different guy every other night. She’d had a handful of serious relationships, but always ended things for one reason or another. Mia thought she had commitment issues and was too taken with the idea of having attention from everyone, as opposed to one guy that mattered.

Each to their own, she supposed. Mia had always been the kind of girl who wanted to find the one guy who could sweep her off her feet.

“Don’t lie and tell me you haven’t thought about him like that.” Claire pointed her finger at her. “I know you have. You were completely crazy over him when you were younger. That kind of crazy doesn’t just go away, and he’s like a hundred times hotter with all that Marine muscle.”

Claire was right and Mia couldn’t lie, but for herself she wouldn’t admit it, either. Several things went through her mind when she thought about Nick. The first was that he was out of her reach, and there was a boundary that neither of them would cross.

There was one time, though—it was actually the last time she saw him—when she thought maybe there was a chance that he might like her.

It was their body language and the way he looked at her. It showed more than the casual affection they displayed with each other prior to that. He was on leave from the Marines and her parents were visiting from Hong Kong. They’d had one of their family dinners where her mother prepared a feast. Nick sat next to her and she was excited for the attention he showed. It coursed throughout her, making her whole body come alive.

But nothing became of it. It was that same year that she stopped writing to him and just cut ties. Claire could advocate for the obsession that took over during that time. If Mia wasn’t looking out for a letter in the mail, she was listening out for a phone call from him. That behavior went on for months until she had to take herself in hand and come to terms with the fact that Nick just wasn’t interested in her.

It hurt, it hurt a lot, but it was something that she had to accept.

“Claire, you know this is a no-go area for me that I’d rather not think about during this time. I feel bad enough about myself, so I’m just going to stick with trying to sort my life out.” That was the best answer she could give.

Claire gave her that sympathetic look again. “Awww honey. Don’t worry, things will work out. I know they will. Doesn’t mean you have to keep your eyes closed to a gorgeous man while you wait.” She laughed.

Mia shook her head and was about to say something when there was a knock at the door. She knew it was Nick because it was clear Glenn was keeping his distance.

“It’s open,” she called out.

Nick pushed the door open and stuck his head in.

“I’m going to the store. Do you girls want anything?” he asked with that dazzling smile that made Mia’s whole body melt.

“I’m fine,” Claire cooed and looked over to Mia with a conspiratory smile.

“I’m fine, too,” Mia told him, trying to contain the butterflies in her stomach.

“Alright. Movie later, babe? We can watch something from the crazy collection.” There was the smile again, and it was more effective because he was looking directly at her.

While she may have been depressed from all that was happening, she hadn’t lost her mind and turned stupid enough to turn down the offer.

“I’d love that,” she answered, smiling back and thinking of later. It was good to see that the annoyance she’d seen in him earlier had faded.

“Cool, I’ll grab popcorn. See you around, Claire.”

Claire raised her hand in mock salute.

Nick laughed at that and left them. Mia knew even before she looked at Claire that she would be giving her some kind of I-told-you-he-liked-you look.

And she was.

“You know we’re like this all the time,” Mia offered.

“I never said anything, babe.” She burst out laughing and Mia threw a cushion at her.

As annoying as she was, she was funny, and the lighthearted break from the stress was most welcoming to her tired mind.