Chapter 10: The Hotel Bar

Elias's POV

I came up the stairwell of her building two steps at a time.

I stopped at the sixth-floor door when I heard a man shout her name.

Marin was standing in the hallway with a green suitcase beside her and her brother at her shoulder.

A dozen people stood in a half circle in front of her, holding paychecks.

The man in the elevator doorway was Troy Hollander. I knew him by his voice.

"She froze the account," he told them. "She took money out of the bar. She's the reason none of you got paid."

I did not go in.

I had promised myself in the car that I would not. She had been handled enough.

I stayed behind the stairwell door, which had a narrow glass window, and I watched.

Marin did not raise her voice.

That was what I noticed first.

She had shouted at me the night before, at full volume, and she had every right to.

Now she was calm.

"Hi," she said to the staff. "I'm Marin. Some of you know me."

A woman in a bar apron nodded slowly. "You did our schedule that time the printer broke."

"I did. I'm sorry about the checks."

Marin turned to Troy.

"Can I ask you something in front of them?"

"This isn't the place."

"It's your place. You called them here."

He had no answer for that. She turned back to the room.

"The account your checks come from is the bar's account," she said. "I've never had access to it."

"Then why did they bounce?" the woman asked.

"Dean can tell you."

Her brother stepped forward. His hands shook, but his voice didn't.

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