I splayed my hands. “What happened?”
“Looters, I suppose. That’s what the fire department told me.” He shrugged lightly. “They took the beer, all the alcohol. Smashed up the place pretty good. I’m told I’m ‘lucky’ they were able to contain the fire. Some luck, huh?”
My hand flexed into a fist at my side. “My God, why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t think you would care,” he mumbled.
“That’s not fair,” I said, shaking my head. “I know we didn’t leave off in a good place, but if you needed me, I would have come.” I cleared my throat, turning to hide the blush creeping up my cheeks. “I mean, it’s my job.”
“Is it?” he asked, arching his brows. “After the other day, I wasn’t sure. What are you doing here anyway? You obviously didn’t know any of this was going on, and you’re not on the schedule.”
“I came here to quit.” I sighed. “But it’s not—”
“Quit then,” he said. “I wouldn’t blame you.” His gaze panned the room. “I know I gave you a hard time before, but you shouldn’t have to go through this. It isn’t your mess to clean up.”
Turned out that was all it took. Looking at Abram, so humbled, so downtrodden, and hearing him tell me that none of this was my problem … well, it made me want to make it my problem.
He was a dick, sure. But he was also right. I shouldn’t have to go through this. No one should.
Not even him.
“I can’t believe how selfish people are,” I said, and I crossed the rest of the way to kneel beside him on the floor—even though it would likely ruin my designer skirt. “To hit you when you’re down like this, all for a couple bottles of beer and whiskey.”
“Please.” He scoffed. “Tell me you aren’t as blind or ignorant as the firemen and police officers in this town.”
“What?” I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t think this was a burglary?”
“The fire started upstairs,” he said, his gaze lifting up. “Where that girl was killed.”
I wasn’t sure whether it was what he said or the way his dark eyes bore into me after he said it, but suddenly it was hard to form words.
“I—you …” My hands twisted together in my lap. I wanted to reach out to comfort him, but for some reason, it felt wrong. “You think someone was trying to destroy the evidence?”
“No,” he said, scowling. “I think someone succeeded in destroying the evidence. The entire attic is gone. Most of the bottom floor was ravaged.”
I didn’t know what to say. Nothing would make him feel better.
“There’s nothing left here, Ms. Bellamy, at least nothing you can help me fix.”
“So that’s it?” I asked. “You have one bad week, and you just give up?”
He smirked, challenging me with his gaze. “Says the girl who came to quit.”
I lowered my head and stared at my hands folded in my lap. “It’s not like that.”
He sat up straighter, some of his old self shining through again, and I didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed for that. “Then tell me what it is like.”
Yes, I had just come in to quit, in no small part because I saw this place, and my boss, as a lost cause. That didn’t mean I wanted Abram to feel the same way, though, and I wasn’t sure how to tell him that without letting on to thinking the place was doomed no matter what.
“I—uh—”
He tilted his head to one side. “You what? Are you at a loss for words, Ms. Bellamy?”
I slammed my fist against the ground between us. “You are extremely aggravating!”
Abram leaned back against the wall, hands folded behind his head, and closed his eyes. “There’s the door,” he said, pointing. “No one’s making you stay.”
That was probably why I was so upset right now. Because if I was being honest with myself, a small part of the reason I had done this—a very, very small part—had been because I wanted him to fight for me to stay. Now here I was, trying to convince him he still needed me.
Something wasn’t right here.
And still I tried.
“I get that it’ll be a lot of work—”
“Too much work, Ms. Bellamy.” He brushed himself off and stood up. Even now, after having known him for this long, I was still shocked by the sheer size of him. “And for what?”
“For this!” I answered, waving at the wreckage and hoping he could see it for what it could still be. “You worked really hard on this.”
Well, whenever you weren’t disappearing for the night.