Free Armed With Steele by Kyra Jacobs Page B

all I have left, Nate.” I shook my head and sighed. “If you come up with something less insane, you know my number.”
    I turned and headed for the front door.
    “Wait!” He scrambled after me.
    I reached for the doorknob. “I appreciate you helping catch my would-be burglar, but I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”
    “Listen to me. I have a surefire way to get us in!”
    “I’m sure you do.” I swung the front door open. “But I’m also sure that I don’t want to hear it. Thanks again for stopping by.” I gave his solid back a gentle push across the threshold and started to close the door.
    A black hiking boot wedged itself between it and the frame. “Hear me out.”
    “Nate, I—”
    “I have an inside source at Maxwell. Grace is under investigation. For embezzlement.”
     

 
    Chapter 7
     
    For the second time this month, my world came to a screeching halt. Embezzlement? Had I heard him right? “What? Are you serious?”
    “Serious as a heart attack.”
    Everything around me seemed to sprout a foggy haze. I put my hand to my forehead and slowly turned away from the door.
    Grace? Stealing money from the company?
    I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders. Warm, strong hands that I allowed to steer me toward the couch. “I…I don’t understand.”
    Nate maneuvered me to the nearest cushion and waited for me to sit, then knelt down before me. “Rumor has it a substantial amount of money is missing from one of her department’s account lines. It wasn’t discovered until after the accident. When the auditors came in…”
    My gaze met his. “Grace wasn’t there to defend herself.”
    “No, she wasn’t. Though—”
    “Grace didn’t steal that money.”
    “What I was going to say was that I don’t know if it would have done her any good.”
    “You think she was set up? Maybe run off the road to keep quiet?”
    He studied my face for a moment before nodding. “I do.”
    “Wow.” I sunk back into the couch, suddenly exhausted. I closed my eyes and tried to process this new information.
    “This isn’t just about the accident any more.”
    I closed my eyes tighter. Grace was innocent—we both knew that. But she was also comatose, which meant she couldn’t offer a single word in her defense. And if no one did anything, she’d not only be in a coma, but also unemployed.
    The floor creaked as he stood, then the cushion next to me shifted. A warm hand settled on my knee.
    “She needs your help, Jess.”
    I recoiled at the sound of my nickname—the same one Grace always used. “I can’t, Nate. I can’t.”
    Nate gave my knee a gentle squeeze. “Do it for Grace. And for me.”
    I opened one eye. “For you? Why do you care?”
    “I…” His gaze shifted to our front window. “Because. We can’t have someone that demented running around town.”
    He was hiding something. “No, we can’t. But that’s what the police are for. Not inexperienced, undercover web designers.”
    “I already told you. The police were told to stand down. So that leaves it up to you and me.”
    “You’re back to this ‘we’ thing again.” I stood, and walked over to the fireplace. Grace’s beautiful smile stared back at me from half a dozen framed photographs. Tugged at my heartstrings, begged for my help. But going undercover? There had to be another way. “If you have an inside source at Maxwell, why don’t they just do this work for you?”
    “No.”
    I turned around. “Why not?”
    “It’s too risky.” He watched my eyebrows shoot up. “For them. They don’t work in the same area as Grace did.”
    “Neither do I! At least they’re already in. Besides, who knows how long it’ll be before there’s an opening.”
    I glanced over at another photo of Grace and couldn’t help but grin. She’d been so excited the day Maxwell V.P. Michael Frankston made a surprise visit to the medical office where she’d worked. He’d come to see her boss and nearly collided with her in the hallway. They’d