Page 128 of Tasty Cherry

“Or else Raya leaked it for her advantage.”

“Could be.”

Raya’s door is open. She’s still here.

I’m ready to go in, guns blazing, but Arya must know because she grabs my arm. “No, no. Not her first. Let’s see if Jessie is around.”

It takes everything I have not to charge in there, anyway.

But she’s right. Ordinarily, Jessie would have to sign off on my access getting cut. If she didn’t, Raya did it on her own.

“Let’s go around,” I tell Arya, and pull her toward the kitchen.

We cut through the bakery, walking alongside the wall with Monique and Filo’s office, the pantry, and the walk-in freezer.

The scene of Maverick’s crime.

A few cooks notice us, but nobody looks at me with surprise, like they know something. It’s not common knowledge, not yet.

How did Maverick find out?

We cut down a narrow passage between the kitchen and the main hall, beyond Raya’s office. It leads straight to the staff meeting room, which is also dark. Then HR.

I check the door. Unlocked.

I pop it open. The three desks in the main room are empty, but Jessie’s office is lit up.

“Wait here,” I tell Arya. I hand her my phone. “If Mila texts, tell her I’m with Jessie.”

She sits in Suze’s chair, touching my screen to keep the phone unlocked.

I stride quickly to the back.

Jessie looks up in surprise. “Sebastian? I thought we asked you to stay home.”

I throw my ID on the desk. “So you all could cut off my access to the hotel?”

She picks it up. “What are you talking about?”

“Did you or Raya tell Mila she couldn’t contact me?”

She pushes back away from the desk. “We did not. Or, I didn’t. Is something wrong with Mila?”

“She’s not responding to my messages.”

Jessie’s expression flickers. “She was shook up after her meeting with me. She might need some time to herself.”

“She would write me back. I know it. Unless someone told her something bad would happen if she did.”

She picks up my ID again. “Let me check this.”

She scans it on the machine we use to program the IDs. A message flashes on her screen. “No records.”

“What?” She scans it again.

“No records.”

She takes her own ID and scans it.