Page 59 of Just Add Mistletoe

Malcom walked through the trailer in a daze. The place had been ransacked, or more accurately, destroyed. Not only were his files upended and scattered, but his laptop was missing. The drawers of his desk were pulled out and overturned. The bathroom, the bedroom, and the small kitchen had all been searched. Nothing had been left unturned. Even the bedding and his clothing had been rifled through.

He had no idea what all was missing in addition to the laptop and probably a bunch of reports. Was this a disgruntled crew member? Or maybe Bronson? As much as Malcom hated to think that his brother would stoop so low, he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

“Malcom?” he heard Lori say.

“Back here,” he said.

She appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, her face pale, her eyes wide with disbelief. “This is crazy.” She brought a hand to her heart, and her eyes filled with tears. “Who would do this to you?”

He crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. “I don’t know.”

Lori wrapped her arms about him, holding him tight. “Don’t touch anything,” she whispered. “We need to call the police and let them search for evidence and fingerprints.”

“Okay,” he breathed. After a long moment, Malcom released her and made the phone call. The few minutes it took for them to show up felt like the longest minutes in his life. But he had Lori at his side. With his permission, she let her friends know, and they all offered a place for him to stay that night.

“Or you can stay at my place with me and Tiger,” Lori said, after the police had filled out their report and allowed himto take some of his personal belongings before they cordoned everything off. “It’s your choice.”

“If you don’t mind me crashing on your couch,” he said. “Then tomorrow I can figure where I’ll be staying.”

“Sure, I mean, itisa nice couch.” She smiled tentatively.

He smiled back, even though his life was literally in shambles all around him. “It is.”

Once they reached Lori’s apartment, Malcom was momentarily distracted by Tiger, who seemed to know he needed a buddy. The kitten crawled up his shirt and nestled against his neck, purring.

“You have a fan,” Lori said, setting her laptop on the table.

The police had told him to change all of his passwords since the thief could probably access anything he wasn’t logged out of. So he spent the next hour changing passwords on everything. Thankfully the verifications all came to his cell phone. He logged into his bank account to see if anything had been transferred or withdrawn, but everything looked like it was in place. In the morning, he’d buy another laptop and download everything from the cloud.

“I’m glad I had my wallet with me,” he said. “One less thing to worry about.”

“I can’t believe this happened to you—after so much already,” Lori said. “Do you have any idea who it was?”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Malcom said. “But I don’t think it was my brother. He already has access to company records.”

“Won’t his assets be frozen though?” Lori asked. “Would that motivate him to search through your stuff for any loopholes?”

Malcom rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I don’t know,” he said. “I sent him a text, but he hasn’t replied.”

“You texted him to ask if he broke into the trailer?”

“Not in those words,” he said. “I just said I had my laptop stolen and if he knew anything about it.”

“He might not be happy to be accused—that is if he’s innocent.”

He exhaled. “Yeah. I know, but everything’s messed up anyway. What’s one more accusation?”

Lori reached over and grasped his hand. He turned his palm up and linked their fingers. “Thanks for letting me crash here. And for everything else.”

“No problem,” she said, her voice soft. “I mean it. I just wish I had an extra bed for you, so you’d be more comfortable.” Her eyes glimmered with amusement.

“We could share,” he teased.

“I’m not that generous of a host,” she said. “We’re not even dating.”

He chuckled. “Let me know when you want to change that.”

“I think you have enough going on, without having a relationship talk.”