Page 50 of Matched By Mistake
“Maggie? My Maggie?”
“Yes,” his father said.
“I’m on my way,” he said, standing up as he disconnected the call.
“What’s going on?” Marcus asked.
Jericho looked at his brother and tried to ignore the feelings of hurt and betrayal that were swamping him. Instead he concentrated on anger. That was an easier emotion, one he had no problem showing.
“Maggie broke into Winters Industries.”
“What the fuck?”
Marcus reached for him but Jericho stepped away from his brother, stalking toward the door. The other patrons in the bar at the Texas Cattleman’s Club all cleared a path as he moved. There was no reason why Maggie would have broken into Winters Industries.
No reason for her to unless she’d had some sort of ulterior motive for dating him to begin with.
Had she only gone along with the dates so she could get...what? He had no idea what kind of information she would want to take from Winters Industries. In fact, the two of them had seemed removed from their families’ interests, or maybe he’d simply been seeing what he wanted to in her.
Maggie texted Jericho when she was on her way back from Dallas. Piper Holloway had asked her opinion on a new art installation she’d been doing in the art district where she had her gallery. Maggie had helped Piper rearrange the artwork and then had dinner with Piper and her partner Brian, which had gone late. Brian was friends with Jericho and had acted as his attorney during the mediation they’d had. Brian and Piper had both said how happy they were for her and Jericho.
But Jericho wasn’t answering her texts, and when she tried calling, he sent her to voice mail.
She started to get concerned that something was wrong and since she couldn’t concentrate on driving and on worrying about Jericho, she pulled over. She texted her mom to see if she knew what was going on.
Her mom called back.
“Mom?”
“Maggie, where are you?”
“On the side of the interstate. I’m on my way back from Dallas. What’s going on?”
“There was a break-in at Winters Industries,” Gayle said. “I don’t know the full details but Sheriff Battle wants to talk to you. Dad’s on the phone with Cecily and you better get back here.”
“Why do they want to talk to me?”
“Honestly, Maggie, they think you did it,” her mom said.
“Who thinks that? Why would I break in?” she asked. But she remembered Cecily asking her to try to find dirt or information on Winters Industries. Was that part of this?
“Everyone.”
“Everyone?” she asked. “Mom, does Jericho think I did this?”
“Based on how stone-faced he was when he showed up here with Sheriff Battle, I’d say yes.”
Stone-faced.
How could the man who’d held her in his arms this morning after waking her up by making love to her believe she’d do something like this?
Maggie’s hands started shaking. How could Jericho think she’d do something like that? But she took a deep breath. Until she spoke to him, she wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions. “Okay. Should I go to the sheriff’s office?”
“Yes, I’ll meet you there.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Drive carefully, honey. Love you.”
