Page 55 of Hale Yes (Highway to Hale #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

It’s over

Nicolette

The security system in my townhome beeps, and I roll over in my bed to check my phone to see it’s almost midnight. What the hell?

I just laid down a couple minutes ago, so I’m still fully awake as I creep from bed and notice the panel on the wall says the alarm has been disarmed. Must be Helix since he has a key and the code.

I smile to myself as I stick my head out and call down the stairs, “Did you miss me?”

“Can you come down?” he calls back, and I frown, wondering why he doesn’t just come up and get in bed.

Working my way down the stairs, I see my sexy man sitting on the couch in the dark, his elbows on his knees and hands wrapped around the back of his neck. When I first realized he was here, I thought he wanted some sexy couch time, but his posture tells me something is wrong.

With my hand on his shoulder, I sit beside him. “Are you okay?”

He shakes his head, and I begin to get worried. “Is someone sick?”

“No,” he finally says before straightening and clicking on the lamp, draping the room in a soft glow.

When his eyes meet mine, my concern ramps up to a thousand.

Before I can ask anything else, he says something that knocks me for a loop.

“Aquarius filed a patent today for a formula that’s an exact replica of ours. ”

I’m stunned silent for a full minute. “That’s impossible.”

“Apparently it’s not because I saw the fucking paperwork,” he snaps.

I ignore his sharp tone because I’m just as pissed as he is. And confused. My mind tries to work through what the hell he’s saying. “There’s no way they came up with the exact same formula. It’s too complicated for that to be a coincidence. Shit, I’ve been working on it for two years.”

“There’s no coincidence. The paperwork was stolen from my safe. They copied it, put their name on it, and are now trying to patent it as their own.”

My head cranes so far forward my neck cracks. “They literally stole it?” I shout. “But… how did they get into the building and then into your office safe?”

Instead of answering, he stares at me, his eyes rimmed with red. The silence becomes uncomfortable, so I speak again. “Have you contacted security?”

“Yes. We went immediately to Bernadette when we discovered the theft.” His blue eyes have gone dark and intense, as if he’s waiting for something from me.

Standing, I begin pacing. “We put it in there Wednesday before we left the office. Have you taken it out since then?”

“No.”

I nod, walking from one side of my living room to the other as Helix’s eyes track me.

“Okay, so they need to watch the camera footage for the past two nights. I’m assuming that’s when it happened since I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to try and pull that off while everyone is in the building.

” My finger taps a rapid, nervous beat against my bottom lip.

“There are cameras all over the place, but security can focus on the third floor hallway where your office is located, and they should be able to see whoever entered.”

Helix says nothing, so I continue to narrate my stream of thought as my mind works overtime. “Hopefully, the cameras are able to get a good enough view to make an identification with facial recognition software. There are some really good ones out there.”

Still, he doesn’t speak, and I fill the silence.

“We should file a cease and desist on them. We have proof of every step of our work, and they’ll never be able to get away with this.

” I stop in front of Helix and prop my hands on my hips, growing angrier by the second.

“Whose name was on the patent? I know you said Aquarius, but who was the scientist who supposedly developed it?”

“Will Wilhelm,” he finally says.

I snort out a furious scoff. “The guy they hired to replace me? That’s fucking bullshit.

He was a grad student at Aquarius while I worked there, and trust me, the guy couldn’t formulate a breath mint.

Plus, he just finished grad school last year.

” Jabbing my finger in Helix’s general direction, I rant, “There’s no fucking way anyone would believe he came up with that work of art we developed once we tell our side. No. Way.”

“We will definitely be stopping this.”

“How did you find out?” I ask, and his eyes narrow. I have no idea why he’s acting so weird and quiet. Maybe this is just how he processes during a crisis.

“Someone in the patent office knows my dad. That person heard rumors we were working on something similar and thought it was too much of a coincidence. They will probably lose their job if anyone finds out who it was.”

“I would give him or her a medal,” I mutter. “What about the security cameras? When are they going through the footage? Should we be there to help? If it was actually Wilhelm who broke in, I can identify him in about two seconds. He walks like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo .”

Helix licks his lips. “We already looked at the footage.” His eyes bore into me, and I throw up my hands.

“Why didn’t you say that while I was blabbering about it earlier?” I ask, tossing my hands up and letting them fall in frustration. “What did you find?”

“Nothing.”

I stare at him, waiting for him to elaborate. Rolling my hand, I say, “You’re going to have to give me more than that. The cameras had to have picked up someone.”

“Not if they were set on a loop for several minutes,” Helix replies, lifting one eyebrow as if waiting for me to explain this.

My hand goes to my mouth in horror as I flop onto the chair across from him.

“Someone put the camera on a loop?” He nods once, and my mind goes into overdrive.

“Oh my god! That means someone in the security office is in on this. They must have looped the feed so the thief could break in undetected.”

This is even worse than I thought. Some stranger didn’t just break in. Someone who the company trusts to keep them safe betrayed them.

“Or…” Helix starts, standing and retracing my steps back and forth across the wood floor. “Someone hacked into the system and then went in and stole the formula. Someone who is very good with computers and who knows my passcode to the safe.”

He stops, and with his back to me, asks, “Do you know anyone like that Nicolette?”

That’s when it hits me. He’s talking about… me.

“Helix.” I rise from the chair with acid churning in my stomach and take a step toward him. “Helix, look at me.”

When he does, I stumble backward at the cold accusation in his eyes. “Tell me you don’t think I did this,” I croak.

His jaw works back and forth. “What other explanation is there?”

I gape at the man I thought loved me. “You didn’t answer me. Do. You. Think. I. Did. This?” Each word is clipped and filled with all the anger and pain that I’m feeling.

He averts his eyes, and my heart drops to the floor. “I don’t want to believe it, baby.”

“Don’t call me that,” I yell, startling his eyes back to me. “Don’t you dare stand there and accuse me of stealing and lying while calling me baby in the next breath. I’ve never been so fucking insulted in my life.”

And hurt. So damned hurt I can barely stay on my feet.

“Do you think this is easy for me?” he barks. “Do you really think I want to consider that the woman I plan to marry could have betrayed me?”

They say when you die, your life flashes before your eyes, so I wonder if I’m actually dead when everything I care about blurs through my vision.

The career I’ve worked so hard for. My relationship with Helix.

The entire Hale family that opened their collective arms and welcomed me more than my own family ever has.

All of it is gone in a snap, and suddenly, my legs can no longer support my weight.

I drop to my knees as tears haze my eyes.

I haven’t cried since I was twelve years old.

It’s not that I don’t feel emotions. I definitely do, but I haven’t allowed the physical representation of those emotions in the form of tears in over two decades.

I’ve often thought that maybe my lacrimal glands were somehow defective.

But as twin waterfalls stream down my cheeks, I know I was wrong. My glands were simply saving up the torrent until I got drop-kicked in the heart and lost everything good in my life.

“Nicolette,” Helix says, dropping down beside me and trying to pull me into a hug.

I fight him off, shoving against his chest as I attempt to catch my breath enough to hiss, “Don’t touch me.”

He holds up both hands at my demon voice. “I won’t touch you, but I need you to talk to me. Tell me what happened, and I’ll help you.”

“You’ll help me?” I shriek. “How exactly are you going to help me ? My career is over. The only good relationship I’ve ever had is over. So tell me what the fuck you think you can do for me.”

His face goes soft with so much sincerity, and that stabs me in the chest deeper than anything. “I love you, bab— Nicolette. I would do anything for you.”

“Except believe me,” I say quietly, and he looks away, blinking as his own tears begin to fall. That just pisses me off. “I want you to leave.”

I thought I was entirely broken a few seconds ago, but the stricken look on Helix’s face feels like it’s going to snap my spine in two. “Please let me help you. I want to.”

I shake my head, slinging tears from my eyes. “No. Go.” The words are so raspy, they sound like I’ve inhaled a gallon of sand.

The muscles of his jaw look like they’re going to snap from the pressure. “I don’t want to leave you. I’ll sleep on the couch or in the guest room downstairs.”

Lifting my chin, I put on my best brave front, though I know my face is blotchy and my eyes are swollen. “I don’t want you here. I’d rather be alone than look at your face right now.”

To his credit, he only winces a little. “I can’t leave you like this. Please let me stay, Nicolette. We can figure out what to do tomorrow after we’ve both had some rest.”