More Than Meets the Eye - Page 117

He resisted the urge to collect it, though he couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering to its new resting place, waiting for the display to light up.Nothing happened.

Waiting was doing him no good.

They put the pizza box in the middle of the floor, sat around it like a bunch of college kids.The stringy cheese burned his tongue.He laughed as he watched Eevee frantically fan air at her mouth too.

Thud.

Baz’s eyes darted to the door, following the sound.Were those footsteps?

He wiped the oil off his fingers and got up.

“What’s going on?”Eevee asked.

Baz ignored her as he cracked the door open.A large, filled-to-the-brim brown envelope flopped to the floor.Hayatiwas written on top in messy handwriting.

Sami.

Baz’s heart jumped.He picked up the envelope and darted down the hall.Dark curls disappeared behind the closing elevator doors.No!

He sprinted down the stairs, took two at a time.His heel caught on a step.He crashed belly-first into the handrail; pain exploded in his gut.Grunting, he continued his pursuit andfuck,he lived too high up.His lungs were on fire by the fifteenth floor, his throat ached from his rapid breaths by the eighth.He burst through the doors to the lobby.It was empty.

Shit.

Baz steadied himself on the reception desk.“The man,” he panted.“Which way did he go?”

Larry the doorman looked at him as though he had lost his mind, with the most textbookhow-am-I-supposed-to-knowshrug Baz had ever seen.Ugh, fuck.Baz dropped his head back to catch his breath.His legs were still shaking when he dragged himself into the elevator.

Eevee lingered in the open apartment door.“What just happened?”

Good question.He held up the envelope as he walked inside because that was the only explanation he had.He emptied the contents onto his kitchen counter.

Papers spilled out.Several pages that looked like they had been ripped out of a notebook.There was a spreadsheet with names and dates.Some kind of transcript that had Ian’s name all over it.Printed emails, including one from Ian to a representative of Captain Green informing him that the opposition had withdrawn their settlement offer and refused further negotiations, time-stamped hours after their settlement meeting.What the hell?Baz had never withdrawn an offer, he had made one!And if Captain Green hadn’t been made aware of it, that was grounds for disbarment.

“Look at this.”Aya held out a notebook littered with pink sticky notes.“This indicates Ian forged a client’s signature.”

The double page was full of what Baz assumed had been practice attempts.Damn.

He turned to the next page in his own stack.Another email, this time to Sami.A file was attached, the instruction to ‘pretty it up’ written underneath.That couldn’t mean—yes, it did.One page showed an expert testimony, the word ‘before’scrawled on top of it in red ink.The next, the same document, except with a secretary’s redreceivedstamp on top, circled multiple times, dated two weeks prior to the email.Theafter.

So this was the shit Sami was involved in.Fabricating evidence, helping Ian commit fraud.Why did he go along with that?What did Ian have on him?

“Who did this come from?”Eevee asked.

“Sami.”He traced his fingers over thehayati, imagined Sami having done the same before pushing it underneath his door.But why?

Eevee rested her chin on Baz’s shoulder.“What does that say?”

“Hayati.It’s Arabic for pain in the ass.”

Aya snorted.“No, it’s not.”

What?“Sami told me it was.”

“He lied.Hayati meansmy life.I dated a girl at Cambridge who melted every time I called her that.”

Wait, it did?

Sami thought of him like that?