the documents while I held them. “Department of Labor? Unpaid wages claim?”
“That’s what his angle is,” I said, realizing everything. “He worked with my charity for two years. He’s claiming I never paid him.”
“You don’t need to pay a volunteer,” Bonny said. “It’s not like he was an employee.”
I winced when I flipped the page. “I had forgotten about this.”
“What?”
“Two years ago, when we were first setting everything up, he had me sign some documents,” I explained. “At the time, he claimed it was boilerplate cover-your-ass type of stuff. But there’s a highlighted clause here. It says he is not a volunteer, and accumulated wages may be claimed at a future date.”
“Is that legal?”
I slumped in my chair. “Hell if I know. But if Pierce set it up, then it probably is.”
“That weasel bided his time,” Bonny said angrily. “He waited until you had filled the account with as much fundraising as possible, and only then made his claim.”
“I can’t believe I ever trusted him.”
Bonny shook her head. “I still don’t think it’s legal for him to withdraw the money to pay himself.”
“What am I supposed to do? Take him to court?” I asked. “I don’t even want to know what the legal fees would be. Especially if it drags out…”
Bonny cursed, then pulled me into a rough hug. “We’re gonna get through this, you hear me?”
“I know. We’ll be okay,” I said, but I didn’t mean it.
She looked at her watch. “I’d best be going. You going to be fine without me the next few days?”
“I forgot you were gone for Christmas. Yeah, I’ll be fine without you.”
Bonny gave me a skeptical look. “I can swing by for an hour if you need me tomorrow. In the morning, before I get started on my big Christmas Eve dinner.”
“I’m good,” I said with a smile. “Say hi to the family for me. Merry Christmas.”
Slinky whined at me when I put all the small breeds to bed. “You can sleep with me tonight. But only because I’m lonely,” I told him.
He was too old to climb the stairs by himself, so I had to carry him. As soon as I put him down on the bed he curled into a ball by my feet and went to sleep.
Despite my exhaustion, I struggled to fall asleep. It felt like I had lost everything. My bank accounts were empty and I had no source of income for my shelter. All of my hard work this past month had been for nothing.
Worse, I had found out that my three trustworthy men had been lying to me all along. If Riley had told me weeks ago, I could have accepted it. But learning about it a month later, and having Pierce of all people be the one to tell me, was like having a knife plunged into my chest. Piled onto all the other problems I was having, it was the worst possible timing. It was more than just a lie of omission, too. Riley had forged my signature on the timesheet! That was definitely crossing a line.
The feeling of betrayal wasn’t just from Riley, either. Harper and Logan had known, yet had said nothing. Maybe it was unrealistic to expect them to tattle on their best friend, but it was still a violation of trust. I wasn’t just some girl to them. I was more than that.
At least, I thought I had been.
I felt so stupid for believing the four of us could be together. That we could build a serious relationship. A potential future.
Like everything else today, I felt those hopes and dreams crumbling away, like dust in the Grand Canyon.
I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a freight train. My muscles ached. My joints ached. Even my eyelids ached.
With everything going on, I had forgotten what I had accomplished yesterday: I had hiked up the Grand Canyon. I didn’t even get to enjoy the accomplishment when I got to the top.
“Just one more thing Pierce’s bullshit has taken from me,” I muttered.
But there was no calling-in sick to my job. The dogs needed to be taken care of regardless of how I felt. I popped an Advil and carried Slinky downstairs, limping slightly. It was a crisp morning, with the smell of snow in the air. I let the small breeds out, fed them, then went to the barn to let the large breeds out.
The thing I loved about dogs was that they were sensitive to human emotions.