Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I’d made an extra piece of chicken the night before to have for my lunch. Always planning ahead. I’d prepared it over a bed of spinach with dressing on the side. Then I had an apple and a few cubes of cheese.
Balanced.
Healthy.
I knew Vega would prefer if I occasionally loosened up and ate some junk food, but she knew I had my reasons, and she hardly ever pressed.
“Yeah, like I get that. But this is his business. And if something is going on with Rayna that is serious, you can’t be the one working here seven days a week.”
“I don’t mind,” I insisted. It wasn’t like I had some big, exciting life outside of work.
“I know you don’t. But that’s not the point. Do you want me to call him?”
“No.” The word rushed out of me. A little too fast, to be honest. But the thing was, while Vega generally worked as little as possible, she was actually really good at putting on a scary lawyer voice and making people pee their pants a little.
I didn’t want to risk my job.
“If Rayna is out, I give it two weeks before I reserve the right to speak to the man,” Vega said, and there was a firmness in her voice that said I had very little say in the matter.
“Let’s just hope that Rayna is okay,” I said instead of responding to that.
“Of course,” Vega agreed. “Okay. I have to head back. I’ll see you back at the apartment,” she said, making her way to the door. “What’s for dinner?” she asked, giving me a warm smile.
“Mushroom risotto,” I told her. “And I’m going to make strawberry shortcake for dessert,” I added.
“Ugh and now I have to wait hours and hours before I get that? Bummer,” she said, frowning, then shooting me a smile before heading out.
Once again leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Which went right back to the men in the back room and the uneasy feeling I’d experienced with them.
Taking a deep breath, I gathered some mail that had been piling up in the front and took it into the back, figuring I might just do a tiny bit of snooping around in Dennis’s office.
I wasn’t someone who snooped. As someone who valued their own privacy, I believed in respecting that of others as well.
But it was weird that no one had heard from Dennis. And I wanted to see if there was other contact information for him in the office.
And, possibly, the name of the company that delivered the flowers. Somehow, I was pretty sure I’d feel better about the whole thing if I could find a business card or simply an invoice, something that would lead me to a legitimate company that I could look up online.
I could probably let go of the tension coiled at the base of my spine if I could just… see that information for myself.
Really, it wasn’t even that unrealistic of a desire. I mean, I was a woman working alone in the shop with these strange men, after all. Of course I would want to know that they were all on the up and up.
Confidence bolstered, my steps were a lot more sure as I made my way through the back.
I don’t know why, but my gaze immediately went to the back door, finding the lock open when I was almost certain I had closed it after the men left.
But things were busy.
Perhaps I had just thought about it, but then didn’t carry the task out.
Even if that wasn’t like me.
There was no reason to think otherwise, though.
That is, of course, until I made my way to Dennis’s office door, reached for the knob, pushed it open, and realized I wasn’t alone.
And I wasn’t crazy.
I had locked that door.
It was just that someone had unlocked it since then.
You know… the man rifling through Dennis’s desk.
I knew that he hadn’t just come in through the front, then slipped past me.
Maybe that would have been possible with someone else. Literally anyone else.
But not the hot, tattooed, suited man named Cesare Costa whose gaze slipped to mine.
“Shit,” he hissed.
CHAPTER FIVE
Cesare
“Heading out?” Gav asked as I came down the stairs, still slipping my cufflink in.
“Yeah,” I said. “I need to find this fucker and see what is going on here once and for all.”
“You want backup?”
“For one middle-aged guy whose soft hands have never thrown a punch in their life? Nah, I think I’m good. But hang by your phone just in case.”
“Any other menial fucking task you want to assign to me while you’re gone?” he asked, glowering at me, still with his panties in a bunch about the shoveling the day before.
“Well, since you offered…” I said, smirking as his face fell. “The SUV could use an oil change,” I said, shrugging. “Take it into town. See the sights a little. Maybe it will help that pissy-ass mood you’re in.”