Saved by a Dangerous Man by Cleo Peitsche

Author:Cleo Peitsche
Language: eng
Format: epub

I spent the next morning watching tepid talk shows. At 11:00, my phone rang. It was the office, and I sent it to voicemail.

Technically I still had two more days off. Holidays were always a good time to grab fugitives, and Stroop Finders had ruined more than a few family dinners. So Dad tended to give us time off here and there, though not usually in a big clump like this, with the whole office shut down. It wouldn’t be out of character for him to call us in, promising that we could take the extra time at a later date.

A moment later, my brother called. His call, I answered.

“Evaluations,” he said. “Please tell me you’re back in town.”

I hesitated. It would be unfair to make Rob face Dad alone.

“You are,” he said. “Noon. He’s doing it over lunch.”

“He must have some bad news.” I straightened, smiling. “Maybe we’re getting fired!”

“Doubt it,” Rob said. “My guess is that he wants us to sign away our lives for another seven years of servitude. Am I right… are you back?”

“Yeah.”

“So you’re coming?”

“Guess so.” I hung up, dressed, and grabbed both my phones. Maybe I was supposed to stay put, but me going to a family work function wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Nor would it cause problems for Corbin and his mysterious organization.

But when I reached the elevator, I had a problem. It wouldn’t budge without a code that I didn’t have.

So I took the stairs. At the bottom, I ran into Jennifer, carrying two large hot drinks.

She looked at me, stunned. “Where are you going?”

When I told her, she shrugged. “Sounds harmless. But I’ll have to come with you, you know.”

I really didn’t appreciate having a minder. On the other hand… “I do need a ride.”

“And I happen to have a truck.”

Of course she did, and I bet it was huge and black. She handed me one of the cups. “Hope you like hot chocolate. I didn’t know if you’d prefer whole milk or skim, so I went for 2%.”

“Whipped cream?”

“It’s not hot chocolate without it.”

That deserved my undying loyalty. “Thank you.”

She pushed a code into a keypad, but I wasn’t able to see it. “You couldn’t have gotten out anyway,” she said. “This place is nicknamed Fort Knox.”

“What if there’s a fire?”

She smiled. “It would self-contain.”

“Unofficially, you agree that’s creepy, right?”

She smiled again, shrugged, sipped her hot cocoa.

Even though I arrived at the hostess station exactly on time, I could see my father already seated near the back of the restaurant. To my surprise, Rob came in just behind me.

“Ready for this?” he murmured as we walked to the table.

“No, but since when would that make a difference?”

Our father glanced at his watch. There was already a half-empty beer in front of him, and while his bread plate was empty, a dusting of crumbs tattled loud and clear.

“I love employee evaluation time,” I said, taking a seat.

Dad gave me a look that meant this was serious and I should conduct myself in a professional manner.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.