The Criminal Contest by Julie C Gilbert

Author:Julie C Gilbert [Gilbert, Julie C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8:

Breakfast Surprise

“I’m going to check for threats,” Lia announced. “But here are your breakfast sandwiches.”

Jeffrey Gatton waved to the small table tucked into the corner, indicating that Lia should drop them off there. He’d get to the food when he could. Maybe after the next few hundred lines of code. To his surprise, Lia stepped up behind his chair.

“You need to eat.” Her tone elevated the task to one of vital importance. At the same time, Lia twisted Jeff’s chair around and shoved the paper plate into his hands. “Now.”

Jeff’s experience with women was nearly nonexistent, let alone assertive women, so Lia’s tone and behavior outright baffled him. Instinctively, he froze and watched as the woman whirled and strode out. When the shock passed enough to let him move again, Jeff absently picked up a sausage and cheese sandwich and took a large bite.

His teeth crunched down on a piece of paper.

Startled, Jeff spit out the food, dropped the sandwich onto the paper plate, and flipped off the bottom croissant piece. A greasy, mangled Post-It note had a message scrawled in atrocious handwriting.

HELP. I AM COMPROMISED.

He stared at the note for a solid five-second span and re-read the message about a dozen times. The individual letters were well-formed, but a few overlapped and the heights differed greatly. His mind went eerily blank, then filled with so many questions he struggled to keep them straight. As a headache threatened to start, Jeff plucked the most important questions out and pondered them.

Is this real? What does it mean? Compromised how?

Craving more information, Jeff eagerly checked his other sandwich. Unfortunately, it held no secret messages. Since the first note had left a weird taste in his mouth, Jeff chucked the first sandwich into the garbage and ate the second one. He made a mental note to dump the garbage next break to avoid having the air quality permanently marred by cold, stale grease. Luciana would not be pleased, and he’d learned long ago that keeping the housekeeper happy made life easier. Some billionaires could get away with a revolving door of staff, but Luciana had been with him since he’d made his first million.

Once he finished his sandwich, Jeff wiped his hands on his shirt and leaned back in his chair to think. Thirst nagged at him, so he scanned his desk for a drink. Finding a bottle of water with about an inch of liquid left, he picked it up and cautiously unscrewed the cap as he eyed the contents critically. Concluding it was probably less than a week old, he drained the bottle’s contents in one large gulp, crumpled the flimsy plastic thing, and tossed it into the garbage after the sandwich. He could put it into the recycling bin later.

Lia didn’t strike Jeff as the sort to joke about danger.

Threat’s probably real.

She also gave off very strong self-sufficiency vibes, so asking for help likely didn’t come easily to her.

Why turn to me?

They’d only met recently, but Jeff suspected Lia had read a very thorough file about him before accepting the job to become his temporary guardian.

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