Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“You said what needed to be said to help him. I’m sure he understands that.”
Since I don’t agree with him but don’t have time to argue, I shrug instead.
While waving an invisible white flag, Caleb asks, “Can I at least give you a ride in?”
I smile before leaning into his broad chest. “It’s okay. I could do with the fresh air.” I get two steps away from him before I spin back around, shocked this question has only popped into my head now.
Caleb reads the question from my eyes before I can voice it. “I know he’s out of lockup, but I haven’t heard anything else.”
It isn’t exactly the response I want, but it is better than nothing. “Call me at work if you hear anything else. I’ll try and locate my phone sometime today.”
He grumbles out a reply, but I don’t hear him since I’m racing out the door. I leap over the damp floorboards where it looks as if someone tried to scrub Silas’s blood from the beat-up wood before taking the stairs two at a time.
Since my mind is on other things, my heart leaps out of my chest when I forget to veer around the light post in the middle of the footpath. I don’t crash into the pole, but I lose a couple of years off my life when the menacing dog hits the fence at the speed of light. He’s desperate to punish me for entering his territory, and it has me thinking back to Jack’s reaction to Silas’s tease.
It seems out of character for him, but when you look at the entire picture, can you imagine his response being about more than what Silas said to him yesterday? It was a catalyst for years of mental and physical abuse, and it just happened to reach boiling point yesterday morning.
I smile a greeting at Merrick, but my heart isn’t really into it. He must also feel the tension because although he returns my smile, he doesn’t usher me to my seat like he usually does.
The trip to Seattle is cold and damp. It is the exact temperature you’d envision when your life is being turned upside down. There are no excited tourists eager to start their day. Just dozens of office workers dreading another long and dreary Monday.
I hold my breath while waiting for the elevator to arrive at the lobby. Although I could have jumped into the one that arrived when I entered my office building, I decided to wait for the elevator Jack and I regularly rode in.
Although disappointed when the doors pop open a couple of minutes later, at least the elevator is empty, meaning no one is subjected to my glistening eyes and disappointed expression for longer than necessary.
The top floor is a bustling hive of activity, and my heart jumps into the same frantic beat when I spot a shadow reflecting on the glass wall of Jack’s office.
I race his way in an instant, sidestepping a shocked Jess partway there.
“Jack—” My relief is brutally squashed when the man who spins to face me isn’t the handsome Hotshot Boss I was anticipating. “Mr. Potts. Ah… hello.” I scan Jack’s office, certain I’m dreaming. Why would Mr. Potts be back now? Jack fired him, didn’t he?
Too shocked to speak cordially, I stammer, “What are you doing here? Where’s Jack?”
Mr. Potts shoves his hands into his pockets, his look pretentious. “Jack?”
He knows who I am referencing. He’s just being an ass.
“Jack Carson. The man who fired you. That man.”
It dawns on me that he may be in Jack’s office, but he will never fill his shoes when he only responds to my rile with a sneer. Before Jack, he would have fired me on the spot just for speaking down at him.
After several seconds of long silence, he eventually informs, “Mr. Carson’s work here is done. Now I’m back to ensure we continue onward and upward.” He nudges his head to my office, his sneer blinding. “So how about we get started. I noticed you had a pile of employee folders on your desk. Return them to HR before joining me in my office. I need to dictate a staff memo to you for release.”
And just like that, my promotion is downgraded to a mere assistant again. Pity, my ego won’t allow it, but it must wait since I’ve spotted Jess still lingering at the side of Mr. Potts’s office, desperate to talk to me.
“I’ll return as soon as I can.”
Mr. Potts tries to argue, but I’m out of his office like my backside is on fire.
“What is it?” I ask Jess, confident I know her petrified face when I see it. It was the same look she wore when Caleb dragged her out of the gala seconds before Jack pulled me into the security office. “Have you heard from Jack?”