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Shit. She was late.
After hitting her snooze alarm three times, and then standing under the showerhead for longer than usual to regain some of her senses, she was late. And maybe she could've made it on time, but she had forgotten about her houseguest until she rushed into the kitchen half naked.
Her goal had been her morning cup of coffee but what she got was a sexy Luke standing in front of the coffee machine. Things had only gone downhill from there when he updated her on what Caden found. Or lack thereof.
Luke had arranged a rental car for her but it wouldn't be ready until after nine, so she had to settle for him driving her to work.
So now she was ten minutes late to work and she knew even before she stepped off the elevator that her day was about to get much worse.
Amelia's big round eyes when she turned the corner were the only warning she got.
"Monica!" Carmichael snapped. "Care to explain why you're late this morning? Didn't we discuss the importance of making this company your priority? How can I retire when you don't take your job seriously?"
That was her breaking point. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe it was Ash's encouragement to stand up to him. Or maybe it was the fact that she just didn't give a flying fuck that morning because, instead of being the bigger person and politely asking her partner to step into her office to finish the discussion, she went off on him.
"I'm sorry, Niles." She let the disdain and sarcasm drip from her voice at the use of his first name. He hated people calling him anything other than Mr. Carmichael. "I'm sorry that in the middle of the night, someone decided to vandalize my car by slashing all the tires and writing the word BITCH in big bold red letters across my doors. I'm sorry that I spent over an hour speaking with the police about it. I'm sorry that I'm running on only three hours of sleep and not enough caffeine to handle the shit required to deal with the insurance and get myself a new car. And I'm truly sorry that all of that meant I'm ten minutes late for the first time in years, giving you the impression that I don't care about this company."
Monica didn't bother to wait around to see what he had to say. She got one glance at Amelia's scared expression before she stomped into her office and slammed the door.
She would have to deal with that fallout later but right now she needed a second to think and figure out how she was going to make it up to her secretary for not one rude day but now two.
Monica dropped her head onto her desk. Fuck, she was so screwed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"Does Monica know she's about to have a permanent houseguest?" Nash looked at him with a smirk.
Luke was back at the office after a busy morning. He had picked up Monica's rental car and parked it a block away from her townhouse. Would it have been smarter to leave it at her office? Sure, but then he wouldn't have the opportunity to pick her up and advise her of his plan to unofficially move in. He hadn't told his friend his plan either, but he wasn't surprised that Nash had put it together.
"Not yet. She wasn't exactly in a talkative mood this morning, so I thought it best just to show up tonight and hope for the best."
Nash laughed and shook his head. "You are one brave motherfucker. I have a feeling she isn't going to agree without an argument."
Neither did he and a huge part of him hoped that she didn't. He liked that she gave him shit. It meant life was interesting, but it would make it harder to take things slow like he wanted. He knew several ways he could make her comply but every one of them required the two of them naked. And rolling around in the sheets. The opposite of his goal.
"Why exactly is Luke a brave motherfucker?" Caden joined them at the table. Setting his laptop down in front of him, Caden gave them half of his attention like normal when work was involved.
"Because he plans to move in with Monica without telling her," Nash helpfully answered.
Caden whistled. "That sounds like a stupid plan."
"I'm not moving in," he defended himself. "I'm just going to stay at her place until we find Fletcher and whoever vandalized her car."
"Still a stupid plan." Caden shook his head. "Especially since I got nothing off the footage I found this morning. Whoever the individual was wore all black and covered their face. There's nothing for me to use for facial recognition. And I tried to find other cameras in the area, but whoever it was found the one block with no cameras and used that area to park their getaway vehicle."
"Did you see any vehicles leaving around that time frame?"
"Nope." Caden shook his head.
"So we have nothing," he confirmed.
"That's correct."
Luke sat back in the chair and crossed his arms. That wasn't the news he wanted to hear. Nor was it what he wanted to pass along to Monica. She had been mad when he dropped her off at work that morning. He had hoped that some good news would soften her up. It didn't look like that was in the cards for him today.
"Do we have any news on Fletcher? Or maybe Samuel? Either one could be responsible. Hell, it could be both. Based on what we’ve learned, I wouldn't be surprised if Samuel didn't orchestrate something from inside prison."
"I thought of that." Caden pulled his laptop closer and started to type. "I have a buddy of mine accessing prison records and privileges. That's more his area than mine, so I thought it best to pass along the task. So far we don't have anything, but if there is something to find, he'll get it for us."
