Page 47 of Protecting Love

“Thank you so much, I’m really excited to start.”

“And we’re excited to have you,” she said. She hung up the phone and made two fists. “Yes!”

“Sounds like good news,” Molly yelled back.

She got up and walked back to the front. “It is. With any luck, we’ll have two new employees in a week. Ryan for sure, as he isn’t working, so can start once he’s cleared. Jaylen might be a little longer but said it could be sooner.”

Molly grabbed the box on her desk and handed it over.

“It came by a courier,” Molly said.

“Hmm.”

It was a blue box with a bow on it. Just her name and no return address or business, but they’d gotten thank you gifts before. A few since they’d been here.

A nice reminder that a lot of businesses were pleased with their work.

She pulled the bow off, then lifted the lid assuming there’d be a card inside. There wasn’t.

There was a dead rodent.

She screamed and dropped the box and Molly hit the panic button under her desk immediately before she even looked.

“Shit,” Paris said. “Why did you do that?”

“It’s a dead mouse.”

“Rat,” she corrected and took several steps back with her hands in the air.

Immediately the phone was ringing on Molly’s desk.

She reached over and hit the button. “What’s in the box, Paris?” Fletcher asked.

She turned to look at the camera. She was right. He was watching.

“A dead rat with a note.”

“I’m on my way. Don’t touch it.”

“I don’t plan on it. And call everyone off. It’s not a bomb.”

“It’s only me coming,” he said, the phone going dead.

“Damn,” Molly said, inching her head closer, glancing, then shivering. “That was pretty damn responsive.”

She blew out a breath. “It was. Just wish we didn’t have to test it this way.”

12

PUSHING IT

“I’ll be late tonight,” Fletcher said on Saturday. “Sorry about this.”

“What are you sorry about?” Ian asked. “You’ve got to work.”

His son had just walked into his bedroom as he was getting dressed for the night. Pizza had been delivered, but he wouldn’t be sharing it like he’d hoped.

Not after Paris’s delivery on Wednesday afternoon.