Page 18 of Chased

Sanchez growled, “Why does everyone blame us for everything?”

“Because you usually did it.” Still grinning, Boomer went back in the guard house and opened the gate.

“Look who’s talking,” Sanchez muttered.

The road continued through the forest for a little way, and then ended at the edge of a big shallow grassy valley with clusters of buildings scattered around it. There was more forest around the edges of the valley and at the far end, where the land continued to rise up the side of the mountain.

In the bowl-like valley, it seemed like there was construction going on everywhere. Cabins were being built at the edge of the forest, and down the hill from them was what looked like a converted barn, with a crew working on the roof.

There was a group of buildings at the center that looked like offices and operations centers, with an addition going up on one of them.

Trucks and workers were moving back and forth across the compound, people were yelling warnings and orders, and the air was full of the sounds of motors and hammering and power tools.

Sanchez shook his head, muttering about ‘fucking chaos.’

Madison loved it. After the genteel, repressive quiet of the Fontaine mansion, it was like entering another world—one full of life and activity. Work that meant something.

Also a world that was chock-full of men, who all seemed to be tall and buff and impossibly hot. Half of them were wearing army fatigues of some kind. Lots of them were armed. They all looked like they could kill you as easily as swatting a fly.

There are many predators here, Vixen said uneasily.

No shit. At least she knew there were two other women here—Breanna Carter and Michelangela Connors.

Then she heard a streak of swear words from the roof of the building that was getting an extension, and realized there was at least one more woman here. A sturdy, rounded woman who looked to be in her forties, with bronzy hair peeking out from under her hard hat, was standing on the edge of the roof directing the crew. “I said move that beam to the left! Other left, you fucking idiot!”

A woman directing a male construction crew? And swearing at them. Wow, Toto, she said to Vixen. We’re really not in Kansas anymore.

Sanchez followed a dirt track to the central cluster and parked outside one of the buildings. It looked new. “This is it,” he said. “The admin offices.”

Madison bit her lip. Now that she was here, she was nervous again. What if…

No. No what ifs. She’d gotten this far, and she wasn’t going to give up now. She opened the door of the truck and got out.

To her surprise, Sanchez got out too, and led the way inside.

The door opened into a big office—big enough for four desks and a conference table. Two of the desks sat just in front of the back wall, with credenzas behind them. The other two were catty-corner to those, along the side walls. In the middle of the right-hand wall was an opening that led deeper into the building.

The right half of the office was a complete wreck. Both desks and the conference table, which sat in the front corner, were covered with files, binders and paperwork.

In contrast, the two desks on the left side of the office, as well as the bookshelves and file cabinets, were in perfect order, with no stray papers anywhere.

The back desk on that side was occupied by a curvy woman in her twenties, with dark hair and vivid blue eyes, talking on the phone.

Perched on the corner of her desk was a breathtakingly gorgeous man with blond hair and rainstorm-gray eyes. He was making little balls of Scotch tape and throwing them at the woman as she argued with someone on the other end of the line.

“I don’t care what your manifest says. I’m telling you we’re an entire pallet short on that flooring.” She paused to listen. “Still not caring about the manifest. Have you actually looked in the warehouse?” Another pause, during which she absently batted away a flying tape ball. “Well, send someone to do that. Yes. Right now. Tell them to walk their little ass inside with a flashlight and read every damn pallet number if they have to.” Pause. “No, I’ll wait.”

The man sitting on the desk made another tape ball. The woman flicked her wrist and suddenly a knife appeared in her hand. She raised it to the man and gave him a ‘don’t you dare’ look.

Madison gasped.

The guy grinned at the dark-haired woman and blew her a kiss. She rolled her eyes, but she smiled at him. Then she said into the phone, “Yes, I’m still here. I will still be here, haunting you, until you find my damn flooring.”

Sanchez gave a little snort of amusement, and then called out, “Cookie Babe? You here? I brought you an assistant.”

Cookie Babe? This guy called her new boss Cookie Babe?

A few seconds later, Breanna Carter popped out of the hallway that led to the back of the building, and Madison’s eyes almost fell out of her head.