AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“New employees. Van’s that pilot I’ve been after. Finally got him signed on. And Joss started the same—” My voice broke. I swallowed hard, trying to clear away the hurt. “The same day.”
“She has no experience. Why would you hire her?”
“She’s got loads of experience. Executive admin for two bleed-your-soul-dry companies in the past three years.”
“You hired an admin?”
I dragged a hand down my face. “Need someone in office to help me sort shit out. Joss is good. Done a lot for me already that I couldn’t have done myself even without this search for Kelly.”
Frankie narrowed her eyes at me, then shoved the file back on my desk. “Like what?”
Pushing another file across the desk, I told her, “Take a look.”
“An ice cream machine?”
“Dammit, Dennis!” I yelled, the sound making Frankie jump.
From the other room, I heard laughter before Rylan hollered back, “Sorry, boss!”
“Sorry, my ass,” I muttered under my breath. To Frankie, I said, “Turn the page.”
She took a moment, her eyes darting over the words on the page before she lifted her attention to me. “What the hell is this?”
“The lease for our new office space. Joss helped me pick it out and—”
Frankie sliced her hand through the air, cutting me off. “I understand it’s a lease, Lee. What I don’t understand is this.” She tossed the paper on the desk, then jabbed her finger at a line near the top.
With a sigh, I slid the next file across the desk. She pulled the papers out and tossed them back at me with barely a glance.
“What, exactly, are you trying to pull?”
“Not pulling anything. You barged in here complaining about your name being in the news again. Same complaint you’ve had time and time again. So why not change that? Why not change the name of the company to get yours out of it?”
“Bridgewater Security.”
Some broken thing in my chest swelled, struggling against the binds I’d wound around it to keep the damn thing in place. “Kelly suggested it.”
Her face fell. She shoved the file in her hand back on the desk and plopped back in her chair. “It feels like you’re trying to cut me out.”
“Just trying to make the company work when neither of us are here to handle the day to day. Not changing ownership, Frankie. Just setting us up to thrive, exactly like we talked when we created this company in the first place.”
She pouted for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Where do I need to sign?”
Even though it was a win, I didn’t feel like celebrating. Not when Kelly wasn’t here to enjoy it.
Dammit. Couldn’t go a damn minute without thinking about her today. Without feeling like something was about to go down. Something was about to change.
I picked up the papers Frankie had tossed all over my desk, sifting through and organizing them until I had them back in place. But just as I was pointing out where she needed to sign, Joss and Rylan came barging into my office.
“They found her!” they both said at once.
I was out of my seat in an instant. Yanking my coat off the hook as the two of them raced in front of me toward the lobby. “Where is she?”
“Found her in an apartment by the old Travelodge. Police were alerted by neighbors about gunshots and went to investigate.” Rylan pushed open the front doors, keys to his truck already out of his pocket as he pointed me toward it.
“Gunshots?” I quickened my pace, tearing open the door and climbing in as he did the same on the driver’s side.
“Not clear on what happened,” he said, throwing the car in gear and tearing out onto the street. “One of the guys was following up on a new patient who just hit the ER. Pinpointed his residence at the same time the police scanner mentioned the same damn building and gunshots. Looks like someone’s been hit, but we don’t know who he is.”
