Chapter 40

Knowing there’s a body underneath the rubble has changed how I see the scene before me. I dodge and weave the blooming crowd, walking straight past the police officer who stands at the barricade. It could be that I’m hypnotized by the source of my grief or maybe it’s just that I walk the walk of someone entirely unconcerned with being stopped. Whatever it is, this time he doesn’t say a word.

Grant trails behind me, his presence a comforting lifeline that keeps me from losing control.

Especially when I see them. Both Reinhold Cragg and Dominic chat lightheartedly, talking over a desperate Beth. Right now Dominic is reassuring Reinhold that no one could have been in the building. They’re probably patting themselves on the back on a job well done.

Beth sees me before they do. Her eyes widen as her mouth falls into a perfect ‘o’.

“Hailey!” she yells and runs towards me, pulling me into a hug. “I was so worried about you.”

Right. I guess I didn’t put out my usual blast on social media saying that I’m safe.

Dominic’s eyes follow the commotion. He sees me and moves on. Beth, the woman I used to think of as my office nemesis, is practically sobbing over me in relief while the man I believed to be my mentor scarcely acknowledges my presence.

“Happy late birthday.”

Beth startles back, as if someone mentioning her birthday is beyond anything she could wish for. “Thank you?”

“When this is all over, let’s do some more coffee and karaoke,” I say, meaning it.

“More?”

I nod. “But no more luncheon limbos. That was just a bad idea.” We tried that on one of my days and it did not go well. I suspect it would have gone better if we limbo-ed first and lunched later.

We didn’t.

Brad in accounting wound up falling into his own vomit. For all our sakes, I was extra thankful for the reset after that day.

“Did you find my list?”

I smile, eyeing the two men near us who are carrying on without a single thought to the devastation they’ve caused.

“I did and it was amazing.”

Beth beams. “Did you see the one about shorts? I think it needs a bit of explaining—”

“Tell me about the shorts idea when we meet up. Something tells me I’ll need a bit of time to process it.”

Beth’s face falls. Fair enough. I’ve told her we’d hang out so many times the sentiment must be more worn out than my dad’s favourite pair of socks.

“I mean it. I’m sorry I haven’t been the friend I should be to you.”

“You’re busy…” Beth says with a shrug.

“All of your goodness is wasted on this office,” I tell her, taking a step towards the men since they seem to be saying goodbye. “But I’ll try not to let it be wasted on me any longer.”

“Hey,” Beth says, grabbing my arm to stay me as I dart off towards the pair. “You are too. Too good for the office, I mean.”

I don’t say anything.

I’m not.

I’m really not.

In any case, it’s not like I’ll be working for Felton amp; Nichols much longer anyways. Again.

When I get too close to ignore, Dominic’s eyes light up, as if he didn’t just spot me a few minutes ago. God, what a phony. Even for a lawyer. “Ah, Reinhold, let me introduce you to one of our most promising associates—” he starts.

“Beth is right.”

Reinhold’s eyes train on me, two impossibly blue daggers that seek to stab out the truth. It would be impressive if it weren’t for the fact that the last time that I saw him he was completely dumbstruck as I jumped off a cliffside to flip him off. If that’s all it takes to shock him, then, clearly, we’re not in the same league.

“About what?” Dominic asks, his joviality cracking at the edges.

“There was someone in the building. Two people, actually.”

Reinhold’s eyes narrow. “Care to explain?”

Explain, I mock in my head. I will, but only because I want to.

“Last night, I snuck in through the alley service entrance. I left the door unlatched and someone followed me in.”

“I’ll go alert the search teams,” Beth gasps, running off.

“You what!” Dominic exclaims.

I pay him no heed. The weight he tries to throw around rolls off me. His temper in the office was legendary—to irk the ire of Dominic was the campfire story we told new hires in the breakroom. I used to see it as a sign that he was a man who brooked no incompetence. Now, I recognize it for what it is—the temper tantrum of a man who screams just to hear his own voice.

“It was ridiculously easy,” I accuse.

Reinhold’s eyes turn their stabbing glare towards Dominic. “There was supposed to be security guards stationed at every possible entrance as per Mr. Hart’s explicit instructions.”

“Let’s not turn this around! She was the one breaking into—”

“You should know before you get into bed with someone if they’re the type of person to cut corners and pocket the extra,” I add.

“You watch your mouth—” Dominic warns in a voice that’s nearly a yell.

If it weren’t so annoying, it’d be laughable. A good lawyer knows that arguments need to speak louder than your volume. If you need to raise your voice for people to heed your words, you’ve already lost.

“I thought I had. His body of work in the past couple of years indicated a man of a meticulous nature,” Reinhold carries on, his even words drowning out Dominic’s ramblings.

“His recent body of work was all done by me. You’d know that if you had actually looked into him instead of cutting corners yourself.”

Reinhold’s lips twitch. No emotion of any kind reaches his eyes. “You don’t cut corners, and you don’t mince words.”

Dominic steps between us, and puts his hand on Reinhold’s chest. “I swear, she’s not normally like this. It must be the stress of the building. Whatever it is, consider her gone. You won’t have to deal with her again.”

If I still cared at all about Dominic, I’d consider lending him my copy of Dr. Debbie’s Guide to Understanding Relationships. There’s a whole chapter on unsolicited touching. It can be summed up, though, with just one word: don’t.

Reinhold pinches Dominic’s hand with his pointer finger and thumb, lifting it off him like he’s peeling off a slimy banana peel.

“That was the highest compliment I’ve ever given anyone, aside from Mr. Hart,” he says. Not for Dominic’s benefit. “If you were in the building at the time of its collapse, how ever did you get out?”

I smile pleasantly. “That’s not the question worth asking right now.”

“No?”

I shake my head and take in the scene around me. Thanks to Dominic’s theatrics, a crowd is surreptitiously looking on. A couple people started filming with their phones once Dominic started repeatedly firing me.

Funny—it really rolls off my back the second time around.

“The question you should be asking is—” I raise my voice. Yes, I know I just said a good lawyer doesn’t need volume, but this is the courtroom of social media. There are different rules. “How could you be so careless when you order a building to be destroyed?”

“How dare you speak to him that way!”

“She’s right,” Beth says, once again walking up to us.

“What would you know about it?” Dominic snaps.

Beth rolls her eyes. She actually rolls her eyes at Dominic. “Please. There are about fifteen different ways I could have confirmed you have some shady dealing with Hart Link Incorporated. Seriously, Mr. Price, if you treat your support staff like they’re unable to read, they’re going to read all your dirty secrets.” She narrows her eyes. “And I’ve found out a lot of yours.”

Dominic freezes. If he was livid with anger before, now he’s frigid with fear. There must be some serious skeletons in his closet.

“What do you know?” Reinhold asks.

I try to mimic his piercing stare as best I can. Really, it’s a look worth practicing for depositions and questionings, if I’m to give credit where credit is due.

“You know the war painting above the musket in your office?” I ask.

For the first time in this conversation, emotion flickers in Reinhold’s eyes. “How do you know about that painting?”

Just then, the dogs that are sniffing the rubble of the building start barking. “We have something!” someone yells.

It breaks my heart and steels my resolve.

“I know everything,” I say, my voice flat and menacing. “From the building to the scary laser beam room to the time travel. I know all of Hart’s secrets and he’s going to pay. People are not acceptable collateral damage.”

Chaos flourishes around us as crews begin frantically working at the building. Dominic and Beth are involved in a screaming match beside us (go Beth!), but Reinhold and I hold firm.

Reinhold takes a step towards me, his eyes now gleaming with emotion and promises of pain.

“You’ll find, Miss Cox, that they are.”

I note that he didn’t balk, question, or deny the time travel. I tuck that bit of confirmation away for later.

“Is that a threat?” I ask.

Reinhold’s lips twitch. “Of course not. It’s just the beginning of my invitation to talk this over with at Hart Link Incorporated’s headquarters.”

He snaps his fingers and five burly men appear from virtually nowhere. They step in on me, forming a rough circle.

I take a step towards Reinhold. “Well here is a threat: if you even think about hurting me, my boyfriend, the Garnet Defender, is going to kick your ass.”

Reinhold flinches. “What?”

Then, he flinches even harder as Grant comes down from the sky, landing beside me with a boom.

“You called me your boyfriend,” he says, smiling down at me. Really, he’s ruining the moment a bit with his dopey smile. Would it kill him to scowl the same way he does when he thinks about fucking me? That’s nice and scary—in the best kind of way.

“I did.”

“I’m really more of her future husband,” Grant announces to everyone, including the advancing muscle who now look a lot more wary about intimidating me.

“Don’t push it,” I warn him, although I’m smiling. All around, we’re ruining what should be a very cool moment.

“Wh-where did you come from?” Reinhold stutters.

I sigh. “Always the wrong questions, Cragg. The question you’re soon going to be asking is: what just happened?”

“What?” Reinhold asks.

I nod at Grant and everyone, except Beth, goes flying backwards about ten feet, landing straight on their asses.

“What the hell happened?” mutters one of the muscles.

“My future husband is wicked strong,” I brag.

“I’ll say,” Beth says, ogling him more than slightly. “No wonder you never wanted to come out with us.”

I shoot her a wink and wrap my arms around Grant. In a flash, we’re shooting into the sky, flying far away from the evil that oozes out of this place.

It should be a triumphant moment, but it’s not.

Beside the place where all the villains slowly rise, the crews work on removing debris as the dogs bark on. Even from way up here, I see the flash of colour when a chunk of concrete is moved.

It’s my umbrella.

“We’ll do better tomorrow,” Grant promises before flying away.

I don’t answer him. I just hide my face into his chest and promise the same.

Tomorrow I’ll do better.

If it ever comes.