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Or so I hoped.
I didn’t like making promises I couldn’t keep.
For some reason, the warning on the cards the boys and I had gotten at Adrian’s wedding rehearsal dinner drifted to my thoughts, but I brushed it aside.
That threat was entirely unrelated. Wolf Industries had gone after Adrian’s company, but they wouldn’t be stupid enough to start attackingmine.
Ethan was thorough. He and the rest of security would get to the bottom of this.
I’d already contacted the head of Malus Custodial Management in an attempt to cover our bases. Stina Malus’s personal correspondence was always cordial and helpful, but where this wasn’t so much an issue of cleaning quality, I’d sent her a direct message about it instead of deferring the matter to my assistant.
Someone was stealing from me. Someone within my own company. Someone with keys and access to areas other employees didn’t have.
Expelling a breath, I rubbed my fingertips against my temples. I didn’t need this now, not when I was already worrying over expanding exponentially, and not when Marketing was fighting my order for Harmony Children’s Hospital.
My candy donation to the hospital was one of the few things I got excited about this time of year, and Marketing was trying to make their agenda mine.
A notification chimed on my phone. Stupidly enough, I hoped to find Ella’s name on my phone. She’d never yet initiated contact—why would she now?
The text was from Faye, my godmother. It was almost time for our breakfast date. I’d come in a little earlier than usual to make sure I wouldn’t miss it.
Ensuring my computer was sleeping, I tossed my overcoat across my arm and ambled from my office into the hall. I stopped by the seventh floor toaddress another associate’s concerns about scheduling and didn’t realize I was in the elevator again until a voice called, jolting me to awareness.
“Hold the elevator!”
In a swift motion, I jutted out my hand to stop the door just in time for a brunette woman to enter.
Gripping the purse strung over her shoulder and dragging a rather large bag in with her, her face gradually lifted to meet mine and a flush of adrenaline tingled through my body.
No way. No freaking way.
“Well, hey there, Ella,” I said, not bothering to mask my happiness at seeing her again.
This couldn’t be better if I’d planned it myself.
She was as attractive as I remembered, with almond-shaped brown eyes and a small rosebud mouth that had just the right amount of pout. Freckles dusted across her cheeks and nose, which were endearing for some reason.
She peered at me through her periphery and then went rigid. The slightest blush painted her cheeks, and she stared at me as the doors closed.
“Hawk,” she said.
It was just the two of us. The elevator ride would only last a matter of seconds.
I had to take every advantage of this situation that I could.
Fleeting thoughts of pressing her to the wall with my body and kissing her hard and fast appeared and then vanished.
Numbskull. She’d never speak to me again if I did anything like that.
Not to mention I had more urgent questions.
“You should have told me you’d be coming by the office today,” I said, waving my phone at her.
She grimaced, but she didn’t take her gaze from me. She continued to stare as though I were a ghost.
“Why would I do that?” Her voice was breathy.
I smirked. “I thought you said you were moving. Are you still living in Westville?”
