Page 50 of Shark’s Rise

“Essential for my business, Mr. McKenzie. You’re one of the shift foremen, correct?”

“That’s right,” McKenzie confirmed. “I’m the primary night foreman at the site.”

I filled a brief pause with my respectful hum. The man deserved it. What McKenzie did for a living was just as intricate a job as mine, with different moving parts. “What can I do for you this evening, Mr. McKenzie?”

“Yeah, umm, look…I just came on shift here, and the security guys were up in my trailer right away, freaking out…” He cleared his throat.

“Why were they freaking out?”

“Well…” Another gruff grunt from the man on the other end. “They told me they found a body.”

I lowered my ass to the surface of my desk. Shook my head, hoping to clear it of the word I thought he’d just uttered. “A what?”

“Down in the pit,” he continued. “Where—uh—down where they’re prepping to pour the foundation.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. McKenzie. Maybe we have a bad connection.” But we didn’t. The line was crystal clear. “I thought you just said a body.” I forced out a laugh—while painfully pinching the bridge of my nose. Jesus fuck. Had he really just said—

“You heard me right. Mr. Shark. A body. It looks like a young woman. Either she fell, or slipped—or shit, I don’t know—guess she could’ve been pushed or jumped—”

“Pushed?” My incredulity finally surfaced as ire as I lurched back to my feet.

“Sorry I can’t be more specific.” McKenzie’s sincerity was discernible. “But we don’t have cameras up in that area yet. Not much going on over there but a big hole in the ground and some forming. Well, they started the rebar and tying at the beginning of the week. We’re right on schedule for you, Mr. Shark.”

“Yeah, okay. That’s great, Bob.” I pushed my hand up, spreading my fingers to massage my whole forehead. “Can we get back to the body?”

And would the universe ever cut me a fucking break? Ever?

“Well, we haven’t touched a thing,” the guy informed me. “I just thought I should call you first, you know—before we notify LAPD. I mean, we have to notify them; there’s no way around that.”

“And I wouldn’t want you to do it any other way,” I ensured him.

“But they’ll be swarming in here right away, and I know the press will be right behind them. We have your personal number here in the trailer in case of emergencies, and I’m sorry if I’m interrupting your personal time, but—”

“Nah, man. It’s fine.” Now that we were bonding, I felt okay about the casual turn. “You definitely did the right thing.”

“Appreciate that, buddy,” he said warmly. “But yeah, well, I just thought maybe you’d want to handle this…initially? Or have your people handle it. Or whatever?”

“Thanks, Bob.” While stating that, I moved around to face my laptop. I opened the messaging app to Elijah’s name and tapped out three exclamation points, our way of stating the obvious. That he needed to drop everything and get his ass in here. “Can you do me a favor and keep the rest of the crew away from the…incident site…until I get there? Or until a man named Elijah Banks gets there? Do not let anyone else near the area beside the two of us.” I mean, now that we were buddies and all.

“Sure, Mr. Shark. Anything you say. I mean, you’re the boss man here.”

I ground my molars together at that fucking nickname but held my shit together. I needed to talk to Elijah. About five minutes ago.

“Well, Bob, I appreciate the call, and I will see you as soon as I can get across town.”

As soon as I disconnected the call, Banks strode back in. Thank fuck.

“What’s going on?” he queried with a smirk. “Miss me already?”

“You’re not going to believe this,” I huffed.

“Uh-oh.” He dropped into a leather chair, changing out the smile for a hard stare. “I don’t like the sound of this already.”

“And rightly so,” I asserted.

“What the hell’s up now?”

“I just took a call from the site foreman at the Edge.”