Page 17 of Business vs. Pleasure

“Sir, we’ve got a serious gas leak in the building.” One of them reached for his elbow and gestured down the hall. “We need you to evacuate.”

“Evacuate? But I⁠—”

“Sir, we need you to evacuate.” The hand on his elbow tugged him across the threshold. “There’s a significant risk of ignition. Please follow these people down the stairs.”

Fucking hell. There was nothing Ricardo could do but follow.

As Ricardo obediently stepped out, the man asked, “Is there anyone else in the unit?”

Ricardo shook his head. “No. It’s just me.”

The firefighter nodded sharply. “Unit’s all clear,” he shouted to one of the others, and they continued down the hall while Ricardo followed the others down the stairs.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. This was not good. But he couldn’t go back. There were firefighters blocking the hall, and they’d forcibly remove him if they had to.

“Ricardo?” August said in his ear.

Ricardo plugged his other ear so he could hear better over the noise of people moving down the stairwell. “What’s going on?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing. Why aren’t you at your perch?”

“Why are you talking to me when you’re supposed to be⁠—”

“I went to the men’s room to clean myself up. What’s going on?”

Ricardo sighed. “Building evacuation. A gas leak, I guess.”

“That sounds… convenient.”

“It does. I don’t know how long they’ll keep us outside. Just… stall him as long as you can.”

“Ugghh. Ricardo. This guy is insufferable.”

“And you’re good at entertaining people like that.” Ricardo cleared a flight of stairs and started down the next one. “I’ll let you know when I get back in. Until then… just do what you do best.”

“If I do that,” August said dryly, “I’ll get arrested for indecent exposure.”

“Fine. Do what Augustus Mason does best—be a rich, charming asshole.”

“You’re a dick.”

The line went dead.

Ricardo chuckled to himself, but he was unnerved. A gas leak and an emergency evacuation? That was way too convenient to just be bad luck.

And if someone knew Ricardo was here, or they knew enough to implement something like this, then there was far too great a chance they also knew where August was. And why.

A chill went straight to Ricardo’s bones.

He stopped on the next landing and quickly wrote out a text.

Get out of there. Regroup at the hotel.

“Sir, you need to keep moving,” a firefighter barked at Ricardo. “Move along, please.”

Ricardo moved along.

And all the way to the ground floor, he hoped like hell August had listened.