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“Of course,” I said. “But you don’t have to do that. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”
“Trouble?” She laughed. It was a dry sound. “Remember this, Elizabeth. Climb high enough, and the only real trouble you can face comes from your own damn self. Eventually, you stop running out of people with the authority to come down on you.”
I smiled, even though I felt that wasn’t remotely true. She was forgetting life wasn’t the company. There were bigger rules. Bigger players who could come down on her. Not for something like this, but maybe it was something to keep in mind. It was like Travis said. If we could find some sort of dirt, we could let Travis’ friends blackmail Mrs. Glass into backing down. It’d be like nothing ever happened as far as my career was concerned.
Although it seemed that my time of working with Travis, or “Barry” was going to come to an end either way. Asking Mrs. Glass to look into him would probably mean he’d be found out, but it could also give us some critical information. I just needed to be careful none of that information was traced back to me if I leaked it to Travis and his friends.
It was a dangerous game we were playing. The truth was I felt conflicted as hell. Part of me wanted to throw it all out the window and just do whatever I could to help Travis. But I’d worked so long for this job—this career. I couldn’t just throw that away.
I thanked Mrs. Glass for the favor and headed back to my office.
“Barry Boulders” was snacking at his desk with one of his animal magazines propped open.
I snatched the magazine from his hands and wagged it at him. “You could at least pretend to be working on this.”
“I thought that’s what you were up to?” he said. “How’d it go in there?”
“Fine. She’s going to look into you. I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
“It was my idea, so of course it’s good,” he said. “She’ll look into my fake identity, find out who I really am, and since you were the one who came to her with concerns, she’ll tell you what she knows about the real me.”
“How well did you guys hide your identity, though? Is she even going to figure out you aren’t who you say you are?”
“Maybe not. But that’s just one potential avenue, here.” Travis got one of his many flavors of confident looks in his eye. “I am a master of this, Lizz. And the master likes to keep his options open.”
“Please don’t talk in the third person.”
“Noted. But there was something I wanted to ask you.” He looked suddenly serious, which was rare for him when his penis wasn’t involved. “Are you sure you’re okay helping with this? No matter how careful we are, there’s a chance this will somehow blow back on you. I don’t want you taking a risk if—”
“I can at least do this much,” I said. “I’m not ready to throw my career away on purpose. But I may like you enough to slightly risk it.” I reached up and fiddled with his tie. “I may kind of want to keep my man out of prison.”
Something flickered in Travis’ eyes. “When you talk about trying to keep me out of jail, it makes me feel like a total badass.” He curled the corner of his lip up like a mobster, glaring down at me. “Makes me feel dangerous.”
I laughed, punching his chest. “The only thing you’re dangerous for is my good sense.”
“Them’s fightin’ words, Ms...” He put his hands on my hips, walking me back until I bumped into my desk.
“We’re at work, Barry,” I taunted. “You’re going to have to keep those boulders in your pants for a few more hours.”
He looked like he was considering yanking my skirt up and risking it anyway. Even the flicker of possibility made me feel instantly hot all over, like I needed to peel my clothes off to breathe.
Then he gave a shrug, diffusing the tension for now. “I’ll see you at sunset, then.”
“You’re such a dork.”
He spun, pointing a finger gun at me. “Careful. Word is I’m a wanted man. Inches away from jail. You wouldn’t want to cross a man like that, would you?”
“How about you take your dangerous, very firm and pretty ass to your desk, snack on some of the nuts you have in your pockets, and read one of your little tiger magazines? The real grown ups have work to do.”
He humphed, then gave his head a little wiggle. “You’re lucky that sounds so nice. I’m also working on the real plan. This whole thing with getting her to look into me is just a backup. So consider this conversation to be continued,” he pointed again and I smiled, waving before going behind my desk to check my inbox.
