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Or at least that’s what he called it.
She somehow doubted that he would ever need to meet a client at eight in the morning, especially since as far as she knew, there wasn’t anything scheduled. Rose was the one who set up his meetings, but Joe still slipped out for last-minute engagements all the time, always tossing out some half-hearted attempt at a cover story as he waltzed out the door. It was infuriating, working for a man who kept her out of the loop so much.
But that was about to change. Because Rose had cracked the code.
On the bus to work, she’d been thinking over some of the messages she received from clients to give to Joe. And it occurred to her that there was a pattern—loose and complex, but undeniable. So as soon as her gorgeous boss slinked out the door, she immediately jumped into trying to decipher his calendar for the day. Joe was out of the office nearly all morning and afternoon and the calls were sparse, leaving Rose plenty of time to spend figuring out exactly what was going on.
Before too long, she had a time and a place.
And without even giving it too much thought, she decided to put her own intel mission into play. Rose was going to follow Joe to his meeting tonight and find out once and for all what kind of crazy business they were dealing with.
When he popped back into the office later, just before it was time to clock out for the day, Rose gave him an innocent, winning smile. “Welcome back! Busy day?” she greeted, folding her hands on the desk in front of her and cocking her head to one side.
Joe nodded as he walked by, doing a double take as his eyes fell on her. It was subtle, but Rose caught it all the same. She struggled not to blush every time his golden gaze landed on her, but it was grati
fying to know that he wanted to look at her in the first place. After all, a guy who looked like Joe Sanford could easily get any woman he wanted with a single glance. But sometimes the way his eyes lingered on Rose’s face, her body… well, she wondered if maybe he saw in her even a hint of what she saw in him. It seemed impossible.
But she needed to know more about him, either way.
That night, Rose tucked the girls into bed and then put on an all-black outfit, almost like Joe’s usual attire, and she sneaked out to track him down. She waited at the office, waiting for him to leave. Then a half-hour later she went after him.
She knew the address of the warehouse he was going to, so she took a cab, then got out and walked the last few blocks until she could see Joe’s car parked in the darkness. He had to already be inside, but she couldn’t just walk in through the front door. Rose scanned the building’s perimeter, biting her lip. She was no secret agent, and this was new territory but when she spotted a ventilation opening about fifteen feet up, she made her choice. That would be her way in. And luckily, there happened to be a stack of old packing crates near the opening.
Mustering all her strength and courage, Rose took a deep breath and started the climb, the whole time questioning her own sanity. Am I seriously about to break into a creepy warehouse in the middle of the night and crawl through the ventilation shaft just to spy on my hot boss?
It was insane. It was ridiculous. But it was definitely happening.
Definitely happening.
“All I wanted was a nice, secure job with a flexible schedule,” she muttered as she shakily reached the top of the stack and clambered into the musty, rainwater-stained ventilation shaft. Her stomach plummeted as she realized the scariest part was up next: crawling through the darkness. She quickly turned on her cell phone flashlight and sighed, moving along carefully. As she moved up the long, slight incline, she started to hear male voices somewhere vaguely below. They were discussing some deal, with the phrases “eco-freak charity case” and “sending a message to the lobbyists” being tossed around.
What the hell was she getting herself into?
She arrived at the end of the ventilation corridor abruptly, nearly falling out of the hole—now at least twenty feet above the concrete floor below!
Rose gasped in panic, her heart pounding so loud that she worried the men down beneath her might overhear it. At first, she didn’t see Joe. He wasn’t one of the guys talking down there. But then…she caught sight of him.
Two reflective golden eyes flashed in the darkness.
She backed up a couple feet in terror as she realized that he was perched in the rafters, balancing on a couple of crossed beams. His body was so agile and lithe in its movement as he glared at her, moving ever so slightly closer. His eyes widened in shock as it dawned on him that he was looking at his sweet little secretary.
Panic mingled with genuine concern flickered across his darkened features and he tried to approach her, stepping lightly across the beams toward her. But Rose was terrified to see him essentially walking a tightrope twenty feet up in the air, and she let out a little shriek of fear.
Instantly the conversation down below came to a halt.
“Wait—did you hear that?” asked one of the men in a business suit.
The second man, who was just out of sight, hissed, “Rats in the rafters.”
A third guy pointed upward—directly at Rose! “There! Who the hell is that?”
“Rose, watch out!” shouted Joe, just before there was a bright flash of light and a deafening crack. A bullet whizzed just past Rose’s face to lodge itself in the crumbling wall. As the men below caught onto Joe’s presence, as well, he nimbly leaped from the beams to land on the top shelf of a metal storage rack. Rose clasped her hand over her mouth in shock as her handsome, mysterious boss bolted for the two men in business suits.
They aimed their guns at him and fired multiple rounds, several bullets exploding in the sacks of sawdust littering the warehouse. Rose screamed, tears blurring her vision. If they killed him, it would be all her fault. She couldn’t live with that. Just then, the third man went barreling out of the warehouse before the clouds of dust even cleared.
When it finally did, she was incredulous at the sight of Joe tackling both the corporate guys to the ground, his fists pummeling them into unconsciousness. His body moved with such animalistic force that it frightened her. The men couldn’t even get a shot in, and their guns lay abandoned several feet away from the scene. Joe slammed his fists into the pair of them again and again, blood spattering the floor, as the men resisted in vain. Finally, they both stopped struggling altogether and Joe stood up, turning back to look up at Rose.
He was covered in blood.
