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Some time away will hopefully rid me of this crap.
Instead of going home, I go to my office. I plan on calling Felix and seeing about spending some time with him. I can do it under the guise of work, but if I can get into his apartment . . .
I just need a reason, and I’m sure if I go through his caseload, I’ll find something.
The office is quiet when I arrive but louder when I get to Mr. Williams’s office.
“I have to advise you not to do this.” I hear him say, but I don’t know what he’s talking about or with whom. I make my presence known, and he signals for me to take a seat in the chair in front of his desk.
“Very well, Felix. I’ll send her over.” Mr. Williams hangs up the phone and raises his chin to look at me. “Bernard wants you in his office. There are papers for a transfer of property he wants you to look over, and he figures it’d be better for you to do it at his office, in case you find something that might be useful to him.”
“No problem. What file?”
“He has it. Just go to his office, and he will set you up.”
“No problem. Now?”
“Yes.”
I stand from my chair and move to leave the room. Once back in the hallway, I decide there is no point in heading to my office. All my files are on my laptop at home if I need to work later.
It’s only a few blocks, so I walk to Felix’s office building.
His “office” houses his legitimate business. He’s a real estate developer—shopping malls, to be exact.
When I arrive, I notice it’s a lot like my office building, a typical high-rise with security. It appears to be an upstanding office building from the outside, but I know better than that. Felix Bernard is not a good man. And now that I’m where I need to be, I’m hoping to get some sort of hint of where he might have evidence of his crimes against my family. I won’t turn him in, but if a file accidentally arrives at a local detective’s desk, I won’t be disappointed.
“How can I help you?” the security man says as I approach the desk.
“I’m here for a meeting with Mr. Bernard. Skye Matthews.”
He looks down at his desk, picks up the phone, and dials. I can hear him say my name and then nod. “You can go up to the tenth floor. The direct elevator is over there.”
Shit.
I take a deep breath and head toward the elevator bank. It’s no big deal.
Recently, since I’ve been working with Tobias, my hatred of elevators has escalated. It’s like all my deep buried feelings from my parents’ death are back and rearing their ugly heads.
I have no idea why it escalated. It didn’t start until I met him, but now, it’s almost like I can still smell death in the air.
Shaking off the feeling, I step into the elevator and practice the breathing exercise I was taught as a child. Inhale deeply and then exhale slowly.
The ride is much faster than I expect, and before long, I’m stepping off and being greeted.
“Ms. Matthews, Mr. Bernard wants you to go right in,” a pretty woman behind a large Lucite desk says.
The space is modern, and I realize this is the first time I have ever been here. I’m not surprised by the décor. Everything is glass and Lucite. Very sparse, unfeeling, and modern. Perfect.
I’m almost afraid to touch the door, which again, is all glass. Who knows what this man will do if I leave a fingerprint? I do it anyway, and as soon as I do, my stomach flutters from nerves.
The last time I saw Felix, he was cold, but he made no secret that he wanted me. I’m not sure what this is. Am I here for a file? Or am I here for something more?
When he looks up from his desk, I let out a sigh of relief. If he wants me, he’s not thinking about that now. He is hyperfocused on something else, and whatever it is, it’s stressing him out.
“Skye. I need you to go through these files.” He’s lifting up a manila envelope for me to take.
“Oh, okay,” I say as I remove the folder from his hand. “What am I looking for?”
“Anything that can help me.” Something about his words sounds evil.
I narrow my eyes. “What do you mean, help me?”
“I want to develop on this land, but the land is protected. Find me a loophole.”
Looking down at the folder and back at him, I nod. “If there is something, I’ll find it.”
“I want you to find me a loophole, even if there isn’t one, and make sure it happens.”
My eyes go wide at his words. I know how corrupt he is, but this? I didn’t realize his corruption spread even into his “legitimate business.” Isn’t the point of a legitimate business to be clean? He’s already implying he will break the rules.
