AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Taros eyed it suspiciously.
“Open it,” I said. “It’s all in there.”
“What is?”
He pulled the file toward him and scanned the first few pages. His expression changed, his jaw tightening.
“You were friends with Dr. Vincent Lockwood. You knew exactly what he was doing and why he needed a bodyguard.”
“As long as the clients pay, I don’t care about the business they conduct,” he said.
“You also knew about Dr. Malcom Harlow, didn’t you? Of course you did. You and these two bastards used to go to the same tennis club.”
He closed the file, crossed his fingers on top of it, and looked me in the eye.
“What do you want, Mason?”
“What’s rightfully mine. My job back.”
He nodded. “Done.” A beat, and then he added, “How about a ten percent pay raise? But I never want to hear about this again.”
I thought for a second. He was buying me with the pay raise. I needed it, though, and no matter what he said or thought, I was good at my job. Maya could confirm.
“Sounds good,” I said.
“Deal.”
He extended his hand, and after I stared at it for a moment, we shook. He placed the file in one of his drawers, then asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. Suddenly, he was being very friendly. I didn’t like him. I didn’t hate him, but I wasn’t going to have coffee with him. I knew he wasn’t a bad guy, just someone who looked the other way when shady things happened around him. I’d exaggerated when I’d said he’d been friends with Lockwood and Harlow. Yes, they used to go to the same tennis club, but it was more like Lockwood and Harlow had had him cornered all this time. With what, I didn’t know. Taros hadn’t corrected me, though, which meant I was right and, in fact, he was glad they were gone.
“I have someone waiting for me,” I said and got up.
My boss got up and walked me to the door. That was new.
“I’ll let you know when work comes in,” he said.
“You do that.”
I hurried to give Maya the good news. She was waiting for me in the truck, absorbed by her phone. When I got in, she shoved the phone in my face and made me check out a dozen curtains that looked all the same to me. Apparently, they were different colors, I just couldn’t see it.
“Okay, okay, here we go,” I said, laughing. “Next up, the curtain store.”
“How was it?” she asked, her voice serious. “Did you talk to your boss?”
“Yes. He gave me my job back. And a pay raise.”
She grinned at me. “As he should.”
I shook my head. “You know too much for your own good.”
“Did you think I wasn’t aware of that second file? Sorry, Mason, but you don’t hide your things well.”
“So, you read it?”
“I paged through it. It’s a corrupted world we live in.”
“Tale as old as time,” I said.
“I guess. But you’ll take care of me, right?”
