Taking a step back, I glanced down at Ethan’s desk and picked up a note he had written. That almost unreadable, tidy cursive belonged to my new boss.
Spinning back to the drawings, I tried to make out the lettering on another design.
“Intracranial electrode?” I stumbled over the words.
“That’s right,” came Ethan’s accented words from behind me.
I jumped at his rich voice.
“I thought this was a security company,” I said, adjusting my glasses.
“This is, but when ideas come to mind, I sketch them out.” A rustle of papers and fabric painted a picture of him pulling off his messenger bag and leather jacket.
“I wasn’t sure where to go. I’m not sure where my desk is,” I told him, continuing to examine the drawing.
I felt his presence behind me, the warmth of the sun and the scent of the outdoors wafting from him like perfume.
He smoothed out the drawing I surveyed, a signet ring on the pinky of his left hand. “A regular intracranial electrode needs a large piece of the skull cut away. This is an electrode that can be inserted into the skull through a small borehole. It’s a lot less invasive.”
I tilted my head, not sure what to say. “Oh….”
“We won’t use it here, but I’ll probably license the design. I’ve already given this to Aubrey to patent.” As his fingers left the page, I examined his signet ring again.
He spotted my gaze. “It’s a family heirloom, you can look at it if you’d like.” My boss pulled off the ring and handed it to me.
The gold was still warm from his body, and when my index finger slid into the circle, it felt…intimate. I twisted the heavy ring between my fingers, too nervous to really look at it. “Oh…I…it’s really beautiful.”
“You have a degree in history, so you must know what that is.”
“A signet ring- it looks French.”
I held the ring up, and his fingers brushed mine to retrieve the object.
We stood there, staring at each other for an amount of time that went past appropriate.
Finally, Ethan cleared his throat and broke our strange little connection. “Right, erm…go talk to Mel and get the paperwork all signed. She’ll show you where Amber’s workstation is.”
“Oh, right! Of course. Yes,” I stumbled over the words as I nearly tripped, trying to get out of that office.
In a daze, I stumbled out of the main room to Mel’s office near the main entrance. She glanced up at me from her computer and raised a finger for me to wait.
Looking around the echoing concrete and glass space, my eyes went to the floor to ceiling window behind Mel. Rolling vineyards were surrounded by scrubby forest.
“All right,” came her crisp voice. “I am not your assistant. You are Ethan’s assistant. His dry cleaning, his lunch, anything personal for him is your business.”
I smiled and nodded.
She sucked in a breath. “You are here to make my job easier, not harder.” Then under her breath, she mumbled, “Why on earth did that woman have to go and get pregnant!”
I pretended not to hear, but I couldn’t stop one eyebrow from lifting in judgment. “Ethan said you had employment paperwork for me?”
“Well, it’s all electronic now, but yes.” She swiveled in her chair before bending to pick up a box and set it on the counter between us. “This is all for you. If you have any technical questions, ask Aster. I’m not a computer person—I don’t do that sort of thing.”
“Paperwork?” I asked again.
I looked down at the post-it note she handed me. It read:
Email – [email protected]
Password – Password (Please change and have Aster set up biometrics)
She sniffed, “I’ve already emailed the forms to you. Just have them back to me by the end of the day.”
“Biometrics?” I asked on a laugh.
She gave me a deadpan expression with her dark eyes. “Yes. We don’t use passwords here, they’re too susceptible to being hacked. We use bio-keys, retinal scans, DNA, and fingerprint.”
“Huh…Where is Aster?” I trailed off, waiting for Mel to answer.
“Either at her desk or somewhere in the building. Do you need a guided tour?” She asked in a tone that was definitely rhetorical.
“No, thanks. Got it. Thank you!” I called behind me as I took off in search of the one friendly face in this office.
When I pushed on the door to the main workspace, it refused to budge. The salty office manager stood and ran her hand over the lever, and the door unlocked.
“Oh yeah, your chip is in the box. Aster can implant it, but Ethan’s better—he’s quicker.” Returning to her desk, she began to pull her silky black hair up into a ponytail.
“Thanks,” I whispered, receiving a nod from the woman as I slipped through the doorway.
Aster sat cross-legged in her chair, keyboard in lap and headphones on. Her screen was filled with lines and lines of gibberish.
Even though I stood in her peripheral vision, she jumped when I tapped her arm. Pulling off her headphones, she clicked a button, and the long streams of data disappeared. “I bet you need help getting set up.” She pawed through the box I held. “Okay, this is so dumb. Most of this stuff is off the shelf, but because Ethan is such a paranoid freak, we have mega security. Aidan is our intern from Caltech. I already had him do the basic set up for your computer.”
Rifling through the box, I pulled out a laptop.
“Why do I have an Apple computer, and everyone else has a different kind of computer?”
She flipped her platinum blond hair behind her shoulder. “Because most of us are computer people and we’re running Linux, but all the non-computer people get a Mac.” She laughed, “Think of it as a computer with training wheels.”
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “Well, I’d rather have this anyway.”
Shrugging, she continued. “Yeah. So, it’s all set up and pretty self-explanatory. You just need to turn it on.”
“Okay. Thanks. Sorry for bugging you. Hey, where should I go. Where is Ashley’s desk?” I hefted the box again and began looking around the room.
“Ashley either worked in Ethan’s office or over there.” She pointed to a large empty cubicle near the window.
Sitting in Ashley’s cubicle, I laid the contents of the box out in front of me. The computer and it’s box, a smartphone in its box, a small plastic medical package, and a key fob—no keychain except for a tag from the dealership.
Setting the packet and key aside, I opened the laptop. I wasn’t a complete idiot when it came to computers. In no time, I’d entered my fingerprints and got started on the usual paperwork.
Along with employment and tax forms, I had to sign three separate non-disclosure agreements.
Finishing up a few hours later, I stood and stretched, arching my back and yawning. The room had emptied except for a lone geek in the glass gaming room.
After visiting the bathroom, I picked up the key fob and packet and scanned the room for Aster. She was gone.
Walking out toward the reception area, I checked to see if Mel was there. She sat sipping on a stainless-steel straw and staring at her computer screen.
Allowing the door to close behind me, I approached. “Hey, I found someone’s keys in the box you gave me.” I dangled them from my fingertips.
“Those are yours. We’re zero emissions,” the office manager pointed to the parking lot. “You can’t drive that clunker you drove up in, and I’ve already had it taken away.”
“What?! My cat was in there! All my things were in there!” I rushed to peek out the window next to the door.
“Don’t worry. I had Aidan move your things.”
I blinked and tried to contain my rage, my fingernails digging into my palm. “Where’s Lucy, my cat?”
“Oh, Ethan has it.” She turned back to her computer, where a movie played.
Letting out a whoosh of breath, I was relie
ved when the door opened to the workroom when I swiped the medical bag in my hand.
My vision lasered down to the door on the other side of the empty room as my steps took me toward it.
I rapped my knuckles against the door and waited—nothing. So I tried again. On my third attempt, Ethan’s voice, quiet and distracted, came from the other side, “Come in.
Had he been sleeping?
I hesitated for a brief second, trying to calm myself down before barging inside.
My dark-haired boss sat on the couch in the corner, his eyes unfocused and hair mussed. Next to him sat a young woman with heavy makeup and expensive clothing. Her head lulled to the side as she gazed at me through narrowed slits before slowly buttoning up the front of her blouse.
FML.
Of course, I’d walk in on my boss having sex.
Shaking it off, my anger overpowered my sense of propriety.
“Where’s my cat?”
The bastard blinked before smoothing his hair and focusing on me. “Eh…your car? I replaced it with something better. We’re no…”
I cut him off. “No, my cat, where is she?” I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment to gather myself. “That car? That car belonged to me. You had no right to just take it.”
The girl’s eyes fluttered open at my outburst and sat up, smoothing her skirt and slipping back into her stilettos. “I’ll just get going…” She trailed off, looking around sleepily before leaving.
I shook my head as Ethan ignored his mid-day fling.
“Typical.” I crossed my arms and shook my head. “Look, I’m sorry for being rude—I need this job, but you have to respect some boundaries.”
Lazily, Ethan ran his hands through his hair before picking up a silver Dumont water bottle and drinking from it.
“Lucy, you said? She’s here.” He glanced over to the large concrete window sill where my traitorous feline lay curled up in the sun.
I huffed out a breath.
“Come, come with me.” He said, standing and moving to the rear of his office.
He waved his hand before something that looked like a stamp on the concrete wall, and a panel slid inward and away from him.
I made no move to follow him until he called out again. “Caroline?”
Nearing the opening, my hands on each side of the hidden entrance, I stood and peered down a narrow concrete stairwell. He stood a few steps down and held his arm out to me.
Warning bells went off in my head, but when Ethan closed the space between us and took my hand, I felt powerless to resist.
The steps led both up and down. Ethan led me down before guiding me through another door. We ended up in an indoor open space area where several cars were parked. At the far end, sunlight filtered in through windows and a large garage door.
When my boss’s fingers slid from my hand, I spun in a circle to take everything in. The space was like a walkout basement behind the building.
“Look, here is your car, and your things are inside,” he said, reaching over to press the trunk icon on the device in my hand. A popping sound alerted me to the small, black, BMW hatchback parked at a slant in the far bay. “Isn’t this better than your old Volvo?”
Walking briskly toward it, I let out a shaky breath as I spotted the cat carrier in the back seat and my boxes and black trash sacks filling the trunk and passenger seats.
That new car and leather smell appeased me…momentarily.
Sure I wanted a car, but at what cost?
Lips pursed, I closed the back hatch.
“This looks expensive,” I told him.
He shrugged, “It’s yours, the title will be converted to your name when you leave the company.”
“I can’t afford this,” I huffed, leaning against the car, it’s European design slick and modern.
“I have expectations and an image to live up to. I don’t expect everyone to follow them, but I make sure that my employees and my company does.” His eyes looked almost black in the filtered light of the garage.
“Expectations and image? What about respect and communication?”
Rocking back on his heels before putting his hands into his pockets, he smirked. “Look, the car is yours even if you leave today. You’re welcome for that. I can’t have my assistant rumbling around in an old beater. Call me selfish. Besides, there is no way that thing would’ve passed emissions.”
How absurd, I thought, letting out a silent laugh, not knowing what to say.
He narrowed his gaze at me and seemed to debate something in his head. “Anything I say will sound ridiculous. But I want a better future for humanity. I try to set an example by how I live. Electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines, and…” He trailed off and shrugged.
“This building is concrete, which is very bad for the environment,” I said, pushing my glasses up.
“It’s a combination of rock, clay, straw, and a small amount of concrete. Look at it. Go on, touch it. This building material is very eco-friendly.”
I took several steps toward the wall and ran my fingers against the muted lumpy surface. I felt a few smooth stones in the matrix.
“Most people can’t afford to do what’s right for the environment,” I said, my tone cold.
“True, and I can’t promise that I do everything right, but I try to do what I can,” his voice was low as he spoke.
This imposing man stood too close and gazed at me too intensely.
I stepped away and turned to slide one hand over the wall again.
When I felt Ethan’s slight touch on the back of my neck, I froze, my breath quickening.
With a dip of one finger, he tucked my tag inside the back of my shirt.
Chills ran down my spine from his touch.
I sensed him step away from me and turned to meet his eye, but this time, his back was to me.
He walked away and began striding up another set of stairs. With his foot on the first step, he told me briskly, not looking back, “This matter with the car is concluded.”
“I…uh…I guess. Out of curiosity, what did you do with my old car? Sell it?”
“It’s being crushed and recycled.” His footsteps continued up the steps until I was left in silence.
“What the hell!” I racked my mind as to what else could’ve been inside my old Volvo.
Marching over to my new car, I sat inside the driver’s seat. “Where’s the key?” I muttered, before realizing that the car didn’t need a key to start.
Ethan Dumont was a dictator and grown-up fuck boy.
Who did he think he was?
To just go and buy me this…this really nice…expensive…reliable car?
Damnit.
3
Pulling up in front of the neat one-story house in Temecula filled me with mixed emotions. It belonged to Aubrey. She was yet again saving me from myself.
Over the past few years, we’d kept up on Facebook and the occasional phone call. However, I hadn’t even been invited to her Las Vegas wedding, which still stung. She was a true friend though, because when I told Aubrey about the situation I was in, she immediately switched into mother hen mode. I loved her, but her help wasn’t always what I wanted, it was what she thought was best for me. This time, that help included free rent living in her guest room and a job at Dumont Tech.
I’d always been the flaky one, while Aubrey had been the rational, logical one. But things change, and so do people. I wasn’t the same person she’d lived with four years ago and I doubted that she was either. She’d graduated law school, and I began teaching at Windham Private School.
My cat, Lucy, meowed, cocked her head, and scratched at the side of her plastic cat crate.
“I know, I know,” I told her, opening the metal door and pulling her into my arms. She tried to escape, but I kept a firm grasp on my precious girl.
“This isn’t time for exploring,” I whispered, surveying the freshly planted flowers.
Knocking on the door, I was met by a muscular, tanned Australian
.
This must be the husband.
“It’s Caroline, right? Aubrey thought you’d make it last night. Come in, come in,” he said, taking the empty cat crate that dangled from my fingers. When he smiled, perfect dimples stood out on his cheeks, and the gleam of his teeth and his accent were like a gum commercial.
After stepping inside, I set Lucy down on the floor. She sniffed the floor before cautiously beginning to explore. The place was neat as a pin—so I was pretty sure I’d found the right house.
“You must be Chase.”
“It’s Chance,” he said with a frown.
“Chance, sorry about that. Call me Caro…” my voice trailed off as an actual goat meandered into the living room.
The goat looked between us, then at Lucy.
My cat arched her skinny body and hissed loudly. The goat froze and then dropped like a stone.
“Oh my god!” I gasped, rushing to the animal.
Lucy ignored us both and settled herself on the back of the sofa in the sun. I shook my head as she began grooming herself smugly.
Chance shrugged, “Eh, Mutton’ll come around. Aubrey did tell you he’s a fainting goat, didn’t she?”
I blinked. “Uh, yeah…I just…hearing you have a goat and seeing it are two very different things. I thought the goat’s name was Pixy?”
“It’s a difference in opinion. His real name is Mutton, but Aubrey calls him Pixy.”
I knelt down to pet the sweet thing. “Will he be okay?”
“He’ll be all right,” he told me. Then at a tearing sound, we both looked over to see three jagged scratches in the top of the leather sofa.
“Lucy! Stop that!” Shuffling over, I pulled at my cat. Her nails clung to the fabric from the couch. When I finally got her free, white stuffing spilled out from the gashes.
My face heated, and I gritted my teeth.
“That beast, Lucifer…is an outdoor cat, right?” Aubrey’s husband hinted.
I shook my head, “It’s Lucy. I’m afraid she isn’t. I am so sorry. I’ll…I’ll pay to have the damage repaired.”
Chance took a blanket and laid it over the triple rips. “Nah, it’s all right. See? All fixed.” Then, turning to Lucy, he shook his finger. “Now there’ll be none of that.”
Bloodthirsty Bastard: A Hero Club Novel Page 2
