I glanced at the soup, the sandwich still half wrapped sitting next to it. “I was working on it.”
“It’s my favorite pairing. Wanted to make sure you ate.”
Why did he care? He’d always seemed hands off when it came to the employees. But the longer I spent up on this floor, the more I found out that wasn’t true. At least once a week he arranged donuts and juice for the entire office and always had fresh fruit in all the break areas. I’d never thought about it but it was him. As was the filtered water throughout the building, or that while management was expected to work overtime, those on the lower side of the totem pole knew that we had the option to say no, but we got well compensated so I wasn’t sure anyone ever had. Sebastian Reid was very much a puppet master pulling strings, making sure his employees had what they needed to succeed. That was until his dad died and his life had blown up on him.
“Can I ask a question?” I’d just call him a grump so I was already pushing buttons. What was one or two more?
“Shoot.”
“Are you okay?”
The line went silent. Just long enough that I wondered if I’d overstepped.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “My mom fell last night.”
“I’m so sorry. How bad is it?” I asked.
“She broke her wrist. They would have sent her home last night, but she was showing signs of a concussion and may have been dizzy which led to the fall.” He sighed before he continued. “Nothing major, but enough to remind her she hates hospitals. They just want to observe her.”
I exhaled, some of the tightness in my chest easing. I didn’t know her, but what I knew about him, he didn’t need any more loss. He was trying so hard to put things back together. “I remember you telling me about that.”
His dad had been sick and in the hospital for a week before he passed.
“She’ll be fine,” he said. “She’s already arguing with the nurse.”
I smiled despite myself. “That sounds familiar.”
A low hum of agreement came through the line. “She doesn’t like being told what to do.”
“That must be where you got that from.”
A pause, then he laughed quietly. Softer than he had before. I smiled.
“I should let you get back to work. Victor said you’d be buried today.”
“I’m good.” And I was. For some reason, him checking in helped with the nerves I was dealing with today. I didn’t mention what I’d found. I’d bring that up to Micah and have him double check before I went to Mr. Hale.
“I know you are. Make sure you eat. I’ll check in later.”
The line went dead. The office was quiet again. The kind of quiet that was anything but soothing.
I turned back to my screen.
The anomaly was still there, staring at me.
Whoever had triggered the refresh hadn’t been sloppy. They’d been testing boundaries instead of mowing them down.
I forwarded the file to Micah with a short note.
Need a second set of eyes? Don’t escalate just yet. Want to make sure I’m seeing what I think I am.
I locked the partition and returned to my soup, which was still warm. So much had happened in the last week. In the weeks since I’d met the man who had been training me, everything had shifted.
There were a hundred things on my mind.
They just weren’t racing.
Chapter 26
