What I did need to worry about was where my secretary was.I had left him alone in my office for almost a full day.
My office – with all my files.
All the information anyone would need if they were planning to take down my company and take our spot as the top sports agency in the country.
I didn’t want to think it.I walked across the lobby not wanting to think it.I went up in the elevator not wanting to think it.
I strode down the hall not wanting to think it but knowing that I did.
I walked inside the office without pausing.I threw the doors open in front of me and immediately looked around.If he didn’t know I was coming then maybe I could catch him –
But Keaton was sitting exactly where I had told him to be.Behind his desk.Doing his job.
I glanced around.There were no files out of place.No sign that any of my paperwork had been touched.
“Mr.Harvey,” Keaton said with a note of surprise.“You’re back!I have some messages for you.Nothing urgent, so I thought I’d leave it until you came back, but I can respond to them now if you’d like.Would you like to hear them?”
I looked at him.Hard.Tried to see him.
Past the unruly dark curls and the horn-rimmed glasses.Past the cute pout he made with his lips when he was concentrating.Past the cheeks I loved to make flare up pink.
That cold fear pooled in my gut.
I couldn’t tell if I was really seeing him – or just what I wanted to see.
I pushed the doors shut and faced him.
“Keaton Dunbar,” I growled.“Why the hell did you have that footage in the first place?”
And I prayed for an answer that wouldn’t ruin everything I had been building of him in my head.
Keaton
I stared at Mr.Harvey and willed myself not to shake.
He was just like I remembered him on my first day – cold and closed-off, a brick wall that couldn’t be communicated with.Only this time, he was also angry as hell, and I could feel my nerve failing me under the intensity of his hard stare.
I knew I was in trouble.There was no getting around it.I ducked my head.
It was time to come clean about everything, and hope that he didn’t fire me.That he didn’t make me go away and never see him again.Anything but that.
“I, um,” I said.I couldn’t even figure out where to begin.“Did you ever look at my resume?”
“Ace took care of that,” Mr.Harvey said.He folded his massive arms across his massive chest.I swallowed.
“If you looked at it, you would have seen I don’t really have a good record of steady work,” I said.“I tend to switch around from job to job, with weeks or even months between.The reason for that is that I do another kind of work, too.”
Mr.Harvey lifted a flinty but bemused eyebrow.
“Oh, um, it’s nothing… illegal,” I said quickly, realizing how it was coming across.But then again, filming people without their permission and doing corporate spy work was kind of illegal, wasn’t it?Or at the very least, immoral.“I studied filmmaking at college.I’m… I’ve always wanted to be a documentary filmmaker.I’m not, like, well-known or anything.I’ve shot a few things, but I’ve never had the chance to shoot my dream project.”
“Is this going somewhere?”Mr.Harvey asked.He sounded cold still, but… something else?I risked a glance up into his eyes but immediately had to look away.
It wasn’t just rage there.There was also…
Hope?
He was hoping I could say something to excuse myself.
