I said he’s full of shit.
After finishing my popcorn, I pulled out my cell phone. I wiped off my fingers on my pants before pulling up the encrypted internet browser on my burner phone. Ranger was able to get me access to the employee records of the entire company, which popped up as a list document when I typed in a certain URL. I checked the timer on my phone. Two more hours.
I had access to this document for two more hours before it was coded to scrub itself from my phone.
There were hundreds of people employed to this fucking place. It honestly boggled my mind. I shook my head as I flipped my mask back down and scrolled through its contents. There were headshot pictures sitting by names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails. There were paralegals, secretaries, freelancers, web designers. Fucking hell, they even had bodyguards on payroll.
I thought that was interesting.
Why would a law firm need bodyguards on payroll?
Figuring out who the fuck I would approach was a task in and of itself, and I had less than two hours to make my decision. I automatically eliminated anyone at the very top or the very bottom. The top wouldn’t talk, and the bottom wouldn’t know anything. But that still left…
Jesus fuck, that still left over three hundred motherfucking employees.
The fuck was going on inside of this building?
Law firming the entire Midwest?
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as my eyes darted from the building to my phone and back again. I wanted to do some more research on this company. Specifically, I wanted to visit their website. But that would be for another time. My attention needed to be present, and this list in my hands on my phone would rip my attention away from the building enough.
I’d been perched for damn near three hours, trying to figure out my next move.
That was until a blacked-out town car with the firm’s logo attached to it pulled up to the curb.
I watched as a driver scrambled out from behind the wheel. He rushed to the back door closest to the curb where a very expensive-looking man stepped out. He glared at the driver, buttoning his suit coat before turning and walking up the stairs toward the entrance to the law firm. I watched two of thebodyguards they had on payroll flank either side of him, walking with him up the steps like he was a toddler who needed help.
I almost dipped my head to figure out who in the fuck that guy was, thinking he was important enough to have that shit.
But I was glad I didn’t.
Because then I would have missedher.
“Who the fuck?—”
The instant she stumbled out of that car, I froze. The assistant from the footage, Jasmine. The one I’d already suspected didn’t belong in that place. Her brown hair wafted in the breeze that kicked back up, and I flipped up my mask mindlessly to feel it. Her hair blew about, smacking against her tan skin while she dug her things out of the back seat. The driver already climbed back into the vehicle. She pulled out a purse and another bag, along with a couple of binders that she tucked close to herself.
And when she looked up, surveying the road in front of her, I could have sworn she caught my eyes.
She looked dead at me, and those caramel brown eyes of hers sparkled in the sunlight. I stared right back, but I knew she didn’t see me. Not with the way the darkness cloaked the space behind the dumpster where I sat. She looked so lost. So tired.
I wondered why.
I snapped a photo for identification. She was easy on the eyes, that much was for certain. She jerked a bit, as if someone had ripped her out of a trance, and then she closed the car door.
The driver practically sped away from the curb.
I waited for two other bodyguards to come out of the woodworks. I waited for her to be flanked like that other guy was. But no one came out for her. I furrowed my brow as she clicked up those concrete steps in her high heels. She was sharp and professional despite the long day written on her face.
My jaw tightened.
When she finally entered the building, I forced my gaze to drop. I pulled up the employee registry and searched for the name I already knew.
Jasmine.
Ranger had zoomed in on her picture during the meeting. I’d said her name out loud. I hadn’t forgotten it.
Caramel brown eyes. Bronze skin. The kind of woman who didn’t belong in a building like that.
