"Allie and I are practically family," Trent said to Carter. "My brother, Bryce, and she were very close, weren't you?"
Allie shrank back, and Carter looked at her with concern.
"We're here to look at potential safety violations in your factory," Carter told him. "We're going to need all your records. If people keep dying in your factory, it reflects poorly on Holbrook Enterprises."
"We take safety very seriously here," Trent said, motioning for them to follow him into the factory. He reached out an arm and grabbed Allie around the waist.
"Don't touch her," Carter snapped at him.
"It's all right. Allie and I go way back."
"I don't care," Carter said flatly. "We do not tolerate sexual harassment at Holbrook Enterprises."
Trent gave him an ugly look.
"I don't have all day," Carter said. "How about you show us around the facility."
He kept himself between Allie and Trent as they went through the factory.
"Is this where the fall happened?" Allie asked Trent.
"It was an accident," Trent said. "The worker wasn't wearing a safety harness. He had also been written up for other incidents of not following procedure. I was there; I saw the fall happen. Nothing I could do to save him, unfortunately."
"Is that so?" Carter said. He didn't trust Trent.
"And I suppose you think that just because your name is on the company, you have any idea what's going on here? I was in the military," Trent stated, glaring at Carter.
"So was I," Carter replied.
Trent spat in a nearby trash can then took them outside, and they watched the drones take off and land.
"Impressive," Carter said as the unmanned drones completed complicated aerial maneuvers.
Back in the plane, Carter said, "I don't like that guy. How close are you, really?"
Allie ignored him and said, "The company should have sent Holbrook Enterprises every file pertaining to the working of the company as part of the buyout. I want us to go through everything."
When they checked their network access upon returning to the office, they found that the legal department had given them access to the Halcion Drone files on the server.
"This is a lot," Carter said, feeling discouraged.
"Better start looking through it," Allie replied.
"More nights and weekends?" he said, remembering how it felt to be inside of her. His mouth watered. He really had it bad for her.
Allie read the lust on his face and gave him a disapproving look as she left for her bartending job.
Carter thought they had turned a corner in their relationship in the hotel room. In hindsight, though, maybe he shouldn't have done that. He had never been in an actual relationship, he realized, and he didn't want to screw up whatever nascent connection he had with Allie.
37
Allie
She hated herself for giving in to Carter in the hotel room. She had to admit, it had been nice to do it in bed as opposed to a cold, windowless room. It almost made her forget that she really didn't mean anything to him.
Coming back to Arnold's small, dirty apartment was almost too much to bear. She felt herself tense up just walking into the building. Margot was happy to see her, at least. Allie looked the dog over. She looked as if her eyes were runny. Probably from how dirty the apartment was.
Allie's bad mood hadn't improved after seeing Trent. There was something going on with that company. She was sure of it. She clipped the leash on to take the dog for a walk when she returned from visiting the drone company.
