Page 84 of Maneater

A deep, annoyingly calm sigh comes through the other line. “Can you do a video call?” my boss asks.

“I don’t want a video call, Annette; I want answers!”

“And you’ll get them, but I want to watch your face to make sure I don’t have to call security to make sure you’re not going to go off your rocker when I tell you.”

My jaw goes tight, my stomach twisting at that, at the confirmation that something is amiss, and I was right to be wary.

“Annette…”

At that moment, a call rings through my laptop.

“Answer that,” she says brusquely, then hangs up the phone.

With a deep sigh and a look in the mirror in my attached bathroom to school, my features and fix my hair—a mess from running my hands through it—I sit in the desk chair and accept the call. Annette is sitting there, not yet in her office, but at what I believe is her kitchen table.

“I would like to start this by informing you that you were never a suspect of mine.”

My gut drops.Suspect.

“Jesus Christ,” I grumble.

“But as you know, someone has been meticulously messing with the Keys resort. Since you were, in fact, the main champion for this location, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been you, since it would have made you look bad, and that’s so far out of your character. Not to say that people who sabotage things make the most sense. But you do have enemies, people who want your job, people who want to make sure you don’t gettheirjobs, so I didn’t want to broadcast toanyoneI was bringing in the Mavens.”

I open my mouth to say something more, but I’m cut off again when she continues her explanation.

“Josephine Montgomery is an investigator with the Mavens and is there to figure out who is to blame for the problems plaguing the location.”

“So Josie is an investigator?” My mind is reeling, thinking of all the places I’ve seen her, all the places we’ve bumped into oneanother. Finding the info for the reporter, behind the crime scene, at the sauna…it all makes sense now.

“Yes, and a good one, though I should have known you would unravel that fact. You aren’t great at letting mysteries lie.”

Was this all a sham? Our reconnecting, our hooking up, the flirting, the feelings…

“Did you know I knew her? Before I told you?” There’s a moment of hesitation that makes my nerves rise. “Annette.”

My patience is running thin, and even though I know I can’t, I want to storm out of the office and find Josie, demand answers, and find out if any of this was even real. Since that would be completely idiotic, I focus my interrogation on Annette.

“Yes, I was informed of your previous interactions and history with her early on and was told it wouldn’t be a problem, especially once I told the Mavens you weren’t a suspect in my eyes. She’s been very up front about…a lot of things with her boss regarding your connection.”

Fuck. That might mean that Annette might know I’ve hooked up with her while she was here. That’s so unprofessional. It would be grounds to fire me, and?—

“Calm down, Rowan, you’re not in trouble. These are greatly extenuating circumstances, and we are all very aware of that.” Silence takes over as I continue to go over these new facts, slotting them into what I already knew.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” I ask suddenly, confused and hurt.

“It wasn’t mine to tell,” Annette says with a sigh.

“Oh, come on, I?—”

“My contract with the Mavens indicates I am to keep not only the work that they’re doing for me but their existence to myself, unless it is for a referral, at which point I can only give their name and information. Telling anyone puts not only the company at risk, but also the investigators themselves. They uncover sensitive information that, in some cases, has exposed crimes. It wasn’t mine to tell, Rowan.”

I sit there, contemplating.

It appears that Josie’s job involves investigatingsomething, and she does it very much under the radar. From what I’ve read, the company she works for is incredibly successful in its endeavors and achieves impressive results.

“She stole my keycard,” I say, almost petulantly.

Annette shrugs. “I wouldn’t give them access to anything in order to avoid suspicion, but I told them if they could access things on their own, I was fine with it. They’ve been able to hack into most of the systems, but they didn’t have a universal keycard yet.”