Page 6 of Sackett (Demented Souls #17)

S elena picked up her list and doubled checked that she’d packed everything on it, either in her suitcase or in her backpack. When she was certain everything on the list was in one of the two bags, she searched her mind, trying to recall if there was anything that hadn’t made the list.

She’d learned long ago that lists were the key to making sure she got everything done. She was too scatterbrained to remember everything if she didn’t put it on a list. She hadn’t gotten bad enough that she needed lists of her lists, but she feared she wasn’t too far away.

Knowing she was running out of time, Selena turned her attention back to the task at hand.

She had a sinking feeling she was forgetting something, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

Letting her gaze play over the open suitcase in front of her, she compared it to her list, marking them off as she went.

Clothes, shoes, toiletries, makeup, emergency power cords in case the ones in her briefcase died.

It all seemed to be there. Next, she went to her briefcase and repeated the process, making sure she had all her paperwork, electronics and anything else she could think of.

It wasn’t until she closed them both and set them next to the door to grab when her uber arrived that it hit her.

She’d forgotten her reader. She retrieved it and tucked it into her briefcase as she mentally reviewed everything she had to do.

She had a little paperwork to finish and could do that on the plane, but she hated to pull out client paperwork if she had seat neighbors.

Too much risk of someone seeing confidential information.

No, unless she was in a row alone, almost unheard of these days, she preferred to do something innocuous like read fiction while on the plane.

She’d have time in her hotel room tonight to finish up any lingering paperwork, review files and that kind of thing.

Tomorrow morning she would meet with her client for the hearing in Boulder on Wednesday.

She wanted to make sure there were no last-minute surprises then in the afternoon she had an appointment with the judge for Larimar County, to discuss the issue of whether or not Ms. McKenney needed to pursuit divorce.

If it turned out that Ms. McKenney, no she’d asked Selena to call her Donna, needed to file, Selena would either do that tomorrow afternoon, if she had time before the courthouse closed or she’d do it first thing Tuesday morning before preparing for the hearing the next morning.

Selena took a deep breath and checked her watch. The Uber would be here any minute. She was as ready as she was going to get. And if she decided she’d forgotten something it wasn’t like Boulder was the ends of the earth. She could find a target and get whatever she needed.

Her phone beeped, alerting her that her ride had arrived.

She was out of time to delay, not that she had any reason to.

She sent the driver a message that she was on her way, gathered her bags and left.

It wasn’t supposed to be a long trip, and she had long ago mastered traveling with her briefcase and a carryon, so she didn’t have to struggle to get everything down to street level and to the waiting car.

The driver made small talk on the trip to the airport.

Selena took advantage of the distraction.

It kept her mind from playing her plans for the week, or even just the steps she needed to take to get on the plane, on an endless loop.

She’d flown more times than she could count.

There was no reason to think there would be any trouble, yet her mind insisted on showing her every possible thing that could go wrong.

She’d dealt with this before, so many times she was practiced at pushing it away.

But sometimes it was harder than others.

She didn’t know why, and she didn’t have the time, nor the energy to try and figure out why.

Arriving at the airport, she thanked her driver, squared her shoulders and headed inside. She had things that needed to get done and she was going to make sure they did.

A little over six hours later, Selena stepped into her hotel room, set her briefcase on the table, and went to the large glass wall that took up one end of the sitting room.

The view was stunning, she had to admit.

She could even admit she wished she had a little more time to explore some of the mountains she saw.

But from her research on the plane, even her trip to Fort Collins tomorrow would skirt the mountains, not take her into them.

Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she’d been on the plane at lunchtime, and the small cookie they’d served on the two-hour flight wasn’t enough for a small child, much less an adult.

After checking the drawers of the desk, she found a binder that contained the menu for the restaurant downstairs.

A quick scan told her it would do, but she wanted to unpack a little before going down.

At least hang up her suit so she looked professional when she needed to.

As she worked, she found her mind drifting.

Not for the first time, the bearded man who had accompanied Ms. McKenney to her office a couple of days before popped into her head.

The deep rumble of his voice had made things low in her body warm, even though he hadn’t said much, she’d heard enough to know she wanted to hear more.

She shook her head and turned back to her tasks, determined to get this done and go get food.

On the elevator, headed to the restaurant, she tilted her head back against the wall as she waited and an image appeared in her head, the light gold eyes of the same man, a light in them she didn’t recognize but wanted to. Was it laughter and humor or something more visceral? More carnal.

Heat pooled low in her belly as she tried to turn her mind to something more appropriate but somehow, she couldn’t banish the image her mind had conjured.

The elevator door opened, and she stepped out, doing her best to ignore the image she couldn’t push away as she went in search of food.

That was it, she was hungry. Her mind would settle once she’d eaten. She hoped.