Page 26

W hat the fuck had just happened? My head swung from the front door to the broken photo, and back to the door again. We’d been having such a nice evening and then…

“Then Adrian found out you hadn’t been completely honest with him. But wait a minute…”

My voice trailed off as I replayed the conversation in my head. His reaction didn’t make complete sense to me. On the surface, there was nothing that would indicate I ever knew about Blair’s lifestyle, much less her involvement with Adrian. He certainly didn’t know about the diaries. I hadn’t told anyone about those and was debating even now whether or not I would.

Why, then, had he reacted so strongly at finding out we were sisters?

Before I could consider that further, the dog lunged toward the door, nearly pulling me to the floor. Instinctively, I released the grip on his collar and he rushed forward to bark and snarl. A quick glance at my front door camera feed indicated that someone was standing on the porch. I didn’t need to wonder who. Lug Nut’s behavior clearly told me that Adrian hadn’t completely left yet. He could stand out there all night for all I cared. There was no way he would get past my four-legged bodyguard tonight.

I didn’t want the barking to disturb the neighbors, though, so I went to him, making my voice loud enough to be heard through the wood of the door.

“I told him not to be a dick, bud. He didn’t listen, did he? Thank you for protecting me.”

My eyes stayed glued to the camera feed. How long was he going to stay out there? He spent one more minute out there, then he was finally gone. It was only then the adrenaline began to leave me and I found myself feeling more than a bit lightheaded. Sitting down on the floor with my back against the wall, I felt the slow trickle of tears begin. The dog began to whimper, placing one of his large paws on my arm to offer comfort. Unlike a lot of males, he didn’t like to see me upset.

Patting my chest, I waited for him to come in close for a hug, burying my face in the fur of his neck. The dog put a paw on either shoulder, laying his face against my chest with a deep sigh. I had no idea what this meant for my job going forward. It wouldn’t surprise me if I had a termination letter in my email inbox within the hour. It’s not like the man slept much to begin with.

Of course, this meant the incredibly generous salary would be a thing of the past. No one else would pay me what Benedict Technologies was. Thankfully, I saved more than I spent. That, coupled with the life insurance Blair had had would allow me to have a cushion while I looked for another job.

In the meantime, though, I would not shirk my duties. I really wanted to show Adrian two middle fingers, but my work ethic and professional reputation meant everything to me. I would not burn a bridge even though I might want to.

I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning making sure everything was prepped for that blasted client call at 8:30 am. I tagged every email I sent to Adrian for a read receipt, so there was no way he could ever say I didn’t send something to him. He picked up every message, but the receipt was the only acknowledgement. That was fine by me.

The dog was loudly snoring by the time I fired off the last email hours later. I had already taken him for his evening walk and managed to burn off some personal steam in the process. Now, I was just sad and mentally exhausted. I set two alarms to make sure I didn’t miss the call and fell into a fitful sleep. Tossing and turning, I couldn’t get comfortable. What little rest I did get was full of vivid, wild dreams…the kind that made me bolt awake with my heart racing.

By the time my alarms went off, I felt like I had an elephant tied to my waist. The image of myself in the mirror basically looked like I had been dragging said elephant. I looked pale except for the dark shadows under my eyes. We would be on camera for this client call, so I was glad I had excellent concealer. I might even go so far as to use a webcam filter if I didn’t like how I appeared once my makeup was on.

A couple of hours later, I logged on to the call from home and was surprised but pleased to see I was early. I had even beat Adrian.

Before long, more people joined the call before he did, so I was engaged in conversations with the others before he appeared. He looked like he had a rough night like me, but he wasn’t taking the call from home or his office. His location looked more like a hotel room. Part of me hoped he had a bad headache that would stay with him all day.

I made the standard announcement of the call being recorded, started the recording, muted myself, then set about keeping the minutes of the meeting. I was the proverbial fly on the wall, taking in everything I could. My fingers flew over the keyboard while I concentrated to capture every question, every comment, and every discussed topic. I was still on camera, but no one could see a thing beyond an efficient and thorough Admin who was damn good at her job.

“…is your perspective, Brynn?” At the mention of my name, my head snapped up. The question had come from one of the long-time stakeholders. He and I had had multiple conversations during my tenure at BT, and he had told me more than once that he liked to pick my brain. This was the first time he had ever done so on a call like this, though. I could tell that Adrian was surprised and not entirely comfortable about it.

“I appreciate you asking, Mr. Hano. My perspective is that there has been a lot of careful research and development behind this project, of which you are fully aware. You have worked with Benedict Technologies long enough to have experienced substantial financial growth and brand awareness from other projects. The same would be true in this particular case, further solidifying your place as a technology leader in the field. The partnership has been invaluable in the past and there is evidence to support the same would be true for this one. In short, you’d be taking a big gamble if you don’t move forward, and you would lose.”

The man grinned, laughed aloud, and stated for the rest of the group that my feedback is exactly why he liked me to be part of meetings like this. “She’s no bullshit. Brynn has guts and she’s not afraid to speak her piece. If any of you need or want direct and honest… there she is.”

After thanking him, I lowered my head and went back to typing, not even glancing at the view of Adrian’s camera. I knew perfectly well he wanted me to just take notes and stay quiet, but if a business partner addressed me directly, I would always answer. He could deal with it.

Unless he fires you!

And you can stuff a sock in that .

The rest of the call continued with no one else asking me another question. My back was beginning to ache from sitting in one place for so long. Once I finally ended the call, I planned to take the dog for a jaunt around the block. We both needed some air.

The call ended with a decision to conduct a check-in the next week. My screen went dark and I blew out a breath, sitting back in the chair I had already been in for far too long. I had pages of notes to clean up and distribute, but they would still be there in about twenty minutes. I needed to move.

I heard a ping and glanced at my inner office chat to see a note from Adrian. Short and terse, he was basically telling me what I already knew I needed to do. Flipping off the screen, my own reply was short, informing him that I was already working on the notes to be sent out before lunch.

“But for now, I’m on a break,” I said aloud, rising to grab my keys and the dog leash. For good measure, I changed my online status to ‘Away’ before I walked out the door.

The time in the sunshine did me good and I was in a slightly better frame of mind when I got back home. Updating my work status again to ‘Do Not Disturb’, I flew through the notes, reading them through twice before sending them off for a final review. I got the read receipt but no other feedback, which was fine by me. I distributed the document minutes before lunchtime. I’d still heard nothing from my boss.

“I can play this game, too, buddy,” I said, going about my workday and trying to stay one step ahead of Adrian. It was then I received a notification that his flight had landed, and the plane was leaving within the hour. Flight? What flight?

Going into his calendar, I halfway expected to discover that he had revoked sharing so I wouldn’t be able to see his schedule; however, it was still wide open and based on the latest update, the logs showed that he had already flown to Japan, and now that pilot was headed back to California without him. I scrolled down and realized that so far, the return date was open ended.

My heart sank at the realization that he might not come back at all. At the very least, it would more than likely be weeks before I saw him again. I would have little to no opportunity to broach the subject of Blair with him in that time, and the longer things sat, the worse it would become. I still wasn’t entirely sure why he had reacted so violently to finding out I had a sister and that the sister was Blair. I needed to talk to him and sort through it all. But when?