Page 50 of Taming the CEO

Maddox

The next week, the weather turned progressively worse. The day after Halloween, you'd have thought it was December. This wasn't boding well for our construction, especially because the weather forecast announced heavy rains and possible sleet. Today, it was pouring.

I was en route to Essex when Dean, the head of the construction site, called me.

"Maddox, there's no need for you to come. We're already wrapping up for the day and heading home."

"I was going to suggest you go anyway," I said. "They say there's a strong storm coming. But it makes no sense for me to turn around now. I'm about five minutes away."

"All right.”

“I'll come and help you seal everything up.”

“We've already done most of it," he said.

When I arrived, I realized he wasn't joking. They truly had secured all the equipment already. There was just one car at the site, and I knew it belonged to Dean. He was already behind the wheel but rolled down the window to speak with me.

"Maddox, there's nothing we can do in this. We'll come back once the storm's over."

The rain was so damn intense that I didn’t even get out of the car.

"Sure, we’ll regroup once this is over," I agreed.

The rainfall was turning into a storm. I had to get out of Essex before the roads got too dangerous. I’d be surprised if all of our work was still standing tomorrow.

I turned on the radio. The news was alerting residents to head to their homes, stating that the storm would be much worse than they’d initially predicted.

That morning, they'd calculated it wouldn't hit Essex, but now it looked like it would get the full impact of the storm.

As I passed the adventure park, I tried to gauge if Cami was still there, but I couldn't see jack shit. The rain was so heavy, I was lucky enough to see the road as I drove right to the main building.

Fuck! Her car was in the lot. She'd better not be somewhere on the course. It was too dangerous right now.

I jumped up the three stairs to the front porch before bursting inside.

"We're closed," her voice rang from the back. Thank fuck she's in here. "Please go back to your car. It's not safe here."

"It's me," I replied.

"Oh, well, that applies to you too." Her voice was uneasy.

"Cami, why are you still here? You should go home."

"I'm going to go any second now. I just need to patch this up."

I didn't hesitate, just headed straight to the back and into a small kitchen. Cami was frantically bandaging her hand.

"What happened?"

She looked over her shoulder. "You shouldn't be here. Really, go home. It's not safe."

"Cami." I stood right next to her. “Let me help.”

"I sliced my hand on the zip line. It's not very deep, but I can't seem to bandage it on my own."

"I'll do it," I said.

She stopped in the act of wrapping the bandage around her hand and nodded. "Thank you."

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