Page 140 of Dear Grumpy Boss

What had happened was the very antithesis of the foundation of my company. Having the smallest footprint possible was my biggest pride.

But the old proverb is absolutely true. Pride does indeed goeth before the fucking fall.

Marisol had been talking nonstop since I’d climbed into the car with her this morning. Since she was in charge of the West Coast supply chain, she was shouldering part of the blame for missing what Brian had been doing and had been actively working on damage control alongside me.

The car pulled up in front of Andes’ headquarters. I got out first, then took Marisol’s hand to help her out. We were on our way into the office for yet another set of interviews with EPA officials.

Marisol’s hands were flying as she went over what was going to be happening in the next few days. “Mark in field relations will be visiting the—”

I wasn’t listening. Elise rounded the corner of the building, heading toward the entrance. As if she sensed me approaching, she turned her head, and our eyes locked.

She stopped walking. I caught up to her a moment later.

“Elise.”

Her lips flattened. “Weston.”

Not a warm greeting. Not that I deserved it.

But god, I craved even a minute of Elise’s warmth after more than a week of nothing but misery.

“Would it be possible to talk?” she asked.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her yes, but I glanced at Marisol first. She held up her wrist and tapped her watch then flicked her hardened gaze to Elise.

“I’m sorry, but I have a meeting—”

Elise shook her head. “It’s about work and will only take a minute.”

Relief settled in my chest. She’d given me a reason to say yes. Work I could make space for. Everything else had to wait. I couldn’t let myself even stop to think if there would be anything waiting for me at the end.

“I can give you that. Follow us up to eight.”

Elise stood as far apart from me as she could in the elevator. Marisol did the opposite, to my ever-growing annoyance. Silence waged war in the small space. When we finally arrived on the eighth floor, I couldn’t get out fast enough.

I opened my office door, allowing Elise inside. Marisol tried to follow. When I stood in her way, her mouth fell open in shock.

“You’re not letting me in?”

“No. Go work in the conference room,” I bit out. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Her perfect brows arched. “If she wants to talk about Andes, I don’t see why—”

“No.” I closed the door and turned the lock.

Elise was standing next to the chairs in front of my desk. I took longer than I should have drinking her in, but I was hungry for her. I’d lost track of how long it had been since we were in the same room. It felt like weeks but couldn’t have been more than a few days.

Elise launched into what she had to say without preamble. “I remembered something one of the guys I’d interviewed said. I’m not sure it will help, but I thought you should know in case it does. Cameron Gilles mentioned the field team used to come around all the time, but he hadn’t seen them in a long time and didn’t miss them.”

I had to close my eyes to process what she was telling me. “Cameron Gilles? Who is that?”

“He works at Brian Lewis’s factory. He’s one of the men who took me rock climbing.”

“And while you were rock climbing withCameron, he told you he hadn’t seen the field team in a long time?”

“He did. It was an offhand comment while we were joking about other things, but I went back to my notes to make sure, and that was what he said.”

I folded my arms over my chest, anger simmering in my blood. “And this is the first time you thought to tell me?”

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