Page 49 of Brutal Heir

She winces, and I can sense her discomfort. “I don’t have my cell.”

“Well as you can see, Sage, Elena’s safe,” Addler points out.

My cell phone rings, and the ringtone tells me it’s Bill. “And there he is.” I hit the button to answer. “Hey, Bill.”

“Any luck?” he asks, sounding frazzled. “She isn’t answering.”

“I found her,” I reply, hoping to set him at ease. “She’s safe…”

“Let me talk to her.”

I glance at Elena. “Sure, one sec.” I hand her my cell. “He wants to talk to you.”

Her expression is dismal, as if she’s expecting to be chewedout for hanging with the one guy she should avoid.

“Hi, Bill,” she says, her voice neutral.

“Thank God you’re okay.” The volume is high enough that I can hear the relief in his voice. “Sage was worried that you’d been carried off by an animal or someone lurking around.”

“Well, kind of.” She glances at Addler.

That’s enough to let me put the pieces together. Addler and Ezequiel are the two people who don’t have to log in. Even if she had gone past the gate, they wouldn’t have had to stop.

Bill chuckles. “There was no sign of a scuffle and, if it was an illegal alien, he would’ve taken your car, too. But she says it’s been sitting there for a couple of days…”

A blush runs across her cheeks. She glances at Addler and clears her throat. “I, um… We-we’re working on clearing up the invoices, like you said—”

“I know, girl,” he says. “I talked to Addler on Friday, when you ran late. He told me y’all were getting together.”

Her expression changes. “You did?”

“I told him we were running behind because of all the changes happening when I was running around with Isabella. He agreed you were the best one to help get the coding straightened out so we could close the books right.”

“Really…” She turns to Addler, her expression dark.

“Yup, we had a good long talk. I told him about the expense report running behind. And how you’d gotten after me about the receipts and getting it submitted on time.”

She clears her throat, “I—” She tries to cut in, but he keeps going.

“So you don’t have to worry. I’ve got everything scanned in. And most of it is logged into the report. I just didn’t get to finish, with having to run home.”

All the color leaves her face then floods back with a vengeance. Maybe that’s not the right word to use, with the way she’s looking at Addler now. I can feel the tension in the air; something is about to go down.

“You told him this?” she asks, sounding like she’s doing her best to keep her temper in check. While I’ve never seen her truly angry, I have a feeling that when she is, it’s best to stay out of her way.

“Yes. I told him I’ll be in early tomorrow so I can finish the report and submit it before the bigwigs come in from Houston.”

Meanwhile, Addler appears oblivious to the tension in the room. I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if he simply doesn’t grasp the gravity of the situation.

“I see.” Elena’s voice remains measured as she responds, then she turns away from Addler.

My mind races. Can Addler really be that clueless?

“Then we’ll get him switched over to the big office. I’ll move in next door to you to make things easier on us. He belongs over there anyway, now that he’s the owner.”

That explains the boxes in his office. It’s a bit of a relief, really, knowing he wasn’t fired. I sneak a peek at Ezequiel, knowing things have changed a lot in the past couple of days.

“Okay. I’ll see you then,” she says quietly then ends the call and hands the phone back to me.

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