Page 8 of Crude Heir

What the heck did I miss?

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Derrick

The first thing I do after I step into my office is toss the coffee into the wastebasket. The nearly full disposable cup lands in the plastic liner, making it crinkle before hitting the bottom with the muted thud. How anyone can stomach that overly sweet crap is beyond me.

My phone buzzes as a message pops up on the screen. Nicole. I scoff as I settle into my leather chair. She even adds her name at the bottom. I’ll be sure to add her to my address book.

My thumb hovers over the message. No. I can’t appear to be too eager. I drum my fingers on the desk, counting out the seconds so she doesn’t think I’m sitting in my office, waiting for her text to come in.

My mind wanders to Nicole and Jenae. What’s going on there? They seem chummy, at least as much as anyone can be with Simon’s assistant. Not that it would be impossible, especially if she’s in the habit of helping my stepbrother.

Still, it’s an odd situation. He’s having someone from the accounting department pulled away from their duties to fetch coffee when he has an assistant. What could be the motive behind it? I make a mental note to dig deeper into theirrelationship to see if there’s a stronger connection between them.

When enough time has gone by, I click on her message then type up a reply.

Got it. I’ll send you a link once I’m done. Should be around 6:00.

I’ve set a trap, which requires the right timing and some luck. I hit send and prepare to access Nicole’s computer while she’s distracted with my message. My pulse quickens in anticipation. Hopefully she’s still as eager to get to work as she was earlier, otherwise she might notice that slight twitch in the screen that indicates a connection.

One, two, three, four...I’m in. Her background springs to life before me. The first thing I do is turn on her camera. I take a moment to watch her intently, observing the flicker of delight that dances across her face. It’s suspicious how genuinely happy she seems to have the opportunity to work after hours. Oh hell. Did I set myself up to watch her for longer than I initially anticipated?

She gets out of her chair, disappearing from sight, granting me a few seconds to check her computer screen. So far, it’s just her messenger, open to my profile. Everything else is shut down, likely because she stepped away. She’s following the rules regarding data security. Is that because she’s a good employee or because she doesn’t want to come under scrutiny?

My phone rings, interrupting my thoughts. As I half expected, Mom’s image fills the screen. While I’d love to ignore it, she’s probably going to keep trying until she gets ahold of me. Worse yet, she might come up to find me.Fuck.

I press the button to answer. “Yes.”

She sighs. “There’s nothing tangible to share right now,” she says, as if she’s being careful with her words. Likely someone is near by.

“So what can you tell me?” I ask, undeterred.

“I suspect this is happening in South Texas,” she confirms.

“What makes you think so?”

She’s quiet for a moment. “First, Keith was distressed to know the sale concluded. I’m not sure if that’s because of your involvement, but he was very upset.”

Of course she would take the opportunity to fit that in. “And?”

“That’s where the bulk of expense is taking place right now. They had several drilling rigs in the area for new wells and there’s workover rigs on the other lease they took over. Keith was determined to ramp up production on the new acquisition.”

That’s probably what gave him the heart attack. All the effort he put into building up the area only to find out someone was stealing it out from under him. “Okay, thanks.” I end the call, not waiting for more.

Meanwhile, Nicole’s gotten back to her duties. I move both windows, with the desktop and camera to one of my screens, tiling them next to each other. She pushes invoice after invoice through the approval process. I try to follow along, but I can’t make heads or tails of the code she’s reviewing.

I log into the system, taking note of how she’s going from screen to screen. I’ll be damned if I can figure out what she’s doing. Even when I look up two invoices with the same code, the work has nothing to do with the description for the code. After three failed attempts, I give up.

Throughout the day, I continue to watch Nicole, her gaze moving back and forth across the screen. Her brow is furrowed in concentration as she’s working through a particularly long invoice.

Every now and then, her gaze darts to the lower right. It took me a few times to figure out she’s checking the time. It’s during one of those time checks, her eyes come back to the camera.

My fingers hover over the keyboard, as if she caught me watching her. Logically, I know she can’t see me; she doesn’t even know I’m here. Yet, I can’t seem to tear my eyes away from her delicate features. She has beautiful skin, a light blush running across her cheeks.

Sometimes she has an innocent, inquisitive look in her eyes. For a moment, I let myself imagine those pretty brown eyes directed at me. Her teeth digging into that full bottom lip. The thought sends an unexpected wave of desire crashing through me.

Oh hell, she’s too sweet and innocent for her own good. I need to get this…her, out of my mind. This is not the time for those kinds of distractions.

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