Page 112 of Beneficial Misfortune

“Something seemed off. What are the odds that not only Carter would be after her, ransacking her apartment, but Trevor would also be after her? At the start, I thought maybe she was just highly coveted, after all she had gotten all of your guys attention so it might not have been that crazy.” He flips the paper before quickly glancing up at me, and I try to keep my temper in check. This is my nephew, after all, but I know how he gets; he loves data, the numbers, and all of that. That’s why he works in our IT department and tends to stay away from customers.

“But then the flowers showed up at the school, and somehow it connected the two that might have been seen as separate entities before. I looked into all the airlines I could access, even called one of Vince’s guys, and none of them have any record of Carter flying. Not when her apartment was broken into or when the flowers were delivered, and both of those things seemed highly personal. A lot more so than just having flowers delivered, because they had her underwear wrapped up inside of them. Underwear that tied him back to the break-in.”

Everything he says makes sense. That’s what Oliver does, after all. He makes things make sense, and this is no different, no matter how much I might not want it to be true.

Trevor and Carter are related, cousins, the same way Desmond and Oliver are, and clearly close if Trevor has been doing all of Carter’s dirty work for him.

“You said you didn’t find any record of him flying out when the apartment incident happened or the flowers…” I trail off, shuffling through the stack of papers he’d presented me with. I’d just glanced at them before when I was trying to figure out what he was showing me, and I’m almost positive I saw airline paperwork.

“No, Carter wasn’t here for either of those incidents…” Oliver looks down at my desk, seemingly no longer able to meet my gaze.

I find the paper I’d seen and quickly read it over to find he’s right.

The airline’s paperwork isn’t dated near either of those; instead, the date reads three days ago.

My phone is in my hand before I even make the conscious decision to reach for it. The sound of the line ringing echoes around the room as I wait for Vince to answer.

Healwaysanswers. It’s one thing I’ve always been able to count on him for: no matter what, he’s there. I’ve had his answer with a man screaming in the background, mid-torturing, so as the line continues to ring, my anxiety continues to climb until I can no longer stand still.

“Get the others!” I snap, unable to keep my voice even as I dig through my drawer, grabbing my keys and wallet. I don’t look up, but I hear Oliver as he takes off toward the door as fast as he’d come flying in here, and I can’t help but feel grateful for that. He might insist he doesn’t have feelings for Kat, but his feelings aside, he knows we do, and that means something to him.

Vince’s voicemail picks up, and I quickly end the call, swiping through my phone to call Kat. Something tells me she won’tanswer either, but I can’t help calling anyway, hoping I’m wrong and that whatever this sinking feeling I have is unnecessary anxiety.

I hear commotion in the hall and realize that it’s time to move. Alex and Desmond won’t sit still and wait to hear back from Vince, and if I’m being honest, I don’t really want to either. Something isn’t right, and I can’t seem to shake the feeling that Kat might be in very real danger. I make it all the way to the door of my office before I’m struck by an idea and quickly turn around.

“Where are you going?” Alex shouts, but I don’t stop, instead running back to my PC.

I’d been hesitant to give Kat that gift, worried that if she learned what it was, I might scare her away, but now I can’t help but be grateful.

“We need to get home!” Desmond yells, storming into my room, but I don’t look up as I quickly type in the information needed to log into the software.

Desmond, in his usual impatient fashion, doesn’t wait around to see what I’m doing. That’s fine, I’d rather him leave, that will put him ahead of us and keep him busy while I do this. I can call him when I know more in a few minutes.

“Tell me you have a good reason for us to still be here, brother,” Alex says, bracing his hands on my desk and leaning over it to try and see what I’m doing.

I know the second he sees what's on the screen when he chuckles. I glance at him and find him shaking his head, but despite that, he doesn’t seem upset, not that I would care much if he did. Oliver stands only a few steps behind his father, looking between us, clearly not understanding but either not feeling the need to ask or not caring enough.

“The children’s museum.” The second her location pops up on the map, I’m moving, not even bothering to shut it down. Theprogram will time out eventually and log me out, and anything else on the PC is protected.

Alex and Oliver follow me out without a word as we move down the hall toward the elevator, not quite running but moving much quicker than we usually do. Anna’s head whips up at the sound of us, and I watch her scramble to put her phone away and appear busy.

Yes, I definitely need to look for a new secretary.

As we make our way down the hall toward her desk, she quickly stands, not even attempting to be subtle, as she presses up her cleavage and makes her way around her desk.

Alex had said she was a bit flirtatious a few times, but for the most part, her attempts were easy to ignore, and she did her job well enough. For whatever reason, today, it’s not so easy to ignore, though.

“Mr. Lawson, I—”

I hold my hand up to stop her talking and hear Oliver chuckle from beside me. I’d forgotten Oliver wasn’t her biggest fan. Maybe I’ll leave him to find her replacement.

“Push everything out for at least two days and hold all calls. Nothing should be forwarded until you hear back from me.”

I expect that to be the end of it, but of course, it’s not.

“But I just scheduled them for today. I can’t move them. Some of these clients have been waiting for a week or longer,” she says, moving to walk with us toward the elevator.

I stop, turning to face her, and I can see that she thinks she’s done something, that she’s more than just a person in a chair. Many employees in this building were hand picked for their position by one of us, but Anna was not. Eleanor, our old secretary, had left on maternity leave almost two years ago and, while out, decided she wanted to stay home with her baby boy instead of returning. I can’t say I blame her, but as such, we had a position to fill, and Anna was exactly that—a fill-in—one of ouremployees’ cousins who was referred by them and needed a job. We hadn’t had any issues with her that warranted us looking harder, until now.

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