Page 124 of The Billionaire Boss and the Barista

Shaking his head, he made a mental note to talk to Em as soon as he got home. It took him a good ten minutes, but he managed to put it out of his mind and got another couple hours of work done.

He was looking forward to a quiet night at home when Bethany called, frantic and swearing like a sailor. “Emma is fucked up!”

Chapter Fifty

GARRETT

Adrenaline flooded Garrett as he jumped the curb, illegally parking the Range Rover next to the construction site entrance where Bethany was waiting.

The barista was standing next to a heavily muscled construction worker with more tattoos and piercings than her.

“Hey!” she yelled, waving him over.

Garrett was already freaked out, but the look of panic on Bethany’s face was a punch to the gut. “Where is she?”

“In there.” The man jerked his thumb behind him.

The burly construction worker didn’t look any calmer than Bethany, but Garrett wasn’t given time to process that because the guy turned on his heel and started running.

He rushed past the chain-link fence securing the site, weaving around tractors and stacks of construction material faster than any man his size had any right to be.

Garrett and Bethany sped after him.

“What the hell happened?” he yelled as they went, thankful the Auric guys insisted on adding cardio to their workout regimen.

Bethany hadn’t been clear on the phone. She just said that Emmahad gotten dizzy and confused and had wandered onto a construction site.

“She had a headache and took some medicine. It seemed like a bad one so I told her she should take one more because she looked like hell. After she took it, she started babbling but nothing made sense. It was English but all jumbled and weird.”

Shit.“How did she end up here?” he asked as they slowed to dodge around a lumber pile.

“I went to look for my phone to call an ambulance, but she jumped up and left. I swear she only had a twenty-second head start, but by the time I got out of the booth, she wasn’t in sight. Then I saw her across the street, in front of these gates.”

He spun his head, checking the crowded site. At least ten guys were milling around near the edge of a big pit. “Where the hell is she?”

The big construction worker they had followed grabbed him and pointed. “There!”

Garrett followed the line of his arm, confused. The only thing in that direction was a gaping hole.

And that’s where she was, standing on a rickety-looking grill stretched over an unfinished basement. She was awake and looking around, but it was clear she either didn’t see or understand her surroundings. Her expression was terrifyingly blank.

“Fuck!” he swore. “Em?—”

Bethany elbowed him. “Not so loud. She’s confused and high from the pain meds. The construction guys already tried to grab her. She backs away whenever anyone gets close?—”

He raised a hand and nodded, ice sheathing his veins. “Okay, I get it,” he breathed.

Emma wasn’t standing in the middle of the small grill. She was on the edge. If she took more than one step back, she’d fall into the pit to the concrete basement floor. It must have been the start of the subbasement because it was a two-story drop, not one.

“We had stopped construction for a few weeks because of a lawsuit,” the construction worker whispered, also worried about startling Emma.

“We just resumed yesterday and started pulling the covers off the basement before installing the rebar for the next floor. She must have come in after one of the trucks. No one noticed her until she was already over the pit. Her friend here chased her, but she was too far ahead and now she’s there,” he added, panic on his rough features.

“Did you call the fire department?” They needed ladders and ropes, and God knows what else.

“My super is on the phone with emergency services to see if they can bring one of the inflatable things they have people jump into. You got here first.”

The Harbor Police must be on their way now. This was their jurisdiction. But Emma’s position was so precarious. Even if they made no noise, they still had to climb ladders to get down into the subbasement.

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