Page 56 of Misdirection

She hadn’t meant to revert back to their earlier shtick, the one they’d engaged in when they’d known each other all those years ago.

Pinky promises had been life.

They’d even made a pinky promise that they’d always be together.

He finally looped his pinky through hers. “Promise.”

Memories flooded her—memories she’d rather forget.

Because they were memories of one of the few times in life she could actually say she was happy.

Olive slipped out of the copy room first.

She casually glanced around, making sure no one was watching.

They weren’t.

Then she headed back to her office.

She needed a moment alone. A moment for her cheeks to cool off. For her thoughts to stop racing.

As soon as she got back to her office, she closed the door and leaned against it.

Calm down, Olive.She practiced breathing in and out, trying to calm her racing heart and thoughts.

Her reaction wasn’t fear.

No, it was attraction.

She couldn’t let Jason have this effect on her. It was ridiculous. She prided herself on being able to keep her distance. Yet here she was after one accidental meeting, and suddenly she was reeling back in time.

Olive had to do better.

She barely had time to get control of her racing thoughts when Tevin called. Except when he came up on her phone, he was listed as Gary Shakur, her building manager.

“Hey,” she said quietly. “What’s going on?”

“Checking on you. Anything new?”

“Did you hear about Ryan?”

“Ryan Jones? No. What about him?”

She updated him on the situation, and Tevin let out a low whistle. “The plot thickens.”

She let out a clipped breath of air. “Yes, it does.”

“I’ll see if I can find out anything else about that for you.”

“That sounds good,” Olive said. “In the meantime, I’ll continue to keep my eye on Bennett. I need to find out where he was yesterday when Ryan died. We have a basic time when we think it may have happened. Do you think you could trace his cell phone?”

“I can definitely try. Can you send me the number?”

“I’ll do that as soon as we’re off the phone.”

“Got it,” Tevin said. “I’ll jump right on that then. In the meantime, be careful.”

People said that a lot lately, and Olive understood their reasoning.

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