Page 19 of Even if You Fall

I’d never had such a happy person rip into me with so much joy. It was...odd.

I bent low, placing my hand on the main portion of the desk until my face was directly in front of hers. “And I think I told you on Monday that isn’t what this is about.”

She studied me for long seconds even after I stopped speaking before hesitantly asking, “Then what is this about?”

And, man, if I didn’t forget what we were talking about because her voice had gone all breathy, and those eyes were now just wide, vulnerable spheres as they waited for my response.

As if my eyes had minds of their own, my gaze once again betrayed me as it dropped to her pouty mouth and lingered for a second too long before I managed to tear it away.

Clearing my throat, I straightened and mumbled, “Password’sadminagain.”

“You can’t be serious,” Chloe said on a delayed laugh, then turned toward the computer again. “Doesn’t seem very secure for a security company.”

“Trust me, we’re aware.” Once she’d logged in, I gestured to the tabs on the side and had her click on the one where it saidClients. “For the most part, this is where you’ll be. As security details happen, you’ll add files to client folders and make new ones.” I hesitated for a moment before reluctantly saying, “We might need to make a new one actually. Back out of here.”

Once she was on the main screen of our site, I muttered, “Click onDonuts.”

She stilled before slowly looking over her shoulder at me. “Is this a joke?”

“Not at all.”

The only show of hesitation was in the length of time it took for Chloe to focus on the computer again. Other than that, it was still all bubbles and rainbows and excitement as she clicked on theDonutstab.

I glanced through the files on there before quickly realizing there wasn’t a folder for the Donut we’d begun at the beginning of this week. Not that I should’ve been surprised. Ada was the only one who made the folders.

“Back out again and go toFiles.” As she did, I told her, “As we get information, we drop that information into a system that automatically sends ithere. It’s nice for us because it stores all the random things in one place, then Ada goes through and combines them into folders that we can go back to.”

I caught myself after finishing the sentence, belatedly remembering Ada had finally made good on her word and retired, but I didn’t bother correcting it.

Pointing at the screen, I said, “Some of these will be reports from details we did this weekend, but the rest should be for a Donut we started on Monday.”

A startled sound burst from her, her hands flexing over the keyboard for a moment before she twisted fully to look at me. “With all this donut talk, I really feel like you’re trying to get back at me for the donut-choking incident.”

Grabbing the back of her chair, I turned her back around as I explained, “Donutsare our special cases. The ones the outside world doesn’t know we do, but they’re more important than what we outwardly show of our services.”

Her head shifted just slightly to make me think she was going to look at me again, but she stopped herself. “I see,” she murmured, but she sounded unsure of herself. “Why are they called ‘Donuts?’”

Because Gray nearly choked to death on a donut trying to claim lead on one.

Something I could no longer hold over him because of the infuriating threat in front of me.

“No reason,” I lied. “You’ll make the folder in theDonutstab, but you need to send the files there first. Open the first document so we can see if it’s a file for the Donut or for the security details this weekend.”

The document opened, and after a quick scan, I realized it was from one of the security details. After showing her how to send the documents where they needed to go, I said, “You’ll need to take information from the documents to know where to file them. Next one.” After she’d sent another two from the same security detail to be filed later, the fourth was opened, showing details of the superintendent we were looking into.

“Here’s the first,” I informed her. “Pull details on the guy so we can start a file on him, then send it toDonuts.”

“Okay, let’s see...” she whispered to herself as she leaned closer, even though the monitor was massive enough that I could read all the details from where I stood.

And then she forcefully shoved away from the desk, sending the desk chair straight into me, nearly toppling me over as she scrambled to standing.

“What—”

“Sorry!” she cried out, but she was still standing there, facing away from me, hands out at her sides as if she was afraid she was going to fall.

And it had every protective instinct rising and clashing with all those red flags she’d been throwing out in the few days I’d been around her.

I wanted to pull her away from whatever had clearly scared her. I wanted to hide her from whatever could steal away all that joy so rapidly. I wanted to force her back into the chair and demand to know what she was hiding.

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