Page 6 of Even if You Fall

“Monroe, I need you going in as a substitute for this woman beginning tomorrow,” Briggs went on. “Get friendly with the teachers and staff—find out what you can. Everyone else, I’ll see you in the office in the morning.” As he turned, he called out, “I’ll send out the information I have once I get home. Review it tonight.”

Monroe turned on us once he was gone, looking panicked.

As if already sensing what she was going to say, Gray burst out laughing.

“I hate kids,” she whispered.

I slanted my head as I started past her, clapping her shoulder as I did. “Then get your information fast.”

Her response, Gray’s goading, and Rush’s encouragement faded away as I studied everything about Evans as he stormed toward the street where we’d all parked, all while trying to make it seem like I wasn’t following and studying him, the way I had been for months.

The angry set of his shoulders that told me more than he probably realized. The way his fingers curled into fists before loosening, over and over again. The way he stalked like he was itching for a fight.

To anyone passing by, he probably seemed like a guy about to unleash all his pent-up anger. But before he ever made it to his truck—his balled-up hands resting just above his head for long seconds as he took shuddering breaths—I’d already clocked the pain and confusion fueling each of his steps.

Just as Evans swung open his door, I slipped past Gray’s truck and out of sight, then continued toward my car.

Once I was behind the wheel of my classic Camaro, I sent a message to Briggs.

He’s still good.

Knowing he’d be waiting for the text, I started my car but didn’t bother putting it into gear. And soon enough, his response came through.

Asher Briggs

Do you think that’ll change?

He’s too embarrassed and mad at his dad for it to change.

Evans is a rule-follower. He had issues with our Donuts because we go around the law to keep people safe. He isn’t going to disregard the law completely to follow his dad into that kind of corruption.

I watched my phone, waiting for Briggs to respond, then felt every ounce of the weight he was putting on me when he finally did.

Asher Briggs

Agreed. But we can’t afford to be wrong about this.

Continue watching him.

Yep.

Slipping my phone into my pocket, I put my car in gear, then headed home. But I hardly remembered the drive because, for the first time ever, I was second-guessing if I’d read someone correctly and worrying over what would happen to the people I’d worked with for more than a dozen years if I was wrong.

I’d only been in the Shadow Industries office for a total of seven minutes, but the moment a steel wall of a man barreled into me, sending me and my four-inch stilettos careening backward, I had a hunch I should’ve heeded Lainey’s warnings and stayed home.

Probability of hitting my head on the corner of my brand-new desk? High.

Probability of this looking anything like how romance novels describe meet-cutes? Low. Very low.

Just as the thin points of my heels started leaving the hardwood floor, my forearm was grabbed, and I was jerked forward. Except the hand grabbing me didn’t belong to the man I’d bounced off, who was now standing there with a box of donuts, watching me fall as ungracefully as humanly possible. It belonged to my new boss, Asher Briggs, who just so happened to be reaching around the steel wall of a man. And since I was now being flung through the air like a ragdoll, I smacked back into Steel Wall...with my knee...in an incredibly unfortunate place for him.

Yikes.

“Oh!” I cried out in horror as the man lurched forward with a strangled sound of pain.

For how slowly the previous seconds had drawn out—letting me see the contemplative and stunned expressions of the men between my own realization that I was falling—the next dozen or so flew by.

Steel Wall dropped the box of donuts and began choking on one he’d apparently been eating as he fell to his own knees. A third man walked in and immediately fell into a fit of laughter, as if the possibility of someone choking to death could possibly be seen as funny to anyone. I clumsily sank to the floor in front of Steel Wall and reached for him, my hands hovering just in front of him as if I might recall how to perform the Heimlich in a real-life situation—I absolutelycould not. And somewhere in the middle of it all, Asher Briggs roughed out my name like he wasn’t sure he was actually seeing me.

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