Page 63 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

She flicked off the bedside lamp between us and turned on a white noise app on her phone. "I hope you don't mind this. I can't sleep without it."

"No. I like it." And maybe it'd drown out my supposed snoring that Jared had mentioned.DidI snore? What an ass for putting that in my head.

"Oh," Mona turned down the white noise, interrupting my mental rant, "and by the way, no one at Insight Ink would think any less of you if you did indeed have a thing for Jared. As a matter of fact, we're all rooting for the two of you."

People were rooting for us? That was wild."What? You are?"

"Heck, yeah."

"Why?"

She shuffled in her bed, and I strained to see her, but it was pitch black. And after a minute, she finally spoke. "I don't know honestly. But I know for me, and maybe others, we could all use a little happiness in this fucked up world, you know? And nothing encapsulates happiness more than love."

Love? Holy fuck.Love?

Why did she even mention that word? I nearly sat up in my bed to argue. But I was too exhausted. And she'd already turned up the white noise.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to stop my mind from reeling. Because this was most certainly not love. And it never would be.

Sixteen

Annalise

First thing I reached for in the morning was my ibuprofen. I'd learned the hard way a few years ago that I needed to pack all that crap because you never knew what might hit you in the middle of traveling.

Mona groaned beside me. "You know, Ranger Jim needs to realize that some of us are couch potatoes."

I handed the bottle to Mona and she swallowed one without water even.

While we got ready, bitching and moaning the whole time, we discussed what fresh hell might be in store for us today. And when we finally made it downstairs, I did the same thing as last night and successfully avoided sitting anywhere nearhim.

After a delicious breakfast—the food here was surprisingly good—a chipper Ranger Jim joined us, everyone's eyes swiveling in an instant, some excited, some wary. I stole a glance at Jared to see his reaction, but he hid his emotions with a blank expression.

"Good morning, Insight Inkers! Yesterday, we sure started off with a bang. But today, we'll be going a bit easier on you." He paused, looking around at our relieved faces before delivering the twist. "At least physically."

His laugh was ominous. Man, I was really beginning to dislike this guy.

"I won't revealeverything," he went on, "but I can say that today will be all about trust.Trustin your fellow co-workers. And let's just say that things will come to a frosty finish. A crisp culmination if you will."

Fucking alliteration again. Of course Jim would love alliteration too.

Sneaking a look at Jared, I found him staring right at me, a big grin on his handsome face. I almost laughed. Almost. But managed to hold it back.

After cleaning up, we all followed Jim outside to a beautiful space behind the lodge, an area that we hadn't explored before. A large, wooden deck stretched out before us, and I looked off to one side to see what looked like a hot tub, partially hidden by a lattice covered in vines.

God, that sounded like heaven to my sore body. I'd have to check it out later for sure.

We walked out into a large, grassy clearing surrounded by towering pines and oak trees, the sun just beginning to climb high in the sky.

The scenery was stunning, but I couldn't really enjoy it because I was too concerned about what Jim was going to do with the blindfolds he was cheerfully handing out.

Everyone took one, and then he told us to pair up. Mona stood next to me, so I grabbed onto her before anyone else could, or before anyone else, ahem, could ask me to be their partner.

"So now, folks, we get into the trust-building exercises. Starting with... drum roll please..." Not bothering to wait for anyone else, he made the noise himself. "A blindfold walk!"

Um, okay. That didn't sound too bad I supposed.

"Ooh, I'll go first," Mona said to my relief as Jim explained the basics.

---