Page 53 of Empowered
Chapter 12
Sarah psyched herself up before heading into work Friday morning. Lucas would be there, and if he were up to his usual tricks, he’d do everything he could to get her attention. He loved attention of any kind, didn’t he? Even giving him negative attention would make his day.
She would be professional. That was it.
However, Lucas wasnotalready at the office by the time Sarah arrived. Nor did he show up a few minutes late. At first, Sarah went into panic mode, not because she wanted to see the prying bastard, but because he and Mr. Monroe were due in a meeting at 9:30.
Yet Mr. Monroe was perfectly calm as he prepared for the meeting in his office. Alisha popped in to confirm she would head to the manor that afternoon to check in on Russell Monroe before leaving the room again. Mrs. Alice Monroe hustled by with a request to see Sarah as soon as the meeting was over. Nobody mentioned Mr. Blackbourne.
Damnit. Sarah was going to have to do it, wasn’t she?
“May I ask where Mr. Blackbourne is?” she asked her boss. “I thought I’d be taking notes for the both of you this morning.”
“You’re in luck. He called in this morning.”
“Called… in?”
Mr. Monroe didn’t often look at her when they spoke, but that morning he made a point of glaring at her through the corners of his eyes. “Personal matters. Nothing that concerns us.”
That was the polite way of sayingnothing that concerns you.
Alice Monroe hovered around her husband’s door an hour later. Sarah emerged first, tablet filled with notes her boss expected her to compile into readable sentences. Rather hard to accomplish when the boss’s wife came straight for her the moment she had a breath to herself.
“I have an errand for you.” She directed Sarah toward her desk. Sarah didn’t bother to sit down. “Since Alisha is… out… you’re the only other one who can help me this morning.”
“What is it, Mrs. Monroe?”
“I need you to stop by Mr. Lowenstein’s home and pick up some files he has prepared for me. The man threw his back out and will be on his couch for a while. Either his housekeeper or one of his assistants will pass off the files to you. You can take my car. Does that sound okay?”
“I’ll leave in a few minutes.” She could type up some notes in the car. Perhaps that would spare her some time before lunch.I haven’t been to the gym in forever.Her bosses rarely gave her time to enjoy her free access.
“Thank you, Sarah.”
Sometimes it threw Sarah off that her female boss called her by her first name. Was it a sign of friendliness between them? Or did it mean that Alice thought so lowly of the help that they didn’t even deserve formalities?
Sarah grabbed her things a few minutes later and took the elevator down. Mrs. Monroe’s car and driver awaited her by the curb. She looked at her phone, and was somewhat disappointed that Lucas hadn’t tried to contact her. Only somewhat, though.
***
“Thank you. Tell your employer that I hope he feels better soon.” Sarah stepped down the steep stoop of the townhouse as soon as the manila folders were in her hand. Mrs. Monroe’s black sedan idled by the curb on a street that was barely big enough for two-way traffic.
It was an old neighborhood. An old but affluent neighborhood, where at least three generations could claim to be doctors, lawyers, professors, vice presidents of large companies… basically, not rich enough to own their own penthouses or manors, but rich enough to claim this historical part of town for their families. The brick townhouses were some of the first luxury single-family homes built in the city hundreds of years ago. The ex-wives of billionaires lived here on nothing but alimony.There she goes now.Caroline Grant-Mathers hustled down her stone walkway and ducked into a taxi without a single regard for anyone around her.
Sarah opened the back door to Mrs. Monroe’s sedan and slipped in. As soon as she closed the door behind her, another black car slowly passed by on the street.
She didn’t think much of it as the driver recalibrated his GPS. Sarah buckled up and happened to glance out the tinted window as the other car came to a stop in front of a different townhouse. What fantastic timing! Because that was Lucas Blackbourne emerging from the back before his driver or bodyguard could open the door for him. And the bodyguard stoodveryclose as the two men approached the door of someone else’s home.
“Wait,” Sarah said to the driver before he could pull out onto the street again. “Mr. Monroe might want to know about this.” She turned on the camera to her cell phone and held it up to the window, flash on.
Let’s see what skeletonsyouhave in your closet, Luke.Sarah wouldn’t feel guilty even under normal circumstances. After last night? It was a miracle she didn’t get out and make a spectacle of spying on him.
Who lived here? Another booty call? The wife he claimed to have divorced?
Lucas stood in the middle of the front yard, his bodyguard right behind him, alert. The black townhouse door opened. A much older woman with gray hair and a matronly sense of style stepped out before calling into the house.
A little boy who couldn’t be old enough for kindergarten bounded out and ran right into Lucas’s waiting arms.
The way the man picked the boy up and hugged him, their hair color identical, their smiles that same boisterous blasphemy… Sarah put her phone down, shocked.
