Page 21 of Bleed for You
“He’s done that to me, too. I know IT, so I was able to trace it to him.”
“You need to let Lacey know what he’s been doing.”
“Is she involved?” Raj murmured. “I don’t want to get the heat for this.”
“She knows, and you’re not alone.” The elevator doors opened, and they walked toward the canteen. Craig stepped closer, keeping his voice low when he talked. “She’ll take you seriously. Trust me.”
“I’ll call her this afternoon. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I have never had my work questioned as much as I have since he was promoted. Every little thing. He tried to dictate to me that a support beam was in the wrong location, and I was working from the original details! I had to show him, and he just walked off.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Tell Lacey and keep a journal or diary to document it. The more evidence, the better.”
“Are you keeping one?” Craig nodded. “I’ll get one tonight.” Raj grabbed Craig's arm and Craig slowed to a stop. “Thanks. Really. I was considering whether I should quit or not.”
“Don’t let him drive you out. Let’s get him out instead.”
Grinning, Raj leaned close. “Now that I have no problem doing.” He waved as he walked over to the soda machine, and Craig felt better. Not that Raj was suffering, but that he wasn’t alone. That was kinda sad, but it did help.
Craig purchased his meal and drink and found an empty table. Once he’d sat down, he pulled out his phone and checked to see if he had missed a call from Jinx, but there was nothing. Sighing, he ate his meal as he checked social media, then called Jinx. Again, there was no answer.
Finishing, he cleaned up, then went back to his desk, avoiding Flint in the process, which made him feel good. When he noticed Flint walk by, he ignored him and carried on with his job. He had several designs to go over and a partner who wasn’t returning his call. Why, Craig didn’t know. It was rare for Jinx to ignore his calls and never for this long. Craig paused. No, Jinx had done this a handful of times in the past and it had always been work related. That was more than likely the case now. Craig was worrying over nothing.
When he next looked at the time, he was surprised to see it was nearing six in the evening. Most of the staff would have left by now, so he saved all his work and shut down his computer. Standing, he groaned and moved from side to side, then picked up his suit jacket and put it on. Grabbing his bag, Craig left his office and paused. When he heard no other sound, he walked to the elevator and pressed the button.
As soon as the doors opened, he got in and hit the button for the first floor. As he turned around, he saw Flint coming toward him, then the doors closing cut him off from sight. Smiling, Craig could only imagine how pissed Flint would have been that Craig had left the office without Flint saying something derogatory to him. “Shame.” When the doors opened, Craig was more than happy to leave the building, and as he walked outside, he pulled his phone out and once again checked to see if Jinx had returned any of his calls. When he saw nothing, Craig bit the corner of his bottom lip, then called Jinx again. He didn’t want to come across as a needy boyfriend or that he didn’t trust Jinx, but he was concerned. What if he’d been in an accident? What if something had happened at work?
When it clicked through to voicemail, Craig spoke, “Hey, it’s me. Just checking you’re okay. Give me a call later.” He hung up and shoved his phone back inside his jacket pocket. He wasn’t going to call again. It was up to Jinx now.
Chapter Thirteen
The beer tasted nice and went down far too quickly, and Jinx stood to get a second when his phone beeped. Picking it up, he noticed all the missed calls from Craig and winced. “Shit.” He noticed he had a voicemail and listened to Craig asking how he was. Deleting it, Jinx headed to the fridge as he called Craig, thinking of a reason for not returning his calls.
“Hey. Sorry I haven’t returned your call. It has been a crazy day today.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. We had a funeral, and it all went nuts at the actual gravesite. Apparently, the man who we buried had been having an affair and so his wife was there and his girlfriend and then his other girlfriend turned up—”
“He had three women? I can only just manage one man!”
“Yes, and they’re all screaming at each other as he’s being lowered into the ground. Then one went to drop dirt but threw it at another and then it was a fight. We had to jump in and tryto separate them, but by the time we got there, all the families were involved and the police ended up being called. It was an interesting day, but then we had arrests and statements, and the man still hadn’t been covered. I haven’t been home long. A beer and then I think I’ll go to bed. How was work? Has that bastard Flint tried anything?” Maybe he should take care of Flint. That would make Craig’s job much easier for him.
Craig told him about his day and several times Jinx cringed because all he had done was tail someone and then lie to the most important person in his world and said person had an awful day. “I can’t wait for all this to be over with.”
“What did this Lacey tell you?”
“I just keep on doing what I’m doing. I guess the more evidence I gather, the better they’ll be when they do take it further. I can’t believe he’s been accessing my work. I’ll have to go over what I’ve done to make sure he hasn’t messed it up.”
Jinx heard the sigh and wanted to hold him. “Aren’t you seeing Cat?”
“Yeah tomorrow. I think we might be telling our parents about her pregnancy.”
“Is she ready for that?”
“I’ll find out tomorrow. I told her it doesn’t matter how they react because she has us.”
“Damn straight she does.” Jinx liked Cat, and she’d accepted their relationship with an open mind and some teasing. “Tell her I said hi when you see her tomorrow.”
“I will. Will I see you after?”
