Page 25 of Wild Hit
CHAPTER 12
MIGUEL
My spidey senses are tingling—and by tingling, I mean roaring. If I’d been a minute too late, I think I might’ve ended up witnessing sexual harassment. It already looked like a close cousin when I arrived, unless it was fully reciprocated.
I don’t think it was. Audrey’s face was pale and her eyebrows creased when she walked out of the circle of that guy’s arms. That’s not how she’d have looked like if she was enjoying the attention, or even if she was embarrassed about being caught with a boyfriend at work.
She also wouldn’t be power walking away as fast as her dainty little shoes allow her. My shoes squeak against the floor while hers click-clack, which to me is the sound of uncomfortable footwear.
We bypass a couple of departments that are enclosed by glass and house mazes of cubicles, which leaves few witnesses. I’m sure the weird guy is watching, though, but I’m going to pretend like he doesn’t exist.
If I turn and don’t like the look on his face, I might do something to get me suspended.
Audrey pushes against a metal door and the air abruptly changes to something that feels like a humid hair dryer—also know as the great Florida outdoors. I turn my cap around, protecting my eyes from the relentless sun with the bill, until I get distracted by how her hair positively glows under the sun. Rather, it’s like the sun descended to rest on her head.
Finally she releases my arm and keeps walking. I take a look around. I got a tour of the entire facilities when I joined the team but I don’t remember this place. It’s much larger than just a balcony, yet it’s on the second floor of three, therefore it’s not the rooftop. There are benches and plants all around, like this is genuinely somewhere that employees can hang out. Audrey sets her things down on a bench by the fence and leans her arms on it. Kicking my feet into gear, I join her and look down.
Ah, I know where we are now. Literally below us is the entrance to the admin building, and below us is the sprawling employee parking lot.
“Aren’t you going to ask?”
I turn to Audrey. Her face is pinched and it takes me a second to figure out that it’s not out of annoyance. The sun is hitting her right in the face. I remove my cap and reach over to place it on her head, lowering the bill so it shadows her face. She stays still even as I shift away and also lean against the fence.
“Do you want me to?” I volley back.
“I don’t know,” she responds in a low voice. “But I probably would. The scene you walked into wasn’t normal and it’s enough to make anyone curious.”
“I did walk into our best pitcher and our only female therapist making out earlier,” I say, trying for levity. It doesn’t get even a twitch of her lips out of her, so I change tack. “I can lend you my ear if you want, but if you don’t, I’m also good with just staying in silence. Or we can start our meeting instead.”
Audrey casts a little glance at me. “Let’s do that.”
She pulls away from the fence and retreats to the bench, retrieving her iPad before she takes a seat. I turn and raise my arms to rest them over the fence, watching as she fires up the device and taps at the screen. My cap obscures her face as she looks for something on the iPad, and she makes a littleah hahsound.
Her face lifts but her words get stuck in her throat.
I raise my eyebrows when the silence extends further. Clearly she still needs a moment to compose herself.
Instead, Audrey sets the iPad aside again, knocking her tumbler and somehow not sending it tumbling down the floor, pun intended. “Fine, I’ll talk.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Her face sets in stubborn lines. “You’ve already proven quite good at keeping secrets, anyway.”
I bob my head in gratitude. I like being a man of my word. “I’m all ears and no mouth.”
“You just talked, though.”
“I mean”—I interrupt myself to snort—“That I’ll listen and not say a word of this conversation to anyone.”
“Ah.” Audrey squirms and settles her arms on her lap. She’s in a simple dress with a jean jacket, which looks surprisingly good with my cap on her head. “That was Henry Vos, an acquaintance of my dad, and a new sponsor for the team.”
I make a humming sound from my throat so she knows I’m paying attention to what she’s saying. She doesn’t have to know that I’m also paying attention to her shapely legs. Good genes.
“I’ve never liked the asshole,” she says, and there’s enough anger in her voice now that I stop checking out her gams. “He’s the kind who takes no for a challenge and not for the answer it is by itself.”
“Wait.” I stand up straight. “Did he do something to you?”
This makes her look up sharply, like she detected something in my voice that alarmed her. “Well, not this time.”
