Page 39 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
“That was worth the money.” Raymond nodded. “Ready to go?”
I returned his nod. “You go collect the cams, and I’ll meet you at the car.”
“Sounds good.” He smiled.
Raymond called the elevator, and, when it came, he stepped inside. As soon as he was out of sight, I walked to the stairwell and headed up to the roof. It was something I’d wanted to do for a while since seeing a report about the views fromthe top of the building. It wasn’t something any normal visitor could gain access to, but I wasn’t a normal visitor.
When I reached the top, I pulled the seedling I had in my pocket and lifted it to the frame of the door. With some coaxing, it grew, stretching its vines and slipping around the sensor that would sound the alarm once the door opened. After I was sure it was safe, I picked the lock, and the door opened easily. This way, when I left, there would be no damage to the door, no evidence of my presence.
“Thank you. I’ll make it quick,” I whispered to the plant that aided me. When I was done, I would take it back home with me and plant it in the garden so it could live a happy life.
Once out on the roof, I took a deep breath, opening my chest to the night sky and sighed. It was as beautiful as I had imagined it to be. I leaned on the railing, looking over the city, and wondered about the lives of all the people beneath me, those who were headed to or from work, going home to families or empty houses. How many were healing, brokenhearted, or dealing with a cold?
“This isn’t a part of our perimeter.” Raymond’s voice startled me. “What are you doing up here?”
I turned to see him standing by the door. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re supposed to be meeting me at the car.”
“I changed my mind.” He joined me by the metal railing that wrapped the rooftop and peered over the edge. “Great view up here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Saw it on a news broadcast and wanted to experience it for myself. Besides, I needed a moment to clear my head, and this felt like the perfect place to do it.”
“What's so heavy on your mind that you had to come up here to getaway from it?”
“Natalie mentioned something earlier today about me giving her more work. I asked her if you had talked to her, and she said yes.”
“Am I in trouble?”
I raised a brow at his question. “Should you be?”
“Look, I meant what I said. I believe you should hand over more of the workload to her. She's more than capable and eager to take it on, but I'm not here to step on any toes. Natalie told me she aspires to take on a larger role in your company, and all I said was that if she doesn't assert herself, you won't hear her.”
“It's not that I don't want to do it, okay?” I ran my hand across the back of my neck. “It's just hard thinking about handing over things that I’m used to handling myself. What if something goes wrong?”
“Something tells me you've done a lot of hard things in your past. You're telling me you can't face this? It's just some paperwork, Jericha. No one's telling you to hand over the plans to your business like you did with Rose. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You trusted once and got burned. I get that, but you will not get where you want to go if you don’t get over that and do what’s best for yourself and your business.”
“Ouch. I guess you just see right through me, huh?” I chuckled nervously. He had hit the nail right on the head. My issue wasn’t that I didn’t trust Natalie. It was that I didn’t want to be dropped on my head again. “It didn’t happen once. It happened twice. Need I remind you about why we’re working together to begin with? Mitch and his ploy to destroy me.”
“Right, and where is he with that business? Any clients? Last I checked, the guys who left with him are all looking for other employment now,” Raymond smirked. “The people who hurt you are failures. You should thank them for packing up and getting out of your way. And no, I don’t see right through you. There's a lot about you I'm still trying to figure out.”
“You can stop trying to figure me out.”
“Oh, trust me, I plan to. I have my own things to do, issues I need to take care of. Some things have come up recently.” He trailed off. “Regardless, I'm actually thinking of cutting our contract short.”
“Cutting it short. What do you mean—you're gonna leave me hanging out to dry?”
“No, I mean handing over assets to you sooner rather than later. This arrangement was a good one, but I don’t think it's necessary to finish it out. Honestly, I think it's time for me to move forward. I need to move on with my life. Some things are coming up, and if I stay here too long, it may cause me more problems than it's worth.”
“What kind of past are you running from?”
“That doesn't matter,” he said.
“Oh, so we can talk all about me,what I need to be doing, and how I'm running from my past, but yours is a secret. How is that fair?”
“I don't believe we agreed on having a fair exchange here. Besides, you don't want me around anymore. You've made that perfectly clear. All I'm doing now is offering you a way to make that happen sooner.”
“I never said I didn't want you around anymore.” I turned my attention back to the view of the city.
“What was that?” He turned and leaned his back on the railing so he could see my face.
