Page 30 of Wrong Number

Me: I didn’t know that you were into country music.

Tana: I’m not really, but my mother played it in the car when I was little. I remember singing along to that song on long drives because songs with numbers are a blast when you’re six.

Me: You are an absolute angel. Talk to you soon.

My hands were practically shaking as I called up the company server, and entered that number as the password to the financial folder.

It opened instantly.

My uncle had always been a country music fan, so that made sense. But the files I found inside made no sense whatsoever.

They were quotes and pitches to the “family” owned corp

oration that I didn’t think we ever dealt with.

From the looks of things, the building where our crews were just finishing up this week was owned by that company. The name on the construction site was a wholly-owned brand new subsidiary.

After everything he’d gone on about over the years, my uncle lied to me. Or at least, didn’t tell me the whole truth. Which, depending on how you sliced it, was practically the same thing.

Why would he be making deals with mafia corporations? We already had a lot of steady work. We didn’t need faster work for less money. We didn’t need endless jobs, we had enough to keep steadily busy. Expanding too fast or working our teams to exhaustion wasn’t what I thought we were about. That’s not quality. That’s not what we stood for.

I didn’t want to be mixed up with those people, and I didn’t want to see the company changing too fast.

I finished up my day with a dark cloud over my head. I needed something that would turn my mood around instantly. Like an addict needing a hit, I sent Tana a text.

Me: Driving back and forth across town. Shall I swing by and pick you up from work to drive you home at five-thirty?

Tana: I’m spoiled rotten!

Tana: I mean, thanks, I can’t wait to see you.

An hour later I parked in the lot in front of the eye clinic. It really did look like a nice place. As I walked in, I saw that the row of large framed nature photos had the same clean silver frames as the pictures in her apartment.

I could see what Tana had meant about them shrinking the waiting room to make room for an eyewear display area. It still looked nice, and I could tell that the stack of art books and little stone sculptures were her choices.

There was nobody around, but I heard men’s voices from one of the side doorways. Oddly, it sounded like one of them was talking about building something.

As the door opened, I was already smiling, hoping that it was Tana.

Seeing the scruffy, blank-eyed face of Jim Wright coming out the door was the last thing I would have expected. A man in a long white jacket who must have been the doctor stepped out behind him, then a phone rang.

“I’ll be out in just a minute,” he said, going back and closing the door.

“Little Tyler,” Jim drawled. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m picking up my girlfriend,” I said. Looking around, I hoped that she would appear immediately so that we could get away.

“Really?” he asked, squinting. He clearly didn’t believe me. “You’re not here to quote on the job?”

“What–”

A huge smile slid across Jim’s smug face as Tana came out of the back room.

She smiled the second she saw me, which warmed my heart for a split second until she looked over at Jim and actually flinched.

“Hey, darlin’,” Jim said, stepping toward her, “You can tell Doc Brannigan that I’m giving you the best possible price for the new shelving and cabinets in the storage room. You don’t need this guy to give you a quote as well.”

She came closer, standing beside me. “What on earth are you talking about?” she hissed at him.

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