Page 44 of Billionaire's Dangerous Desire

Back at myoffice I thought of the possibility of this anonymous user and the bandit being in coalition or worse still being the same person. I needed to do some digging.

“Matteo can I borrow your tablet?”

He rolls his eyes.

“I’ll let you have my cup of coffee during lunch break.” I would never let him have coffee because his dad wouldn’t approve but he didn’t need to know that now.

“Fine.” He hands me his tablet and before it closes I see the video he was watching.

“What’s that video?”

“Nothing.” I look at him.

“Fine. I wanted to see how cool I looked skateboarding. Please don’t tell my dad he doesn’t know about me skateboarding. He was pretty good. But that wasn’t the point of the video. It was in the background. It was suspicious. I had to tell the others.

“I’m sorry Matteo but I might break just this one promise” I say walking straight to his dads office with the tablet.

I show it to them and they take a while to understand what was going on.

“Okay, play it again.” Luca says.

“How did you get this?” Ryan asks in surprise. In the video it shows a guy walking out of a store with cans and cans of spray paint. He doesn’t turn so the camera doesn’t capture his face but I recognize who it is from his hair. Those loose curls. The walking step. It was Troy.

Luca convinced us that the best thing we could do was show the video to the police and we did. Troy couldn’t be the bandit. The only incident that they could link him to was the sprinkler accident at the coffee shop which didn’t make any sense. They’d probably let him go if he had a convincing enough alibi.

* * *

Plansfor the fundraiser had begun. Truth be told, I didn’t really understand why it was such a big deal. I open my phone to see another text from Holden.

We really need to talk. Please.

I was almost done for the day. I was exhausted and I just didn’t have the energy to talk to him at that moment, so I ignored it. There was a place and time for everything and this was simply not it.

ChapterEighteen

As I scrolled through twitter I saw more and more posts that were meant to be derogatory about the mayor. It was disturbing and Luca’s dismissive attitude towards it only infuriated me the more. Somebody had a dirty game going on and I was going to catch it’s stink. The supplies we needed for the fundraiser were already being transported to the venue, we just needed volunteers and who better than the mayor could do the job. The idea spun itself quickly in my head. The mayors personal social media needed a revamp and I knew exactly how to do it. I just needed his permission, and his cooperation of course. I picked up my cup of coffee and walked the long distance from my office to his. Ryan was out so I knocked directly at his door.

“Hold on a minute.” He called out looking back down at the papers on his desk. He knew it was me. I could see his body tense, his jaw flex as he signed those papers in utmost concentration. I felt something fluttering in my chest and I caught myself like I always do staring at this beauty of a man. If he had looked up right then and caught my eye he would’ve known everything I was thinking. And I mean everything. I straightened up and adjusted the collar of my shirt. This was a professional meeting, nothing more nothing less. There are more important things Evelyn, breathe.

I was about to knock the second time when he opened the door from the inside.

“Come in.” He says coyly. “Have a seat.”

He stood at his side of the desk.

“I have a suggestion. I think you should consider it.” The voice I’d prepared to speak with came out squeaky, less firm, less sure of what it wanted to be.

“I’m listening.” He says. He sits and exhales and I watched as tension eased away from his features. His face became less taut.

“The prankster has taken to dragging the credibility of your image and your mayorship on social media. Now I know you show little concern for that, you made it very clear at the last board meeting. But it’s important that you combat these allegations.”

I had expected a complete and immediate dismissal of the proposition, but he seemed to want to know more. That was a good sign.

“Would fighting it not make it true?” He asks, reclining on his seat.

“Hear me out. Originally you’ve pursued no interest in building an image as the mayor on social media. This might be an opportunity for that.” He smirks.

“Now tell me, why would I need ‘an image’?” I could swear that he was intentionally making this output difficult for me and that if we weren’t in an office setting he would’ve made air quotation marks as he stressed on ‘an image’. Was I seeing a childish side to Mr Mayor?

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