Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“It’s probably easiest,” Anna says as she pats the side of her desk, “if you move your chair over here so we can look at the file together. We can figure what’s the most important to put in the database, then I’ll type it in.”
“Let’s do it,” I reply, pushing up from my chair to drag it over beside her.
As I round the desk, I take a moment to notice how pretty Anna looks today. For a sliver of time, I allow myself to appreciate the navy dress she paired with the same brown boots she wears almost every day. She has a scarf tied around her neck with her hair in a high ponytail. One thing I’ve noticed is Anna doesn’t wear much makeup… maybe just a little mascara. I like the way she has a light dusting of freckles across her nose.
The moment fades when Anna glances up. Immediately, I feel contrition for checking out my dead teammate’s wife.
Christ.
“Pop a squat,” she teases as she nods at my chair. Thank God she’s fucking oblivious.
I leave the chair where it’s at, which is a safe distance of at least two feet from hers, and toss the file on her desk. She pushes the binder away, pulls the folder closer, and opens it to study the first page.
Leaning forward in my chair, I try to read over her shoulder, but I can’t really see shit. She notices, gives me an eye roll, and says, “You can scoot your chair closer. I don’t bite.”
I know I’m being ridiculous. I move the chair beside hers until I can clearly see the documents. She reads aloud and points out a few things, but all I notice is her perfume smells really good.
Light and fresh.
Anna grabs some sticky notes. “I’m going to flag all the people we need to enter.”
Before I can respond, someone’s knocking, and we both pop our heads up to see Cage. He walks in, winks at Anna, and sticks his hand out across the desk to me. “What’s up, Mr. Admin Man? Heard you’re riding desk for a bit.”
“Just watching over Anna to make sure she does her job right,” I lob back. Cage laughs, and Anna lightly jabs me in the ribs.
I double over, exaggeratingly rubbing at my side.
“So what are you guys actually doing?” Cage asks as he plops in the other chair across the desk from us.
“Putting all past cases into Dozer’s new database,” I reply.
“That dude is crazy smart,” Cage says with an incredulous expression. “That database is actually more along the lines of artificial intelligence. It will be able to learn the plans we enacted, where mistakes were made, and come up with better solutions.”
Impressive indeed. Anna nods, continuing to go through the file. Snatching a stapled memo, I start flipping through it.
“So listen,” Cage drawls. Once again, we glance up from our work. He’s looking directly at Anna. “Um… Jaime’s starting to think it’s weird she hasn’t met any of my friends or coworkers yet.”
“Uh-huh,” Anna replies, her head dipping back down to the contents of the folder.
“And well, I’m taking her out to dinner tonight, but I thought maybe drinks would be nice first, you know?”
“Uh-huh.” I’m not even sure Anna’s paying attention to him. I have no clue who Jaime is or if I should even be a part of this conversation. It does tell me one thing, though… Anna and Cage are good friends since he’s coming to her with girl troubles.
Or maybe boy troubles. I suppose Jaime could be a guy.
“So you’ll come with me to meet her for drinks then,” he asks, but it’s not really a question. More of a statement, which is confirmed when he says, “That’s great. Thanks so much.”
Cage stands from his chair just as Anna realizes something important just happened. Her head snaps up. “Wait! What?”
“You’ll come meet Jaime and me for drinks, so she thinks I’m legit,” he says, still heading for the door.
“Wait a minute,” Anna commands. Cage stops, turning around with a sheepish smile. “Thinks your legit? Have you not told her the truth yet?”
Now I’m confused as I lobby my gaze between Cage and Anna.
Cage ducks his head as he shakes it. “Hasn’t been the right time.”
“Now would be the right time,” Anna says with a fair amount of snark.
“I can’t,” Cage replies… well, actually almost whines. “But I figure if she passes muster with you, I’ll know she could potentially be the one, then I’ll tell her.”
“Forget it,” Anna grumbles. “I’m not going to pretend to be a… what did you even tell her you do again?”
“A used-car salesman,” he admits in a low tone.
“Yeah… not doing that,” she says adamantly.
I can’t help but snicker as I think I’m figuring out the story now.
“You don’t have to pretend to be anything,” Cage maintains, holding his hands up. “Be yourself. You’ll just be coming as a good friend of mine.”