Boss I Love to Hate: An Office Romance(6)

“Sonia?” He took a step toward me.

Immediately, I stood, embarrassed that I had gotten caught on the phone and fuming beyond belief that my friends had betrayed me and, more than that, devastated at the realization that I would see Jeff and his new girlfriend—the Replacement—in almost three weeks, at one of my supposed best friend’s weddings.

“Sorry, I need to use the ladies’ room.” I averted my eyes, taking the iPad with me. Then, I walked stiffly toward the door, not looking back.





Chapter 2





Brad





Meetings went by in a flash, and I had secured two new clients to add to our portfolio. Before I knew it, I was out the door and in my Aston Martin, driving home. Win-win on my part. Like there was any doubt. I was damn good at my job.

Being the VP of acquisition at our printing company, sales and acquisitions were my strong suit. Maybe not numbers, maybe not financials, and not even being tactful in real life, but selling a client on our product or acquiring a new company to merge with ours was where I excelled. It was where I thrived and got my natural high. I could seal the deal and sell practically anything to anybody. I could sell condoms to nuns if I wanted to. Not to be cocky, but it was true.

I left the city skyscrapers behind me, heading home to the suburbs.

The car phone beeped, indicating an incoming call.

“Charles calling,” the automated woman on the receiver announced.

“Big brother!” I smiled. “How is the honeymoon going? And, anyway, what the hell are you doing, calling me from Jamaica?” It was only day four of their almost-month-long honeymoon.

“Hi.” Charles’s voice was rushed and nervous and nothing like my typical older brother. “I just wanted to check on the girls.”

“I’m not home yet. Did you try the house or Annie’s or Sarah’s cell?”

Sarah, my twelve-year-old niece, had had a cell phone at eight. It was what the cool kids did. Annie was the sitter, the hired no-help.

Charles and Becky didn’t want to burden Mason and me, so they’d hired a sitter. The worst sitter. The sitter they’d found via an overpriced and overrated agency. Watching my nieces wasn’t a burden. They couldn’t be a burden if I wanted to do it. My nieces were my joy outside of work, my vacation in the everyday grind of things.

The babysitter. Did I trust her? Nope. Not when the first thing she’d asked me when she came over to watch the girls was if she could have some friends over. I gave her a look. A look that shut her down fast. I ignored her. It had either been that or fire her before she even started.

“Annie’s not picking up. None of them are. I think Sarah’s phone is dead.” Charles’s tone tightened, the wind muffling his voice through the receiver. I could picture him pacing through the sand, the clear blue waters of the ocean his backdrop.

When they’d left, I had guaranteed them everything would be fine and stay under control. My brother deserved some time off, and for fuck’s sake, he was a newlywed.

“I’m pulling through the gates right now. Calm down,” I told him. “I’ll call you when I’m home.”

He would have fun on his damn honeymoon if I could help it. Mason and I’d made a pact to not bother Charles for a single thing regarding the girls, and we’d made Charles promise he would call only once a day if that.

“Don’t worry; everything is fine.” Then, I hung up, waved to Jerry—our security guard—and drove through our gated community.

The large, grassy area and manicured hedges highlighted the beauty and massiveness of our neighborhood. I drove down the long driveway, which widened into a circle that encompassed Brisken Estate.

The first thing I noticed was that Annie the babysitter’s car wasn’t in the front. Instead of parking in the garage, I parked right by the steps of the house and hurried to unlock the door.

“Honey, I’m home.” I punched in the code to the alarm and stepped into the foyer, my eyes flying to the chandelier above us and to the double winding staircase that led to my nieces’ rooms.

Nothing.

No screaming. No laughing. No music. No TV.

Just silence.

Usually, my nieces were bickering or laughing or fighting. But never, ever silent. The babysitter had a schedule, and tonight the schedule meant homework and dinner.

Tiny goose bumps prickled my neck, and unsettling nausea built in my gut.

I plucked my phone from my back pocket, dialing Annie’s number, but the call went straight to voice mail.

“Mary? Sarah?” I rushed to the winding staircase, searching for my little people.

My younger brother’s car was not in the driveway. I called him, and when he picked up, I was breathless, already running upstairs to their rooms.

“Mason?” I pushed open Sarah’s door. Nothing.

“Yeah?”

“You got the girls with you?”

My mind didn’t usually go to the worst possible scenarios, but given that the babysitter that Charles and Becky had hired was absolutely inconsiderate and irresponsible, I had no choice. She didn’t exactly calm my nerves.

“No! They’re not home? Did you try Annie? Sarah’s cell? Are they all not answering?”

I stopped in the middle of Mary’s room and picked up her Ariel princess doll.