Page 18 of Possess

“Sir?”

“Beer, please. Whatever is on tap.” The waiter walked away.

“I hope you don’t mind that I ordered alcohol.” Allyson’s gaze was on him.

“I ordered a beer.” He didn’t peg her as a gin and tonic girl, but Allyson had some hidden depths to her.

“Not hard alcohol, like mine.”

The waiter returned with their drinks. Zeke waited until Allyson took a sip of her drink before he spoke. “Want to tell me what happened at the office?” He knew sometimes it helped to talk about things.

She took another sip. “The plans you showed me at the site and the ones on file were different.”

Zeke blinked. “That’s not possible. I know I filed the right plans.”

“I’m sure you did.” Her hand fluttered to the table as if she was stopping herself from reaching out to him. “I told my boss about it.”

“What did he say?”

“He’s looking into it. The green space specs were missing.” Her fingers tapped against the tabletop. “The thing is, I can see faint lines that showed the green space.”

“The complaint said environmental, but the protesters kept talking about taking away green space.” He wondered who might want to do this to him. His former employer?

“Since the plans are publicly available by request, I’m assuming they saw them, hence the protest and complaint.”

“Now what can we do?” He ran his hand around the back of his neck. He couldn’t afford too many more delays. After the accident today, Gavin had given him preliminary clearance, but Zeke chose to close the site down while the board did their full investigation.

“If you get me copies of the right plans, I’ll file them myself. Then we can post a notice at the construction site for the complaint, showing the new green space and the error on the plans has been fixed.”

“Will that work?” He’d never had to deal with this before. Gavin had gone over the area and told Zeke it looked like a simple accident. He took some soil samples, but looking at the angle of the backhoe, he suspected some sort of mechanical issue had put the backhoe off balance.

Zeke was still concerned. He made sure all his equipment was inspected, but as Gavin reminded him, belts break without warning. Until the backhoe was lifted out of the hole, he couldn’t tell for sure.

“It usually does.” Allyson said.

“You’ve had these happen before?”

“Complaints and protesters, yes. Usually, I don’t see the complaints, but this one came through to us because of the way it was phrased.”

The waiter approached, and Allyson sighed. “I have no idea what I want to eat.”

“Anything you don’t like?” Zeke asked.

“Mushrooms, anchovies, that’s pretty much it. Why?”

Zeke glanced at the waiter. “Give us a few minutes.”

“Of course, sir.” The waiter moved away.

“Will you allow me to order for you?” He was taking a risk here, but he wanted to see how she’d react.

“I’m not sure, Zeke.” Confusion rushed over her face.

“I understand.” While his Dom side was chafing at the bit, he pushed it away. As much as he wanted to take care of her, she was her own woman.

“Let’s see.” Allyson picked up the menu. “Is the prime rib good?”

She was asking his opinion. “The best.”

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