Page 19 of Beastly Boss

“Oh, yeah. No worries, though. I’m being takenrealgood care of.” I swear I can hear her smiling over the phone.

“What does that mean?” I say with a soft laugh. “Last time we talked, you were upset that your boss was sending you up a mountain to do a property assessment.”

“Yup. Best thing that ever happened to me.”

“What? Why?” I’m more confused than ever, but at least I’m not thinking about Aurelio. Mostly.

“Long story, but it has a happy ending.”

“Nuh-uh, I need more information,” I tell her. A deep voice rumbles over the phone, slightly muffled as if the person is in another room.

“Gotta go,” Sadie says. “I promise I’ll catch you up on everything later. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m positive,” I lie through my teeth. My friend seems happy for the first time in ages, and I don’t want to bring her down. Sadie deserves all the happiness she can get.

We hang up, and I flop back down on my couch, unsure of what to do with myself. It’s Saturday, so I don’t have class to distract me. I could visit the university greenhouse and check on my final project. There isn’t much to do since the plant samples are already maturing beautifully, but I should probably double-check. I may even need to start a whole new project. Might as well take advantage of the school’s equipment while I still have access, right?

Half an hour later, I’m in the lab in the back of the greenhouse, taking samples and making notes of my hybrid plant. It’s only been two days since I last checked on my beauties, but they’ve already grown so much.

Two of the plants have started to flower, which is a huge breakthrough. I wasn’t sure if I got the right plant DNA transferred to make the hybrid bloom, but it appears I did.

The stem of the plant is thick and textured with vertical ridges, much like a cactus. Every centimeter or so is a thorn that separates into three sharp points. The stem has small buds surrounding its tip, each one stacked on the other for five rows, almost like lavender buds. The first bud at the tippy top has burst open, the flower a familiar spiraling pattern of petals similar to the dahlia.

“Incredible,” I whisper to myself. It’s even more amazing than I had hoped. My eyes start to water the longer I stare at my creation. What an apt metaphor for Aurelio and me.

He’s this strong, resilient, often prickly person, and I’m… softer. Delicate, like he told me this morning. I still don’t thinkthat’s a bad thing. Just look at how masterfully those qualities merged to create something so beautiful.

Everything comes together in this moment, like I’ve popped out of the Matrix, and I’ve finally seen the pieces of the puzzle snapping into place. I have to go back to Aurelio. I have to show him this plant and explain the revelation I just had.

I grab a plastic nursery pot from the stack in the corner of the desk and carefully remove one of the ten samples I’ve been growing all year. I only had to do six for the experiment, but years of working on things like this has taught me to always do extra.

Once I’ve successfully potted the hybrid, I place it in a small cardboard box that will protect it during transfer. I gently put the box in my backpack and start my walk across campus to catch the next bus heading to Aurelio’s part of town.

I barely make it five steps before I’m suddenly jerked to the side by a large hand wrapped around my upper arm. “What–”

“Shut up and get in the van,” a familiar voice says. I look over my shoulder and recoil when I see the officer from yesterday.Was it really just yesterday?

His fingers dig into my flesh, and I bite back a whimper. The man shoves me forward, and I have a moment of déjà vu from my nightmare.This can’t be happening. This cannot be happening to me.

When my shoulder and hip hit the hard flooring of the van, I’m made painfully aware of how real this situation is. Unlike in my dream, my hands aren’t tied up. I scramble backward until I hit the side of the vehicle, then hold my hands out in front of me to block any violence this man might throw my way. Huge mistake.

The man, I think his name is Chase, grabs my outstretched hands and puts cuffs on my wrists. God, I’m such an idiot.

I’m not sure where we’re headed, but I’m at least smart enough not to ask questions. These men know how to make a body disappear. Not only that, they’re also the law. They can stall an investigation indefinitely if they want to.

“Home sweet home,” Chase says. The van comes to a stop, and I give him a questioning look. He wrenches open the door and tosses me out. I land on the driveway pavement of my father’s house with a thud. A rough hand grabs me by the hair and yanks me up until I’m standing.

I look around, hoping someone driving by might see me or a nosy neighbor spying from their window. I’m greeted with complete stillness and the kind of quiet that is somehow deafening. There’s no one around to hear me scream.

One officer opens the front door while the other pushes me inside. I trip over the doorstep and catch myself on my knees before face-planting onto the hardwood floor.

“Kimbra!” my dad yells. “Kimbra, Jesus…”

I scramble toward his voice, looking up when I see the boots he always wears to work. My father is also in cuffs, though his hands are behind his back, unlike mine. He has a bloody nose and what looks like the beginning of a nasty black eye.

“Dad,” I choke out as I scoot up next to him. “What are they going to do?”

He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t have to. The look of abject terror and sorrow in his eyes tells me everything I need to know. I’ve never seen him this afraid of anything, and more importantly, I’ve never seen him on the verge of tears.We’re fucked.

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