Page 79 of Forged in Peril

Just as she thought she’d gathered enough courage to head back to her office, however, the one person she least wanted to see–save Cameron himself–stepped into the bathroom.

She forced a smile onto her face as Grace sidled up beside her, setting her makeup bag on the edge of a sink and beginning to pull out what looked to be about twenty different products.

“Hey,” Grace said, sounding cheerful as she reached for a tube of foundation. “I look like trash. I was running late, and I decided to just get ready here to save time, but the lighting in the gym ishorrible.”

Bristol nodded, noticing that Grace looked incredible without doing anything to get ready at all. She stole a quick glance at her watch. It was still early. Maybe Grace had miraculously made it all the way up here without hearing about her and Cameron’s screaming match.

Still, she was glad that she was more focused on applying dabs of concealer cream to her own face rather than looking over at Bristol’s bloodshot eyes.

“And your first choice of alternative makeup application station was here in the upper dungeon?” she joked, cringing at the hollowness in her voice.

She had to get a grip. No matter how furious she was at Cameron, walking out without a job and burning bridges in her wake was not something she could afford to do.

She leaned on her mother enough as it was. Becoming unemployed without another job lined up was out of the question. She just had to stay out of Cam’s way until she figured out her next move.

“Actually, today I’m hiding from Gabe,” she said matter-of-factly. “He made me promise to organize the reception desk before the morning clients start rolling in. Apparently, and I quote, he ‘hired the part-time front desk staff to work at a security firm, not a waste-disposal-depot-slash-Sephora-clearance-aisle’. The absolute nerve!”

Despite her mood, Bristol couldn’t help but to laugh.

On her first day at FBS, she’d assumed that the front desk must have been as sleek and aesthetically pleasing as the rest of the reception area, but that illusion was shattered the first time she stepped behind it to chat with Grace.

There were body sprays, makeup items, and knick-knacks everywhere, not to mention an endless supply of empty takeout cups and food wrappers. She hadn’t glimpsed Grace’s computer setup, but she had a feeling that she probably had about two hundred icons cluttering the desktop.

“I feel like you’re hiding from someone at least once a week.”

“I can’t help it. It’s not my fault that no one else understands my systems,” Grace said, opening her mouth wide as she combed mascara onto her long lashes. “Just because Gabe can’t understand my setup doesn’t mean that I don’t have one that works.”

Bristol shook her head as she gestured toward one of Grace’s powder compacts. “Can I borrow this?”

Without a word, Grace handed her a makeup brush, and she got to work attempting to conceal some of the redness. The powder was too dark, but she doubted it could look much worse than she already did.

She felt a flicker of guilt for comparing FBS to her hometown. Despite her penchant for gossip, it was clear that Grace Hinton had been a real friend to her since day one. And while she obviously couldn’t keep working here, she owed it to everyone else to try and find out what was going on before she left, including with Jaclyn. If the danger didn’t leave with her and someone else got hurt, she’d never be able to forgive herself.

“Anyway, I told Gabe that I was going to clean it, and that I was just waiting for some cute organizing stuff I ordered to get here in the mail, but he wasn’t sympathetic.”

“Yeah, somehow I can imagine that.”

Grace swiped a coat of lipgloss on and began tossing the products she’d used back into her still half-full bag. “Oh, speaking of procrastination, I also need to simultaneously finalize the Grapas order in the next hour so I can get everything on the Friday truck, since I have to be at this boring course in Austin for most of the day.”

“You need a clone. Or to be in two places at once.”

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, Bristol froze.

A memory came flooding back in an instant, crowding out everything else that had been crowding her brain that morning. She felt as though she’d walked out into a sunny day after being lost in shadow, blinded by clarity.

The impossible nightmare of a puzzle she’d been dealing with for the past few months began to click into place.

“I know I was supposed to be done, like, two weeks ago. But I lost some stuff, and then there was a glitch, and I had to redo some of it. So, if you could ask your people in legal if they had any final things they need, that would be super helpful,” Grace was saying, reaching into her purse and drawing out a curling iron and a huge can of hairspray.

Bristol nodded, struggling to comprehend the words.

“Right, yeah,” she said, swallowing hard. “I’ll do it first thing. I have to get back over there now, actually.”

She made a show of staring down at her watch, the numbers not even registering in her brain.

“Sounds good,” Grace said, humming to herself as she began wrapping a thick strand of blonde hair around the barrel of the iron.

“I’ll see you later,” Bristol said, her black flats squeaking on the tile floor as she rushed out of the bathroom.

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