Page 9 of The Sicilian's Obsession
Rebecca pouted, but I had stopped paying attention to her. Somewhere during this exchange, Katima had left me there to deal with Rebecca and hadn't even shown me the items I needed. I headed to the door and scanned my badge but didn't actually set foot in the lab. She was bent over a microscope, a frown marring her tiny face. It distracted me from her big glasses falling down her nose.
I called, "Katima?" I waited for her to look up. Her eyes weren't as warm as they were this morning in the kitchen. "Aren't you going to show me where the booties are?" I expected her to text me in response. Instead, she walked to the closet and grabbed the items, handing them to me without a single sound. She didn't even look me in the eyes. I left my boots underneath the badge scanner and put my sneakers on, slipping the booties on before I walked into her space. Katima mimed washing my hands and I was confused. She was cold. As cold as she was in the diner yesterday, and I was lost. She couldn't be jealous, could she?
Without another word, I headed to the sink and washed my hands, then I went straight into the office. I had too much work on my plate to figure out what I did to offend the princess. I called my second in command, Jake, who was taking care of everything on the company front while I was in the field.
Jake answered jovially, "Boss man! How goes the babysitting?"
Gruffly, I said, "It's not babysitting. There is a real threat. I just don't know what it is yet."
"You okay, boss? You sound a little tense." Jake could always tell when I was on edge. He was like a mood ring. From my voice, my body language, even just the look in my eyes, he could figure out how I was feeling before I could even say anything. It was one of the reasons he was such a good asset to my company. He also was a people person, which made him get along with anyone I put him with when teaming up.
"No, the father is keeping information from me. He evades me every time I try to question him about the threat. I think we need to dig deeper into him. On top of that, I need tech out here to take care of security for the house and the set up. I am going to send you the information so you can dispatch who you need to."
I could hear Jake scribbling notes down. He was always efficient. It made delegating tasks to him a lot simpler.
"Anything else?"
I was wracking my brain to see what else I could possibly need when an idea struck. My gut was telling me to do this, so I went with it. "Actually, yeah. I know most of our agents are in the field, but we need to put together a team to help me out here, in case the threat level rises. I want us to go through everyone and see who will be available within a month. Then we'll have at least five to ten on standby should I end up with my hands full."
Jake was making agreeable noises, which meant he was probably already pulling up files. He said, "Roger that." We both signed off and I accessed Katima's emails from the computer in front of me. She should have a password on this thing. I know her whole lab used a badge scanner, but badges could be stolen. She needed to change security at her lab as well, not only to protect herself but also to protect her work. Sure, this was just a candy factory, but there were all sorts out in the world. With greed running rampant in the world, one could never be too careful. Jake would call me jaded. Whatever the case, my little princess needed more protection. Wait, my? She was not mine in any way, shape, or form. Just a client, that was all Katima Sweets could be to me. Nothing more. Nothing less.
