Page 3 of Crash
“Thank you. You’ve been very helpful,” the officer finally said. “I’m afraid I can’t let you into the building until we clear it.”
“What happened?”
“The cleaning service called us this morning to report that they found a man dead in his office.”
She stared wide-eyed at the officer, covering her mouth with a hand as the shock of the news hit her.
“Was it…?”
“I’m afraid the details are confidential.”
She nodded along as if everything he saidmade sense when, in reality, she couldn’t figure out which way was up or down anymore. He handed her his business card, got her information, and assured her he would be in contact if necessary.
She vaguely recalled getting into her car and driving back to her apartment. She’d sat on the couch in a daze until an alert pinged through her phone.
Frowning, she pulled her phone out to check the message from an unknown number.
Unknown
Dad’s in the hospital. Doc said he won’t have much longer. Thought you should know.
Only one person could be texting her.
two
GRIFFIN
The sounds of the shop closing for the evening were like music to his ears. Griffin watched as Julio and Sean left for the evening. It was just past five in the evening, and the sun was setting beyond the horizon. The daylight hours were getting shorter as summer slowly came to an end. He was not looking forward to the impending days when the sunlight disappeared even earlier. He didn’t enjoy working in the dark. The cold weather didn’t bother him too much, but the dark days were rough.
There were a few things that still needed to be done around the office before he could retire for the evening. Griffin stifled a groan at the work waiting for him. He was looking forward to putting his feet up and relaxing with a cold beer. It had been another long week. He missed the days when he didn’t have to do the bullshit paperwork, but since he’d fired Delilah a couple of months ago, the paperwork just kept piling up.
Thankfully, Julio and Sean were both competent mechanics, able to keep the shop running smoothly and complete orders on time so he could handle the administrative tasks, but, dammit, he missed the hands-on work.
Griffin wasn’t cut out for office work. He’d known from the start. Firing Delilah had been a long time coming, though. Griffin first hired her when he was desperate for some help around the office. She had been young and enthusiastic and came with a great recommendation from his long-term client, Henderson. And, begrudgingly, she was good at her job for a while.
Unfortunately, Delilah got it into her head he was interested in her romantically and wanted to pursue a more intimate relationship than one he was comfortable with.
At first, the flirting was irritating, but when it didn’t seem to work, she doubled her efforts by dressing provocatively at work. The guys all noticed—of course they did. They’d even given him a hard time about it, too. They made jokes about an illicit office affair between him and his secretary. None of which was true.
Despite his efforts to set clear professional boundaries as her boss, Delilah was frustratingly persistent. A couple of months ago, he let Julio and Sean leave work early. It had been a slow week for them, and he could finish the rest of the job by himself. He thought he’d heard Delilah leaving earlier, but the rhythmic thump of his wrenchagainst the underside of the car and the music blaring through the radio masked what he’d thought was her departure.
Imagine his surprise when someone climbed onto his lap. He’d barely resisted the urge to bolt upright and bang his head against the car.
Fingers crawled up his abdomen as Griffin quickly rolled himself out from under the car. He’d known who it was before seeing her face. He could barely suppress the rage at her audacity. He should have fired her a long time ago, but he gave her the benefit of the doubt. He could no longer ignore her advances.
“Delilah. What do you think you’re doing?” he’d bit out through a clenched jaw, forcibly removing her from his lap.
She’d pouted when he plopped her unceremoniously onto the dirty cement floor.
“I thought you sent the guys home so we could be alone together.”
Brows furrowed in confusion, he’d noticed she’d changed from what she’d been wearing earlier. Instead of the low-cut shirt and skirt she’d often wear around the office, she was now wearing a shirt so sheer that he could see the red lace of her bra.
He stood up to put some distance between them.
“You thought wrong.” Heat crawled up his neck with his repressed fury.
She scrambled to stand up, straightening her outfit and fixing her hair. He’d never once let his eyes stray. Griffin was man enough to admit she was an attractive woman, but he’d never been interested in Delilah sexually.
