Page 394 of Under Her Skin
“You look radiant, boss. Anything to do with that gorgeous man ofyours?”
Ama grinned, but they were soon bogged down in work. Enda called her as he was about to catch hisflight.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay? I’ll be back around tentonight.”
Ama smiled down the phone. “Honestly, baby, I’m fine. We have a ton of work, so I might be working latemyself.”
As it turned out,she was right. The paperwork involved in her handing over her classes to the new teacher which kept her busy all day, and she blinked up at Lena as she came into theoffice.
“Lena, go home. I gotthis.”
Lena shook her head. “Nah, you stay, I stay. I thought I might skip out and get some coffee for us and Trevor and Dustin. Maybe asandwich?”
“God, that sounds good. Are you sure you don’tmind?”
Lena grinned. “Not atall.”
Ama grabbed her purse. “At least let me give you somemoney.”
“Don’t worry about it. Be right back. Ham and turkey on rye,right?”
“You’re anangel.”
Lena gave her a strange smile, then left. Ama pondered her expression for a moment, then shrugged and went back to herwork.
She was so absorbedin what she was doing, that when Lens brought the food and coffee back, she forgot about the drink until it was cold. She picked idly at thesandwich.
“Isn’t itgood?”
She looked up to see Lena at the door. “No, it’s lovely, Lena. Sorry. I got distracted. Did youeat?”
Lena nodded. “I’ll put that coffee in a microwave if you like? Reheatit?”
Ama glanced at the cold coffee cup and wrinkled her nose. “No, it’s okay. It’s never the same. Sorry for forgetting aboutit.”
Lena shrugged. “It’s no problem.” She hesitated at the door and Ama smiled at herruefully.
“Seriously, Lena, you should go home. I’m almost donehere.”
“Then I’ll wait.” She went out of the door and Ama frowned. Lena was acting …weirdly? Was that the right word? Usually her younger friend would be out of the door as soon as office hours were over, ready to party all night with her friends. Ama didn’t know how she had the energy to do that and still be early for work everymorning.
Ama stood and stretched her aching body. The two glass walls of her office, which looked over the conservatory’s atrium, reflected her own image back at her now that the atrium was indarkness.
A thump came from outside of her office, and she glanced around, expecting Lena to poke her head around the door and apologize for dropping something. Instead, she heard a muffled cry and darted to the door. Tugging it open, she saw a masked man grabbingLena.
“Hey!” Anger and adrenaline rushed through Ama as she went to help her friend, wondering where the hell Trevor and Dustin were. She body-slammed the guy, who was twice her size, and he dropped Lena, but grabbed Ama and tackled her, shoving her back into heroffice.
Ama staggered back, and the man was on her, driving his fist into her stomach. Ama couldn’t get her breath and Lena attacked the man from behind as Ama tried tostand.
The man knocked Lena across her desk, and as Ama rushed at him, he grabbed her and slammed her down onto herdesk.
Amalia kicked him hard in the balls and the man went down. Ama slid from the desk and ran to help Lena. She almost made it. As Lena screamed, Ama was grabbed frombehind.
“No! Don’t hurther!”
But her attacker threw Ama full-force through the plate glass window. The glass shattered and Ama slumped to thefloor.
Pain. So muchpain.
