Page 55 of Bossy Trouble

Something about the stranger was bugging me, and I couldn’t identify what it was.

Or was it Donovan’s reaction? Almost like he was…afraid?

No. Donovan wasn’t afraid of anything.

But he’d looked more than a little concerned.

I tried to focus my energy back on my work, going through the documents one by one to see what needed to be done today. One document needed Donovan’s signature, and I decided to use that as an opportunity to stretch my legs. I walked to his office. Thankfully, Ellen was not by her desk when I got there. I didn’t want another confrontation today. I was all tuckered out.

I was about to knock on Donovan’s door when I hesitated. He said he didn’t want to be interrupted. Did that include me? Was he still in the meeting? I pressed my ears to the door to see if I could hear any voices or make out anything that was going on.

The voices were faint, but I could just make out the words.

“…take over…”

“…will. But you cannot come back here….you cannot be seen with me….”

“…the police cannot know….”

I had no clue what they were talking about. I heard maybe every other word, but it was enough to paint a picture that made me distinctly uncomfortable.

The police? Why were they talking about the police? And what didn’t Donovan want them to know?

I recalled the meeting with Alexander, how he’d been so sure that Donovan was up to something illegal. Could he be right? Was Donovan in some kind of trouble?

“What are you doing?”

I jumped back at the sound of the voice from the other side of the office, turning to see Ellen standing there with a disapproving frown on her face.

Even with my heart beating, I tried to recover quickly, holding up the paper in my hand. “I need Donovan to sign these. I wanted to see if he was still in his meeting.”

She eyed me suspiciously. “Are you sure that was all you were doing?”

I raised my eyebrow. “What else would I be doing?”

“It sure looked like you were spying.”

“Well, I wasn’t.” Shit. I said that a little too quickly. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, I’m just going to come back later. Would it be too much to ask you to call when he’s free?”

“Oh, I can call,” she said the last part in a sweet voice as a sickening smile crossed her face. She looked like the cat that ate the canary.

God, I just gave her something on me, didn’t I?

I sighed with regret. Well, there was no use crying about spilled milk now. The mistake was already made, so I simply nodded crisply with a “thanks” and went back to my office.

I didn’t get much work done for the rest of the day. I knew I would be distracted, so I only focused on the stuff that required little skill and concentration, transcribing today’s activities into the computer.

As hard as I tried, my mind kept drifting to Donovan’s words back there in the office.

What did it all mean?

What was Donovan doing with that man?

Even with the itching curiosity, I wasn’t going to say anything about it on the way home.

Donovan usually made Kenny drive me home after work and then drove himself with his car, but on days like this, when we finished around the same time, we often went home together. Today, we took his BMW.

It was sunset as we drove, and rain fell in soft pellets against the windows. Donovan was significantly quiet. He kept glancing from the road to his phone, his eyebrow furrowed like he was trying to solve a problem, and nothing was coming to him. Every once in a while, he would heave out a heavy frustrated sigh and clench his fists around the wheel.

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