Page 27 of Bite and See

“Aren’t.”

“Aren’t who?”

Lorena grinned. “Aren’t ya going to buy me lunch?”

“Lorena, that’s an awful joke.”

Lorena blushed. “I know. I’m not good at telling jokes. But I am hungry.” She pointed to her watch and winked.

“Right. Are you telling me I’m a slave driver?”

“Possibly. Do you want to come with me? I’m going over to that diner on 4th. Montreal smoked meat sandwich with a Coke.”

Thomas chuckled. “No. I’m good. See these piles of papers you shoveled my way? I’ll work over lunch to get caught up.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you decided to totally revamp the pride’s rules and regs.”

“True. Now, be off with you before I change my mind and make you miss lunch too.”

Lorena fake saluted, smiled, and strolled away.

Thomas watched her every move. The way she used her hands to talk. The way she walked. The way her eyes would spark before she tried to make a joke to lighten his mood.

With so much riding on his shoulders as pride leader, Thomas needed an assistant like Lorena. A woman who could remind him that not everything was doom and gloom.

Left alone to do his work, he reached for a pile of file folders he had expressly put into his inbox to be dealt with first. As his hand went for them, he saw they were not in the inbox but piled to one side. Thomas knew he did not move the files. His hackles went up.

Thomas looked left and right, along his desk, and around the room.

Nothing else is wrong. Odd. Nobody is in here to move my papers.

Thomas leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. Then he remembered the micro cameras he had placed around the office after it was determined the pride had been corrupted by members more loyal to themselves than to the group. A crackdown was needed. And with it came the hidden CCTVs.

Thomas snapped his fingers, slid his chair forward, and dialed up the monitors. Lunchtime would be the ideal moment to examine the recent footage. No one was around to see him do it.

He had placed four micro cameras in the four corners of the office so every square inch would be covered. On his computer screen appeared four feeds. He entered an inspection filter to cover the last work week.

As the memory aligned with the filter, the feeds began to play.

They showed normal, everyday happenings in the office.

Daryl, his beta, coming and going with the latest developments in the pride realignment.

Lorena flitting in and out, talking to Thomas about various administrative tasks and handing over and receiving back files and signed documents.

All are in order on an average workweek in the pride HQ.

Then, on the last day, yesterday, Thomas watched as the back right corner monitor picked up Lorena coming into his office while he was elsewhere. She held a pile of folders close to her chest, walked around his desk, laid some down, and picked some up.

Lorena did that all the time. It was her job to hand him documents and retrieve them once he was finished. Nothing Thomas saw from the footage looked odd or out of the ordinary.

Yet there was no getting around it. The only three people who ever entered his office were Thomas, Lorena, and Daryl. Thomas knew he wasn’t losing his mind, and he’d trust his life with Lorena and Daryl.

He looked over at the folder pile lying to the left of the inbox.

Had they fallen out of the box, and Lorena or Daryl merely piled them back up?

In a moment of distraction, had I moved them myself? Taking them from the box, intent on dealing with them. Then became distracted and never put them back?

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