Wounded Animals (Whistleblower Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

the toaster oven tray in aluminum foil so it doesn’t get cheese and burnt bread crust all over it? I wished I had aluminum foil for my face to speak with Wyatt.
    I thought of the curve of her belly when I’d last seen her. “She’s getting there. Won’t be too much longer now.”
    “First babies’ll do a number on you. I didn’t know what was going on for the first three months, tell you what. Don’t know how I kept my mind straight, sleeping an hour or two a night like that. Second babies are much easier. You figure out the art of the power nap by that point. You’ll be sneaking out to your car at lunchtime, drooling on your dashboard like an invalid.”
    I gave him a little chuckle, just as I was supposed to do. Felt tired, and a burger and fries from the hotel bar were calling my name. I raised my eyebrows, hoping he’d get to the point already.
    “You’ve had a long day, and you’re probably itching to get out of here. I get it. I won’t keep you long. Just wanted to do a pulse check on you real quick, see if maybe you’ve reconsidered our offer.”
    I still didn’t even understand why they wanted me so badly. “I appreciate the follow-up, Wyatt, but my answer is still no. Grace and I discussed it and we want to stay in Colorado.”
    His toothy smile twitched and his eyes fell. He kept his lips curled, but I could see the venom behind those eyes. “That’s what I figured. At least take my shiny new business card. Got a new number there, in case you need to talk.”
    He slipped it across the desk, and I read it over. Wyatt Green, COO IntelliCraft Solutions . I hadn’t even known they’d added the solutions bit before that.
    He stood up and wiped his hands on his jeans. The cube-dwellers were required to wear slacks or something similar, but I supposed Wyatt could wear whatever he wanted. “Can’t blame me for trying, though, can you?”
    I got to my feet and shook his hand. “Not at all. I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll see you in the hallways.”
    His grip punished my poor knuckles. “I’m sure you will. Good night now, Candle.”
     
    ***
     
    The burger was juicy, but the french fries were limp and undercooked. Just my luck; when I really needed crisp french fries to lift my spirits, they hadn’t delivered.
    I pushed the mound of ketchup around the plate with the fries, determined to drain some satisfaction from them anyway.
    I liked that the bartender didn’t ask me about my day or my long face or anything of the kind. He just brought my food, refilled my water, and left me alone. Given that I was the only person at the bar, I’d expected intrusion, but he just waited at the other end until I tossed a look at him. He’d get a big tip for that.
    After dinner, I rode the elevator to the fourth floor and had to slide my keycard into the door at least five times to get it to open. The Beachwood was a posh hotel, much nicer than the places they’d arranged for me when I started coming to Dallas for training. That was before they realized they needed to butter me up. Now that I’d already said no several times, I wondered if there might not be a geisha girl waiting for me on the other side of the door to give me a happy ending and ask me to reconsider my future employment.
    Baby on the way, wife going to be out of work for weeks or months, was I crazy to turn down a job, even if it meant moving here? What if Grace decided she didn’t want to go back to work? How long could we get by on our savings and unemployment checks?
    What if I couldn’t find another job for months?
    The tension in my neck and jaw returned as I opened the door. There was no geisha girl waiting for me, instead only an icy cold room. Cleaning people, most likely, had cranked up the air conditioner and left it on when they finished.
    I turned it off, slipped under the bed’s down comforter, and took out my phone. Composed a new text to Grace.
     
    Wyatt made another run at me. Not happy my