Chapter 14 #2
She didn’t dare move, even if she believed that if Berking came back, Alexander would stall him again and she’d be able to hide.
Her ears strained for hints of his return.
Her neck, twisted into a strange angle by her hunched position, began to cramp.
She finally forced herself to move, and as she pushed aside the heavy chair blocking her, she saw a piece of paper had been caught in the corner drawer from which Berking had retrieved his checkbook, wedging it in the back of the desk.
Saffron tugged on it, and it ripped, the sound so loud and shocking in the silent office that she jolted to her feet.
Holding her breath, she waited for sounds of approaching footsteps.
When nothing came, she stood up, stretching her neck this way and that, then rubbing at her knees, which burned from crawling across the carpet.
Her stockings were likely ruined. She switched off the lamp and crossed the room to leave.
Her hand had barely touched the door when she stopped, glancing down at the corner of paper she’d ripped.
The letters and numbers on the paper didn’t mean much, but it was clear that it was a formula of some kind.
Where fear had been a moment before, suspicion crept back in.
Pursing her lips, Saffron frowned at the desk. Could she risk another few minutes?
She’d already come this far.
Saffron turned around and hurried back to the desk.
With the light back on, she unlocked the top drawer and slid it out, feeling the catch of the paper as she did so.
Carefully, she inched her hand as far back into the drawer as it would go.
Her fingertips met the scrunched paper. She tugged and wiggled, but she got nothing but another torn edge, frustratingly blank, and feathered bits.
Disappointed, Saffron looked to the checkbook, flipping through his receipts.
She found it odd that Berking left it in his desk drawer, but he would not be the first to try to keep his spending habits in control that way.
Her uncle had done the same thing—kept his money stashed far away when he was drinking.
She found the check from today. It wasn’t addressed to Dr. Anderson, but to Rupert Glass.
She quickly nabbed a sheet of paper from the second desk drawer and copied the information; then, remembering Glass’s note she had found earlier, she copied it onto the piece of paper too.
It was too coincidental not to be the same person.
Now that she thought of it, Glass was a name she’d heard around campus before. She would check.
She replaced everything except the torn formula, which she folded into the paper, and checked each drawer to make sure they were all locked.
She replaced Pierce’s spare keys, but after two failed attempts at picking his desk drawer shut, then the office door, she gave it up as a bad job.
The cleaners would find the office door unlocked in the morning and likely think nothing of it.
Back in the hallway, she silently made her way to the stairwell.
“Well done, Ashton,” she hissed at Alexander with a mocking glare. “I was nearly caught!”
He pressed a finger to his lips, and she followed him down the stairs and to his office. Just as she turned to him with a triumphant smile, ready to share her discoveries, Alexander closed the office door, enveloping them in darkness before he crossed to his desk and flicked on the lamp.
He sat in the middle of the couch and nodded next to him in invitation. Saffron, unsure of his enigmatic half smile, sunk onto a cushion. He stretched an arm behind her.
Clearing her throat against the sudden nerves she felt, Saffron began to describe what she’d found, but the look Alexander gave her effectively dried up her words.
“Saffron …” Alexander said, his dark eyes on her face.
“Yes?” Saffron was very aware of his nearness, the warmth of his arm not quite touching her neck. She hadn’t expected to go from breaking into an office to being stashed away in a dimly lit room with Alexander. She certainly didn’t mind.
His steady gaze was intense, confident. Alexander reached to her face and brushed back a lock of hair come loose from losing her hairpins. He tucked it behind her ear, looking at her mouth.
“I just wanted to say …” His face, golden in the dim light, drew nearer to hers.
“Y-yes?” Anticipation made her voice shake.
Inches from her, Alexander murmured, “That was a stupid thing to do.” A switch clicked on behind her, flooding the room with light and extinguishing the spark of want he’d so effectively fanned to life.
Saffron blinked at him with an open mouth. Alexander fell back onto the cushions behind him, a look of satisfaction on his face.
“Are you serious?” Saffron hissed, hitting him on the arm.
Alexander chuckled. “Not so funny, is it?”
“Oh, shut up—it was your fault I was nearly caught to begin with!” Saffron huffed, face hot. It was only fair that he got her back, but she didn’t have to admit it any time soon. “Do you want to hear about what I found or not?”
“I do,” Alexander said with a grin, “but not tonight. I need to concentrate.”
“Concentrate on what? I thought you were finished working for the night.”
“I am. I need to concentrate on cementing the look on your face into my mind. I never want to forget that.”