Chapter 10
The next morning, Emma woke at her usual six a.m., having forgotten about her injury.
That changed as soon as she stood, and a spike of pain radiated up her leg.
“Son of a…” she hissed, as she sat back down.
Sensing something was wrong, Ari whined and jumped off the bed. He sniffed the bandage on her leg, his eyes full of concern.
“I’m fine,” she said, ruffling the fur on the top of his head. “It’s just a scratch.”
As if to belie her words, she stood and winced as she was hit with another wave of pain.
Ari chuffed.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “Seriously. I just need a moment.”
She carefully stretched her calf, then tested her leg again. After a few halting steps, she could walk almost normally.
“See?” she said, smiling at her dog. “How about we get you outside?”
He pranced around her at once, then raced out of the bedroom.
She let Ari outside to do his business, then made herself a cup of coffee and used it to down a couple of Tylenols.
After Ari ate his breakfast, he looked at her expectantly.
Normally on Saturday mornings that weren’t too hot, she would take him on a hike through the desert. During the summer, they’d take a drive into the cooler mountains and do their walk there.
As much as she didn’t want her injury to keep her from doing the things she loved, it was probably a wise idea not to push herself today.
If she did something that made her injury worse, she might have to cancel going to the party that evening.
Not that she wanted to go, but she had promised Ronan, and they always kept their promises to each other.
“We’ll walk tomorrow,” she told Ari.
She made her way to her workshop at the back of the building and Ari chuffed in protest.
She glanced back. “Tomorrow, I promise.”
Satisfied, he trotted past her to the workshop door.
Emma spent the next hour reviewing where she had left things off with her field calibrator and determining a list of next steps. It was as she was doing the latter that she realized that she’d left a part at the office that she’d picked up the day before at lunch.
“It looks like we’re going for a ride,” she said.
Ari perked up from his workshop bed, where he’d been gnawing away at one of his toys.
Emma slid off her stool. The pain in her leg was still there, but wasn’t as intense as when she’d woken.
“Are you coming?” she asked Ari.
He jumped up and ran happily over, and together they headed out to her car.
—
Marty had gone to bed the night before still having no plan for how he was going to deal with Emma’s dog.
The thought must have festered as he’d slept, because when he woke up he had an idea, and a brilliant one at that.
Emma always brought the mutt with her to work and even had a dog bed for him in her office. Marty didn’t remember specifically seeing any dog toys, but there had to be some, right?
If he could get one, he could use it to gain the dog’s trust. Then he’d give the animal a treat with a sleeping pill in it, and after a few minutes, the dog would be out.
Or maybe it would require two pills? He’d figure it out later.
First things first. Get the toy.
He arrived at the office at a quarter to eight. As expected, the parking lot was empty, and the only person in the first-floor lobby was the weekend guard.
RRE took up the entire top floor of the four-story building. Engineering was at the east end, while the executive offices lined the north wall, giving the bigwigs a view of the wind turbine fields beyond the city.
Even though he didn’t expect anyone else to be in, Marty walked through the entire office to be sure. Once he confirmed he was alone, he made a beeline for Emma’s office in the executive section.
Unsurprisingly, her door was locked. He was prepared for this, however. One of the keys he’d copied off her key ring had been for her office, and it worked like a charm.
He hummed to himself as he ambled in, and for a moment, he allowed himself to pretend that he’d been given the head of engineering job and that this was his space.
He could imagine kicking back in the chair as he stared out at the desert, while his underlings had to go out in the heat and the wind to check the turbines and battery storage facilities. While the thought initially made him smile, his mood quickly soured. It was all a fantasy.
Not only was he going to make Emma pay for keeping him from his rightful place, but he would find a way to screw RRE, too.
But for now, he forced all of that out of his mind and focused on the task at hand.
The dog’s bed sat behind Emma’s desk. On it was a green ball and a red chew stick. As soon as he laid eyes on them, he grinned. He reached down for the stick but stopped himself, remembering that the dog would have slobbered all over it.
“Gross,” he muttered.
He looked around for something he could use to grab the ball, but Emma kept her office very neat and tidy.
He snagged a large manila envelope and a piece of copy paper from the office supply closet, then used the paper to pick up the chew stick and stuff it in the envelope.
As he stepped back into the hallway, he thought he heard a noise.
He cocked his head.
There it was again—a distant, vaguely familiar jangling.
It sounded almost like—
His eyes went wide when he realized it was the same sound the collar on Emma’s dog made.
He checked to make sure Emma’s door was locked, then began walking quickly down the hall, wanting to get out of executive territory before he was caught.
He was only a few steps away when the damn mutt sprinted around the corner. It stopped in front of him and let out a low growl.
Marty halted in his tracks. “Hey, there…dog.” He couldn’t remember the animal’s name. “I just need to get by you.”
He took a step forward, but the dog’s growl intensified, forcing him to halt once more. He noticed that the mutt didn’t seem to be looking at him so much as the manila envelope Marty was holding.
He silently cursed the dog and its superior sense of smell and slipped the envelope behind his back.
“Hey, Ari, what’s wrong?” Emma called from around the corner. A moment later, she entered the hallway and stopped in surprise. “Marty?”
“Hey, Emma,” Marty said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I don’t think your dog likes me.”
“Ari likes everyone,” she said.
Ari, right. What kind of name was that for a dog?
Ari chose that moment to growl again.
She stroked the top of the dog’s head. “It’s okay.”
Ari glanced at her, whined once in dissent, then sat.
“What are you doing back here?” Emma asked Marty.
“I, um, had to leave something for Harlan.” Harlan was the CFO.
The questioning look on Emma’s face didn’t change.
“Not work related,” he said quickly. “For our fantasy football league.”
“It’s not football season.”
“The draft’s coming up.”
“Oh,” she said, finally relaxing.
Marty’s phone began vibrating. He pulled out his cell. The number was blocked, but that didn’t matter. “Sorry, I have to take this.”
She nodded, said, “Come on, Ari,” and headed for her office.
The dog whined and tried to get a look at the envelope again as he passed Marty, but Marty hurried out of the hallway, not giving Ari the chance to do so.
He headed for the elevators before answering the call, just in case Emma could still hear him. “Hello?”
“Martin Lundstrom?” A male voice responded with some kind of European-type accent.
“This is he. Who is this?”
“I’m calling on behalf of Victor Popov of VP Bela Capital.”
Marty had totally forgotten that someone from his new mortgage company was going to contact him. “What can I help you with?”
“I believe you were informed that Mr. Popov is in Palm Springs and would like to meet with you.”
“Yeah, I got that message. I have a pretty full schedule, though, so…”
“I’m sure you can make yourself available.” The tone in the man’s voice made it clear this wasn’t a request.
“I could probably move some things around. Tuesday around lunchtime could work for—”
“Today, Mr. Lundstrom.”
“It’s Saturday.”
“It is.”
“I guess I could make that work. What time?”
“Midnight.”
“Midnight? That seems a bit late.”
“It’s when Mr. Popov is free. Why? Do you have a conflict?”
“I don’t believe so.” Though his search of Emma’s house would be done by then, a meeting at that time of night sounded sketchy. “How about tomorrow during the day sometime? I’m sure that would be easier for both of us.”
“Tonight, Mr. Lundstrom. Mountain View Resort & Spa, twelve a.m. sharp. I’ll text you where to meet us.”
Before Marty could respond, the man hung up.
Marty stared at the phone screen for several seconds. He really didn’t want to go, but he knew he had little choice. Until he could rid himself of his debt, he had to keep this Popov guy happy.
“Is there a problem?”
Marty whipped around in surprise to find Emma and Ari standing a mere few feet away.
“What?” he said.
“You’re staring at your phone. I thought maybe there was a problem.”
“Nah, it’s nothing.”
“Okay, then.”
She clicked at her dog, and they walked past him and out of the offices. Though she didn’t give Marty a second look as she left, Ari kept eyeing him like he’d be happy to knock Marty to the ground and growl violently in his face.