CHAPTER 16
BLANCHETTE
Three days later, I was sitting at my desk with an inbox full of unopened emails…and I didn’t have the will to read a single one.
I sorted through the stack of files on my desk, trying to decide where to begin. Erik had apparently decided that the best way to punish me for time away was to bury me under a mountain of catch-up work.
The glow of my monitor reflected off the glass wall of my cubicle while emails continued to pile into my inbox faster than I could answer them.
“Ever since you came back from Everwick you’ve had a special glow,” Bernie said, leaning around the edge of my cubicle wall.
I blinked up at him. “Do I?”
“You do,” he said mildly. “Either Everwick has miracle air…or something magical’s in the air.” He indicated with a playful smile.
Heat crept into my cheeks. “Maybe.”
Bernie chuckled softly and lifted his hands in surrender. “Well, whatever the reason…I hope it continues. Gods know you deserve it. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it when the time’s right.”
I shook my head and returned to my screen, though a small smile tugged at my lips.
Martin from Marketing wanted my feedback on a press release about a developmental deal. Adalade from HR wanted a meeting about an executive who had apparently gotten a little too tipsy on elvish wine at a recent retirement party and said some uncouth things to one of the interns I oversaw.
Then there was the “incident” with the visiting siren exec from Azurine Holdings.
Apparently, during a lunch meeting, she’d gotten overexcited while praising the company’s quarterly projections and let out a vocal trill that sent three interns into a brief trance.
HR had flagged it as an “unintentional audio hazard,” and I was tasked with sending out a formal apology and sourcing enchanted earplugs for the next round of interns.
Another email popped into my inbox just then, making me jump. The subject line read MEETING NOTES FROM TUESDAY?
I sighed, staring at my screen in a tired daze. Had a meeting happened on Tuesday? One I’d meant to take minutes for? I couldn’t remember.
I sniffed, my throat scratchy and raw from the AC vent that blasted on me continuously throughout the day. I glanced over at my trash can and saw it was filled with tissues.
My brow furrowed. My neck was achy, my back stiff.
Sitting at my desk with the freezing AC, fidgeting in a scratchy polyester skirt with my nose running…
I got the sudden longing urge for heat. Summer heat.
The quiet hush of a night…warm air filling my lungs that smelled faintly of silver cosmia blossoms…
sticky sweat on the back of my neck that reminded me of sneaking out as a teenager in Everwick, riding bikes at midnight with my friends down to the crashing shore.
Something had changed since I’d returned from Everwick.
Something in me. Maybe I’d been away from home too long.
Maybe I’d grown so used to the acrid cigarette smoke from a passerby on the sideway, the constant honking of horns and sirens wailing, the gray layer of smog that had settled over this city like an umbrella…
that I’d forgotten what it felt like to breathe.
To be still and quiet. To remember who I’d been once, someone who’d felt beautiful peace in the simplicity of life in Everwick.
Where I’d kept time by the hourly horns from the lighthouse, where I’d sit at the town square with my grandma, moonshade-berry ice-cream cone dripping in hand, watching the people and tourists pass, or sitting in my grandmother’s garden as she pruned her roses back, the fragrance sweet and full of memory.
But then silly me had wanted more. I didn’t blame myself for it. Nearly all my friends in Everwick had talked about getting away, as if home was this shackle around their ankles they couldn’t wait to escape.
Now that I’d seen it from the other side, however, all I could think about lately was going back.
I’d started to have foolish fantasies of leaving Graymore.
Maybe move back into my grandmother’s cottage, fix it up since I’d let it sit for over a year, tend to her garden so that Jonathan didn’t have to, and just… breathe. Just live again.
What would it feel like to not be so anxious? To not get a jolt of adrenaline every time my inbox dinged? To not feel weighed down with everyone else’s needs and wants that I never had the time to ask what I needed or wanted?
I didn’t know anymore. What was the good in a big promotion anyway if it only meant filling my day with more things to do?
What I’d admitted to Jonathan at the café that afternoon had been true.
I was lost.
I had been for much longer than I realized.
And then there was Jonathan himself…
I wanted to take him up on his offer partly because I wanted to see him again. I’d thought about him more than I cared to admit since our lunch, and after he’d walked me back to the Skoll Corp lobby, we hadn’t talked since.
My eyes flicked to Erik’s closed office door.
Logically, I knew I could take more than a mere few days off. I had maxed out my PTO. If I didn’t take it, I’d lose it. And with the exception of my forced leave, I hadn’t taken a vacation in years.
But it was more than that. These office walls had started to close in around me. I didn’t know if I could stomach another day without air.
Something had to change.
I stood, wiping my nose with a tissue before smoothing down my skirt with clammy palms. I took in a deep breath and walked to the double doors of Erik’s office, which overlooked the Vault District.
I paused outside his door. Something muffled came through the wood. A low voice. His, on the phone. I held my breath and leaned in.
“…phase two can’t proceed until the board signs off. I don’t care if it stays under Polaris Equity for now. Just keep it off the public registry.”
Polaris Equity?
I frowned. I’d never heard of it. But the way he said it, careful and clipped, stuck with me.
Then his voice dropped lower. “We’ve been trying to acquire that parcel since before Foley went under. If the state green-lights the dam project, that land becomes a keystone. Don’t screw it up.”
I took a slow step back, pulse ticking. Land acquisition? Since when was Skoll Corp interested in that?
A faint shift of movement caught my eye. Calder Rhys, who most just called Fang, stood at the far end of the hallway, half-hidden in the shadow near the wall like he’d been there the entire time. Erik’s right hand watched me silently.
Heat rushed to my face. I straightened abruptly, pretending I’d just arrived at the door.
My heart pounded as I knocked…three short raps.
Silence.
Then came the sharp click—the mechanical sound of the lock disengaging. He’d hit the switch at his desk. Erik’s way of deciding who got access, and when.
I straightened quickly, swallowed hard, and gripped the handle like I’d just arrived. Then pushed in.
The room was dim, the blinds drawn low. Erik sat behind his desk, two widescreen monitors casting ghostly light across his face.
I stepped up to the leather armchairs directly across from his desk, stopping behind one and resting my hands on it like a shield. I stood there for so long, waiting for him to acknowledge me, knowing he hated interruptions when he worked.
He didn’t look at me. Not right away.
When his eyes finally slid to mine, they pinned me.
Predatory. Calculating.
Lycan eyes.
Jonathan had that look too…but his gaze had made me feel a different kind of shiver than I did with Erik.
“I, um…I was hoping to talk,” I said. “About this weekend. It’s…Thursday.” I tried not to wince at the obviousness. “Something’s come up, and I was hoping to take tomorrow and Monday off. A long weekend.”
No response, only silence, as Erik’s fingers flicked something closed on his screen. A tab. Then another.
I glanced down at his desk. There was a folder near the edge. The label read:
HIGHWATER INITIATIVE: Proposed Phase II Site Acquisition.
Below it was a logo I didn’t recognize. Not Skoll Corp. Something else. I might’ve studied it longer, but Erik shifted, his hand sliding casually over the folder, obscuring it.
“You were just on leave, Blanchette,” he said, voice low, leaning back. “And now you want more time?”
“I have the PTO,” I said, lifting my chin. “Adalade even mentioned last week that—”
“And is this urgent?” he asked, steepling his fingers. “Personal? Or professional?”
“I just…I need the time. That’s all.”
His gaze narrowed on me, watching as I tucked a strand of hair nervously back.
A pause. I swallowed, but it felt more like a gulp. I hated that I fidgeted under his stare.
Then he smiled. Thin. Crooked. Like a blade turned on its side, threatening. “I see,” he said softly. “Something in the air lately, isn’t there? All this talk of escaping.”
I hesitated. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You seem restless,” Erik said, rising now, adjust his cuffs. He circled his desk. “And I’d hate to stand in the way of someone chasing what they think they need.”
I frowned. “It’s just a few days, Mr. Skoll. I have the time.”
He nodded, but it was slow. Almost patronizing. “And you’ll be spending them where exactly?”
My voice caught as I lifted my chin. “Home.”
His brow ticked. “Everwick, then.”
I stilled, my brow furrowing. “How did you…?”
The smirk he gave me didn’t reach his eyes. “You said you needed the time,” Erik said, brushing a speck of dust from his blazer. “Then take it.”
Just like that? I bit my lip. This went suspiciously smoothly, and I was waiting for the catch.
“So…you’re okay with it?” I asked carefully.
He stepped back to his desk, rested a hand near the folder I’d glimpsed earlier. “I don’t care what you do, Miss Redfield. So long as your work gets done.”
This felt wrong. Too easy. Too unlike him.
My gaze flicked to the desk again. The folder was gone now, vanished beneath a few clipped stacks of paperwork.
“All right,” I said quietly. “I’ll have everything finished for the week before I go. And I’ll make sure the Vulcan gift is sent before the end of the day.”
“Good,” Erik said, already moving back to his monitor.
I lingered a second too long, even though all my instincts screamed at me to run. “Have a good weekend, Mr. Skoll,” I said.
He didn’t look up. “Enjoy the woods, Miss Redfield.”
I turned and hurriedly walked out before he could say anything more. The door clicked shut behind me.
Only then did I let out a shaky breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. But underneath the tension…there was relief. And a sense of excitement. A newfound motivation to blaze through my remaining workload so I wouldn’t have to see the inside of this building for at least four days.
I made it back to my desk, heart still pounding, and opened my phone, navigating to a new number. One Jonathan had tapped into my phone after our lunch earlier in the week.
I typed out a message: I decided to take you up on your offer. Is tonight too soon?
The hour ticked by slowly. Then my screen lit up. I felt a flutter in my belly to see his name flash, a giddy burst of excitement making me grin at my desk.
His text read: Tonight’s perfect. Can’t lie…I was hoping you’d say yes.