Page 70 of When You Stayed
Rodney never took time off work, and more so, he never really left the office unprotected. I did the books, but he was always hanging around outside the office. Not that I’d ever felt the need to snoop before, but I did now. After that ominous warning Ford delivered about not following him, then Connor. I wanted to know what he was up to.
Sliding off the stool, I waved Nick to follow me. I had the keys to access his office, but there were still a ton of cameras that would track our movements. It looked way better for me to enter his office with Nick, then it did for me to go in all alone. We walked around the stage, toward the back where Ford had taken me that day, he’d nearly killed that bass player.
After pulling my keys out, I slid the silver metal into the handle and twisted. The darkened office awaited us, but I quickly found the lamp. Nick walked around me and veered straight for a drawer that held extra cords.
“Thanks, Royce.”
“No problem, I needed to do a quick bookkeeping check anyway.” I waved him off as he slid back out and rushed back to his sound booth.
I glanced around and shut the door to ensure no cameras were watching inside the office.
Then I began snooping. I checked the cabinet for anything out of the ordinary, looking through receipts and files. There didn’t seem to be anything that I could find. Feeling exasperated, I pulled my cell out and called my sister.
“Hello?” Taryn answered.
I pinned the phone to my shoulder and began searching through another large drawer. “I’m snooping in Rodney’s office. What should I be looking for?”
She paused for a second before matching my energy. “Where have you checked so far?”
I began listing everything, and then she hummed in reply. “Okay, check under the desk.”
I eyed the open leg space for where the chair fit. “There’s noth?—”
“No, like taped under the desk, Royce.”
“Oh.” I would have eventually figured that out. My hand went to the metal frame, feeling around and then stopping when I got to a lump that was contained by Velcro.
“He has a gun underneath the desk.”
“Not exactly out of the norm,” Taryn mused. I had to agree.
Pulling open the small slot for pens and pencils, I found a matchbook. “There’s something here with an address written onto it.”
“Send me the picture of it and then be sure you put it back,” she urged, and I moved my phone, doing exactly as she said.
Once I texted her, I could hear her further away from the phone, probably on speaker.
“I’m looking it up now.”
I sifted through a few more drawers to see if there was anything else I could find while Taryn looked up the address.
“By the way”—I picked up a notepad and flipped through it—“I kissed Ford Ryan again. I think I’m going to spend the night with him tonight.”
There was a sudden choking sound in the background, then a loud, “What the fuck!”
My eyes bulged as I stared down at the phone. “Taryn, please tell me you’re not in the same room as Dad right now.”
“Uh…I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were going to randomly tell me about hooking up with Ford!”
“I am going to kill him!” Dad yelled in the background. I rubbed my eyebrow. “Are we sure he’s talking about Ford and not some other random completely unrelated thing?”
Taryn whisper yelled, “He was fine two seconds ago, this is definitely about Ford.”
“Dad, stop it!” I yelled, hoping to get his attention.
Taryn’s voice was still a bit of a whisper, “I took you off speakerphone, dork. I’m outside now. Dad is being calmed down by Mom who called Callie.”
“Oh, great. So, this is like a whole thing now. Callie and Wes are going to know that I kissed their son, and may be spending the night with him?”
