Page 32 of With Love, from Cold World
Magical.
The look on her face would be priceless. He could almost picture it now.
But then Lauren herself came around the corner and scared the shit out of him. He wasn’t proud of it, but he actually startled and gave a yelp that didn’t sound fully human. Which caused her to look up and give a small shriek of her own. The sheaf of papers she’d been holding went flying.
“What areyoudoing here?” she asked.
“I closed tonight,” he said, still clutching his chest like someone out of a gothic novel. “What areyoudoing here?”
“I had to print the—” She swallowed. “It doesn’t matter. I’m about to leave.”
Now that he’d calmed down a bit, he was able to take in the full picture. Lauren Fox, standing in front of him wearing a candy apple–red dress, her dark hair loose around her bare shoulders. She looked really... his mind blanked, unable to come up with a word other thangood. But maybe it was less about the word and more about the emphasis, because she looked really,reallyfucking good.
She bent down to gather the papers, and he automatically started to crouch down to help her, but she waved him away. It was clear she didn’t want him looking at whatever she’d printed.
The implications of it all hit him—why she was dressedup, her plans with Daniel, the once-open door that was now closed. “Did you shut this when you came in?” he asked, gesturing toward the door.
“It wasn’t safe,” she said. “Anyone could come in off the street.”
A calculated risk he’d taken, hoping that no one would bother entering the fenced-in dumpster area in the hour he thought it might take him to tinker with the snow machine. It wasn’tthatlate at night, after all, and many surrounding businesses were still open. But none of that mattered, because his plan to keep everything secret was now about to blow up in his face.
“That was the only door not connected to the alarm system,” he said. “So congratulations, now we’re locked in.”
From the line that appeared in between her eyebrows, it was clear she didn’t believe him. If she thought he’d invent this elaborate a setup just to watch her freak out... well, okay, that did sound like him. But in this instance, the only thing he was guilty of was some light workplace breaking and entering. Kind of.
“That makes no sense,” she said. “The doors can’t lock from the inside. It’s against fire code. And if that door’s not connected to the alarm system, then we should just be able to open it.”
She moved toward the door, and he had to slide over to block her path. She looked up at him uncertainly, the tiny pendant she always wore flexing in the hollow of her throat as she swallowed.
“Okay,” he said, but the word came out as a rasp, and he had to clear his throat and try again. “Technically, we’re not locked in. Any door will open from the inside. For whatever reason, the system doesn’t register this particular door if it’sopen when the alarm is set... but once it’s closed, it will absolutely register that someone opened it again. Which will trigger the alarm system and send an alert to the police and to Dolores that someone is trying to break in.”
“You don’t know the code?” she asked. “I thought you were the Cold World expert.”
He shook his head. “The security guy does that.”
She brightened at the mention of another person. “He must patrol the place,” she said. “We’ll just explain the situation, then. Maybe he won’t even have to report anything to Dolores, if it was all a misunderstanding.”
“He drives around outside,” Asa said. “I purposely parked around the corner, but maybe he’ll see your car and investigate. And there are cameras in the main guest areas. I don’t know if they’re actively monitored, though.”
She chewed on her lower lip, obviously thinking through their options. “I could call Daniel,” she said. “Tell him what happened. He could drive up here to disarm the system, and then we could head back to Dolores’ for dinner.”
Asa doubted that would happen. For one thing, he would be very surprised if even Daniel knew the security code, vice president or no. He wasn’t exactly hands-on. But presumably he could ask Dolores, so that wasn’t even the real issue—Asa just doubted that he would drive all the way out to help.
“So call him,” Asa said.
“I can’t bother Dolores,” Lauren said. “This dinner tonight sounded important.”
Asa shrugged. “It’s up to Daniel what he does. He doesn’t have to involve her if he doesn’t want to.”
Lauren dug in her purse and pulled out her phone, stepping away to make the call. He was surprised by just how much he missed the nearness of her. He knew she wasdistracted by the logistics of this situation, and she’d be back to hating him any minute, but for now he was relieved she was at least talking to him again.
He should be irritated with her. It was her fault the door was closed, after all, and he had definitelynotplanned to spend his night at Cold World after working a long day. But somehow he couldn’t manage it. He found himself courting afuck it, whatever happens happensattitude, which almost never boded well.
She was at the other end of the hall now, the phone pressed to her ear. He could make out bits and pieces of her conversation, but not enough to know if she was making any progress. Already the call with Daniel was lasting longer than he’d expected, he’d give the bastard that. He inched a little closer. It wasn’t eavesdropping if they were both in a shared space, right?
“I totally understand,” she was saying. “It was a long shot. I—” She broke off, and he couldn’t help but notice how tense her body language was—her shoulders curved inward, her fingers tight around the phone. It was completely at odds with the light, breezy tone she was obviously striving for on the call. “No, no, of course. It sounds like Dolores really needs you there.”
Lauren paused, listening. “Oh,” she said finally. “Sure. I guess I could—but I’m not sure that you’d understand what the—”
