Chapter Three

Jack Richards, known to his family and friends as “Chance,” was having a bad day. In fact, if truth be told, he was having a bad week, month, and fucking year.

He leaned against the door that led to the lobby and looked down at the woman in front of him. He’d never seen her before, which meant there was absolutely no way she was part of the cleaning crew, as she claimed. Chance knew this because a profile of every new member of staff dropped into his inbox. Every single one. He had instigated that policy many years ago, and not just because X-Tech Towers held countless terabytes of confidential data but because the cleaners were usually the only staff still around when he arrived at the office. Chance liked to be sure that the people in his building were who they were supposed to be. A habit he’d picked up when his first internet start-up had made him painfully rich and more than one kidnapping threat had come his way. So, if she wasn’t part of the cleaning crew, who the hell was she? And more to the point, what was she doing in his head developer’s office?

“Start talking,” he said.

Her eyes widened. She had very pretty eyes. Even given the strangeness of the situation, Chance couldn’t help but notice that.

“About what?” she asked.

“What you’re doing here,” Chance said. “And don’t give me that shit about being a cleaner,” he added. “It’s obvious that you’re not.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” he said. “You’d have screamed for help already if you were here legitimately.”

“Do I need to scream for help?” she asked, her voice wavering ever so slightly.

Chance almost winced. A prod of guilt hit him. Here she was, a defenseless woman, and he was practically threatening her. He allowed himself a brief moment to consider how this would all look through her eyes, and in that moment, for just a flash of a second, he considered telling her the truth. He opened his mouth to do just that but closed it a second later.

She was not defenseless! Somehow, she’d managed to sneak into a secure building, and whatever reason she had for doing that could only spell trouble, both for him and the investigation he was in the middle of. But, at the same time, he didn’t want her to be genuinely scared of him. Chance hated that thought, whether she was some sort of criminal or not.

“You have nothing to be scared about,” he eventually said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Then what are you going to do?” she asked.

“I want to know why you’re here,” Chance said. “Be honest with me, and I’ll happily let you go.”

She lifted her chin. “I have been honest.”

He sighed. “Let the cleaning thing go, sweetheart. It’s not going to work.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” Chance said. “Talk.”

Her chin lifted a little higher. Stubborn. A moment later and she crossed her arms over her more-than-ample chest before moving away from him, back into the office. In Chance’s opinion, it was absolutely the wrong move. If she was genuinely scared, she should have tried to edge around him so she could make a bolt for the door. Her actions only confirmed his opinion that she was not who she was pretending to be.

“Perhaps you can tell me what you’d like me to say,” she said, continuing to move backward. “Then I can leave.”

“Or maybe—”

She stumbled on the leg of Gabe’s chair. Despite himself, and the wrongness of the whole situation, Chance automatically moved forward to help steady her. He only stopped himself when something slithered to the floor between them.

Baffled, Chance looked down. His first thought was that it was some kind of animal. His second? That he had been right all along. What was now decorating his head-developer’s floor was all the proof he needed.

“A wig?” he breathed. “A wig?”

The woman almost winced.

“And your hair…” Chance shook his head. “It’s blue!”

“Well, yes,” she said, lifting a hand toward it. “Corporate policy doesn’t allow blue hair. It’s why I wear a wig.”

He laughed softly. “Corporate policy? Have you seen the walls outside? X-Tech lets their staff, cleaners included, dress however they want. They believe it encourages creativity.”

This time she definitely did wince.

“So now we’ve cleared that up, Blue,” he added. “How about some truth?”

She uncrossed her arms and shot him a glare. Chance waited, wondering exactly what she was going to say. When she finally spoke, it was not at all what he expected.

“Don’t call me Blue,” she said. “And you know I’m not the only one in the wrong here. Question is, what the heck are you doing trying to hack into that computer?”

Any hope that Chance might have had that he could brazen this out was dashed. And yet…how the hell did she know he was running an intrusive program? She couldn’t have seen more than a couple of dozen lines of text…text that would be practically incomprehensible to anyone but his very best developers.

“That is none of your business.”

“And the get-up?”

“Get-up?”

She gestured to his clothes. “Black jeans and a black tee? It has wannabe burglar written all over it.”

“If I were a burglar,” Chance said slowly, “do you really think announcing the fact that you’ve realized I am is the best thing to do?”

“I—”

“Talk first, think after, huh?” he added. “You have it written all over you.”

“I do not!”

“Uh-huh.”

She glared at him. Chance couldn’t help but match her, stare for stare. As he did so, he started to realize that now she’d lost the wig, Blue was actually quite something to stare at. Sure, blue hair was not something he saw every day, and certainly not the electric shade hers was, but it was something different and Chance liked different.

She also had what he would describe as an interesting face. Slightly too-wide lips, an upturned nose, and those very pretty eyes…yes, under any other circumstances, Chance would have had no problem watching her across the office for many minutes more.

“You’re not going to let me leave until I talk, are you?” she said after a moment. “And my time is running out.” She let out a sigh. “Fine, if you want the truth, I was looking for the CEO, Jack Richards.”

It was only through years of practice that Chance managed to keep his face blank. “Why?”

“Because,” she snapped. “X-Tech has stolen my work!”

Chance’s heart raced, and something akin to excitement danced along his spine. Was it possible that while looking for evidence of wrongdoing in his company that very evidence had fallen directly into his lap?

“That’s quite an accusation,” he said slowly.

Blue glared. “I have plenty of evidence to back it up.”

“Evidence you have on you?”

“Why do you care?” she asked.

Chance shrugged as nonchalantly as possible. “I’d be interested in seeing it.”

She shook her head and pointed a finger at him. “I answered your question. Now answer mine. What exactly are you doing here?”

For the second time, Chance considered telling Blue the truth. He was who she was looking for and he wanted, no he needed, that damn evidence. But so much had happened over the last year, so many people he’d thought he could trust were possibly not trustworthy at all, and he had only her word that she was telling the truth about her motives. He needed more than that. A lot more.

“I can’t answer that right now.”

“Can’t or won’t?” she asked.

“Won’t.”

“And how long are you planning to keep me here for?”

Jack sighed. How the hell was he supposed to answer that? He could hardly keep her here all night, could he? And yet, he couldn’t leave her to run freely around the building—his building—either!

“I’m not sure, I—”

Chance’s words were halted as Blue launched herself across the room. It was such an unexpected action that he didn’t quite move fast enough to stop her. She barreled into him, smacking him hard against the doorframe. He let out a growl and reached out to grab her arm. Again, he wasn’t fast enough.

She slipped through the office door and out into the lobby. Chance raced after her, and this time he was quicker. They both came to a halt at the door that led to the red corridor, and Chance snaked an arm around her waist before pulling her hard against him. In some part of his mind, he was shocked by how soft she felt, how giving, but he ignored that part because now really wasn’t the time.

“Ow! You oaf,” she screeched. “Let me go!”

Chance relaxed his grip slightly but not enough to allow her to wriggle free. “Be careful, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I’m going to hurt someone in a minute,” she growled.

“Stay still.”

“Let. Me. Go.”

“I will,” Chance snapped. “The moment you stop struggling. There,” he added as her body began to relax. “That’s better—”

The next words Chance was going to say were lost as Blue twisted, pulled back, and landed a knee directly between his legs. A second after the contact was made, an excruciating pain erupted, agony filled him, and Chance could only gasp and groan as he tilted sideways.

“You…you…”

“Me what?”

Chance didn’t answer, he couldn’t. The pain was traveling into his guts, and the best he could do was a sort of grunt, and even that made him wince. How hard had she hit him? How long was this agony going to last?

“Uh-huh,” Blue said. “That’s what I thought.”

“Stay…right…there…”

She shook her head as he slumped onto the floor. He noticed—in an abstract sort of way—that her blue hair sparkled in the overhead lights.

“Don’t think so, sweetheart,” she said. “But don’t worry; I won’t rat you out. Steal whatever the hell you want. X-Tech is no friend of mine. We’ll keep this little”—she paused—“altercation between the two of us.”

“The evidence…” he tried to say. He needed that evidence!

She laughed and tapped the space between her breasts. “Right here,” she said. “You should have held me a bit higher. You’d have felt the flash drive. Never mind though, there’s always next time.”

“Blue…” he gasped. “Wait.”

But she didn’t hear him. Aching in pain, his stomach clenching in agony, Chance realized…she was already gone.