Chapter Six
~McKenna~
I wasn’t quite sure what I was dreaming of, but I did know that it was nice, and I didn’t want to leave whatever world my mind was making up. Nonetheless, I felt myself being pulled towards reality no matter how hard I fought to stay in the cushy comfort of sleep.
I groaned as my eyes opened. I really didn’t want to face the new day yet, especially before my alarm went off. I just wanted to curl up in my covers and forget about all of my responsibilities.
I reached over to where I was charging my phone and unplugged it. I didn’t know what I was looking for considering I didn’t have any social media anymore, but it was a bit of a habit that was hard to break.
My blood went cold as soon as my screen illuminated. I had a missed call and a message from work at eleven am. That was three hours ago! What the hell could they want?
Hands shaking a bit, I called up the message and listened intently. Apparently, they wanted me in for an interview with upper management, but they didn’t say why or whether it was good or bad. I felt like that was decidedly bad news.
My stomach twisted, and I stared at my phone for a solid ten minutes. Given everything that had happened in my life, I wasn’t a fan of surprises. And I had long since learned to trust my guts when it told me something was bad news.
Well, it wasn’t like I could just sit and dread it forever. Like everything, this problem would probably be best solved by addressing it directly. I just needed to dress to impress and hope that maybe they wanted to offer me a position on the day team.
I would turn it down, of course, but they didn’t need to know that. I was right where I needed to be for the moment and I wanted to stay there.
It was hard to quell my nervousness as I got ready and took the bus to work several hours early. I made sure to pack my uniform and everything else I needed in my bag in case the meeting ran late, and I didn’t have time to take public transportation home and then back to the office building in the corporate part of the city. I wanted to be as prepared as possible for whatever they threw at me.
But my heart was still thundering as I walked in, Goodness, work was a whole lot different when there were hundreds of people there. Instead of expansive and somewhat intimidating, I found it almost…claustrophobic. Funny how that worked out, I guessed.
Except it wasn’t really funny at all. My stomach was basically a corkscrew at this point and I could feel my heart thumping out a brisk tempo that made me want to either run a marathon or vomit. I wasn’t sure which.
But either way, I had an interview to get to.
Wiping my brow, I walked up to the ground floor’s receptionist and tried to give her my best smile.
“Hi, Maxine Grady,” I said politely. “I have an interview with upper management.”
“Thank you, just one moment please.” She also flashed me a kind smile then looked down to her computer and typed a couple of thing. A few seconds later, she was handing me a green card.
“This will allow you access to the upper levels. Your interview is on floor seven. Step out of the elevator then turn right, it’ll be the third room on your left. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking the card and heading for one of the many elevators lining the sides of the lobby.
I couldn’t help but overanalyze everything about the small encounter. She had said good luck. That meant it was probably something nice, right? Or did she have no idea what was going on and just had assumed that it would be good news? There really was no way to know, but I found myself trying to figure it out anyways.
The elevator ride seemed to take forever, but eventually it did open up on the seventh floor and me and one other person filed out.
I paused for a moment, seeing if they were going my way, but instead they just walked straight ahead before turning into their cubicle.
Dammit.
Swallowing, I turned right and went in the direction the receptionist had told me. Sure enough, the third door was open, and a woman was sitting just inside.
I pasted on my best smile and knocked. The woman turned to me, smiling politely, and motioned for me to come in.
I stepped inside, heading towards the seat across the table from her that she gestured for me to sit in. But before I could even plant my butt in the chair, someone else was walking into the room.
If I wasn’t so wrapped up in why I was here and what this woman wanted, my jaw might have dropped. The man was utterly delicious, like a model crossed with a body building crossed with my dream man.
He was tall, definitely above six foot, and was wearing the cleanest, most crisp suit I had ever seen. I could tell that it was worth money, probably even more than I could make in a month, and that was only amplified by the impressive watch on his wrist.
But his clothes didn’t matter compared to everything else. Even under those expensive threads, I could tell that he was cut for the gods, complete with broad shoulders and large hands. His face was chiseled beyond belief, with both a striking jaw and cheekbones for days. His bright, green eyes shone from behind his dark lashes, complimenting his golden skin and raven hair. Although I was wary of men and especially strange men, there was no denying that whoever this man was, he was exactly my type.
“Miss Grady?” His voice was a low, masculine rumble that I just wanted to curl up and get comfortable in. But as drawn to him as I was, I reminded myself that I still didn’t know why I was here and I couldn’t afford to screw anything up.
“That’s me,” I answered with the right amount of enthusiasm I hoped.
“Thank you for coming in early. I realize that, with your overnight schedule and all, this probably wasn’t very convenient.”
No, it wasn’t, but I definitely wasn’t about to tell my boss’ boss’ boss’ boss that. “It’s no trouble, really.” I answered instead, trying to make my smile as convincing as possible.
I had plenty of practice with shoving my emotions down an acting like everything was alright, so this would hopefully snow over both of these people and could go about my life like normal.
Well, not that I had a normal yet. But I was trying to get there.
“Thank you, Shelly. You can go now.”
My heart skipped a beat as the woman nodded and headed out. Although I knew he was probably an important person in the company, I wasn’t comfortable being left alone with a strange man. Even if he was devastatingly handsome.
“So, Miss Grady, let’s not beat around the bush,” he continued as soon as the woman was gone. “I’m sure you’re wondering why we called you here.”
Obviously, but again, I couldn’t say that. “I’ll admit I’ve been wondering about it since I got the call.”
“I understand. It’s human nature not to like a mystery. We all want answer to the various mysteries that surround us.” This was…not how I was expecting the conversation to go. “But perhaps you could do the favor of answering a little mystery for me.”
My nerves clamored even more at his tone. I could sense that something was going on, but I had absolutely no idea what. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I doubted my coworkers had either. Why was he talking to me like this then?
“I’m not very good at riddles, but I’d be happy to give you whatever answers I can.”
“Fantastic.” The neutral expression on his face turned cold and I felt as if the very temperature of the room dropped. “What I would like to know is why you’re working here under a fake name.”
The floor fell out from under me and it felt like I was dropped into the cold void of space. I stared at him, world cracking all around me, leaving me nothing to hold onto.
How did he know? Could someone have told him? But who? No one knew me here, I had made sure of that. I didn’t move three states away from my last place just to be recognized, so what the hell was going on?!
What if this meant I had to move again. If some stranger had already found out who I was, then there was no telling who else already knew. What if-
“Miss Grady, I’m waiting.”
I continued to stare at him, swallowing several times to try to wet my mouth. The way I saw it, I had two ways to go about this. I could run, and most likely get caught by security then turned in for identity fraud, or I could tell him the truth.
Or at least part of the truth.
Steeling myself against all the fear and shock that was coursing through me, I steadied my breath and made my choice.