“My mom’s a nurse,” I told him. “She can eas—”
“Ah. Here are our cookies.”
The waiter placed them in front of us. Each cookie got its own plate because it had been warmed up so that the chocolate chips were shiny and melty. Smelled incredible.
Mr. Alling lifted his cookie and waited for me to do the same—reluctantly, I did—before saying, “So what has Brayden told you about us?”
The cookie, all moist and delicious, stuck in my throat. “Told me? About…what?”
“About working here. We’re always looking for the right people. The benefits at BantaMatrix are better than any other company in the world. And so is our starting pay. Because we know there’s a lot of competition out there, but we value our employees and want to keep them around.”
When he smiled, there was no chocolate in his white teeth. This guy’s creep factor was ratcheting higher and higher. Felt like he was stalling me.
I managed to dredge up a grin. “Wow. I’ll make sure to apply when I graduate.”
“Why wait? We pay tuition for all our employees. We even have employee housing. We don’t want our people worrying about the little things when they should be solving the world’s problems.”
“I’ve got my own problems to solve,” I mumbled. And damn their number was multiplying like roof rats.
He laughed his big dad laugh. “Youarefunny. I want you to be part of the BantaMatrix family. Maybe part-time to start, but you’d get to see more of Brayden than you do now. As a father, I like to see you kids taken care of.”
Yeah, I’d never had a dad—that semen donor ran out on Mom before I was born—and I certainly didn’t need one now.
At least Dane had been honest about his menacing. Daddy Alling here was fucking terrifying.
“He might get sick of me,” I said, standing. “Um…can you point me to the bathroom? I gotta whiz.”
On cue, Mr. Alling laughed again—yeah, this guy was definitely one of my many problems, and I was screwed enough already.
“Just outside, and down the hall.”
“Thanks.” I hightailed out. He was watching me through the glass door of the lounge, so I had to actually go into the bathroom—super modern white futuristicasylum—and closed myself in a stall. Leaned my head on the closed door.
Fuck.
Fuckity fuck. What the hell was going on? Why was everyone suddenly so creepy?
On the surface this place was awesome, and Mr. Alling was boss of the year, but my quest-honed impulses were screaming danger-danger. One minute my life was ordinary shit, and post-kiss, it was deep shit. Like bog-deep and sucking me under.
My mind raced. I’d come to find out how to reach Brayden, but it seemed like no one here knew either and were hoping to get something out of me.
All I had was a malfunctioning glove, currently lurking in my back pocket. But Daddy Alling wasn’t asking about that, and it seemed like he hadn’t seen the video. But he definitely had a hard-on for finding Brayden, just like Dane. Which explained why they were both interested in me: Brayden was missing. And I may have been the last person who’d seen him.
I toyed with all the puzzle pieces in my brain, turning them around.
I was the last person who’d been in contact with Brayden. Who worked for this artist-loving, cookie-eating company. Which was developing something world-changing.
Iwasn’t special. No surprise there. But Brayden apparently was. Okay, slightly surprising.
Brayden had seemed so twitchy and nervous with me. Stealing a kiss before he went into hiding? When he’d told me that he’d left something behind at the Desert Freeze, itmusthave had something to do with his work here at BantaMatrix.
What had Brayden left at the Desert Freeze?
I’d looked already. Nada.
But now I was going to take that place apart. And I’d grill those two idiot teenagers. Maybe one of them had taken it. Maybe while I had been getting my hand sliced open by the mixer and poisoned by who-knows-what toxic freezie chemicals, Amanda or Rique had found Brayden’s cool thing and had taken it.
Those little fuckers were hell-bent on ruining my life. I should give Daddy Alling their names. Let them get a taste of shiny, melty, sweet-smelling corporate evil.
