in the distance wistfully and I shake my head.
“You know you’re always welcome to come with me.” I hand her my key and she’s already shaking her head.
“Who would call the Friday night bingo numbers? Do you have any idea how long it took me to get that job?” She waves a hand away at me like I’m ridiculous. “Besides, I’m having my guest room redone this weekend, so I’ll need to be here to boss around those sweaty construction workers.”
“I don’t want to know.” I shake my head as I grab my bag and hit the button for the elevator. “But I’m going to have security checking to make sure you don’t get into trouble.”
The elevator opens and I step inside. She laughs and calls out to me right before they close. “You should be the one worrying about trouble.”
I take the elevator down and my driver is waiting for me by the curb. I can feel my smile leave my face as soon as I exit my building. It’s not that I’m unhappy, I’m just not generally cheerful when it comes to my line of work.
After I became an attorney, I decided to specialize in international law. Renee is two years younger than me and it didn’t take much convincing for me to talk her into doing the same. Our parents worked for the United Nations and traveled all over the world. They made a lot of connections that helped Renee and me get started and grow our business into what it is. I take what I do very seriously and I’m lucky that I have little glimpses of happiness in my life that give me some sense of normalcy.
Our parents died at sea when Renee and I were in high school. It changed our lives irrevocably and after that I always carried a sense of responsibility to make sure Renee was taken care of. We were raised by our aunt, and although she was kind, she wasn’t invested in the two of us like our parents were. The moment we were able to leave, we did.
Today Renee and I own one of the largest global law firms in the world, and we’re damn good at what we do. We have a team of attorneys working for us, but sometimes on jobs as important as this one, I have to be there in person.
I work on my laptop until I feel the car come to a stop and look out to see we’re on the tarmac.
“Are you ready, Mr. Woods?” the driver asks, and I nod as I grab my bag.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Chapter Three
Erin
“Here is fine,” I tell the taxi driver as he pulls up outside of my gram’s building. I pass him the cash as I open the door. “Keep it.”
It’s been a long day and I’m exhausted. After my flight got canceled I got the bright idea to take a bus. It was a longer trip than it was supposed to be because we got a flat tire and they had to call for a second bus. Then my phone died. All I want to do is fall into bed and sleep for fifteen hours straight. Grams doesn't even know I’m coming, but hopefully it’ll be a happy surprise when she sees me.
I pull my bag over my shoulder and the doorman opens the door for me and nods. “Miss.”
“Thanks.” I fight a yawn as I hit the elevator button. I can feel a headache beginning to form and I need to lie down. If I let it get out of hand, it will quickly turn into a migraine, which is the last thing I need right now. I’m here to relax and to get away from Peter. He’s getting weirder by the day, and it’s making me uneasy. I started having crazy thoughts that he would break into my apartment or something. I need to lay off the murder podcasts I listen to, because it’s all going to my head.
I step onto the elevator and before long I hit the top floor. I’ve only been here once since Grams always came out to me when I was in college. We’d stay at some fancy hotel and live it up like a vacation.
I really should just move out here. I stayed after graduating because I debated getting my master’s and knew it would be easier to do it there. Now that I’ve finished my degree I haven’t made any steps to get it