Heart of Gold - B.J. Daniels Page 0,7

here.

“Is that all?” Charlie asked. “I have a lot of work to do.”

For a moment, the woman just stared at her as if it couldn’t be this easy, then she let out a hoarse chuckle. “Yes, I certainly wouldn’t want you to be late for work.” She waved a dismissive hand in the direction of the door, but her distrusting gaze was still boring into Charlie.

Before Charlie reached the door, Amanda added, “You don’t want to cross me. You’ll regret it. I promise you that.”

Charlie exited the office as fast as she could and almost collided with Greg in the process.

“Everything all right?” he asked, looking from her to Amanda and back again.

“Fine.” She realized she couldn’t look him in the eye. The poor guy. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. Someone should warn him about the woman he was about to marry, but Charlie wasn’t going to be the one. She told herself that Amanda would screw up sooner or later and Greg would wise up—hopefully before the wedding. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Greg said, sounding as if he didn’t believe her before he stepped into Amanda’s office, closing the door behind him.

Charlie glanced through the wall of glass and saw Amanda’s worried look before she turned her gaze on Greg and gave him a glowing smile before kissing him.

Not sticking around, Charlie hurried to her desk.

“That package was on your desk when I got here,” Tara said, eyes bright with excitement. “Is it from Daniel?”

Charlie took off her coat and scarf, put her purse in a drawer and sat down before she considered the package. It was small, not much more than the size of a summer beach read. As she picked it up, she realized how light it was. So not a book. She wanted to shake it, but restrained herself.

Was it from Daniel? There was no return address. No stamp or postmark. She supposed he could have had it delivered first thing this morning to surprise her. Her pulse leaped at the thought. He’d gotten her flowers after their first meeting and had them sent to work, along with a note asking her out. But nothing like that since—until maybe now.

She tried to tamp down her growing excitement. She didn’t want to be disappointed. It was probably a gift from one of her clients. They often bought her chocolates or wine or gave her a gift certificate to some restaurant that she’d said she enjoyed. This package didn’t seem to be any of those things though.

With the plain paper almost off, she was cutting into the tape on the box’s flap with a pair of scissors when she looked up to see Amanda standing nearby watching her. Charlie’s heart dropped. Was it something from the woman so she’d keep her mouth shut? A bribe?

As she unstuck the flap, Charlie was almost afraid to look inside. She glanced at Tara.

“Come on, you’re killing me over here,” her friend said. “Is it sexy underwear?”

She raised a brow and laughed. “You sound so wistful.”

“Because I barely remember sexy underwear. Open it!”

Charlie lifted the flap, but it was Tara who screamed.

CHAPTER THREE

“WHO WOULD SEND you something like that?” Greg demanded as she stood in his office, the package open on his desk. “I think we should call the police.”

“No,” Charlie said quickly. She would never have shown the contents to him, but Tara’s scream brought everyone running.

“She’s right,” Amanda said quickly from where she stood. “It’s probably just a prank.”

“I won’t have that kind of prank in this office,” Greg snapped.

Charlie was still shaken after finding the small dead mouse, its little pink tongue sticking out as it lay in a pool of blood. But somehow she managed to come up with a feasible lie. “I’m sure it wasn’t from anyone in the office. I suspect it’s from an old boyfriend. He saw me with Daniel the other night...”

Greg gave her a sympathetic look.

“I’m sorry it disrupted the office,” she said, just wanting to put this behind her.

“It’s not your fault,” Greg protested.

Charlie looked at the floor. “I’d like to just forget about it.”

“I think that’s wise,” Amanda said. “Whoever sent it to you made their point. I’ll call Maintenance and have them dispose of it since no harm was done.”

Greg shot her a disbelieving look. “I still think we should call the police. Maybe they can get prints off the box and find this...deviant.”

Did Amanda flinch when he said deviant? “Can we just forget it?” Charlie said.