Free Fixing Justice by Suzanne Halliday Page B

nose to the proverbial grindstone all morning, an act of defiant denial that was apparent to no one but her. Alex had been off and on the phone troubleshooting some crisis while she shuffled through the endless mounds of paperwork. In this instance, she was glad her boss was a disorganized mess. Gave her something to do without having to interact with anyone. In her present frame of mind she would have struggled to be civil.
    Sounds of his rising annoyance drifted in the background from time to time as the day sped by, but Tori stayed out of whatever was going on. Judging by Alex’s flaring temper, something, somewhere, had gone terribly wrong. When he flung his cell away, it slid across the floor into her workspace and hit the leg of her desk with an ominous thud. Oh shit , she thought. Looks like I’ll have to turn around and see what was going on.
    Annoyed, she bent and picked up the abused phone, turning it over in her hand to see if it was broken or cracked. Only Alex would treat a piece of equipment like it was disposable. Of course, the several brand new phones she knew were in a cabinet in the office meant that this was his usual behavior. Spares were readily available for quick activation in case he snapped one in half or tossed it in the pool, as he’d done in the past. At least, that was the story Carmen told. Apparently, mild-mannered Alex could find his inner testiness fairly easy.
    Warily approaching him like a caged beast, she eyed his body language for clues to what she was getting herself into. “Uh, I think you dropped something,” she muttered in a barely audible voice. “Best be careful with that,” she added, nodding at the phone as she dropped it onto his workbench.
    When he didn’t move a muscle or make a sound, retreat seemed like her best option. Before she could back away, the phone rang again. “Answer that!” he growled, shocking her into stillness. For a brief second she didn’t know what to do until she saw him grip his thigh and rub. Looked like he also wasn’t having the best day of his life.
    Quickly pushing the call button, she answered with her very best, ‘I’m the assistant, and you’re not getting past me’ tone. When the call ended, she had a pretty good idea of what had caused his bad temper. A security system the agency installed in a luxe Vegas hotel casino had taken a shit overnight causing all sorts of mayhem. The hotel was gearing up for a high profile event. Having a misbehaving security set-up was creating chaos.
    Quickly and efficiently sharing the details of the call with her boss, she had to choke back a hiccup of distress when he fixed her with a menacing look and barked, “Find Drae. Now!”
    Oh shit. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good. Realizing she didn’t have the vaguest clue how to find Drae as he put it, she simply nodded at the order and hurried from the tech cave before he ate her for lunch.
    Carmen or Ria would know how to locate him, she was sure of that. With the housekeeper being more of a major domo and the cook something of a gossip, both women had a finger on the pulse of everything that went on at the Villa. Finding them on the patio outside the kitchen had been the easy part. Must have been break time because they were sitting under the pergola talking quietly but stopped and looked her way as she quickly approached.
    “Hi ladies,” she said with a half-smile on her face that felt forced and artificial. “Alex sent me to find Draegyn. How would I go about doing that?” They must have noticed the anxiety she hoped to conceal, giving each other a meaningful look before answering.
    “Poor dear,” Ria offered. “Is he being impossible today? Don’t let it bother you. His bark is far worse than his bite.” They chuckled with clear affection for their boss.
    “I think demanding is a better way of putting it, but in this case, with good reason. I really must find Draegyn. Um, Alex was most specific about locating him with emphasis on the