Free Deadly Odds by Adrienne Giordano Page A

get some time alone in his office to deal with any fallout over Dale and in the morning, they’d hit the security review hard.
    Except, Kate put her shoulders back, straightened the sleeves on her dress and raised her chin. Total trooper.
    “I have work to do here. Your boss would have a fit.”
    “He has a fit every day. I’ll deal with it. You’d be doing me a favor. I need to get caught up and I can’t do that with you here.”
    Not with the distractions she provided. On a business and personal front.
    He let out a harsh laugh, ran a hand down his face. What a damned day. “This day has been a cluster.”
    “It certainly has.”
    Someone knocked and Ross stepped back, putting extra room between them. Marcia popped her head in. “I have HR for you.”
    “I’ll be right there.”
    When the door closed again, he glanced down at Kate’s notebook, a half page of neatly handwritten notes sitting under her phone on the table. “It’s up to you if you want to knock off for the day. If it were up to me, I’d send you home. We’ll hit it hard tomorrow.”
    Tomorrow. After he’d had time to deal with HR and communicate to the staff that one of their own had been murdered.
    And, oh, yeah, figure out what to do with the gorgeous consultant about to rip his operation apart.
    * * *
    By 6:30 the following morning Ross had put himself through a vicious, body numbing workout, one he reminded himself he hadn’t done in four days.
    The endorphin rush helped bust up the stress of the day before and set his mind straight. Freshly showered, he’d picked up a quick breakfast at the cafe and headed back to his office to start clearing the debris known as emails. By now, his daily revenue report should be ready. He’d read it and then face a day stacked with meetings. Two days of meetings packed into one and dealing with the redheaded consultant who distracted him at every turn.
    A slow panic filled his chest and he walked faster trying to burn the igniting negative energy. After the encounter in the conference room yesterday, the vulnerability Kate had shown had every part of him— every part—roaring.
    Not good when she was tasked with finding holes in their security. His life was normally a roller coaster, but this? This was pushing it.
    At least she’d given him a break and taken off when he’d suggested it. At that point, they were all too strung out to deal with the intricacies of casino security.
    Focus here. Get organized. Over breakfast, he’d sort out the day. Take five minutes to figure out how to handle Kate. Or maybe he’d back off. Stay out of her way. Her and her slaying green eyes would be off his radar.
    But that meant not seeing those slaying green eyes. Or her legs. Or her perfect little ass.
    I need to get laid.
    Sure did. But in this scenario, he needed to follow Don’s advice and let her do her thing. Between he and Don and their combined experience and intelligence, if Kate found something, it wouldn’t be major. That, he knew. Damn straight.
    He strode into the executive suite, found Marcia already at her desk. Not unusual for her. Like him, she was a workhorse and liked to get a jump on the day. By now, she had enough comp time racked up that she could take three months off.
    She held out a stack of folders. “Morning, boss. Here’s your stuff. Any schedule updates I should know about?”
    “You’ll know when I know. Next week take a few days off. You need to use that comp time.”
    She rolled her eyes. “I’ll get right on it.”
    What a load that was. Ross snorted. “I won’t hold my breath.”
    “Best not to.”
    He held up the cafe bag. “I’ll be in my cave. Kate’ll show up at nine. As of yesterday, she said she wants to spend the day with surveillance so she shouldn’t need me. Which means, I have half a shot at getting through everything on my schedule.”
    “What can I do?”
    “Nothing you’re not already doing. I saw the memo HR put out about Dale. Let’s keep tabs on