The Gender Game by Bella Forrest (historical books to read txt) 📗

we drove toward the parking lot exit. We both were silent until we were firmly outside of the gate and speeding back toward home.

"What happened?" the two of us demanded at once.

"I'm sorry," Lee replied first. "The cleaners were not due in today. They were supposed to come tomorrow. A change in the schedule was obviously made, and whoever was responsible for it forgot to mark it in the works calendar. It couldn't have been prevented.” He looked at me sideways. "Did you pull it off?"

"Yes," I huffed. "It's done."

Lee nodded, relief washing over his face. "Good girl."

24

After we returned to Lee's house, he didn't have anything for me to do for the rest of the day, but he preferred not to call Viggo. My voice was too deep to see him, anyway. He suggested that I see him again tomorrow, when my main priority would be to figure out whether his schedule would be changing on the night of the banquet.

Lee drove me to head office in the morning and took me upstairs to Viggo's floor.

"Come in," came a familiar grunt as Lee knocked.

Lee pushed open the door and the two of us stepped inside.

Viggo sat behind his wide desk wearing a dark green t-shirt, his coat hanging from the back of his chair. A small pile of papers lay in front of him.

"All right, Viggo?" Lee asked pleasantly.

Viggo nodded, his eyes moving to me.

"Violet mentioned the contract. Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Viggo replied, monotone.

"Okay, I'd better head off. See the two of you later." Lee turned to me and leaned down to peck me on the cheek before leaving the room. The second kiss he'd laid on me. The first he had laid in public.

Trying not to get too caught up in mulling over Lee’s weirdness, I approached Viggo's desk. As our eyes met, a smile spread across both of our faces.

I took a seat opposite him. "How was your day yesterday?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "Uneventful. Yours?"

I couldn't quite bring myself to say 'uneventful', so instead I replied, "Fine. Lee had the whole day free and wanted us to spend it together."

Viggo nodded stiffly, averting his eyes to the table.

"Mr. Sands must've called you, right?" I said.

"He did."

"Well?"

"They want the fight to be sooner than I had expected. Next week."

"Next week? Which day?"

"Saturday."

The banquet was to be held the Wednesday after. I supposed that meant Viggo's schedule would remain the same, if the fight was to be over days before. Any changes to his training routine would in theory take place prior.

"Are you able to get any extra time off from your warden duties to train? It's so soon."

"No extra time off above my yearly allowance," he replied. "I'll figure it out."

"Who are you up against?" I asked.

"They've decided they want to escalate me straight to Cruz."

"Seriously?"

"Yup," he said, rubbing his jaw.

"Are you nervous?"

He shrugged again.

I guessed that meant no.

"So, what's your plan for today? Warden duties until evening?"

"No, I've got the second half of today free. I plan to train a little, but I'll be heading back home. I think your husband is expecting that I take you with me, and then drop you at your house at the end of his work day."

"Okay," I said. This would be the first time I'd be alone with Viggo in his house, so far away from other people. I wondered if it might feel awkward.

Viggo returned his focus to his papers, but said, "By the way, you might be interested to know that the man we reported—or rather, you reported—at number thirty-two will be questioned today."

"Good," I muttered. I'd done my part, now I had to hope justice got served.

Viggo finished leafing through the papers in front of him before tucking them into a drawer.

We spent the rest of the morning outside. The rains of yesterday had given way to a bright blue sky. Viggo had to make another visit to the arms store for a meeting with the manager, which took up a good part of the morning, before returning to head office. He led me to a large conference room on the ground floor, where he met with about fifty other wardens—all of them working under him, apparently.

I sat in the chair by a corner, a little separated from the men. I didn't want to cause waves by taking a seat right among them. Viggo had three things on his agenda: first he informed them of new weapons that the force was bringing in, as well as giving them a demonstration. Next he spoke about new security protocols to be instigated near "Thickets Bridge"—apparently a bridge located somewhere in the mountains that connected a route to Porteque. And finally, he asked for an update on what was happening regarding the man who had escaped from the recent kidnapping incident, the man I hadn't managed to catch. There were no updates in that regard. Apparently he had escaped, well and truly.

After the meeting, everybody piled out of the conference room and headed to the canteen for lunch. Viggo and I accompanied them. As we collected trays and served ourselves a hot meal, I felt eyes watching me. Nobody looked directly at me for more than a few seconds, but I could tell the men were wondering who I was exactly, and why I was hanging around with their chief.

After we'd eaten, we left the building and headed to Viggo's motorcycle. Soon, we were speeding toward his side of the mountains.

We hit an unexpected spell of traffic along the way. I thought that maybe another accident had taken place and was clogging up all the roads again, just like the other night. But that didn't appear to be the case here. I strained my neck to see through the line of honking vehicles.

"Damn," Viggo murmured.

"What?"

"I forgot it was today."

"Forgot what was today?" I squeezed his waist, pressing him for an answer.

"King Maxen is making an appearance just up the road. You see that gold sedan?"

"Uh, yeah.