Page 105 of Covert Mission
I lean out from behind the tree. “Psst! Belle!”
Damn. She doesn’t look out the window. “Belle!” I whisper yell.
After a few minutes of scouting around, I find a small pebble.
Please let this work.
When I toss it through the window, her head whips around.
Then her eyes widen.
I press my finger to my lips. Her eyes widen more. I make a motion for her to come to the back of the house she’s been sharing with Justice.
Which reminds me, I need to ask about that…
Not like I don’t have enough of my own problems.
Belle looks like she saw a ghost when she sticks her head out the open bathroom window. “Oh, my god. What are you doing out here sneaking around?”
Because that’s exactly what I’m doing.
I blow my hair out of my face. “I had to talk to you, and I couldn’t let the guys know…” I look around nervously. “Are you alone?”
“Yeah, Justice said he’s going to town, he said there’s a problem.” She grimaces and I wonder how much she knows. She glances behind her, then motions for me to come closer. “Can you crawl in the window?”
The windowsill is almost neck high. I know this because I had to jump down from the one in Beast’s bathroom. “I don’t know. It’s kind of high up.”
“Here, I’ll help you.” She reaches out and we clasp our hands together. Somehow, I manage to walk-climb up the wall and lean my torso into the opening.
Even though she’s holding my arm, I fall, very unceremoniously on the sink, then on my face on the bathroom’s tile floor.
“Girl!” she shrieks.
“Shhhh!”
She clamps her lips closed and helps me off the floor. “Where are your shoes?”
“Don’t even ask.”
“Okay, why are you sneaking around?”
I sigh and sag against the wall as I catch my breath. “Ralph sent someone to tell me I’ve been fired. And the guy said he’s supposed to replace me.”
She gapes, then turns beet-red. After fuming for a hot minute, she hisses, “That asshole.”
It’s a miracle I’m not bleeding after all the window antics. I wipe a smudge of dirt off my thigh as I make a face because of Ralph’s latest stunt. “You’re not kidding. Do you have any idea why he would do that?”
The color in Belle’s face turns kind of purple. “I’m gonna beat Pembrook’s scrawny ass.”
“What? Why?”
“He’s got a hotline directly to Ralph.”
A sinking feeling hits my bones. “What would he say to him?”
She taps her fingers on her thigh in a frustrated rhythm. “Hun, I don’t know how to soften this blow, so I’m just gonna say it. I have a suspicion that Pembrook told old Ralphie that you were knocking boots with Mr. Big-shot SEAL. I’m guessing that made Ralph go off the deep end because he was hoping to bone you.”
BoneME?