A Ruthless Victim by Nadia Siddiqui (best chinese ebook reader txt) 📕

attention, and the woman heaves a long-suffering sigh. She drags one leg across the other and lets them fall heavily into the old carpet, forcing herself to sit up straighter in one clunky movement. She’s clearly put out by the fact that he has come here to stand in front of her. Her irritation melts away into a smile that Nathan isn’t sure is totally genuine or not. “Something I can help you with, sugar?”

Nathan doesn’t much care for pet names, but he pushes past it. “I’m looking for Mr. Paulson, is he in?”

The woman looks him over carefully like somebody who is accessing if they should be threatened or not. Sizing him up to see what answer she’s going to choose to provide him with and finally, she shakes her head which sets her halo of brown curls shaking around her face prettily. She doesn’t seem like the sort of woman that does anything that she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t seem like she could be moved without motivation; she too, seems to ooze that confidence that borders on arrogance that is the mark of the independently wealthy.

“Sorry, he’s out of the office. Would you like to leave your card?” She’s reaching for her small purse now, deciding that the conversation is over. She unclasps the top of her bag and fishes out some pressed powder in a compact, patting at her skin with it.

Pointedly, Nathan looks back over his shoulder toward the parking lot where there are three cars. One that he drove here himself, a white hybrid car to match his persona. Something very sleek and fancy that she likely never utilized properly for the heels on her feet, that’s pink, so Nathan assumes that one is her own. Then beside that is a steel gray Ferrari, which probably cost a lot more than this entire shack of a building cost. Nathan crinkles his nose at her and tightens his grip on his suitcase. “I’ll think I’ll wait, if that’s alright with you.” They both know that Alex is here somewhere in the building and for whatever reason, doesn’t want to be disturbed.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible; we have a strict no loitering policy.” She’s clearly irritated now by the way she shows all of her teeth as she smiles at him, hoping to use that as a deterrent no doubt, but Nathan will not be so easily swayed as he moves over to the three chairs pressed up against the far wall, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and laying it over the top of the cushion so as not to dirty his expensive suit.

Whenever he’s supposed to be Chase Shaffer, the company always upgrades his motel room into a hotel suite, he gets a better rental car, and his clothes always arrive pressed inside of garment bags. Nathan feels like because of all of these things, he knows that whoever he was before he started to work for the company wasn’t a wealthy person. The starched shirts and uncomfortable neckties aren’t something he thinks that he will choose to keep wearing whenever his contract is over.

The woman rolls her eyes and stands. “What is this regarding?”

Nathan matches her cheap smile watt for watt. “I’m with Judge Cantrell’s office.”

The woman’s expression changes instantly, from openly hostile to almost accommodating. She stands and flusters, smoothing her skirts down, and her whole face transforms. “Oh sugar, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, can I get you some water? He’s just handling a little bit of business right now, but he’ll be finished shortly; let me see you to our conference room and get you a nice cuppa coffee, what do you say?”

Naturally, Nathan isn’t with the Judge’s office, but he’s hoping that adding this little bit of pressure will force him to admit to something incriminating, something that he needs to know in order to have the company issue orders for Nathan. They aren’t certain this man started the car fire, but Bradley Kramer was perfectly honest whenever he said that this was his only enemy. From everything else in his file, everything else tied to him, Bradley seems to be one of those men who had literally everything going for him, and then the world decided to take a massive shit on his chest.

Funny how life works like that.

With a small amount of luck, Nathan hopes to start the process of putting Mr. Kramer’s life back to rights.

The conference room wasn’t much larger than a walk in closet. It contains what appears to be a dining room set complete with a lazy susan in the middle with upturned glass cups and a bottle of sparkling water. No doubt they use this for entertaining. Nathan can almost imagine that woman walking in with a bowl of lemon slices with the seeds still in them as they all sit here pretending to be high class, when in reality, the very existence of this conference room is little more than a mockery of what sort of business civilized folk would conduct.

Nathan sits at one of the side chairs because there’s little left to do, and helps himself to the sealed bottle of sparkling water and the cup. He doesn’t much care for the bubbles in his water, but anything is better than tap he supposes. They make him wait for another twenty minutes before a loud crashing of a door opening can be heard in the main part of the building followed by a flurry of voices. Where has Alex been this whole time? What has he been up to? Why would she lie? Nathan is tempted to start poking about the room for more information, but he’s not entirely certain when they will be coming in here. Nathan doesn’t have anything inside of his briefcase to bluff with, so he will just need to pull out his best poker face and hope that this works.