Roth: Protector(Shapeling Trilogy #1) (2nd edition)

Chapter 3: Encounter

Roth entered the Lexus SUV and suppressed a grin. Every day for the past month Rainey had glared daggers at him when he'd settled into the seat next to her. Today, she was in a particularly bitchy mood.

"I thought today was your day off?"

"Are you keeping track of my off days because you'll miss me?"

Rainey snorted. "Only when there's a snowstorm in Hades."

Roth closed the door and motioned for Johnson to drive. Settling back into the luxurious upholstery he ignored her barb. He had to admit though, she kept him entertained. For being such a braniac, her verbal sparring was quite imaginative. He smiled.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking what a contrast your brains are to your vocal altercations with me."

Johnson choked.

Rainey's eyes grew round and her response was certainly colorful.

Roth smiled at her. "Case-in-point."

***

Rainey decided her best line of defense against Roth was to ignore him. Their verbal sparring always angered her to the point that she couldn't think straight, and, by late afternoon, she'd made so many errors in calculations that her coworkers were asking if she was ill.

She stepped away from the Chladni plate and walked to the bank of windows overlooking Childress Enterprises. I'm the victim of too much work and too little play. A hawk flew past the window and captured her attention, bringing images of the eagle to mind. Almost nightly, she found herself watching for the large bird from her balcony. In the past month, she had seen it maybe a dozen times. Whenever she saw the magnificent animal she felt a strange excitement. Even now, thinking about the eagle sent a shiver through her.

"Are you cold?"

Rainey turned to see Roth standing nearby. His presence always unnerved her.

"No. I...I... Forget it. I need to get back to work." She rushed back to her office.

The remainder of the day turned into a worse disaster and ended with her spilling coffee down her lab coat. She was angrier on the drive home than she had been on the drive to work that morning. So angry, in fact, that she refused to eat dinner with her father by complaining of a headache—which was true.

That night she again stood at her window long past midnight hoping to see the eagle. Making a spur-of-the-moment decision, she walked to her nightstand and retrieved a key and flashlight from the drawer, and then slipped into a pair of Levis, a long-sleeved pull-over sweater, and tennis shoes. Silently, she opened the French doors of her balcony and inhaled a calming breath. She then did something she hadn't done since her teenage years; she hoisted herself over the ornate railing and found foothold on the ledge connecting her balcony to the one next door. Grabbing the rope-like vines clinging to the house, she slowly edged across the short expanse.

Reaching the other balcony and climbing over the railing, she congratulated herself. Not bad. Looks like you've still got it in you. Pulling the master key for the bedrooms from her pocket, she fumbled in her excitement, and it took three tries to unlock the French doors. Sneaking inside the room, she went to the Jack-and-Jill bathroom and exited into another bedroom. From there, she avoided being seen by opening a door into a hallway that ran perpendicular to the one her guard was posted in.

Within minutes she'd fled down the servants' staircase and into the kitchen. Rushing to the far side of the room, she opened the cellar door. Beth McGovern, their superstitious cook, hated the cellar and refused to enter it. She swore it was haunted. Rainey smiled when she remembered how she'd enhanced the cook's fears with stories of ghosts and apparitions.