To put it mildly, it’d already been a hectic morning.

He still had some tests to run by noon or else Chapman would be all over his butt. He’d been planning to head in to the lab earlier but had overslept, and Heather had only decided to wake him up fifteen minutes before she left, so as he’d rushed to get Toby ready for day care, he’d been thinking the whole time about the situation with Ibrahim and also how mad he was at Heather—well, at himself for not getting up, but also at Heather for not waking him up earlier, when she could have.

Okay, yeah, he knew it wasn’t fair to blame her, but his natural inclination to do so was just another example of how out of sync they’d been with each other lately.

But even their marriage problems weren’t the primary thing on his mind. It was getting out of what he’d agreed to do for the Arab. Lately, everything had been spinning out of control. He felt like he’d made a deal with the devil—sold his soul, so to speak. He was in way over his head, and he was clueless about how to swim to the surface and shake himself free from the things he had done—and had agreed to do.

So then, on top of everything else, on the way here to the office he’d hit rush-hour traffic, and there’d been an accident on the freeway, which slowed things down even more. He nearly rear-ended a car that slammed on its brakes right in front of him and—

“Mornin’, Jake.” Gracie, the receptionist, gave him a friendly nod as he neared her desk.

“Morning.”

Jake took a deep breath. Yeah, the air conditioning did feel good.

“You alright?” she asked.

“Sure. Yes.” He must have looked as frazzled-distracted-stressed as he felt. “Just a lot popping.”

“The tests?”

“Yeah.”

And things at home.

And things with Ibrahim and—

“Chapman’s in.” She made a face that was more of a grimace than anything else to show her impression of their boss’s mood for the day.

“Gotcha.”

Jake started down the hall, but she said, “Call came in for you. Someone named Ibrahim. He left a voicemail.”

“Thanks.”

He should know better than to call you here! You were very clear about that!

Even more agitated now, Jake passed through the hall to his office to drop off his computer bag before heading to the lab. He dialed the window shades closed to keep the sunlight that was roasting the city from slanting in and glaring off his computer screen.