Who am I kidding? She sat at her desk at work waiting for her camomile tea to cool, staring at a blank Word document on her desktop monitor. I’m thoroughly annoyed.

She couldn’t think about that right now, though. For one thing, people were dying. Horribly. She started to draft out the board resolution Jack would need to pass to appoint himself as interim CEO when a text popped up on her phone. She saw it was from Li. Hi, babe. Thought we could get pizza tonite and talk about you know what. Got some ideas! Xx

Georgie smiled and replaced the phone on the desk. It was a sweet thought, although she couldn’t think of anything worse.

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Priest found that Jessica Ellinder’s chair was surprisingly comfortable. At first sight, he had thought it might be too hard for his liking but the leather was deceptively soft and the height and back only required minor adjustments to make him feel at home looking out across the desk to the only door in.

The office was less resplendent than the CEO of a multimillion pound group might command; he suspected this wasn’t her father’s office but her old one. She had been catapulted into leadership following his death but he doubted she would have found the prospect of taking her father’s office appealing.

So other than a row of filing cabinets, a desk, a couple of chairs and an old fax machine – who the hell uses fax nowadays? – the room was sparse. Most notably, it was devoid of any items of a personal nature. No pictures of beaming family members propped up on the desktop, no certificates on the wall, no little trinkets or silly executive toys, or even any artwork. This could have been absolutely anybody’s office, or nobody’s.

He thought about opening one of the drawers and rummaging through when the door burst open. Jessica swept in and at first didn’t register her visitor until the door shut behind her. Then she stopped dead, her mouth gaping.

‘What on earth . . . ?’

She looked breathtaking, and whatever speech Priest had planned suddenly died on his tongue. She was wearing a cream pencil skirt cut just above the knee and a deep-blue silk shirt with half-sleeves, ruffled, so he couldn’t tell if she had rolled them up or it was the design. He glanced down to her bare legs. She had the most perfectly shaped calves he had ever seen. He noticed how tanned she was; her skin was a warm, olive tone. It hadn’t been as evident when he had seen her at her father’s funeral. He swallowed, and a thought shuddered in his head: has she been on holiday with someone else?

‘Hello,’ Priest said weakly.

Jessica dumped the papers she was holding onto the edge of the desk. For a moment she looked as though she might cry.