Just then Doug walked by, and he all but glared at her. “I need to get back to work,” Paris said.
She returned to her desk. What Paris really wanted to do was go outside and wander the property looking for those pipes that were sticking out of the ground, but she didn't dare. How had she not spotted them though? Or smelled anything coming out of them? Maybe they were heat vents, though she doubted air conditioners would be underground. She fisted her hand. It was so frustrating.
Get to work!
More so than usual, Paris paid extra attention to every number, but unfortunately, everything matched. When lunch time rolled around, she asked if Jenna wanted to grab a bite to eat.
“I can’t today. Didn’t I mention that Dan is taking me out? He has today off, and we want to take advantage of him being home.”
“Of course.” Paris smiled. “And yes, I remember you telling me now. Sorry.”
“Raincheck?”
“For sure.”
After Jenna left to have a romantic lunch date, Paris wasn’t in the mood to eat. She needed to find something useful for the men.
Even when Jenna returned, they didn’t have their usual conversation, and clearly Jenna understood the reason. By the time five o’clock rolled around, Paris had a headache in the making. Her eyes ached, and her stomach was grumbling. As much as she wanted to keep working in order to find some juicy clue, Rider would be outside the gate waiting for her.
Paris pushed back her chair. “I’m heading out.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” Jenna looked hopeful. Her friend probably could sense that Paris was onto something good.
“Absolutely. A lot’s going on.” Paris furrowed her brows. “And no, not like that.”
“Hey, nothing wrong with a little surge of hormones now and again.”
That made Paris smile. She shut down her computer, gathered her things, and left. To her delight, it was Grayson who greeted her at the gate instead of Rider.
She jumped in the front seat. “This is a nice change. Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Rider is checking out some things with Liam and Alex, so you’re stuck with me.”
“I wouldn’t call it being stuck.” He was the nicest one of the men. “I’m happy it’s you.”
Grayson flashed her a smile and pulled onto the road. “I’m not sure when Rider will be back, so how about we catch some dinner?”
“That would be great, but would you mind if we stop at CadEspresso first? For some reason we ran out of coffee at work, and I have a major headache brewing. Adding insult to injury, I didn’t bother eating lunch.”
“Absolutely. Where is this place?”
“The nearest one is in Chesterfield. It’s about twenty minutes from here.”
“No problem,” he said. “Just tell me which way to go.”
“Sure.”
Paris leaned her head back and pressed her palms to her eyes to help relieve the pressure. It was stupid not to have brewed some tea at least. The caffeine would have helped.
“Did you learn anything today?” Grayson asked.
“Yes.” She told him the architectural firm’s name but that she couldn’t find any information on them on the Internet. “I even checked the other provinces, as well as the United States. Since Harrison Industries was built about fifteen years ago, the firm could be out of business or the owners could have retired.”
“That sucks, but thanks for looking into it. I trust you didn’t learn who might have worked on the building, did you?”
“I asked Jenna who will ask her husband, but fifteen years is a long time. If we did find someone, they might only have worked on the main building.”
Grayson didn’t say anything for a bit. “If I were to build a plant for illegal purposes, I’d build it first so that when the main building was constructed, no one would be the wiser.”