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Music: Out of the Box 26 (The Girl in the Box Book 36)

Page 36

by Robert J. Crane


  CHALKE: I guess that is some small good news.

  They went on for a while longer and Chapman paid only small amounts of attention. The agenda was loose tonight, and he got the feeling that some of them were only online because rubbing shoulders with each other was more fun than sitting alone in their apartments on the respective coasts.

  Chapman looked at the time again, wondering where Gwen was and how long it would be until he saw her again. Hopefully tonight. Otherwise he’d just be sitting around like the rest of these losers, dateless, on a Saturday night.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX

  Reed

  I was contemplating packing up my desk—an unpleasant prospect, even though I’d finally surrendered to the idea the agency was going out of business—when Miranda knocked on my door. “Hey,” I said, glad that she’d spared me—at least for a few minutes—from having to face this. I mean, it was one thing to realize I was going to have to give up on Sienna’s dream here (and sort of mine, too). It was another to actually have to start working to clean out my desk. Or tell everybody else we were broke and shutting down.

  “So, Tennessee,” Miranda said, a folder in her hand.

  “Yeah, I just got back,” I said, turning my attention back to the empty box on my desk. I’d gotten it from Costco, and it was branded with a vodka company’s symbol and name, which I took to be an omen. “I came to some decisions while I was there—”

  Miranda shook her head, frowning. “The invoice, Reed. Did you see it?”

  It was my turn to frown. “What invoice?”

  She lifted the paper. “The State of Tennessee paid us last night. Like...a lot.” She smiled. “Enough to float us for ninety days, which means—”

  I sat down, heavily, in my chair, weird rush of relief blowing over me. “We’re not broke.”

  Miranda just smiled. “To put it in terms you’d understand...‘still flying.’” She waved the paper. “I’ll get things disbursed. You might want to get some more work, though. Most jobs aren’t quite as generous as this one, and they damned sure don’t pay as quickly. I mean, overnight?” She shook her head. “We should work for them every chance we get.”

  I was left shaking my head, staring at the empty box on my desk. Why had Tennessee paid us so quickly? No one did that. Every state we’d ever worked for waited sixty, ninety days to pay invoices. I thought back to Sienna being up in Nashville and wondered if somehow she’d had something to do with it. What it might have been, I had no idea.

  Suddenly, though, the empty box on my desk seemed wildly out of place.

  “We’re not going out of business,” I muttered. Then another thought clicked into place.

  Harry had sent me to Tennessee knowing that this would happen. That taking this mission would save Logan Mills’s life...and the agency.

  “Thanks, Harry.” I frowned, wondering if, wherever he was, he could hear me with his weird, future-seeing powers. I kind of hoped he could, and added, “But you’re still a bastard.”

  EPILOGUE

  Julie Blair

  Eisenhower Executive Office Building

  Washington, DC

  The Eisenhower Executive Office Building was a French Second Empire-style office building that stood across Pennsylvania from the White House. It had once been called the Old Executive Office Building, and before that, simply, the State, War, and Navy Building. Now, though, all those departments had their own buildings, and the EEOB, as it was now known, was reserved entirely for the President’s men—and women.

  And Julie Blair was definitely that. She was a vocal supporter of President Richard Gondry, dedicated and believing.

  Which led her to still be sitting at her desk in the EEOB, working for the tenth night in a row well past her kids’ bedtime. She massaged her eyes. Moved her glasses up, tried to read through the blur, then slid them back down. Still blurry. This much missed sleep would do that to you, she supposed.

  Finally, she gave up.

  “It’s a non-stop deluge,” she said, sinking back in her chair. And it had been. Like someone was just bombarding her with emails on a constant basis to see how many she could answer before breaking.

  Wait, what time was it? She squinted at the clock in the corner of her screen. Eleven? Already?

  Julie sank back in her seat. She’d worked past her kids’ bedtime and hadn’t even remembered to call them at tuck-in time.

  She stared longingly at the family picture on her desk, trying to remember the last time she’d actually been home for bedtime, and cursed, fumbling for her purse and the cell phone within.

  Thirteen missed calls. Five missed video calls.

  Burying her face in one hand, she thumbed the screen to call back her husband. The slow beeping would have annoyed her under normal circumstances, but after so many nights of exhaustion, it just made a noise that rolled right past her consciousness almost unnoticed until he picked up. “Hey, honey—” She sat forward, chair squeaking. “I know, I know...well, I thought I was going to get done early tonight, but...you know how it is. Yeah. Something blew up.” She massaged the scalp above her eye. “Like it always does, yeah...I know...I’m sorry...did—oh, they asked for me? I’m sorry, honey. What? Oh, he wanted me there to sing to him? I know, I’m...I’m sorry...” She sighed, deeply. “No...no, I don’t know when it’s going to get any better...”

  She nudged the mouse, and her computer screen sprang back from where it had started to fade to black, going to power save mode. Blinking, she stared.

  Five more emails had just come in.

  “What?” Her voice cracked. She sounded broken, even to her own ears. “Sorry, I just got...” She stared. One of them was from Kathy over at— “No, I’m listening, I’m sorry, hon, I’m just...” She put her head in her hands. “I know. I should be home soon. I just need to wrap up...yeah. Love you, too.”

  She hung up absently, clicking the email from Kathy. Maybe just one more and she’d head home.

  Wiping her bleary eyes, Julie clicked open the email, already mentally composing her reply. By the time she finished reading it, thoughts of going home had already begun to fade as she settled in to try and dig out of yet another endless crisis in a world that seemed full of them.

  Sienna Nealon Will Return in

  DRAGON

  The Girl in the Box, Book 37

  (Out of the Box 27)

  Coming October 2, 2019!

  GET IT HERE!

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Thanks for reading! If you want to know immediately when future books become available, take sixty seconds and sign up for my NEW RELEASE EMAIL ALERTS by CLICKING HERE. I don’t sell your information and I only send out emails when I have a new book out. The reason you should sign up for this is because I don’t always set release dates, and even if you’re following me on Facebook (robertJcrane (Author)) or Twitter (@robertJcrane), or part of my Facebook fan page (Team RJC), it’s easy to miss my book announcements because … well, because social media is an imprecise thing.

  Find listings for all my books plus some more behind-the-scenes info on my website: http://www.robertjcrane.com!

  Cheers,

  Robert J. Crane

  Other Works by Robert J. Crane

  The Girl in the Box

  (and Out of the Box)

  Contemporary Urban Fantasy

  Alone

  Untouched

  Soulless

  Family

  Omega

  Broken

  Enemies

  Legacy

  Destiny

  Power

  Limitless

  In the Wind

  Ruthless

  Grounded

  Tormented

  Vengeful

  Sea Change

  Painkiller

  Masks

  Prisoners

  Unyielding

  Hollow

  Toxicity

  Small Things

  Hunters

  Badder

  Nemes
is

  Apex

  Time

  Driven

  Remember

  Hero

  Flashback

  Cold

  Blood Ties

  Music

  Dragon* (Coming October 2, 2019!)

  Control* (Coming December 2019!)

  World of Sanctuary

  Epic Fantasy

  (in best reading order)

  Defender (Volume 1)

  Avenger (Volume 2)

  Champion (Volume 3)

  Crusader (Volume 4)

  Sanctuary Tales (Volume 4.25)

  Thy Father’s Shadow (Volume 4.5)

  Master (Volume 5)

  Fated in Darkness (Volume 5.5)

  Warlord (Volume 6)

  Heretic (Volume 7)

  Legend (Volume 8)

  Ghosts of Sanctuary (Volume 9)

  Call of the Hero (Volume 10)* (Coming September 2, 2019!)

  The Scourge of Despair (Volume 11)* Coming in 2020!

  Ashes of Luukessia

  A Sanctuary Trilogy

  (with Michael Winstone)

  A Haven in Ash (Ashes of Luukessia #1)

  A Respite From Storms (Ashes of Luukessia #2)

  A Home in the Hills (Ashes of Luukessia #3)

  Liars and Vampires

  YA Urban Fantasy

  (with Lauren Harper)

  No One Will Believe You

  Someone Should Save Her

  You Can’t Go Home Again

  Lies in the Dark

  Her Lying Days Are Done

  Heir of the Dog

  Hit You Where You Live* (Coming Late 2019!)

  Her Endless Night* (Coming in 2020!)

  Burned Me* (Coming in 2020!)

  Something In That Vein* (Coming in 2020!)

  Southern Watch

  Dark Contemporary Fantasy/Horror

  Called

  Depths

  Corrupted

  Unearthed

  Legion

  Starling

  Forsaken

  Hallowed* (Coming in 2020!)

  Enflamed* (Coming in 2021!)

  The Mira Brand Adventures

  YA Modern Fantasy

  (Series Complete)

  The World Beneath

  The Tide of Ages

  The City of Lies

  The King of the Skies

  The Best of Us

  We Aimless Few

  The Gang of Legend

  The Antecessor Conundrum

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to my editing team of Lewis Moore, Jeff Bryan, and Nick.

  A big thank-you to Karri Klawiter (artbykarri.com) for the cover and for being an incredibly patient human being during my regular requests for additional art.

  Gratitude to my wife, my kids, my parents and my in-laws for keeping life interesting and running. Love to you all.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Chapter 126

  Epilogue

  Teaser

  Author’s Note

  Other Works by Robert J. Crane

  Acknowledgments

 

 

 


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