Crazy Nights (The Barrington Billionaires Book 3) by Danielle Stewart Page A

needed to focus.
    But none of it was nearly as hard as she imagined. It was actually pretty anticlimactic, which was becoming a theme in her life. Her sexual encounter with Emmitt had ended with the same feeling. A whole lot of nothing.
    Evie spent most of her life worrying what other people were thinking of her, but now the farther from home she got the more she realized people hardly looked up. Everyone was busy on their phones, in their own little worlds. She had no trouble moving through Lance Barrington’s office and opening the unlocked utility room. The people she did pass flashed a smile or gave a quick nod of the head and returned promptly to their distractions.
    When she was done and stepped onto the elevator, she decided to click the earpiece back on. “Emmitt,” she said through a smile, “I did it. I’m in the elevator on my way down.”
    “Sophie Barrington is on her way into the lobby,” Emmitt barked, not even acknowledging her update. “Don’t cross paths with her. We’re trying to stay off the radar. There’s a bathroom to your left when you get off the elevator. Duck in there.”
    “All right,” she droned, knowing but not caring that she sounded disappointed. She’d hoped for his praise, some kind of shocked happiness at her accomplishment. She had so few lately, it was nice to finally do something right. But it only counted if other people cared.
    As she pushed open the door to the bathroom she clicked off the microphone and earpiece. If he was pissed again that was on him. This was the bathroom for goodness sake. Stepping into a stall she grumbled to herself, “A thank you would have been nice. I’m the one sticking my neck out.”
    She put her cell phone down on the small shelf in the stall. Trying to adjust the uncomfortable earpiece it suddenly slipped from her ear and bounced across the floor. “Shoot,” she blurted out, bending quickly to try to retrieve it. The last thing she needed was to break even on this job, having to replace some delicate and expensive listening device.
    Like a slow motion scene from a nightmare, she watched the zip drive she’d just filled with all the pertinent information, fall from her pocket and splash into the toilet. “Nooo,” she cried loudly and her words bounced off the walls, echoing loudly. Panic set in quickly as she watched the floating piece of plastic taunt her.
    Yanking off one of her pumps, she winced as she dipped it into the toilet and fished the drive out. The tears came fast and furious as sobs bubbled up from her. The shoes were one of her only decent pairs and the ruined zip drive her only recent victory.
    “Are you all right in there?” she heard a small voice ask through the stall door.
    “No,” she sniffled. She was not all right. Nothing in her life was all right.
    “Are you sick?” the kind soothing voice asked again. “I have some aspirin out here, and I can get you a bottle of water. How can I help?”
    Grabbing some toilet paper Evie fished the drive out of her shoe and shoved it in her pocket. Her dripping red pump still clutched in her hand as she stumbled out of the stall, tears still staining her cheeks.
    “Oh sweetheart,” the sharply dressed woman with perfectly styled hair said in a singsong voice as she looked Evie over appraisingly, “is your shoe wet?”
    “Toilet water,” Evie croaked out with a defeated shrug as though it was just her luck. Another day in the life of Evie Pike.
    “Oh,” the woman said, furrowing her brows up and looking mildly aghast. “Why don’t you just toss that right there in the trash, and you can have these.” She fished a pair of sandals from her large designer purse. “I keep them with me just in case my heel breaks. Things like that always seem to happen at the most inconvenient time. So I like to be prepared.”
    Evie did as she was instructed and deposited the shoe into the trash. Washing her hands, she avoided glancing at herself in the mirror. She knew she was all