I passed one of my male colleagues that made no effort to hide his leering gaze. I rolled my eyes. He was a tool. I could kick his ass, but that wouldn’t help my place here amongst the chauvinistic assholes I worked with. Ever since I was little, I loved to fight. I grew up with five brothers, all of whom fought like their life depended on it. One of them actually became a professional boxer, and I trained with him whenever I went to visit. He always thought he had to take it easy on me, and then he was always shocked when I gave him a run for his money.
I took a deep breath as I knocked on my boss’s door and waited for his command to enter. When I opened the door and he saw me, I didn’t miss the slight roll of his eyes or the way he started muttering under his breath.
“Sir, I have something that I think you should see.”
He waved me over, sighing heavily. Yeah, I got it. I was an annoyance to him.
“Someone sent me this anonymously. It implies that Senator Cortez is illegally funneling money into a biotech corporation.”
His brows furrowed and he motioned for me to hand over the file, which I did. “The new kid? Why would anyone suspect him? That kid is still wet behind the ears.”
“The information suggests that he-”
“It’s not important,” Mr. Dennick said, flipping the folder closed. “I’ll look into it personally.”
I looked at him in confusion. “But, this was sent to me. I’d like to investigate further.”
“And I said that you’re to leave it alone.”
My anger rose as I stared him down. He wasn’t going to look into it at all. I could already see that something in those files had gotten to him. He was going to make the file disappear.
“I’m not going to stop digging. That was sent to me-”
“That’s enough, Agent Collins. This is not your case any longer.”
“Then I’ll take it to the Deputy Director,” I said, only thinking afterwards how stupid it was to say that. His face became mottled with rage and he shoved his chair back, making it bounce off the wall.
“You’re finished. You’ve been a pain in my ass since the day you got here. Turn in your badge and your gun and get the hell out of my building.”
“You can’t do that. You don’t have just cause.”
“Really? I could pull up your file and find any number of infractions that prove that you’re not a team player, that you can’t do your job efficiently.”
“Because I follow the law instead of your idiotic guidelines that do more for lining your own pocket than actually solving any crimes?” I snapped.
He picked up his phone and dialed someone, staring me down with an evil grin. “Security, I need you on the fifth floor to remove Blake Collins from the building.”
He hung up, smirking at me like he’d won. “This isn’t over.”
“Yes, it is. Hand over your badge and your gun.”
I pulled both out and set them on his desk. Turning, I stormed out of his office and back into mine. I only had minutes at best to gather up my files, but I also knew that they would go through my briefcase before I left. Popping the USB drive off the necklace I wore, I hurried over to the copier and plugged it in. Every copy that was made was scanned into the system. I just had to put in which scans I wanted uploaded to my drive, and I could slip out of here without anyone knowing. At least, not unless someone went searching through the copying data.
I glanced out the window as I quickly tapped on the touchscreen, transferring the files I needed. I heard the ding of the elevator as I waited for the screen to show that the files had been transferred. Just as the doors opened, the files went through. I quickly removed the USB and popped it back into my necklace, shoving it inside my shirt. It didn’t look like a USB, so even if they stopped and searched me, they wouldn’t suspect anything. I grabbed my mug and my few personal items, shoving them into my briefcase right as the security guards walked through the door.
“Agent Collins, you need to come with us.”
I grabbed my coat off the coat rack and snatched my briefcase, feigning annoyance when the security guards grabbed it out of my hands and started going through it. They turned to my boss, who had entered after them, and showed him the files I had slipped inside.
“Nice try,” he smirked, taking the files from the guards. “Show her out of the building, gentlemen.”
One of the guards grabbed my arm and escorted me to the elevator, pushing me inside. I was pissed as hell, but I just had to make it out of the building and home without anyone suspecting that I still had the files on me. When we reached the lobby, the guards took my badge that granted me access to the building and shoved me out the door. I turned to
