Pale Stranger (PALE Series) by Mac Flynn Read Free Book Online

to you," he enigmatically replied.
    "So does that mean I get to write out my own paychecks?" I guessed. Benson smirked, and shook his head. I shrugged. "You can't blame a girl for trying."
    "I could, but I won't," he promised. "As for the matter of your position, you still hold it."
    All the weight of uncertainty fell off my shoulders along with my propriety. I jumped out of my chair and dove around the desk to give him a big hug. He stiffened for just a second and then relaxed in my arms. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I chanted. "Now I don't have to commit seppuku!"
    "Seppuku?" he repeated in bewilderment.
    I stepped back and shrugged. "It was either that or go live with my mom again."
    "You have a parent? Only one?" he asked me.
    "And a dad, but my parents divorced a few years back so I don't see him much," I told him.
    "My angel has a more unusual life than I thought..." he murmured.
    I shook my head. "Nope, it's just your average-everyday-trying-to-live-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth kind of life."
    Benson leaned back in his chair and pondered me; science did that, too, but hadn't come up with an answer yet. "I wouldn't know much about that, but perhaps that's one of the reasons I need to keep you around," he replied.
    "I could tell you stuff, but if you really want to know about people you're going to have to go out and meet them," I pointed out.
    He firmly shook his head. "That's not possible, not in my condition."
    I rejected his argument and substituted my own. "You get along just fine with all that covering, so why don't you-"
    Benson slammed his fist down against the top of the desk. I jumped high enough to feel the ceiling brush against my head, and came back down rattled. "We will not discuss that any further. I will not leave this house except for business and health, do you understand?" I nodded my head; he'd scared the talk out of me. Benson saw the fear in my eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, but getting out isn't an option. My secretaries are my link to the outside world. That is their greatest asset to me."
    I folded my arms across my chest and frowned at him. "Makes me feel like a phone operator trying to connect you through a long-distance call to reality."
    "However you feel it must be this way." He stood and towered over me; for the first time I was reminded that he was my boss and I the lowly employee. "I won't be stared at like an animal at a zoo."
    He marched out of the room, leaving me feeling very foolish. I'd already forgotten how he looked, and how Sheila had reacted to him when he'd come into the diner. A lot of other people would react the same way, and no amount of sunblock could block their curiosity for his strangeness. I furrowed my brow and straightened my spine, but winced when it cracked. My new goal in life, behind finishing college and scuba-diving off Hawaii, was to try to get this man out of his white-skinned shell. Judging by his outburst it wasn't going to be easy, but I knew my SSD would come through for me; stubbornness, stupidity, and determination.
    All I needed now was a plan. I thought long and hard for all of two minutes, gave up and figured I'd think of something. For now I needed to find where my boss had stomped off to. I found him upstairs in his bedroom pacing the floor; if he'd kept it up he would have come to me in the study. "So, um, that phone meeting you had must have been really short." He'd been quick to appear and greet Cecil.
    He waved aside my question with a flip of his hand. "The signal was bad. He'll call back later," he briskly replied.
    "And you don't have anything else to do until four, so what would you like me to do?"
    Benson stopped pacing and gestured to a chair close beside his walking path. "Sit."
    "Woof? I mean, what?" I asked him.
    "I want you to sit down and tell me about yourself. Surely you remember the conversation between Cecil and myself. It made me realize how little I know about you. Now I want to know about you," he replied.
    "All right, but I