Atonement (The Atonement Series) by Elle Chardou

before he took on three patrol officers, two who were so severely injured, they had to be treated at the local hospital.
    For some reason, even “intelligent” and affluent people had used the drug as well. Though they never had attacked a homeless person, Stephanie’s story was the most famous of them all. She’d been with her boyfriend, Clark Jameson, who had put the Bath Salts in her drink. They’d had sex, he left and the drug had just began to take its effect in her system. She’d walked out onto the balcony of her thirtieth floor condo, climbed the railing and jumped, Lethal Weapon -style. She never screamed or made a sound and her body merely ended up broken and battered on the sidewalk where shocked pedestrians witnessed her emotionless actions.
    There was a lot of talk and the story made the news. Clark, her boyfriend, came from a well-to-do family and although it was his actions which caused her death, he’d gotten off with two years’ probation. This did not please the McLaughlin family who were angry and indignant there seemed to be no justice for their daughter but that was the way of the world.
    It wouldn’t have had the press coverage it received if she hadn’t been an employee at uConnect.
    “Okay, so the HR Manager—”
    “Her name is Rebecca Desouza. Apparently she is married to Dennis’ cousin,” I interrupted.
    “And I thought Amazon was incestuous!”
    “Well, Liam kind of gave me a head’s up about that. They don’t like hiring outside people so pretty much everyone knows everyone. They also use an internship program with the University of Washington and the candidates that fit in are offered a position at the end of their internship. It is a very…closed company. I don’t mean it the way it sounds. I merely mean it just seems like they have a lot of issues with being too exposed. I suppose they never want a movie like The Social Network to come out about them.”
    Caitlyn shook her head with a wry smile on her face. “Look at you, it’s beginning already. No wonder Liam wanted you so badly. You’re already a freakin’ Pitbull. I don’t see you staying in HR for very long. Before you know it, you will be in PR.”
    “I hope not,” I said as I scrunched up my face. “I don’t wanna do PR. Surely that would require a degree in Advertisement and to be honest, I am through with school. I am not even finishing my PhD and I am only a semester away from finishing my degree but at this point in my life…it just carries too many bad memories. Even if I were to complete it, I would always remember why I stopped the classes in the first place and…I’m not ready for all of that yet.”
    “It’s up to you. You know I support anything you decide to do. This is your life and I am just so happy you have decided to get a proper job, I couldn’t give a shit if you didn’t want to enter another university classroom. You’re too educated for the position you are taking but everyone has to start somewhere.”
    I finished my wine and set the glass down. “Okay, babe. I better go before Colin starts blowing up my phone with texts. He gets worried when I’m not home after he gets off work.”
    “I thought he worked late?”
    “Thursday nights he gets off at eight. I promised I would be home on time because it’s his turn to cook and he’s making beer-battered fish and chips. He’s not too bad in the kitchen so I don’t wanna miss dinner.”
    We embraced quickly before I high-tailed it out of there. I loved my sister to death but like most sibling relationships, there was only so much I could take. And I hadn’t been lying. I loved Colin’s cooking and looked forward to his beer battered fish and chips.

     

     
    “ SO, WHAT DID you think?” Colin inquired after dinner.
    We sat on the patio. A small fire had been built to chase away the slight late May chill in the air. It would be nice to be away from Seattle for a while but we knew the weather we were bound to face in Europe