The thought makes her laugh and grin sheepishly in the mirror. She isn’t maturing. This is a phase. Only a phase.
She quickly touches up her makeup and heads back down the stairs, already planning what she’ll order when they get to the restaurant.
REMI
NOW
Remi wakes once more to find nothing has changed. She’s still sitting in a pitch black environment, a plastic water bottle by her head.
She tries counting to pass the time, then reciting all the things she was required to learn back in Bible school when she was little. She no longer believes in God, but at least the Bible verses help pass the time. After she runs out of Bible verses, she begins to sing songs. She’s never been much of a singer, especially not a cappella, and soon she cringes at the sound of her raspy voice.
Remi knows it’s time to face the facts. She wants to believe that an accident happened or some sort of mistake has occurred. But the truth is, she’s prisoner here. Someone isn’t letting her leave.
Although she’s never been into TV, Remi has read a lot of detective books over the years, and begins to imagine what the police will do first when they find her missing.
First, they’ll ask her friends and family if she has any enemies. Remi wracks her brain. Does she? She doesn’t think so. Her circle of friends is actually quite small. She and Zeki definitely don’t get along, but it’s more of a relationship of avoidance than one of malice.
She and John got into a fight last night. Or two nights ago, however long it’s been. And it wasn’t a small fight, more like one of those relationship ending fights.
Remi sighs. John is mad, but he would never do this to her. The fight was on both ends. They were both wrong.
She winces as it comes back to the front of her mind.
RAYNA
BEFORE
She presses “10” in the hotel elevator, feeling her nerves accelerate as the elevator ascends.
Rayna has never done anything like this before, but she’s stuck in a hard corner and doesn’t know what else to do. She knows she could ask Zeki for money, but honestly she doesn’t want him to think she’s unable to pay for her own things. She also could probably ask Remi for money, but that would be even more embarrassing.
She comes to the door marked “1004” and knocks.
Daryl, the man from her table at the restaurant, pulls it open a crack. Seeing it’s her, he opens it all the way to allow her to step inside.
The room is some sort of suite. The first room she steps into is a living room, with a kitchen to her left. There’s a closed door on her right, as well as an open door straight ahead where she can see the end of a white bed.
As she observes the room, a scantily dressed woman appears from the closed door on her right. She’s wearing a sort of lingerie outfit that leaves nothing to the imagination.
“Kiki.” The woman sticks out her hand to shake. Rayna takes it.
“Rayna,” she replies.
“You need to come up with a fake name for your protection,” Daryl says from where he stands in the kitchen. He’s putting together some sort of camera tripod.
A man in nothing but boxers walks in from the bedroom, heading straight for the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water. He must have overheard the conversation, because he’s quick to pipe in, “she looks like a Leila.”
Daryl looks at Rayna. “That work?”
Rayna really doesn’t have a preference, so she shrugs and says, “sure.”
Kiki tosses a lace teddy similar to her own at Rayna. “Put this on, then come to the bedroom.”
Rayna bites her lip and nods, heading for the bathroom.
Rayna has never been shy, but this ordeal gives a whole new meaning to the word. Hopefully, no one will recognize her from whatever site this ends up on. She put on extra makeup this morning, hoping to at least somewhat hide her identity.
She slides on the teddy and adjusts her curls in the mirror. Here goes nothing, she thinks.
Rayna exits the bathroom just as Daryl sets the tripod up in the bedroom facing the king size white bed. He begins to fiddle with the video camera.
The man who hasn’t introduced himself sits on the couch, seemingly without a care in the world. Kiki checks her makeup in the mirror.
“Ready, Leila?” Daryl asks.
Rayna nods and heads toward the couch.
***
Two hours later Rayna, sore and re-clothed, stands as Daryl counts money into her hand. He counts twenty hundred-dollar bills.
Two thousand dollars. Rayna stares in disbelief as she realizes she made a thousand dollars an hour for the past two hours.
But was it worth it? her inner voice asks. She pushes the thought away. As soon as the money is in her hand, she shoves it in her purse and heads for the door. She doesn’t even say goodbye to Daryl or Kiki. Turns out, the other man’s stage name is Franco.
Rayna suppresses tears as she rides the train. Though the train only goes two thirds of the way to her home in the suburbs, she doesn’t care. For once she wants to walk.
When she pushes open the door, she hesitantly calls out for her boyfriend. “Zeki?” There’s no response. He must still be at work.
She heads up the stairs to the bedroom, pulling the wad of cash out of her wallet. Two thousand is what she usually makes in two weeks at the restaurant. And she just made that amount in two hours. Unbelievable.
She grimaces at what she’s done. She definitely isn’t proud of it, but she also doesn’t feel ashamed as she should. She knows she should tell Zeki, but just thinking of how angry he would be, she changes her mind.
What Zeki doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
REMI
BEFORE
Remi knocks on her boss’s door, all her work from the past three weeks tucked under her arm.
“Come in,” he replies.
She pushes open the door and steps into Jonathon’s office. Remi is the only female CPA for the company, and she and the two male CPAs all report to Jonathon. Before today, Remi hasn’t been in his office since her interview. Usually, if he needs something, he comes directly to her desk.
“Remi!” he says excitedly as he sees her walk through the door.
There’s no hiding it, everyone in the office knows Remi is his favorite. And not because she’s a woman—mostly because she outworks both of her coworkers on a daily basis. Jonathon says it’s because she’s the smartest, but Remi also senses it has something to do with her work ethic. She spends more time at her desk and less time at the water cooler flirting with secretaries. Go figure.
“What can I do for you today?” Jonathon asks, turning away from his computer and clearing a spot on the desk for her to set her files. She takes a deep breath as she slides into the seat on the other side of the desk. This does not escape Jonathon’s notice. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
Remi doesn’t say anything at first, she simply begins to open files and turn them to face her boss. She’s taken the liberty of highlighting all the suspicious deductions and non-matching amounts she’s come up with over the last five weeks.
Jonathon raises his eyebrows. “What’s this?” he asks.
“Someone is stealing from the company,” Remi says somewhat quietly. Saying it out loud sounds even more accusatory than it does in her head.
Jonathon’s quiet as he looks at the numbers. She can see him calculating in his head just how much money is missing. “Wow.” He lets out a breath.
Remi continues, “I’m not sure exactly who. But I think I’ve narrowed it down.”
Jonathon nods. “To who?”
“Well, these files are all saved online where I can see who accessed them and when. And the only three people who have accessed these over the past two months are myself, Jared, and Lyle.” She winces as she says her two male coworkers’ names. “Now, they may not have physically taken the money, though it’s highly probable, but one of the two of them at least knows who did, and is helping them cover it up.”
“You said that already.”
“I know,” Jonathon replies. “I just don’t know what else to say. They’ve both been with the company so long, I didn’t ever expect anything like this from either of them.” As if realizing Remi is still there, he stops short in his ramblings. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Remi. I will have our auditor sent these documents immediately. Are these my copies?” He motions to the papers still spread on his desk.
“Yes. I printed out three. This one is for you. I have one in my desk if you need a second one. I have a third one in a secure location. Just in case either of them gets wind of this and the online file is damaged or mysteriously deleted.” Remi’s covered all of her bases.
Jonathon raises an eyebrow, clearly impressed. “You really did think of everything.”
“It’s what you pay me for,” she says as she stands up and prepares to leave the room.
He nods. “Of course. And Remi, don’t mention this to anyone else just yet. I wouldn’t want either of our guys to end up in the wind with so much company money.”
She agrees and leaves the room, heading back for her desk. She turns the corner to see Jared’s lean frame leaning against her desk. He taps his foot impatiently, as if he’s been waiting for her.
“Yes, Jared?” she asks as she slides into her seat and logs back into her computer.
“What was that about?” He tilts his head toward Jonathon’s office. “You never go in there.”
“Well, you don’t ever go in there either.” She tries to get him off topic.
It doesn’t work. “I know, none of us do. So why did you go in there?”
Remi sighs, trying to make up a lie quickly. “I just needed help with a project.” She doesn’t make eye contact with Jared, and begins working on an Excel document, hoping he’ll take the hint and leave.
“Why didn’t you ask us? That’s what we are here for.” Jared motions to Lyle, who has stopped working and lifted his head to see what they’re talking about. Remi really wishes they had actual cubicles rather than desks facing each other in an “open” floor plan.
“It was nothing, okay? I was just asking a couple questions, and then I was going to come to you guys for help okay?” Remi knows it sounds angry, but she’s never been good at coming up with a lie on the fly.
Jared can tell he’s breaking her down. “What questions? Maybe I can answer them.”
Remi shakes her head. “No need, they were dumb, okay? Now just drop it.”
Jared lifts his hands in surrender. Remi knows she sounds crazy. He turns and heads back to his desk. Lyle puts his head back down.
She can see the rift between the three of them growing right before her eyes. They’ve never been friends, like she hoped when she first got this job, but she definitely doesn’t want them to be her enemies, either. They’re supposed to be a team.
But if one of them is stealing from the company, it doesn’t really matter, because they won’t be here for much longer anyway.
Remi glances up from her computer screen to see Lyle observing her quietly. The minute her eyes meet his, he quickly glances back down at his work. Lyle has always been kind to her, and Remi senses he only follows Jared because Jared has been here the longest, almost ten years. Lyle has been here for eight, and it had been the two of them against the world for six years until Remi was hired two years ago. The way she figures, they originally saw her as a threat until they realized neither of them were going anywhere.
Or maybe they see her as a threat now, because they’re both stealing from the company. Remi shakes her head, all these accusatory thoughts are making her brain hurt. She stands up and collects all of her folders, sliding them into her shoulder bag.
This doesn’t escape Jared’s notice. “Leaving early? It’s only three.”
“I have a headache. Plus, I always take my work home anyways and finish it there, so I don’t think it matters if I leave two hours early.” Honestly, Remi doesn’t know if it matters or not. This is her first time doing it. But she isn’t lying about finishing her work at home.
Jared shrugs. “If you say so.” He turns back to his work, but Remi doesn’t miss the glare he gives her from the corner of his eye.
Lyle doesn’t even look up from his computer.
As Remi heads for the door, she begins to think that it has to be Jared who stole the money. Why else would he be so suspicious of her? She makes a mental note to report his behavior to Jonathon tomorrow, by email, so Jared won’t ask why she was in his office again.
With a sigh, Remi pinches the bridge of her nose as she waits for the train. She really wishes she could tell someone about this. Maybe Rayna, or John. But she can’t, this is her dragon to slay.
Not that they would understand, anyway.
RAYNA
NOW
After crying for what would probably appear to a passerby as a suspicious amount of time, Rayna finally comes to her senses, using her wrist to wipe away the rest of her tears.
She needs to get to Remi’s, she’ll know what to do.
Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, she realizes it’s almost dead—probably because she didn’t bother to plug it in during her drunken stupor.
“Great. Just fucking great,” she mutters under her breath as she begins the long walk to the train station. There’s no way one percent of battery power is enough to order herself an Uber.
Rayna can’t believe this is happening to her. She’s always kept her life together, and now it’s falling apart before her eyes.
She can’t solely blame Zeki. After her stint making money as a porn actress, things have never been the same, even though she constantly lied to herself and said things were.
Rayna pulls out her phone, trying to check the amount of money left on her transit card, and it powers down completely. The battery is officially dead.
Luckily, when she walks into the train station a few minutes later and swipes her card, the machine accepts it with a beep. At least she’s smart enough to have foresight and leave money on her transit card.
The train ride seems to take forever as the suburbs pass one by one. Why did she let Zeki talk her into moving out here, anyway? She’s always been a city girl. She and Remi have that in common.
After getting off at her stop, she begins the quick walk back to her sister’s place. It’s odd seeing her old neighborhood again. Nothing’s changed, but it still feels different.
Because you’ve changed, her subconscious reminds her. Rayna has grown up quite a bit in the last few months, which is probably why she pushed Remi to party really hard last night. She needed something to remind her of the old days.
Arriving at Remi’s door, Rayna pulls out her key ring to unlock the deadbolt, but quickly reconsiders and raises her hand to knock.
John opens the door. “What do you want?” he seethes.
Rayna’s surprised to see her sister made up with her boyfriend so quickly. In fact, she wasn’t expecting to see John at all. “Um… Can I talk to Remi?” she asks in a hesitant voice that doesn’t sound like her at all.
“Well, duh,” John rolls his eyes. “That’s why she’s at your place.”
Rayna feels her eyes go wide. “Uh…Remi isn’t at my place.”
John’s eyes widen as well. “But she’s not here. I was waiting for her to come home.”
They stare at each other in stunned silence for a moment. Then John steps aside. “I think you better come in.”
Rayna nods mutely and steps past him, making a beeline for her sister’s room.
“I told you, she’s not in there!” he calls after her.
“I know, idiot,” she shouts back as she flips her sister’s light switch and walks to her bedside table. She picks up Remi’s iPhone cord, plugging in her phone. “I need to charge my phone.”
John’s followed her and stands in the doorway. “You haven’
t even tried calling her?”
God, John pisses her off so much sometimes. “No,” she retorts, “because my phone is dead, obviously. Have you tried calling her?” she snaps back.
He shakes his head. “No, because I assumed she was with you.” As if a light bulb suddenly went off in his head, he pulls out his phone and dials.
He waits a moment before he begins speaking. “Hey Remi, babe, I know you’re mad at me, but please, your sister and I are worried, call us back.” He hangs up and looks at Rayna. “It went straight to voicemail.”
Not that Rayna doesn’t trust him, but the minute her phone powers up, she dials her sister’s number while her phone’s still attached to the cord. She, too, gets her sister’s voicemail right away. She doesn’t leave a message and instead hangs up. “That’s weird,” she mumbles, more to herself than anyone else. “Remi never turns her phone off.”
Hearing those words must strike a nerve, because before her mind registers what’s happening, John crosses the room and begins madly tearing up Remi’s desk. He pulls out every paper, tossing various stacks over his shoulder.
Rayna grimaces. Her OCD sister is definitely gonna be mad when she sees this mess.
“Stop!” Rayna calls out. “What are you doing?”
John pauses and shakes his head. “Her work number has to be here somewhere.”
She cocks an eyebrow. “It’s Saturday. I’m pretty sure her office is closed on Saturdays.”
“Is it?” John questions her certainty.
Rayna realizes she actually doesn’t know. “Uh, let me Google the company.” She picks back up her tethered phone, opens Safari, and realizes she has no idea what company her sister works for.
John realizes her dilemma. “Really? You don’t know?”
Rayna rolls her eyes and gives him a “do I look like I know” look.
John quickly answers, “Johnson Finance.”
She types it in and clicks on the number that comes up. She puts the phone to her ear. It rings once, then comes up with a menu of options. She puts the phone on speaker.
Before Now Page 4