by Carter Blake
He’s wrecked absolutely everything.
Once I’ve solved this, once all of this is truly over, I think I will have to leave regardless. I’ve made too much of a mess of things here, so no matter what the outcome, I think everyone will be better off without me. I won’t make the same mistakes again, no way, next time I will live a much better life having learned so much. I still need to find who I am, to work out what I want, I need a silver lining to come from this black cloud.
But first, I need to burst the bubble of the black cloud.
Chapter 20
Wesley
I have the press coming already, because I really need it done before I go insane. I still haven’t exactly decided what I’m going to say yet, but that doesn’t matter. I need to tackle these rumors now before anyone gets in there first. I want the information to come from me, whatever that information might be.
“I really appreciate you coming,” I say gratefully to Amber. “I know you didn’t have to, and I’m sorry for dragging you away from the hospital.”
“It’s okay. My brother’s stable right now, and there’s not much I can do there anyways.” She purses her lips, and I’m certain that she’s holding a whole barrage of I told you so’s back, for which I’m very grateful.
I know that I did a lot wrong, and I feel stupid enough about that. I really don’t need it rubbed in my face too. I just need to move forward. How I’m going to do that, I just don’t know yet.
It’s not just my company Naomi ruined when she stole those documents. It was me too. My heart feels like it’s literally torn out of my chest. The only other time I’ve felt pain like this was when my father died.
I loved her. Hell, I still love her. If she walked through those doors right now I know it wouldn’t take much for me to forgive her. That’s how fucked up I am.
“Are you all ready for this?” Amber asks, still watching me warily. “I know you hate the media stuff?”
“I’m not,” I admit sadly. “I’m totally blindsided by everything, I never expected any of this and I’m not quite sure how I’m going to handle it.”
“You’re going to do what you always do,” she tells me, shrugging her shoulders at me. “Act confident and everything will be fine. Just speak confidently about the company, use your faith in it to restore the faith of others.”
If only I had the same faith. It’s definitely been shaken, I just don’t know how we can recover from this.
“Everyone is here, so let’s get…” She glances through the window where all the press are sitting, and her face turns completely ashen. “Oh my God.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s… I don’t know how to tell you this.”
“Just say it.”
“Naomi is in there.”
Naomi.
My heartrate speeds up.
Has she’s come to sabotage this too? Will her betrayal never end?
“She’s on the stage…” Amber continues. “Talking.”
“Fucking hell.” I move towards the door as the hot stressful pressure starts to build in my stomach. “What the fuck is she saying? How am I going to counteract this now?” Again, I’ve lost all control, and honestly I feel like I could fucking weep like a baby. “Open the door now.”
Amber pushes open the door, and I listen in for a second, just trying to work out the most professional way to handle this. If I storm up there, all guns blazing, then the press will have a story, but not the one I want them too. And with them already thinking that my employees are is disarray, this is the last thing I need.
But the words that I hear coming out of Naomi’s mouth have me totally stunned, and more confused than I was a second ago.
“…so it was a surprise fire drill, that none of the employees were informed of. That’s why the fire brigade was called, for which we are incredibly sorry. We know that’s a waste of important time that could be used on real fires, so we will never do that again.”
Much to my surprise, a titter breaks out among the crowds. Are they actually buying this bull crap? I mean, I did remind my employees about the non-disclosure agreement, and I did make the point that it would ruin our reputation more if any of this got out, but this…
I don’t know, it seems a little suspect to me. I don’t feel like I can actually jump in now, when they’re falling for it. I feel like I will make a big deal out of nothing.
“And also, a donation will be made to our local fire department,” Naomi continues.
God, she’s good. But I don’t get what she’s playing at.
“So, there haven’t been any issues in the lab then?” one disappointed journalist calls out. “No fires or anything.”
“No.” Naomi laughs in a very expert fashion, as if nothing has really happened.
I’m so fucking confused.
Is this more of her game? But she’s already taken everything from me, what more can she possibly want?
“Everything is fine, and going to plan. The release date will be announced soon.”
How can a release date be announced after what she’s done? Has she brought all of my stuff back?
My chest tightens with hope.
“What is she doing?” Amber hisses beside me.
“I have no fucking clue.”
“You should call the cops.”
I should. It’s what I would do if this was anybody else. But it isn’t just anyone. It’s fucking Naomi.
“And everything is fine with the employees too?” another reporter asks,
The crowd is already getting bored, which makes me think that a story might not even come out of this at all.
Naomi glances around, but it quickly becomes clear that no one else has anything to ask, so she wraps it up. “Thank you everyone for coming today at such short notice.”
As the press file out, I watch Naomi carefully, and instead of running out like I half expect her to, she comes towards me, with a terribly guilty look on her face.
Everything floods through me as she moves, all of our moments together, and I feel my heart opening itself back up, even if I don’t really want it to.
Just be careful, I warn myself. Don’t get tricked again. She’s already proven that she can’t be trusted. Just keep your guard up.
Not likely going to happen. No matter how angry I am at her, she’s still my Naomi.
“I’m sorry,” she mutters quietly, keeping her eyes only on me. “I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I made a snap decision and it was the wrong one. I can now see that my Dad is a bad man, and that I should never have gotten caught up in his plan.”
“It wasn’t quite like that though, was it?” I say harshly, seeing her wince. “I know that you conducted the plan for a very long time. You could have pulled out, but you didn’t.”
“I know,” she states as fact, not asking for any sympathy from me, which I respect. “I know I could have, and I was wrong not to. But now I want to help you get back what should be yours.”
“You don’t have it anymore?”
She shakes her head and looks down at the floor. “No. I gave it to my father.”
Shit.
“Come into my office,” I tell her, with an iciness to my tone. “We can chat in there.”
Amber starts to walk away, but Naomi stops her. “Actually, what I have to say, I need both of you.”
Amber frowns at her, but nods.
A few minutes later, Me, Naomi, and Amber all sit around my desk, gazing at one another suspiciously, before Naomi speaks out once more, “I know what I did was wrong, and I’m very sorry. More sorry than I can ever say. But I want to find a way to get the formula back before my Dad does anything crazy with it.”
“Like what?” I lean in, wanting to know just what all of this was for.
“Like sell it. He told me that he was selling it to Elite Meds, but he was lying about that – clearly he doesn’t trust me – so I don’t know where he’s going. All I know is that I cannot solve this by myself. I tri
ed my hardest to get him to stop, to confess everything, but he turned me down.”
The intense pain that crosses her expression at that statement tells me everything that I need to know. She really did believe that somewhere along the line she was doing the right thing.
I blow out a long breath, and drag my fingers through my hair.
What the hell am I going to do?
Call the police. Have the guy carted off to jail. Naomi would never forgive me, but then she’s the one who put me in this position.
“Do you know where your father is? Where he’s keeping the documents?”
“I think he’s with Oliver.”
“You think?”
“The plan was to meet at the Radisson on Front Street this evening, but now that my Dad knows I’m out, he may change his plans. And honestly, I’m not sure I believe anything my father said.” Her face is skewed with guilt.
I rub the back of my neck. “Okay, so what do you suggest we do?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, and I feel like Oliver is the weakest link in the operation. He’s greedy, all he cares about is money, and to be honest my Dad has probably already paid him off a chunk, so his loyalty is probably already wavering. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he might be great at computer stuff, but when it comes to everything else, he’s an idiot. I think if we can somehow get him to agree to meet us, then he will be able to tell us everything before things go too far.”
This could be it, the way out that I’ve been looking for. All I need to do is to put my trust in the woman who betrayed me only hours before.
Am I willing to risk my business over this?
Then again, if I don’t, what the hell am I going to do? I don’t actually have any further plans, this really is it, so maybe it’s better to just go with it. However scary it is, however nervous it makes me, maybe this is the only choice I’ve got.
I glance over to Amber, who just continues to scowl at Naomi.
“Okay,” I finally concede, praying that I’m doing the right thing. “Tell me. What’s your plan?”
“I think there’s one person who can make Oliver talk.”
“Who?”
“Amber.”
Amber?
“What do you mean?” I ask, the coldness returning to my voice. “I don’t intend to endanger people unnecessarily.”
“I’m pretty sure, from what Oliver told me he has a thing for you, Amber,” she says, to which Amber nods agreeing with her.
“He’s always asking me out, as if he doesn’t get that I’m married.”
He is? Why am I never told any of this?
“So I think if you contact him, maybe pretend that you know nothing of this, and that you’re bored at the hospital thinking of him…”
Amber screws her nose up at this, but she nods too as if she gets that it needs to be done.
“Most likely my dad, and the documents are with him. Amber gets his location and we can all go and pay him a little visit.”
It could work. It has to. Because if it doesn’t my next step will most likely involve both Naomi and her father in handcuffs.
Chapter 21
Naomi
Amber types furiously on her phone for a few seconds, then says, “So, this is what I’ve said ‘Hi Roy, it’s Amber. I’ve been in the hospital with my brother for days, with nothing to do but think, and to be honest, you’re on my mind a lot. Would you maybe like to meet up…and see where things go?’ Is that okay?”
“I’m sure ‘wanna screw?’ would have worked just as well, but that will do,” I tell her wryly. “Now we’ll just have to hope that there really aren’t any brain cells in there, and he doesn’t work out what we’re doing.”
“Doesn’t look like it, he’s replied already.” Amber frowns and reads the address that she’s been given. “He wants me to come now.”
“Then let’s go,” Wesley says stiffly.
I know he’s angry, and he has every right to be. I’m lucky that he didn’t call the police on me the second I walked through the doors of the building. But my stomach is in knots over the way he keeps looking at me. Like I’m a stranger.
I don’t deserve his forgiveness. I know that. But I’m going to do everything I can to make this right.
The drive to Oliver’s home is stilted and silent. All of us are lost in our own thoughts, and none of us knows how to express the fear that we’re feeling inside. I am hoping against all hope that my Dad is there with the documents. If not, I don’t know what I’m going to do.
I still haven’t really worked out how I feel about my Dad at the moment. I don’t really know how to begin processing everything that’s happened, so I’m pushing it to the back of my mind, I think that might be something to deal with when the storm is all over, and I’m starting again. I’m barely holding it together as it is, without adding any pressure to that.
I glance at Wesley out of the corner of my eye, just wanting to see how he might be feeling about me at the moment, but from the hard set of his jaw, and the narrow look in his eyes, he isn’t thinking about anything other than Oliver. Maybe it’ll be best for him to never think of me again.
It makes me feel so awful, because I’m sure I’m the first person that he’s ever truly opened up to, and I tore him apart in a stupid moment of making the wrong choice.
Deep down I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do, I could feel that it was wrong, but I continued along the same path anyway because I’d held the delusion that it was my destiny for far too long. Now, any thoughts of fate and destiny, just make me feel sick. They made feel stupid, like I was blaming something else for my own foolishness.
“Here we are,” he eventually announced, shaking me from my thoughts. “Let’s do this.”
Then he totally stuns me by pulling a gun out from his glove compartment, sending my heart racing like crazy. I thought this was going to be a confronting thing, not a murder thing.
Even if Oliver is an asshole, I’m not sure that he deserves to die, and I definitely don’t want to be a part of it.
We’ll all be locked up in jail for sure, for being part of a conspiracy.
Shit, how can I get out of this? How can I say that I don’t want a part of this without looking like I’m betraying him all over again?
“Don’t worry,” he reassures me, obviously reading the emotions that are written all over my face. “It isn’t loaded or anything, it’s just for scare tactics.”
“Oh okay,” I whisper shakily. “That’s probably a good idea.”
Amber positions herself in front of Oliver’s door, while me and Wesley hide around the corner. We’re both panting heavily, our bodies pressed up close, and it takes all that I have within me not to act on the feelings that are currently coursing through my body. I know what we’re here for is important, but how the hell am I supposed to concentrate on the mission when the man that I adore is so near to me, yet so unattainable?
“Hello there, Amber,” we hear Oliver’s smarmy voice ringing out.
With the creaky swing of the door, Wesley jumps into action, so I follow his lead because I don’t know what else to do.
Oliver’s eyes widen in shock, particularly at the image of me back on the other side, but when his gaze falls on the gun between Wesley’s fingers, an odd sense of acceptance seems to cross his expression.
“What do you lot want?” His hands are up, and his eyes dart to the door, then back to the gun.
I wonder if he’s trying to think of an escape route. Hopefully, there isn’t any other way out apart from this one. Maybe we didn’t think this through well enough after all.
“We want to come inside,” Wesley replies sternly.
Oliver steps aside.
We all file into Oliver’s small front room.
“Is Michael here?” Wesley asks, still pointing his gun at Oliver.
“Who?”
Wesley barks, “Don’t play games.”
“No.” Oliver shakes his head. “I do-do
n’t know where he is.”
I can see the lie in his face.
“What is it you want?” Oliver repeats, his voice shaky with fear.
“You already know. There’s no point in trying to deny anything. So what I need for you now is to tell me exactly what the plan is. We already know what Michael told Naomi is a lie, so why don’t you just tell us what’s going on? Whatever reason Michael has given you to get you on board with this isn’t exactly the truth. He might have started the concept for this formula, but he left the business, signing everything over to my Dad in the process.”
“He was forced out,” Oliver growls fiercely.
“Because he wanted to go against company morals, because he wanted to sell the drugs for far too much.”
“No, it was because of your mother.” Every lie and half truth that I’ve been told, spills past Oliver’s lips too, proving that he’s been just as conned as me.
“That was a separate issue entirely. The formula that Michael started has been worked on by Future employees for a very long time now. What we’ve created is mostly ours, and now he doesn’t even want it for himself…a notion I might actually understand, he wants it to sell.”
Wesley stares at Oliver for a very long time, whose expression falters more than once.
“So, why don’t you do the right thing and tell me what’s going on here. I know you’ve been motivated by money, which isn’t a game that I intend to get involved in. I just want you to do what’s right.”
Oliver looks like he isn’t sure what to do, but his eyes are constantly drawn back to the gun. Wesley definitely did the right thing with that one, it’s working really well.
“Okay look,” he eventually starts. “I don’t want any trouble, so I’m just going to tell you what I know.”
My heart beats faster, I begin twirling my hands around in knots, fear circulates my veins. This has to be the truth this time, I won’t be able to stand it if it isn’t.
“Michael is going to meet with the Russian pharmaceuticals manufacturer, Tsitnikov Manufacturers, at midnight. They must be the ones that he has a deal with.”
“So, how do we stop him?” I interrupt, staring intently at Oliver.