“Something is different. I don’t get it. Usually, I can just pull up a file and contact people. I can try one more way,” I said out loud. She had an application Marshall installed to record any access she’s had to her head and what files they might have opened.
“I won’t be able to talk to her, but I can get an idea who’s been in her head,” I informed Alejandro.
“Will it tell you where she is?”
“No,” I answered quickly. I looked at him trying not to indicate that the prototype could track her.
I knew what I needed to do. I had to contact Roger and explain what happened with Sam.
Roger Clarke. I thought to myself. I watched as the same phone icon light up as it rang in my head.
“Lauren. What’s goin’ on?” Roger asked, his voice cracking against the question.
I pulled together my mental strength and projected my thoughts to him.
“Hey, Rog, I’m okay, just needed to connect with Samantha and couldn’t.”
“What, Lauren? Why? What’s goin’ on?” I could tell he was disturbed by my attempts.
“I wanted to know if you’ve heard from Sam. I need to talk to her; is there a different way to contact her?”
“I noticed yesterday that she and Marshall fell off our network. That’s what stopped me from catching her as she went through the metal detectors down to the gate. I couldn’t use the apps I downloaded in her prototype,” he said clear as day; yet I felt like I didn’t understand him.
“Roger, we need to fix this now,” I commanded.
“I don’t think her prototype was hacked or anything. Marshall did something to disconnect them,” he volunteered.
“What are you going to do?” I asked him silently.
“There’s nothing I can do.”
“Is there something wrong? Were you not able to get information on Sam?” Alejandro interrupted my secret conversation with Roger while looking at me, seeing I was anywhere but in the room with him.
“No, nothing’s wrong. Well, I’m not able to connect with Sam,” I answered Alejandro, confusing Roger.
“What? Whose there with you? Is that Alejandro?” Roger’s voice roared.
“Why can’t you contact her?” Alejandro asked me.
“It looks like she has been disconnected from the network,” I told him. Finally it registered for him that I wasn’t going to be talking to Sam anytime soon. As long as she was disconnected, I wouldn’t be able to track or talk to her. All of this added up to more reasons why I had to stop the prototype and find a way to destroy every last one.
“Roger, I think it’s time to show Alejandro what Marshall ordered Terence to do.” My mind was worn out and I really wasn’t interested in his answer to my solution. I disconnected and told Alejandro there was something he had to know … and it was about Sam.
When we arrived at my hotel, the chauffeur quickly pulled open the limousine door and Alejandro insisted I exit first. His old world chivalry wasn’t lost on me. Once outside, he slipped his arms around me from behind and pulled me back against the contours of his body, his warmth enveloped me.
“I know we are at your hotel to take care of business … but you, standing there like that … I couldn’t help myself,” he whispered against my ear.
I spun around and he tightened his arms around my back and pressed me into a deep thankful kiss.
“Lauren, today wasn’t casual for me,” he said low and only for me.
I nodded, because trying to speak would be a failure at making sense.
“I never make it a habit to bring just any woman into my bed.” His words tangled my insides.
“Me either,” I whispered back.
“I’m glad to know you don’t make it a habit to bring just any woman into your bed.” He teased as he nudged his lips to the side of my head before nuzzling his face down into my neck.
“Ha ha, very funny.” I pushed him back. “You know what I meant.”
“Of course I do. Just knowing you haven’t come that hard before me … makes me want to take you again right here in the elevator,” he said in a whisper.
“I never admitted that I hadn’t come that hard before,” I countered.
“You didn’t have to, mi dama; your body told me.”
I felt the most intimate place between my legs tingle as I thought about him making love to me. I brought Alejandro up to my hotel room, knowing it could lead to something much different than we came here to do. When I pushed the door open, I was relieved to see the room had been cleaned and the beds made. I shuffled around the room, grabbing my laptop and setting it in front of him on the small table.
“Sit there and turn that on,” I told him.
“Sure,” he answered as he opened it and pressed it on.
“I am going to network it as a slave. No comments.” I stole a glance at Alejandro’s face, his eyes glinted with surprise. He pulled open the laptop and powered it on. Even in a stressful situation like this, the comfort and ease we felt around each other was undeniable.
After several moments, I was able to get the laptop to recognize and link with my prototype. “Master and slave,” I mumbled. I was surprised at how easy it was to get these technologies to merge. I knew the only way Alejandro was going to be able to see the plans Marshall had for Sam was to connect with Roger and download the recording to my prototype. I took a deep breath and began to speak.
“Roger Clarke.” I watched the confusion flood over Alejandro.
“What?”
“I am connecting with Roger.”
“Wait, he’s dead. Isn’t he?”
“No, Alejandro he’s not.” I watched carefully as he tried to deduce the answer I gave him.
“What? How? Marshall told me that he was murdered!”
I didn’t answer him. I focused on the phone icon in the file and instantly I was connected to Roger’s prototype.
“Lauren. I’m almost to D.C. What’s going on?” he responded as I saw it in my head and now heard him through the speakers of my laptop.
“Roger. Listen I have to tell you something,” I said out loud. My eyes focused on Alejandro, I held my finger up in front of my mouth, silently pleading to Alejandro to stay quiet.
“What Lauren? What is it?” Roger asked, picking up on the tension in my voice.
“I need the file with the recording of Marshall and Terence—where they talk about Sam.”
“Lauren, you think that’s a good idea?”
“Yeah, Roger. Unfortunately, it’s about all we have now.”
“I don’t know how Alejandro is going to react to the conversation.”
“It’s okay Roger, I do.”
“Fine—I’m sending the recording. My plane is landing and I need to find where Terence is taking her. I’ll do whatever it takes to save her. You work on Marshall, I trust you—and Lauren—be careful.” He disconnected.
I didn’t break my eye contact with Alejandro as I had the conversation with Roger. I was desperate to know that I hadn’t lost the one man I had let possess my heart. Alejandro shook his head and dropped his eyes from mine. He was lost to me. I wanted him to see I was still the same woman he was with earlier, that this didn’t change anything.
“Lauren, what do you mean you have Terence on a recording with Marshall?” Alejandro asked in a hollow voice.
“I don’t, Roger has it. We didn’t—I didn’t mean to hide this from you. Everything moved so quickly today and when we saw the recording last night—”
“You saw this last night?” he roared. Suddenly, my thoughts led me to think; all he saw in me was a despicable woman who chose pleasure over someone else’s life. I was left completely alone with Alejandro. I had no way of explaining that I was honorable and no one else to help me explain what we saw in our heads last night. There was only one thing I could do. Show him the recording.
I accessed the file Roger sent to me and held my breath as I focused on the play button that lit green. I minimized the file in my eye
s. I had already lived through that recording I didn’t want to do it two days in a row. Besides, I didn’t want to take my eyes off of Alejandro as he watched it play on my laptop and not in his head.
Rage filled his eyes as he watched Marshall blackmail Terence. Alejandro cursed under his breath as his beautiful forest eyes became dark and clouded. He pushed himself from the table and stood up. I was frightened by his quick action. His hands balled to rock hard fists. I didn’t know what to say, so I stood facing him in silence.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Pain curtained his expression.
“I didn’t know you cared. Roger was handling it, I was told to go with you to SI. Marshall and you were my responsibility. Roger was going to handle Sam and Terence.” My answer seemed twisted and convoluted as it came out of my mouth. Not at all how I wanted it to sound.
“What do you mean that I was your responsibility?” he questioned.
“I just meant—I was going to go with Roger to help with Sam,” I answered.
“Sam and Terence are my employees, Lauren. If anything happens to them, so help me—” His eyes pierced mine.
Frustration drowned any sense I was making. Suddenly, everything I said wasn’t justifiable. “When I realized that you were going to be expecting me; I thought that we would have a chance to talk in the coffee shop and I would get the opportunity to tell you, when we were alone. When I hit the dash everything started to tail spin from there. You canceled the meeting with Marshall. You took me to your house and—”
“We got carried away with each other,” he said.
I looked up and paused. He just stared at me. My head swam as each pounding thrust of my heart carried his poisonous words throughout my body.
“Is that what you think? That we got carried away?” I whispered.
“I don’t know what to think. Who can I trust? Marshall is trying to hurt Sam, Terence can be blackmailed into anything and you—you kept it all from me. How did you think I was going to react?” He met my eyes. His shoulders heavy, his expression wrecked; he turned away from me and headed to the door.
“Wait. Don’t do this. Don’t spew your anger with me and then walk away.” My chest rose with each breath I was fighting to catch. “I can ask the same thing. Who can I trust, Alejandro? Who do I believe? Marshall tells me to stay away from you, Roger tells me you’re dangerous and Samantha is so terrified that she shakes at the mention of your name. You’re asking me about trust. Have you been completely honest?” My words grasped at anything that would protect me from pain.
I looked at him. His body swayed with each breath I took as he walked back to me. I didn’t want to be the owner of this busted harmony between us. I didn’t want this to be the scene where we broke up a relationship that didn’t altogether even exist. “Okay, Alejandro, so I screwed up, but don’t give up on saving Sam. Roger needs your help.” I grabbed at his arm and pulled him toward me. I kept forgetting how strong I was with the prototype evolving in my body. We looked into each other’s eyes. We were mirrors shattered by each other’s words.
“I’ll help Sam, without Roger,” he said before he turned and walked out the door.
I fell to my knees; broken beyond anything I had been before, I held my heart out for the sacrifice. I gave myself to him so completely and all I could do was watch him dissolve my heart to nothing more than dust in my hands as he walked out the door. I had nothing left in my chest; I slammed my fists against my head and contacted Roger.
“Roger Clarke,” I cried. Within seconds he answered.
“Lauren, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”
“No, Rog, I’m not ok. I need to get out of California now!”
“Why? What happened? What the hell is going on?”
“Damn it, Roger, I just do. Stop talking and listen. Get me out of here!” I screamed at him.
“Fine, fine, okay, look in my suitcase; you’ll see a black zip-up leather case the size of a checkbook. In there you will find some money. Take it, get a ticket and get back to D.C.
“Thanks, Roger.”
“Just get back to me in one piece, Lauren.”
“Okay.”
I couldn’t stop my body from shaking. It started in my core and radiated out to my arms and legs as I searched Roger’s suitcase for the leather pack of money. I found it, a huge amount of money all perfectly stacked, tens, twenties and hundreds all in the right order. It was more than enough to get me out of here. I rubbed the tips of my fingers across my eyes and typed American Airlines on my laptop. If there was a flight available, I was going to find it. I found a redeye flight out of SFO at eleven fifty five. I tried to pack everything we brought but kept dropping things I’d pick up. They just slipped from my grip. It felt like all control I had over my body ceased. My head was swimming with all the shit I had to pack before I flew back home. An hour and a half later I had mine and Roger’s bags packed and ready to go. I wasn’t going to worry about getting my weapons from Alejandro’s house. I would just have to cut my losses.
Cut losses, losses bigger than weapons in a drawer warped my thoughts and the reasons why I never opened myself up to the crippling pain of relationships. I was content with making my career my lover; I didn’t need anything else. The pain of my life ten years ago flooded my soul. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t keep my lungs from shriveling up abandoning their post, while the strangling pressure returned from a fucking elephant sitting on my chest. Left abandoned like so many times before, everything short-circuited and faded to nothing. Maybe the pinprick date of my dying in three days was wrong … maybe it was this moment, right here where my life would just slowly slip away.
Time passed into a gaping hole of null and void. I don’t know how much or what occurred but my eyes popped open to the rapping on the door.
“Room service, Mrs. Clarke,” A male’s voice spoke against the door. I was surprised at the name he called me then remembered the room was registered to Roger.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
“Would you like me to leave it out here?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” I answered as I pressed my body against the inside of the door. The pain in my stomach wasn’t from being hungry. I was aching for Alejandro.
I was wrapped inside the memory of that night I had dinner with Alejandro. I remembered the pressure of the fork as he pulled it from my mouth, the sweet taste of cheese cake when I swallowed. The warmth of his hand as it brushed across my cheek and the deep pounding of my pulse. I longed to go back to that night where I still wondered what he felt like. What his lips tasted like. Instead I was interrupted by Roger in my head.
“Lauren? Hey Lauren, how are you? Did you get a ticket home?”
I shivered at his voice. Home, what was that? My thoughts switched to D.C. Was that really my home? It’s been my home since I turned my back on California. I didn’t anticipate a long day in the city would make me feel like I belonged here and sadly, at the same time left me feeling so alienated.
“Lauren, answer me. Did you get a ticket home?” I could hear the alarm in his voice.
“Yeah, it leaves tonight. Eleven fifty-five. Thanks,” I answered absent as I pushed the memory of Alejandro from my mind and the slice of shitty room service cheese cake from the edge of the table.
“What time is it there? Two in the morning?”
“About that time. I wanted to make sure you found the money and was able to get a ticket. What time do you land in D.C.?” He paused, but not long enough. “What happened? Did Marshall do something to you?” He waited for me to answer.
I really didn’t feel like talking about it. I wanted to avoid my life right now. “No, Marshall had nothing to do with it.” I didn’t give him anymore details. I busied myself by collecting my clothes.
“Is this your way of telling me it’s none of my business?”
I let out a deep low sigh. “Something like that. What’s going on with Sam?” I was a bit hesitant to ask and stood still waiting for an answer.
&nb
sp; “She’s home. I didn’t see Terence at the airport, so I don’t think he got on the plane with her. He must still be in San Francisco. Her plane landed before mine and by luck I found her at baggage claim. I’ve been following her, waiting to contact her. Keep your fingers crossed she doesn’t freak out.” He seemed like the old Roger I knew.
“Terence wasn’t with her?
“No,” he answered.
The wheels in my head started to spin and I began to think about the meeting with Terence and how Alejandro found out about Terence’s deal with Marshall.
The gap of time caused Roger to speak up.
“What are you thinkin’?” He could tell I was working something out in my head.
“Alejandro must’ve called Marshall about Sam. Marshall didn’t give him what he wanted so he came to me and found out about Terence and Marshall’s deal. If Terence wasn’t on the plane and Alejandro was pissed. What’s to stop Alejandro from finding Marshall and—”
“Lauren, Your flight is leaving in a couple of hours. You should already be at the airport.” Panic swelled in his voice.
“I will be. I just want to—”
“No, Lauren, no want to’s. You get your ass in a taxi and get yourself to SFO. Get on that plane!” Roger demanded.
I appeased him with a short answer and we disconnected from each other. I grabbed the phone and called down to the front desk. They were very courteous and made sure I would have a ride to the airport.
A gentle rap at the door pulled me from packing up the toiletries I left in the bathroom. I was so close to being ready. I wish the driver wasn’t here for just another half an hour. Still, then again I just needed to get out of the city and California. I pushed the rest of my items into my bag and zipped it up. I was in a whirl wind getting ready to go so when I swung the door open I wasn’t prepared for who was on the other side.
My body didn’t move. I was paralyzed by shock. He stood there silent and unmoved waiting for my reaction.
“Lauren Matthews?” he asked as I watched his dreadlocks sweep at his shoulders and his enormous coffee-painted hand reached out to me. He continued. “I’m Terence Cummings. I work for Alejandro Fernandez at Spartacus Industries.” He waited for me to grab his hand pushing it closer to me. I watched my hand disappear, swallowed completely by his grasp. I was stunned.
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