The Simpatico Series Box Set (3 books in 1)

by Dermot Davis

  “Not a problem,” Lily said, turning to her work as if she was in the middle of something and didn’t want to forget or lose her place. “Honestly? I’m just as nervous. I’ve never trained in a new guy before. I’ve no idea why they chose me; there are far more experienced people around here, trust me.”

  “I’m glad,” Andrew said and felt he needed to explain further when she looked up at him expectantly. “I’m glad they chose you, or I mean I’m glad they chose someone normal, I mean, someone friendly, like you seem to be.”

  “What, old fart face didn’t make a good impression?” she asked, referring to the pompous dude.

  “Yeah, exactly,” Andrew said and laughed. “What is that guy’s problem?”

  “A severe case of superiority, if you ask me,” Lily said, hushing her voice a little. “And if he asks me out one more time, I’m seriously going to slug him.”

  “He keeps hitting on you? Gross.”

  “I’m sure he’s doing it just to amuse himself or maybe to annoy me. He knows quite well that employees aren’t allowed to date.”

  “They’re not?” Andrew asked incredulously.

  “Heck, no,” Lily said like it was a super big no-no. “They didn’t tell you?”

  “To be honest I’m kinda finding out stuff as I go. No one told me squat.”

  “Well, next to secrecy, that’s a big one, let me tell you.”

  “Oh, yeah, I got the secrecy lecture. No WikiLeaks if you want to live long and prosper, right?”

  “You can’t even say WikiLeaks around here,” Lily said in a hushed whisper. “You want to get us canned?”

  “Seriously?” Andrew asked, looking scared.

  “No, just joshing you,” Lily said and laughed.

  “You got me,” Andrew admitted. “What’s that dude’s name, anyhow? He never introduced himself.”

  “I call him D-bag but most people around here call him Justin.”

  “You’re hilarious,” Andrew said, liking her more and more. “How long have you worked here?”

  “That’s what I’m telling you. I’m one of the newbies; I’ve only been here a year; less than a year.”

  “Well, whatever you want me to do, I’m game,” Andrew said, looking around at the mess of open boxes and files all over the cluttered office.

  “It’s not glamorous, let me tell you right off. Mostly filing and research and whatever special projects they assign us to work on. You won’t understand any of this stuff, or at least I don’t; you just do what you can, giving them what it is they want. Luckily they’re usually pretty good with specifics, like they detail their requirements on a rec sheet like this one,” she said, picking up a sheet of paper with bulleted requests stretching down the page. “These codes here tell us where they’re filed or where they should be filed. Sometimes you have to go searching for what you want; either it’s misfiled or it’s been moved since the last system sort… you’ll get the hang of it, don’t worry, it’s not rocket science or anything.”

  “A rec sheet; that short for recreation, like Parks and Rec?” Andrew asked innocently.

  “Rec is short for requisition,” Lily answered, partly wondering if it was an honest question. “Are you being serious?”

  “No, just joshing with you,” Andrew lied, hoping to cover his ignorance. “Now, we’re even.”

  “You can start unloading everything in that box, if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty,” Lily said, getting down to business. “Careful of the dust.”

  “No problem,” Andrew answered as he rolled up his sleeves. “Oh,” he then said as he saw a familiar tattoo on the inside of her arm: a winged serpent eating its own tail.

  “What?” she asked, wondering if her dress was malfunctioning or something.

  “You’re a member of that group, the Wise Serpents?” Andrew asked with surprise.

  “Yeah? Aren’t you?”

  “No,” Andrew answered, like he didn’t believe in that kind of stuff.

  “How come?” she asked like she didn’t understand. “Everyone that works here is a member and goes to meetings. It’s a requirement of the job.”

  “It is?”

  “They didn’t tell you?”

  “Oh, yeah, maybe,” Andrew lied, pretending to remember. “They may have mentioned something.”

  “Kind of a biggie around here,” Lily said, wondering what the guy’s story was as she turned back to her work.

  A little freaked out by this new information, Andrew mulled it over in his head as he opened some bankers’ boxes of files. Did he really have to join their secret society in order to have a job there? And if so, why did Simon never mention it? “They made you join?” he then asked.

  “No,” Lily answered, looking at him more closely now. “I was a member first and then I got this job.”

  “Oh,” Andrew said, looking totally baffled. “Cool.”

  Andrew didn’t know what to make of his first day of work. He never heard from Simon all day and he didn’t want to interrupt the man’s busy schedule with minor questions like whether or not he had intended to come pick him up after work so that they could drive back home together.

  Having worked a twelve-hour day, Andrew looked up the bus website on his smart phone. He would need to take three different buses for a total trip time of 2 hours and forty-five minutes. Wonderful, he said sarcastically to himself. Probably get home around midnight.

  Being the only passenger on each of the buses that was not just Anglo but also wore a suit, Andrew stood out like a brand new Mercedes in a used car parking lot. While most of the ethnically diverse group of commuters were solo travelers and kept to themselves, Andrew did generate a few curious glances. It was mostly the younger males that showed interest, many of them heavily tattooed and reminding him of his former, fellow prison inmates.

  Wishing to discuss current developments with Fiona, Andrew wondered exactly how much he was allowed to reveal to her, if indeed anything at all beyond opening and sorting file boxes all day. He did need to tell her about having to join the secret group that her father belonged to; that was a biggie. Although he knew that she would not be pleased, he personally didn’t know what to make about the whole thing.

  He didn’t know anything about their activities and if someone as smart and level-headed as Lily could be a voluntary member, along with everyone else that worked for the company, it couldn’t be a bad thing. There were worse organizations to belong to and being a member of a prison gang definitely had to be one of the lowest, he mused to himself with a wry smile.

  Working twelve hour days and with long commutes both in the morning and late evening, Andrew didn’t get to see Fiona until the weekend. Packing a picnic basket, Fiona was excited out of her mind to be spending some quality time with Andrew at their sacred spot by the cliff. “You poor thing, are you exhausted?” she asked when the first thing he did when they got there was to stretch out and lie his back flat on the cool earth.

  “This is amazing,” he said, as he felt the nurturing earth beneath his body. “Doing absolutely nothing never felt so good.”

  “Are you hungry?” she asked hopefully as she opened up her basket of all his favorite goodies: three different kinds of cheeses, grapes, crackers, strawberries, seed crackers and chilled white wine.

  “Not just yet but you go ahead,” he said, his eyes closed to the world.

  “Are you going to sleep?” she asked, a bit miffed but at the same time not wanting to be a killjoy to his relaxation.

  “Just resting,” he said like he was verging on sleep.

  “I can wait,” she said, closing the basket of specialness. “You rest.”

  Andrew did fall asleep and when he woke it seemed like quite some time had passed. Turning his head to look for Fiona, she was not to be seen. “Fiona?” he called. Raising himself up into a sitting position he looked a full three-sixty degrees. Hearing movement behind him, he turned and was thankful to see her walking towards him. “Where’d you go?” he asked
.

  “You fell asleep so I went to pick some wild flowers, see?” she said and held out a bunch of brightly colored plants.

  “Wonderful,” he said, not too impressed. “Sorry I fell asleep. How long was I out for?”

  “A couple of hours, maybe. That’s okay, you obviously needed the rest.”

  “I might have to move back to my mom’s,” Andrew said tactfully. “From her place I could get to work in like thirty minutes compared to the hours it takes me to get to the Palisades. What do you think?”

  “You can borrow my car until you get one for yourself.”

  “Thanks, sweetie, that’s very kind of you but the issue is that they took away my driving license. What’s you got in the basket?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “Lots of everything you like. Hungry?”

  “Yeah,” he said, turning his attention to the picnic basket. “What’s ya packin’?”

  “So, talk to me,” Fiona said when he served him a paper plate of gourmet goodness. “How’s the job? What are you doing, exactly?”

  “I’m working in this basement full of boxes and files. Rows and rows of filing cabinets, like you wouldn’t believe. I swear I’m starting to dream of files in my sleep, I see them everywhere now. What will it be like after a year of this?” he asked as he munched on a cracker and cheese.

  “Who are you working with?”

  “My boss, actually I’m not even sure if she’s my boss, she’s been training me in, is this really cool chick that I like a lot. I mean, as a coworker. You’d be surprised by the number of A-holes who seem to work in that place.”

  “Is she old or young? Your boss that’s not your boss.”

  “Probably my age or a bit older.”

  “Is she cute?”

  Andrew paused before he answered as he knew that even though Fiona asked the question in a relaxed tone, it wasn’t a casual question. “She’s kinda cute, I guess,” he answered disinterestedly. “No, not really good-looking like you, if that’s what you mean,” he then said, upon further reflection.

  “Who else are you working with?”

  “Right now it’s just been the two of us, for now, I guess. The guy I met first was a grade-a d-bag, like you wouldn’t believe. In fact, that’s what Lily refers to him as: a d-bag,” he said, grinning.

  “Lily, is that her name?” Fiona asked with thinly veiled hostility. “The cool boss.”

  “Yeah, that’s her name,” Andrew answered, placing his food back on the plate. “Are you jealous? There’s nothing to be jealous about. She’s not my type.”

  “You’re madly in love with me. Why would I be jealous?” she asked with a pout.

  “Come here, you,” he said and grabbing her, he pulled her down to the earth and tickled the daylights out of her. “Jealous, jealous, jealous,” he teased.

  “Don’t tickle, no, don’t tickle,” she kicked and screamed.

  “There is something else, though,” Andrew said more seriously.

  “What?” she asked as she straightened out her tee-shirt.

  “First off, I’m not supposed to be telling you, telling anybody about what I do or who I work with or anything about work. Your father would like kill me if he knew I was talking to you about this.”

  “Who am I going to tell? My stuffed animals?”

  “I know, right? But that’s not the point. Your father was like riding my ass about secrecy; you should have heard him, in real sergeant major mode like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen him get like that.”

  “They made me sign all kinds of papers, confidentiality agreements and all kinds of legal stuff, most of which I’ve no idea what I was signing.”

  “I’m sure it’s pretty standard, employment contracts and stuff required by law, right?”

  “I guess,” Andrew said and hesitated. “But this place is weird, the way they do things, the stuff they say? It’s like everyone’s looking over their shoulder all the time, like they think they’re being listened to or spied upon or something. It’s just weird,” he then said, unable to satisfactorily explain himself.

  “So, you didn’t tell me. I know the name of your sort-of boss, big deal,” Fiona said, wondering what all the fuss was about.

  “I think I have to join the Wise Serpent group, to uh, be employed here,” Andrew said, handing her the big one.

  Fiona froze for a second as if she hadn’t heard him correctly.

  “Lily had the tattoo on her arm and I asked her about it. She said that it’s a requirement of the job and that everyone that works there is a member or has to become a member. She was surprised that I didn’t know. She didn’t say anything but I could tell she was looking at me funny because I must have looked so clueless. She was a serpent first… and then she got the job. I had no idea,” he said, turning his head to her slowly. “What do you think?” he asked when he became unnerved by her silence.

  “First my father and now you?” she said dismally. “What do you think I think?” she asked, looking like she was angry and bitter. “I think you should quit, obviously.”

  “You think I should quit my new job?”

  “You’re going to join my father’s secret society?” she asked like it was a crazy notion.

  “Of course not. I want their lawyers to represent me in court. If it’s a choice of joining their club or going to jail, what do you think I should choose?”

  Looking overwhelmed and acting like the day was ruined already, Fiona packed up the picnic basket.

  Grabbing hold of her arms and looking directly into her eyes, Andrew got her attention. “If it’s a choice of joining their club or going to jail, what do you think I should choose?” he repeated.

  “I can’t tell you what to decide,” she said, doing her best to avoid his gaze. “Being your own man or selling your soul to the devil, gosh, I don’t know what I’d choose,” she said sarcastically, pulling her arms free.

  “So, your father is the devil, after all, huh?” Andrew asked petulantly. “Going into business with your old man means that I’m trucking with Satanists?”

  Closing up the basket, Fiona stood.

  “You’re leaving?” he asked like he thought she was acting like a child. “Don’t you think you’re being a tad unreasonable here?”

  “You can’t reason with evil, Andrew. You either stand in the light or you hide in the darkness; there is no grey area in the world of spirit. Decide what you stand for and never waver. I thought we both understood that,” she said as she walked away.

  “You want me to go back to jail?” he shouted after her. “Stand up for the light against all the ethnic gangs in prison? You want me to die for the cause? Because you live with the man, Fiona. If being in business in selling my soul to the devil, then what does it mean about you that you’re living with him?” he shouted but he knew that she was out of earshot. Reluctantly, he stood and followed her.

  Chapter 4

  Much to the delight of his mom, Andrew moved back into her house in order to be closer to his job. Applying himself without distraction, he worked long hours and suffered no complaints from Lily, Justin, Simon or, indeed, from anyone else at the office.

  Tired and grumpy most of the while (grumpy because of the Fiona situation), his eyes lit up and his mood changed for the better when he got his first paycheck. Even with some “preliminary” deductions for “legal fees, etc.,” he was pleasantly surprised by the amount that was left over.

  Barely on speaking terms with Fiona, Andrew’s heart would not stop hurting. He hated being estranged from her and, with the amount of time he spent at his job, it left only the weekends to try to connect with her and arrange to spend some time together. Expecting her coolness to him to have thawed over time, it bothered him immensely that she remained so entrenched in her position.

  Even though he felt that he was in the right, he wanted to make her happy. Unable to see a way out for himself he felt that, for the first time since they had known each other, he
couldn’t appease her. Her argument, given that she lived with the man, was entirely illogical. Added to the fact that he was now making money, and on the first step to becoming independent and taking charge of his own destiny, he saw no reason to give up his employment.

  He had not yet been approached about joining their secret group and there was every possibility that Simon was giving him a pass on the whole ‘member of our secret society’ thing. He had only Lily’s word to go on and, with no disrespect to his boss, she was pretty low down on the totem pole. If Lily and all the employees of the firm, in all their offices across the city and nation were devil worshippers, then heaven help humanity, he thought to himself.

  Just because Fiona had major issues with her father, and practically accused the man of being a soul stealing Satanist, did not tar everyone that the man had hired or that worked with him with the same brush. Fiona needed to confront her father, once and for all, and get it out of her system. Whatever love/hate relationship she had got going on with him should not spill over and affect what now should be, her most primary male-female relationship.

  Even if Fiona were right, which didn’t seem possible, Andrew wasn’t so sure that he could easily walk away from the miracle job that had created his new life. The job and the organization, as shady and secretive as they admittedly might be, were saving him. Help was not forthcoming from any other direction and at the time the offer came, he was decidedly at the end of his rope and literally near death. He probably would have jumped off a bridge, rather than go back to prison for years and years. In fact, he still felt pretty much the same way and nothing in that regard had changed much since.

  Plus, he hadn’t seen any reason for the organization’s secrecy and such. He was merely handling paper files. There were no pentagrams on the walls or lit candles or bodies dripping blood. They didn’t have a Friday morning ritual killing instead of office meetings.

  If he had gone back to prison, there was a good chance that he would probably die in there. Why shouldn’t he take his chances as a free man in the real world and, if he really were selling his soul to the devil, which seemed laughable and almost idiotic, then it was probably the best choice that he could make under the circumstances. If, as Fiona had said, he was the light and they were the dark, then perhaps it was his task to shine some light from within the darkness rather than from without.