The Simpatico Series Box Set (3 books in 1)

by Dermot Davis

  Once inside the large lab, Andrew continued walking as if he knew exactly where he was going. He kept a watchful eye out for anyone who might glance at him with suspicion. So far, all of the scientists were so enmeshed in their work, that they didn't even notice his presence. Spying Fiona, towards the back of the lab, his heart raced.

  Thrilled to find her so quickly, he was also concerned that she might react with familiarity and or shock and maybe give the game away. Sitting in a chair with electrodes and wires attached to her head, she was being supervised by a woman in a white coat, Lydia, who was making notes upon a clipboard.

  "Your name is Fiona?" Andrew asked authoritatively when he stepped in front of his true love. He gave her a wink as his back was turned toward Lydia.

  "Yes," Fiona answered calmly, finding it extremely hard not to laugh out loud and jump crazily into his arms and kiss his face a million times.

  "You need to come with me. Now," he said, like he meant it.

  Swiftly taking off her electrodes, Fiona had to hide her smile with one of her hands. "Okay," she said, hoping not to sound too extremely delighted.

  "Wait a minute," Lydia jumped up to confront Andrew. "What's this about? Who are you?"

  "The name's Andrew," he said, flicking his business card into Lydia's hand. "Abigail sent me. She needs this girl urgently," he said, taking Fiona roughly by the arm.

  "Hold on," Lydia said, blocking his path. "Why haven't I been told of this?"

  "Because it's urgent?" Andrew said like she was being an idiot. Unable to contain herself, Fiona snorted a laugh and then disguised it with a fake sneeze.

  "I'll need to make a call and get clearance," Lydia said, picking up her phone.

  "Hurry it along," Andrew said impatiently, checking his watch for emphasis.

  "Abigail, please," Lydia said when she made the call. "Oh, hi, Janice," she said with familiarity. "Can I have a word with Abigail really quickly?"

  "Abigail's in a meeting. Can I take a message?" Janice answered politely.

  "Oh, uh, do you happen to know if she sent someone down to the lab to pick someone up here?" she asked all the while watching Andrew with steely eyes.

  "Yes, she sent Andrew down there to pick up Simon's daughter, Fiona," Janice replied. "Did you want to leave a message? I’ve got another call coming in."

  "No, no, that's fine," Lydia said as she relaxed her gaze on Andrew. "Thank you," she said as she hung up.

  "Come along," Andrew said coldly to Fiona as he grabbed her arm.

  "She wasn't finished the test yet," Lydia said as she looked at the disconnected wires with concern.

  "Sorry," Andrew said without emotion. "I have my orders." Looking down the lab towards the reception he got a jolt when he saw the two guards reenter the lab. "This way," he then pulled Fiona along in the opposite direction.

  "That's not the way out," Lydia said as she watched them take off at speed.

  Quickly reaching a door at the rear, Andrew approached it without hesitation.

  "Andrew, the alarm," Fiona said as she drew his attention to a large warning sign that said an alarm would sound if opened.

  Car keys in his hand, Andrew pushed open the door. A screeching alarm went off, amber lights flashed in the doorway.

  "Quickly," Andrew insisted as he took her hand and they raced together into the alley. Parked a few feet from the door, Andrew's car alarm chirped off as he pressed the key fob in his hand. Running to their respective car doors, they got into the vehicle and slammed the car doors shut just as the two guards rushed out of the building.

  Burning rubber, Andrew took off at high speed. Laughing as he watched the two guards standing helplessly in the center of the alley, he then shouted a loud "Yahoo!"

  As the car merged with busy street traffic, Andrew looked over to check on Fiona. Staring at him in an adoring fashion, she looked at him as if she couldn't believe her eyes. "You okay?" he asked.

  "Are you kidding?" she asked back, a huge smile breaking out on her face. "I've never felt more okay in my life!"

  Breaking into uncontrollable shared laughter the pair of them knew immediately that they were so deeply connected that they didn't even have to ask anything of the other. Like nothing had happened, since the last time that they had been together, they rebonded to each other in an instant. They flushed with the giddy deliciousness of escape and shared love.

  "Is this really happening?" Fiona asked, her world suddenly coming alive with love and hope and everlasting goodness.

  "Better believe it, gorgeous," Andrew answered like a tough guy from an old black and white gangster movie. "How do you like them apples?"

  "OMG… you were so dang funny," she said, her heart exploding with joy. "I have instructions to take this girl back to my place," she said, imitating his officious manner. "How did you make that happen?" she than asked for real. "You just walked in there and pulled me out, like, without effort! No gunshots fired, nobody got killed," she said with incredulity. "And when she made that phone call? I thought for sure she was going to blow the whole thing apart and we'd both end up in a padded cell in the basement. Abigail didn't really send you to get me, did she?" Fiona asked then stared at Andrew with undying love.

  "Of course not," Andrew said with a self-impressed smile. "I set the whole thing up," he said with obvious glee. "I knew that she'd make the call, so I got in a call to Janice first, knowing that Abigail was in a meeting, knowing exactly what your keeper would ask, and what Janice was going to say, because I was the one that told her! I'm a friggin' genius, come on," he said playfully. Fiona giggled wildly and Andrew grinned and blushed.

  "You are a friggin' genius!" Fiona agreed, slapping his arm for emphasis. "I swear if that woman was going to put another electrode on my freaking head! I can't believe you came for me!"

  "Are you kidding?" Andrew asked like she had no idea. "I've been out walking the streets looking for you since that night you did an Elvis! I've worn out like twenty pairs of shoes wandering in the desert and walking the streets, asking anyone and everyone if they might have seen you, all the way between here and Twentyninepalms, like a crazy person!"

  "You have?"

  "Yes, I have. Okay, going through twenty shoes is an exaggeration but yeah, seriously. I've been all over the world trying to track you down. Even had a photograph of you that I shoved into people's faces, hoping to jog their memories."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, really."

  "Which one?"

  "Which one, what?"

  "Which photograph of me were you using?"

  "Seriously?" Andrew asked, looking over at her with a face fit to be tied. "That's the question you want answered?"

  Smiling to herself, Fiona couldn't believe that they were already back to their old selves.

  "I showed everyone the photo of you where you look fat," Andrew said playfully, like he was annoyed.

  "No, you didn't," Fiona said, like she was shocked.

  "Yes I did! And your hair was all messed up and you looked stoned," he added, like he really wanted to stick it to her.

  "The one where I was sticking out my tongue like this?" she asked as she stuck out her tongue at him and twisted her face into a grotesque expression.

  "That's the one," he agreed. "Your face was so messed up, people kept asking me if you were getting professional help."

  "Well, that's very thoughtful of them," she said as if she appreciated their concerns about her mental health. "I'm so glad you asked such nice people if they had seen me."

  "Well, they only became nice when they looked at your face," he said sweetly. "I think it was your beautiful blue eyes that melted their hearts and returned them to their humanity. I think I may have improved the world just by shoving your photo into people's faces. It was a pivotal moment of transcendence for most of them… a spiritual experience."

  "I love you too," she said softly.

  "I love you so much, pretty face," he said as he smiled a kiss to her and put his foot on t
he accelerator and zoomed up the on-ramp to join the speeding traffic on the LA freeway.

  Driving the rest of the way, mostly in silence, the young couple basked in each other's company. It was as if their bodies and energy systems were recalibrating and adjusting to the elevated frequencies of their newly reacquainted heartfelt soul love. As if they innately understood that their immediate time together was best spent in gentle mutual loving appreciation, to allow an adjustment to their newfound togetherness, they knew that any more meaningful discourse would need to wait.

  There would be plenty of time for them to share their thoughts, feelings, concerns, and recent separate experiences, later. For now, they wanted to breathe each other in and fill up with the love that they’d both dearly missed and longed for during their time apart. Without each other, their love reserves had run so low that they’d been near starved. It was time to refill and revive their deprived hearts with soul love, mutually shared, given and received. It was time for them to remember who they were and to recommit to who they wanted to be, as a couple and as individuals within their togetherness.

  "I'm so glad I'm home again," Andrew said, even though they were miles from the mansion.

  "I'm so glad I'm home again," Fiona agreed as she smiled a grin that would melt the coldest heart.

  When they did enter the gate and pull up outside Fiona’s former home, they both simultaneously unfastened their seat belts and made a dive for each other. Holding firm in their embrace, they looked like they were but one person, their bodies clinging together as if their very lives depended upon it. Grasping each other in a grip using all of their physical force, it was if they truly wished to merge into one being.

  "I love you so much," Andrew uttered into her ear with utmost intensity.

  "I love you so much," Fiona responded, tears of happiness filling her eyes.

  "I was never involved with Lily or anyone else for that matter."

  "Hush," Fiona said, hoping not to have the moment spoiled. "If you wish to be with me, that's all I want because I sure as heck want only to be with you."

  "It was always you, Fiona. Always and only you, my darling."

  Entwined in an embrace that felt like the nectar of the gods to both their bodies and souls, their existence and the moment felt timeless. As if time itself had stopped, their souls reconnected and appreciated every molecule of the other's body and being. So enraptured in their mutual joy and reinvigorated effervescence, they did not hear the knocking on the passenger side window.

  It wasn't until the car door opened that Andrew saw the smiling face of Simon. The man looked thrilled to see his daughter back home where she belonged. "Fiona, my darling girl!" he exclaimed loudly, his arms outstretched begging for a hug.

  "Dad?" Fiona asked as she turned her body and mind away from soul love and was forced to readjust to the world of the here and now. Jumping out of the car, to complete her father’s open invitation hug, she embraced him warmly.

  "Are you a sight for sore eyes!" Simon said tearfully as he crushed his daughter to him.

  "Are you back from the zoo?" Andrew asked, surprised and disappointed to have his moments with Fiona cut short.

  "We did get to the zoo but your mom got called into work," Simon answered disinterestedly as he remained hugging his daughter.

  "You're dating Andrew's mom?" Fiona asked with shock and surprise as she broke away from his grasp.

  "Why, yes, I suppose I am," Simon answered awkwardly and flushed like he was a young boy that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

  "Cool," Fiona replied a second later, as if she’d had to think about it and realized that she liked the idea.

  "Yeah," Simon said, a smile of relief breaking out on his face.

  "Andrew and I are going to hang out in my room for a bit, okay, dad?" she asked as she turned her amorous attentions back to Andrew.

  "I'm sorry, sweetie, but Andrew needs to get back to work," Simon said regretfully.

  "No, I don't," Andrew said with an expression of surprise and defiance. "I just totally dirtied my bib with Abigail. As soon as she finds out that I pulled Fiona out of lock-down, she'll use my body for target practice!"

  "If you stay away she'll have a contract put out on you," Simon said with an earnest expression.

  "Seriously?" Andrew asked, unsure if Simon was pulling a prank.

  "Staying away is an admission of guilt," Simon said like he knew what he was talking about. "Like a boxer on the ropes, it sends the message that you've run out of fight and you're one more blow away from total defeat."

  "I can't go back," Andrew said doubtfully. "She'll lock me up in a room somewhere."

  "What's the last thing that you expect from a boxer that's backed up against the ropes and looking like he doesn't have any fight left in him?" Simon asked.

  "I don't know," Andrew answered, unfamiliar with the sport. “He throws up?”

  "Last thing you expect is that the boxer comes back out swinging!" Simon said with gusto. "What's the first impulse you feel when someone you think is defeated comes back swinging at you like crazy? Apart from the unexpected shock, you retract in fear. You obviously didn't read the situation very well and you exposed yourself thinking that you had won the fight. No, son," Simon said as he walked closer to Andrew and adopted a more paternalistic demeanor. "The best defense is a good offense. You don't even give her a chance to give you a bollicking; you storm into her office and vent at her in a crazy rage."

  "I do?" Andrew asked, thinking how scary and crazy a proposition it seemed.

  "If whatever you accuse her of has any semblance of truth, she will contract and close in on herself. Then you hit her harder and accuse her of the most heinous crimes known to man. Before you know it, she'll be back-pedaling at the speed of knots and apologizing to you. You'll look like the one that was victimized and she'll be convinced that she was the one that acted out of line and she won't even know why she's feeling like shit. Then you tell her that you'll forgive her, just this one time, but, as far as you're concerned, she's walking a tightrope and one more slip and you're done; she's dead to you. Trust me, kid, this is the better way to go. Don’t be a wuss and curl up and hide and hope that she doesn't come after you."

  "Wow," Andrew said as he tried to get his head around the concept. "That shit works?"

  "Like a charm," Simon said with a smile.

  "Your dad's a Machiavellian genius, did you know that?" he asked Fiona who looked like she was in agreement with her father.

  "Tell me about it," Fiona said dryly.

  "You're too kind, old son," Simon said with a wry grin. "Now get back there before she has too much time to think about what she'd like to do to your lame-ass body when the goons report back to her with stories of your misadventures. Fiona will talk to you on speaker phone as you drive so you can get your facts straight. Won't you, love?" he asked Fiona.

  "I will," Fiona said and smiled lovingly. "Come back soon, darling," she said to Andrew as she kissed him with feeling.

  "You bet," Andrew said as if the kiss had left him breathless. Once back in the car and on the road again, Andrew called Henry to thank him for his part in the successful intervention and complimented him on his terrific ability to create a diversion, even if he wasn't a pretty James Bond girl.

  When Fiona called they had a hard time trying to concentrate on mundane conversation when all they wanted to do was complement each other and convert their mutual admiration into words of love and threats of what they wished to do with each other in the confines of their private and cozy bedroom later that night.

  "Come home safely to me," she said in a throaty, sweet girlish Marilyn Monroe voice.

  "You know I will," he said, sounding like he was truly besotted. "Wild horses couldn't keep me from you."

  "It's not the wild horses I'm worried about," she said, sounding like she actually might be concerned for his safety. "It's my crazy, psychopathic aunt that's the problem. Friggin' insane is what she is, scary-ass m
ental case."

  "I know," Andrew agreed. "I can't believe she arranged to have you kidnapped! That's like, insane!"

  "She owes me post traumatic therapy money, big time. I wouldn't get on her bad side, if I were you."

  "Don't worry, sweets. I got this," he said reassuringly. "Gotta go, I'm at the building," he said as he pulled the car into the underground parking. "I love you."

  "I love you too, my soul love."

  Chapter 16

  Preparing a compelling counter-attack, as he rode the elevator up to his office, Andrew actually felt like he didn't have too much mental work to do in order to sound angry or convincing. Genuinely upset that Abigail had treated his girl in such a dangerous and cavalier fashion, the more he thought about Fiona's horrific ordeal, the more he felt his blood boiling.

  Having gotten to know Abigail better this past while, he had gradually learned that, in the name of advancing her fanatic agenda, she was capable of cruelties most people would find not just objectionable but extreme and impossible to carry out.

  No doubt she would justify her treatment of her niece as a necessary sacrifice, the use of one person’s life to save thousands. The blood relationship probably hadn’t been an issue. Not even knowing of Fiona’s existence until recently, she had never established a close bond with her niece. Presumably, the lack of an emotional bond made it easier for Abigail to treat Fiona in an unloving fashion. But then again, if Abigail was truly a generally psychotic individual, who knew what the woman was capable of?

  "Abigail wants to see you as soon as you put a foot into the office," Janice said urgently as Andrew walked from the elevator to his office. "Her words," Janice added to suggest Abigail's mood and the shit storm that Andrew should expect from her.

  "Now what?" Andrew asked innocently as he turned back towards the elevator.

  Arriving at the conference room he took a deep breath before knocking firmly and opening the door.