Chapter Four
I thought about him for the next couple of days. I was never one to find myself daydreaming in the middle of the day. The date ended with a loving embrace outside on the curb where the taxi was idling to take him back to his hotel room. He apparently came to Phoenix on business twice monthly and was scheduled to make another appearance at the end of the week to go over last-minute negotiations for a deal.
I was glad I had taken the chance and I had Natalie to thank for it which was the reason why I was knocking on her door. I had to go through a vigorous vetting process and they literally frisked me at the front desk making quite the scene. It was tempting to turn the tables on them with a few quick moves but I contained the rage they had been responsible for igniting inside of my bloodstream.
I heard a muffled response from inside and I turned the knob to see her sitting with her back toward me. Her long dark hair fanned out over the chair and she was talking animatedly with her hands moving in the air. She had a fantastic view from forty floors up. I always did have this sense of vertigo when it came to heights.
“I don’t want to hear it. The deadline is fast approaching and you really don’t want me to come down there. Everything hinges on this going according to schedule. The launch of the product is going to put us on the map. Iron out the bugs and get back to me with your recommendations. I don’t care if you have to hire more people to get it done. We have the budget to bring in consultants on a contract basis.” I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation but there was real confidence in the way that she was taking a switch off of one of her employees.
“Naming this place Black Industries is a little on the nose. There’s no arrogance in your family. I don’t normally let people touch me like the way your guards did down at the front desk without buying me dinner fi
rst. One of them got past third base,” I teased, wearing a pinstripe pantsuit a little classier than my usual jeans and T-shirt.
“I should have warned you about that when you called this morning. Things are a little tense around here. We can’t be too careful about rival competitors. We have marketed our new product, getting the attention of technological giants. My phone has been burning up for the past week with desperate attempts to get me to reveal something about the product. It’s going to be a game changer.” She was right to take precautions. Insider espionage was not a victimless crime.
“I’m not complaining. They did have a gentle touch, even though I still felt a little violated after they were done but not in a bad way. I will deny it if you tell them.” I used humor as a self-defense mechanism to keep people from seeing how nervous I was in social settings. Public speaking was a nightmare.
My studies had been completed and I was waiting for the hammer to come down with the posting of my grades in a few hours. The best way to get out of my head was to distract myself and I thought of no better way than to spend time with my new friend. I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t grateful that she had rescued me from an embarrassing situation.
“Alas, they don’t do that for me anymore, even though I have suggested it on several occasions. They just need to see my credentials. Sometimes a woman wants that unwanted attention. With that being said, I do believe we have a date for lunch. I hope you don’t mind and I feel a little silly mentioning it but I thought of somebody perfect for you. He’s going to join us for an innocent lunch. After all, a girl needs to keep her options open.” She turned her back and was waiting patiently for me to respond.
“I don’t like being ambushed but I can turn the other cheek. You’ve earned my respect and that’s not easy to do. Everybody gets three strikes. It remains to be seen whether or not this is going to be one of yours.” The lights flickered and there was the sudden appearance of a helicopter outside the window.
It was black and ominous just hovering there and then it revealed its intentions with one man holding a rifle. This was going a little further than insider spying but the threat was looming with its red targeting laser scope streaming through the window aiming right at my heart. The red dot made me an unwitting player and they probably couldn’t see through the tinted glass.
The man’s finger was on the trigger and he was preparing to fire.
The bullet didn’t make it through the glass but it certainly did leave its mark. It was actually still spinning like a drill. It was something I had never seen before and it was terrifying to think somebody had this kind of technology in their possession. We didn’t have a moment to lose, the copper tip was going to penetrate any second.
I dove to the floor grabbing Natalie at the same time until we were lying there on our stomachs. The bullet made it through and drove into the back wall where I had been standing. It would have cut through me like a knife through butter giving me little chance to respond to the unprovoked attack. He began firing indiscriminately, with several of those same rotating tips smacking into the glass repeatedly. It took merely a few seconds for her office to become a war zone. Placards of her accomplishments were destroyed beyond recognition with the glass from their frames raining down on us from above.
“You people really do take your business seriously. What are you going to do for an encore?” I was slowly backing away from the carnage and then I heard return gunfire from where I could only assume was the roof.
The helicopter began billowing smoke and veering to the side. The man with the gun became a casualty, when he fell from the helicopter after being struck by a bullet, his body plummeting to the ground below. It wasn’t the fall that was going to kill him. It was going to be the hard and unforgiving landing on the pavement. My fervent hope was no innocent bystander was going to be injured in the process.
Some people had taken cover under their desks, while others crawled toward whatever exit they could find, including the door to the stairs. Their fear was pungent and punched me in the face but their reactions were normal. Natalie remained steadfast and had a calming influence on the others. There was an evacuation plan but it was mainly dedicated to fires.
“You all know what to do. Get to the safe areas and don’t come out until you get the all clear. Keep moving and don’t look back,” Natalie urged still on her hands and knees beside me.
“It was probably a portable electromagnetic pulse to keep us in the dark. Thankfully, a device of that size can only work in close proximity. The guards have confirmed the helicopter has left the airspace so it should mean everything will come back to normal shortly.” A stranger in a dark suit, wearing his long blond hair in a ponytail, was trying to be the voice of reason in an otherwise chaotic environment.
The lights flickered again and the computers began to power up after temporarily being shut down by force. Some couldn’t handle the stress and remained a darkened screen, dead on arrival. There was a fire and I acted irrationally by getting on my feet to put it out. A fire extinguisher near the back wall was soon in both hands converging on the electrical fire before it had the chance to spread to other flammable areas in the building.
The nozzle brought to life a blast of condensed air coolant smothering the flames. I continued to douse the area afraid of an errant spark. I couldn’t stop and I became laser-focused on the task at hand. It sputtered when it became empty and Natalie gingerly took it from my hands with one hand on my shoulder as a gesture of solidarity.
“I appreciate your quick thinking but I think you’ve got it and then some. I was just informed the power is back on in the rest of the building with a few minor scrapes and bruises. The police have been called and there will be an investigation. Wesley is who I wanted to introduce you to but not in this way.” She pointed to the man in the corner conversing with a couple of security guards.
From my vantage point, he was a Greek god and there was no doubt he was someone uniquely acquainted with the gym. Muscle-bound freaks were not my type but he could certainly change my mind. I envisioned doing something particularly naughty to get punished for my bad behavior. That man could overpower me and take me to new heights of pleasure women only dreamed of.
I didn’t advertise but being a virgin had kept me up nights. It didn’t mean I hadn’t done other things which usually came courtesy of my hand. Pleasure was the only thing men of my age were looking for. It didn’t matter how they got it as long as it wasn’t by their own hand. Getting a reputation for handling a certain part of their anatomy had gotten me off the hook of going too far. I guess I was waiting for the right one to plant their masculine flag.
He came over with a disarming smile that made my panties melt. I usually didn’t have this kind of reaction to anybody of any gender. Just one look at this man made my pulse race and my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. I had to chalk it up to the adrenaline of danger and not give in to the foreign feelings creeping up on me.
“Wesley, I would like you to meet a dear friend of mine. Alyssa is going to join us for lunch after we get this mess cleaned up. You showed yourself to be a real leader and I’m not going to forget it. Nobody really knows what they’re capable of until push comes to shove. Never sell yourself short.” She hugged him in a sisterly way and he looked a little uncomfortable with the public display of affection.
His name and his voice were awakening a familiarity between us. I had just put a face to one of the voices. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Somehow I was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. To bump into him accidentally seemed statistically impossible.
Natalie held it together and went to greet her frazzled employees, coming back with questions she couldn’t answer yet.