RISK

by Deborah Bladon

  She breaks the connection when her gaze travels around the room.

  "The shipment is already overdue." I even my tone, cutting the man I'm speaking to off mid-sentence. "Unless it's delivered by noon tomorrow, you'll be facing a hefty fine per our original contract."

  I listen half-heartedly as he tries to excuse away the delay. Ellie smiles before she turns her attention to a calendar hung on the wall. The image on display is familiar to me, but judging by the way Ellie's staring at it, she's never seen anything like it before.

  It's a beach in Hawaii. Maui, I believe. I picked the calendar up from a youth group. They were selling them in the parking lot at the airport in Honolulu. I had just finished a business trip in Lahaina and when a guy approached wearing board shorts and a ripped T-shirt with a message summoning for a change in the world, I handed over a twenty dollar bill and shoved the calendar into my carry-on. I hung it up when I got home as a reminder of the tranquility of the islands.

  "I'm putting this on my bucket list," Ellie murmurs before she snaps a picture with her phone of the calendar. "I'm going to Hawaii before I die."

  I tuck my phone next to my chest, blocking my voice from the guy who is now telling me that they lost track of the truck carrying the first shipment of our new products. That's a quarter of a million dollars worth of missing lipstick, eye shadow, and mascara. "If you pack that bikini you were wearing last night, I'll go with you."

  She looks as surprised as I feel by my words. Why the fuck would I invite myself along on a future trip to Hawaii with her?

  I bring the phone back up and catch the tail end of the guy explaining that they are sending out several men to track the truck down since the driver isn't picking up when they call. I don't give a shit if they send out a full-on search party. The product needs to be at our warehouse when promised. Simple.

  "Find him and call Crew Benton," I grumble. "Do not call me back. Your contact is Crew for the rest of the night. Not me."

  I end the call and immediately direct my attention to Ellie.

  "I have an emergency too." She sighs. "My friend locked herself out of our apartment. I need to go home so I can let her in."

  "Can't she call someone else?"

  She shrugs her shoulders, her hair falling away from them. "I told her to call the building manager, but she just sent me a text telling me she couldn't reach him. I can't leave her locked out. I need to go help."

  "I'll call Crew." My gaze drops to my phone. "I'll get him to call the manager. He'll have him at your place with a key in hand within minutes."

  "Are you sure?" She takes a step toward me. "Because I can run down there and be back here in no time."

  "You live miles from here," I point out. "Even if my driver catches every green light, it's not a quick trip."

  She studies my face before her eyes sweep over my desk. "I guess it's not that close."

  My phone starts ringing again. "No, it's not close at all."

  "You should get that." She shifts restlessly on her feet. "I'm going to text Adley."

  "I'm not getting it," I say just as I see the incoming number. "Shit. I have to take this, Ellie. I'm sorry."

  Silence hangs in the air between us before I breeze out of the room and cross the hall back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

  Chapter 23

  Ellie

  "You don't want me to come back?" I ask to clarify what he just said. "You think I should go home, let Adley in and stay there?"

  Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now. It's there in my voice. I can hear it. Nolan sure as hell can too. I don't care.

  I was prepared to tell him to him go ahead and call Crew so he could help Adley before he came walking back into the office. I could sense immediately just by the expression on his face that our date was over. I had known it before he explained that the last call was a pressing matter that had to be dealt with immediately. In simple terms, it means I need to haul ass out of his apartment right the fuck now, even if I'm not ready to.

  "I'm sorry, Ellie."

  You'd think he'd have the decency to at least tear himself away from his phone while he half-heartedly apologizes for ending our night early. He doesn't though. He types away, sending someone a text message or an email. For all I fucking know, it's a sext message.

  I skim my fingers over the screen of my phone. "I'll take off now. I have an Uber coming to get me. He's only six blocks away."

  "I could have called for my driver."

  He could have, but he didn't. Instead, he focused on something on his phone the same way he is now. I want to talk to him. I have questions that I need answers to.

  To begin with, I want to know why he said he lives near Cremza when he obviously doesn't. I'm assuming he said it as a way to break the ice when we saw each other there. I'd like to hear him clarify it for me.

  I'd also love to know why he has a yellowing copy of the New York Times from a day in May five years ago open on his desk. The calendar on the wall is stuck back at that month too. I noticed the date when I was drooling over the picture of a sandy beach displayed for that particular month.

  The dust-covered, open packaging from a smartphone sits atop his desk. The model is obsolete. The only value it would have to anyone at this point would be as a paperweight, even though it was in high demand a few years ago. It's been replaced several times over by newer, more streamlined versions.

  The phone Nolan is holding is the same model as mine. It's just two months old and already there's a promise from the tech company that produces it, that a better phone is on the horizon.

  It's as if we stepped into a time machine when we crossed the threshold and entered this room.

  Maybe I'm paranoid because of what happened with Tad. Maybe I'm just reading more into Nolan's home office than is there. I can't tell. I just know that something feels off and my intuition rarely fails me.

  "I'll call you in the morning, Ellie."

  Again, his eyes are glued to his phone's screen. Seriously?

  "Sure, whatever works," I say because, at this point, I just want to leave.

  I wait for him to offer to walk me out, but that would require some attention being thrown my way and that's obviously not happening.

  "I'll get my purse and my shoes and then I'll go," I grumble as I step to the side. "I can find my way back to the lobby on my own. Can I ask you something first?"

  As if on cue, his phone rings again. He stiffens, his hand reaching to scrub the back of his neck. "Fuck, just fuck."

  It's enough of an answer to send me toward the office door. "Good night, Nolan."

  He catches me by the elbow, his chest pressing into my back, his voice thick in my ear. "If this were anything else, I would bury it until tomorrow. I would completely ignore it and take you to bed."

  But… I wait for it.

  "But, I can't. I fucking can't."

  I turn back to look at him. "I'll catch up with you soon."

  He kisses me softly on my forehead as his phone continues its cruel reminder that his attention is no longer mine. "Tonight was amazing. It's just the beginning."

  Of what, I want to ask, but I don't. I can't. He brings the phone to his ear and he brusquely tells the person on the other end to hold as he waits for me to leave the room.

  ***

  "Ellie Madden?" he literally screams my name at me. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

  I wish I were. There are a lot of Uber drivers in Manhattan. What are the chances that the one that I get is the boy I used to sit behind in eighth-grade geometry class? It's the same boy who was in virtually every one of my calculus classes in high school. He's not a boy now. He's a man with thinning light brown hair and hazel eyes. "It's me."

  "You remember me, right? Rick Jones. You don't look the same."

  "Neither do you," I counter. From what I can remember he does look the same, except for the hair that is trying to grow on his chin. Those few whiskers are determine
d, but they're apparently losing their battle. Rick is still the same hairless wonder he was when we graduated high school.

  "I drive an Uber for a living."

  "Really?" I scratch the top of my cheek. Of course, he drives an Uber. It's the only reason we're having this mini high school reunion in his car outside of Nolan's apartment.

  If he takes twelve minutes to pick up every customer he has waiting for him, he might not be driving people around for money much longer. I got so frustrated after waiting on the sidewalk for ten minutes that I almost canceled the ride so I could flag down a taxi. That's when I saw him finally creep around the corner at a speed I could beat while hopping on one foot.

  "It's a temp thing. My goal is to be a surgeon."

  "Are you studying for that?"

  "I'm pacing myself," he begins, and then it ends. He doesn't add to that. I don't ask because I don't care. "So you're headed uptown?"

  I glance at the GPS unit of his car. The address for my building is already programmed into the screen. I look carefully at the red line that is charting the technology calculated route Rick will take. "It's faster if you go through the park."

  "There's only one filly I follow and it's this beauty." He taps his finger on the corner of the GPS monitor. "We'll take her lead."

  I type out a quick text message to Adley telling her I'm finally on my way. When I look up, we still haven't moved.

  "Are we heading out soon, Rick?"

  "You could have sat up front with me, Ellie." He cranes his neck so he can stare at me. "It would make it easier for us to talk."

  "I'm in the middle of an emergency right now." I gaze out the car's window at Nolan's building. "I'm not all that talkative."

  "Is there anything I can do for you?" he asks with actual emotion in his tone. "I've had it rough at times too. I get that we all need a friend once in a while."

  I smile at the offer. It's kind, even if the look in his eye is making me uncomfortable. "If you could just get me to that address as soon as possible, that would help a lot."

  "That I can do." He waves his left hand in the air. "Consider this your chariot, Princess Ellie and I'm your trusty stead."

  Um, no thanks.

  I look back at my phone and the message Adley just sent telling me to hurry. Since I can only travel as fast as this chariot moves, I don't text her back. Instead, I open my phone's camera wondering how I can snap a stealth picture of Rick to send to her. I know she'd remember him but the last thing I want to do right now is prompt him to say cheese and smile for me.

  I sigh as the car finally starts to pull away and he focuses on the road.

  We don't make it three feet before he slams the brakes on. Luckily we were moving at a snail's pace, so the abrupt stop barely registered.

  "Is something wrong?" My head snaps up in time to see a black Mercedes Benz pulling up to the curb directly in front of us.

  "New York traffic," Rick mutters. "That idiot cut me off."

  The driver side door of the Benz opens and a man in a dark suit steps out. I know him even though we've never met. I wasn't introduced but I recognize him immediately. He's Nolan's driver and just as he rounds the back of the car, Nolan Black himself comes out of his building, dressed just as he was when we went in hours ago.

  Chapter 24

  Ellie

  "You have to speed up, Rick." I tap him on the shoulder. "We're going to lose them."

  The car jolts as he gives it some gas. "We can't get too close, Ellie, or they'll make us."

  Make us? Rick's giving his all for this adventure I coaxed him into.

  Truthfully, it didn't take much more than a plea to get him to follow the Mercedes. He hesitated briefly before telling me that old friends have to stick together. Since I never once considered Rick a friend when we were in school together, I took it as a compliment, and I thanked him for ignoring his car's GPS and throwing caution to the wind.

  "Who is he to you?"

  How the hell do I even answer that after tonight? Is Nolan just a one night stand? I can't say there's potential for anything more at this point because I don't know. I go with the only logical answer I can think of. It's the truth. "He's my boss."

  He keeps his eyes trained on the road. "You work for that guy? I thought you'd be a detective working for the NYPD by now."

  So did I. "So did I. How did you know I wanted to work for the NYPD?"

  "Your senior class career day speech." He flicks on the left turn signal as soon as the driver of the Mercedes does. "Is that what this is? Are you on some kind of undercover mission right now?"

  I'm on some kind of fucked up, post orgasm, curiosity fueled mission right now. Nolan made it clear that his night was going to be swallowed up by whatever emergency kept his phone busy. No more than fifteen minutes after telling me that, his driver is at his place, whisking him off to who the hell knows where.

  "You know that he's headed straight for your place right, Ellie?"

  I know that he's headed in the direction of my apartment, but Manhattan is vast. We're also moving toward many bars and restaurants. For all I know, Nolan rescheduled his fancy dinner to include another woman and she's going to be his second course.

  "He's not going to my place." I stare out the window. He didn't have the decency to maintain eye contact with me for more than ten seconds after we fucked. I doubt like hell he's chasing me down. He has my number. If he wanted to finish our conversation, he would have called me by now.

  "How long have you been working this job?" Rick takes a hard left and I skid across the vinyl seat. "I get it if you can't give me any details. I know there's a strict code of silence when you're tailing a suspect."

  What's the code when you're following a really great fuck? I shake off his assumption. "Not long."

  "When we get close do you want me to hang back?" He flashes me a quick grin over his shoulder. "I can let you out down the block from him so you can follow on foot."

  Rick is a man with a plan. I don't want to confront Nolan tonight. I can't. Adley has texted me twice since we pulled away from Nolan's apartment, asking where I am. It's friends first in my world, so this ends wherever the Mercedes stops. I just want to see where Nolan is going. I know it's not his office. We didn't turn right onto Fifth Avenue.

  The taxi in front of us slows, so Rick goes around it to keep the Mercedes in our sight. "We're getting close to your place, Ellie. You're sure that's not where he's headed."

  I watch as we pass Cremza, the doors shut, the lights dim. It closed hours ago, the large sign in the window a reminder that tomorrow is 'two scoops for the price of one' day.

  I send another text to Adley telling her I'm only three blocks from the coffee shop now. "Adley wants me to say hi."

  "Adley York?" He eyes me in the rear view mirror. "You two are still tight, hey?"

  "Best friends forever." I smile at his reflection. "We live together now."

  "I can't say I'm surprised." He turns on the right signal blinker. "He's pulling over. I'll hang back."

  I want to tell him to pass the Mercedes and take me home. I thought I wanted to know where Nolan was rushing to after he sent me out the door, but now, my stomach is tied in thick knots and my palms are clammy. He didn't promise my anything. We had sex and the night ended. I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't let Tad's asshole ways turn me into something I'm not.

  I don't stalk men. It's not who I am.

  Still, I don't protest when Rick maneuvers his car to the curb and stops. I look out through the windshield as Nolan's driver opens the rear passenger door and Nolan steps out. The doorman from the building he's in front of approaches him. Nolan shakes his hand and pats him on the back and then they disappear together through the glass front doors.

  His driver gets back in the Mercedes and merges seamlessly into the traffic. I sit in the backseat of Rick's car staring at the luxury residential high-rise, wondering what, or more likely who, inside that building is worth ditching me for.

  ***<
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  "He's not in this morning," Nolan's assistant says briskly, her firm tone cutting, but patient. "As I told you when you called thirty minutes ago, Ms. Madden, I don't know when he will be in his office. He's unavailable at the moment."

  That's probably a good thing. I'm running on spite and a couple of hours of sleep at this point. When Adley and I finally got back to the apartment last night after Rick dropped me off, I thought she'd be ready for bed, but the four cups of Italian roast coffee she had, while she waited for me, kept her bouncing off the walls.

  I got in my bed after I showered, washing away the last of Nolan's touch from my skin. I bunched my dress into a ball and threw it in a basket destined for the washing machine at the laundromat. My intention was to rid myself of every physical reminder of the night, but the ache in my body wouldn't go away.

  Adley came into my room as I was replaying my conversation with Nolan in my head. She didn't ask me how my date was and I was grateful. Instead, she launched into an animated speech about her thirty-year plan. I was all ears as she talked about the veterinary clinic she wants to open and I heard, in fine detail, what her future husband looks like.

  It's Crew Benton. Adley described Crew Benton to a tee, even if she didn't realize it.

  She finally ran out of steam shortly after four this morning, when she collapsed onto my queen size bed and fell asleep with her head on my shoulder. I slept too, but it was marred by the image of Nolan walking into that building just a few blocks from here.

  "Miss Madden?"

  I shake my head when I realize I'm still on the phone. "Can you tell him that I'd like to see him once he's in? It's important."

  "Certainly," Eda says briskly. "There's another call coming in."

  With that, she hangs up. I tuck my phone back into the front pocket of my red pants. Nothing screams stealth Matiz security guard like red pants and a white and red striped shirt. It's bold, but it was the first pieces of clothing my fingers touched in my closet, so I tugged the outfit on, pulled my hair into a tight bun and came to work.