by C Renee
“I’ll text or call you tomorrow for a lunch date.” Steph gives me a hug goodbye.
“Sounds great, see you!” I wave goodbye when I walk out of her apartment. I hope we follow through with the lunch date but right now my main focus is on Alex.
I can’t wait to get back to him.
Chapter Ten
Alex
I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE I have Louise all to myself. I never thought I would have the balls to make the first move or that she would ever want me in that way. I was very wrong about that. The morning after I took her to bed couldn’t have gone any better it’s really different to me because I’m usually the type to root and boot women. I haven’t stuck with one woman like this since Tiffany, and after her it was Jackie and now I don’t want anyone else.
Louise has left for her appointment and I’m still sitting at the kitchen counter. I’m too overwhelmed by emotions to move, to get on with my busy day I have planned. I’m dreading going to the agency, not exactly sure what they have planned for me. There is still the matter of my father’s company, going back to work and Jackie. I have to tell Louise about Jackie and the baby before she finds out from someone else. I can’t have her freaking out on me, not now.
But firsts things first, I have to shower and change into a suit. Argh, I hate wearing those dreaded things.
The water is scalding hot, just the way I like it. I need to clear my mind; I need to be sharp for this meeting. I have so many life changing choices ahead of me and I won’t make them alone. This affects Louise now; whatever I decide to do she needs to be involved.
I switch off the shower and head towards my bedroom. Once my body is dry, I put on the suit and my favorite aftershave. I style my hair while it’s still wet so when it dries, it stays in one place.
I look at myself in the mirror before leaving the apartment, I look handsome if I say so myself.
Let’s get this meeting over and done with.
* * *
The location to Silver Shadows Agency is in the middle of nowhere. I had to drive an hour to get to this place, there are no through roads, and I saw a lot of ‘no trespassing’ signs and barbwire fences. I pull up outside an old warehouse; it doesn’t look like it has been worked in for decades. This can’t be right; I must have gotten the wrong place.
I check the address again but this seems to be the place.
I park my car around the back of the warehouse; I don’t want it to go missing while I’m searching the place.
The building feels like it’s going to cave in if I make any sudden movements.
“Mr. Knight?” This dark figure came around the corner; I’ve been inside the building less than five minutes.
“Yes, that’s me.” I walk towards the figure; I hope this person wasn’t sent here to kill me. I’m kind of worth a lot of money.
The figure walks out from around the corner and he’s dressed in a black suit with black sunglasses. I feel like I’m out of a James Bond movie.
“Follow me please sir.” The man quickly turns around and I have to hurry to catch up to him. He leads us through the middle of the building until we stop short of a metal box.
No fucking way.
There is an elevator in the middle of this building.
“We got government approval, being a secret hit team. We had to take extra measures to be kept secret. This way sir.” I had to step into the elevator. Obviously it can’t go up, so this agency is underground. What on earth was my father thinking?
We reached the bottom level; there were four other floors we had to pass before we landed on this last one. This agency has five levels? What the fuck!?
“This way sir.” This sir business is getting really annoying; already I don’t like this feeling I’m getting. It’s like I shouldn’t be here and this place feels creepy.
This open area is as big a small airport, it has metal framing everywhere and everything is colored silver. They took the name a little too far. There is no carpet, no paintings, obviously no windows but it’s completely spaced out with desks and people filing paperwork. I would hate to work here.
This guy leads me past a few open offices, and we stop short in front of a huge closed off office. This must be where I’m going to meet with Mr. Wayne.
“I’ll leave you here, once you have finished your meeting I will be here to take you to the surface.” The guy nods his head and walks away. He is strange.
The office doors open on their own and I make my way inside.
Wow, the office has one long ass desk, with 30+ chairs surrounding it. One side of the wall is covered in whiteboards and there are notes scribbled across it all.
A meeting office, it’s useful.
I didn’t expect all of those chairs to be taken. The room is full of people; they’ve stopped talking to stare at me.
Well fuck.
“Alex, it’s good to finally meet you. Your father spoke about you all the time.” An older man steps up to me and shakes my hand. He should be in his late 60s, tall and a neatly trimmed mustache. This must be Mr. Wayne.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you sir.” I shake his hand with a firm grip before letting go.
“Take a seat over near me, we have so much to discuss.” I follow Mr. Wayne to the head of the table, not exactly my ideal spot to sit.
I unbutton the buttons to my suit jacket and take my seat. There is a glass of water and a notepad with a pen sitting in front of me. Do they expect me to jot down notes? I didn’t sign up for this shit.
“Ladies and gentleman, can I have your attention? Before I start this meeting, I want you all to know this is Alex Knight, he is taking his father's seat on the board from here on out. If you have any issues, take it up with me.” Mr. Wayne walks to the board and starts talking about issues I haven’t been aware of. This is all too much all at once. It’s all business I don’t need to be here for; I only want to know about the progress with Matt and his club members and the mole in the agency. I didn’t sign up for useless shit.
“Are we boring you Alex?” a female voice says across the room, I drop my pen on the pad and look towards where it came from.
She is a beautiful redhead; she sits up straight and tilts her chin in my direction. She’s trying to challenge me.
I love a competition.
“Not at all Miss?” I’m Alex Knight, no one fucks with me.
“Miss Star. Angelica Star.” She’s sassy, if I don’t watch myself I could cause a fuck load of trouble. I don’t need this.
“Good to meet you.” I turn back to Mr. Wayne; he has humor in his eyes. He thinks this is funny. Well good for him.
“Several months ago, Silver Shadows was asked to take out a violent organization and it was not successful. We have not had that much bad luck in the 50 years that this agency has been up and running . Matt Wheeler was the main subject to terminate, unfortunately he got away. We did manage to kill one of his men, but the rest got away. We have most of them tracked but we are waiting for more Intel.” Well this subject of conversation has caught my attention. So they have located everyone from Matt’s club, I swear to God I hope they are far away from Louise.
“We have not located Matt yet. We don’t know who is helping him, but we do know that we can move in and arrest his members.” Mr. Wayne walks towards the other end of the board and uncovers five photos of men, they must be from Matt’s club. Under the pictures there are names and the last place they were spotted.
Rover, Jax, Sanders, Rick and Joey are all located on different continents. This is a mission impossible to capture them all, wouldn’t it be better to kill them all?
“Our two main focuses are to capture Matt and his club members and to keep Louise Carter safe. As we all know, this woman was in the middle of that shit storm.” At the mention of Louise’s name I turn stone cold, I don’t think I’ve fully understood what she really went through with them. I’m very grateful that she’s home and safe with me.
“We are still trying to recover f
rom the Captain’s death and the shocking news of the mole in the agency. I am relieved that no one in this room is the mole, after doing long hours of research and investigating we have that confirmed.” Everyone in the room exhaled a deep breath. Well that’s good news at least.
“We would like to bring in Miss Carter when we arrest these men, I won’t discuss the reason behind that.” What the fuck did he just say? No, he can’t let her near those dangerous men again.
“No!” I get off my chair and yell it across the room. I didn’t think that one through.
“Is there a problem Mr. Knight?” Mr. Wayne walks around to where I’m still standing, this man expresses so much power from his body language. Yep didn’t think that one through well enough.
“No sir.” I sit back down and I sneak a glance over to Miss Star and she’s wearing a smirk. Hag.
“Well then, here are the files on each member from Matt’s organization. There will be faces in here that have been shot over the past SIX months. Let’s keep an eye on all of them, we don’t want anyone slipping through our fingers. I will be working on finding the mole in the agency. We can’t have any more slip-ups. Meeting dismissed.” Mr. Wayne leaves the room and leaves me with a room full of people. They seem harmless enough.
“So Alex have you screwed Louise yet? Rumor has it, that you did. I was going to put money on it but didn’t want to steal off everyone.” That came from a young man sitting across from me. I ignore him, I don’t need this shit.
“Oh, he’s keeping quiet. He probably has and she didn’t want the good boy act.” Yep, trying to keep my cool.
“Cut it out Ross,” The man sitting to my right is around the same age as me but he doesn’t look a day over 12. He needs to grow facial hair.
“Alex, what are your thoughts on this project?” Miss Star pipes up again, here we go.
“I just want the bastard to pay.” I don’t bother paying attention to all the snickers in the room. I gather my files and leave the room. They don’t have to like me but they do have to respect me. I will make it my mission to find Matt’s location.
I close the office door but before I could turn around, I walk into someone. I quickly turn around and notice it’s a woman.
“Oh shit, sorry.” I bend down to help her pick up her files. She seems nervous.
“Are you okay?” I hand her all the loose papers and I help her stand back up.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Mr. Wayne sent me here to collect you. He wants to speak with you privately.” Ah another errand to run, oh the joys.
“Alright, lead the way Miss.” I follow this short woman; her steps are small so I have to watch where I step.
We walk towards the elevator and stepped inside. She presses the 3rd level. I feel better knowing I’m going up towards the surface, being underground is making me feel uneasy.
The elevator came to a stop and this woman kept walking towards the final destination. There is no small talk, no explaining where we are going, nothing.
“Here we are Mr. Knight. Just go straight in, he’s waiting for you.” She quickly walks away from me, what a strange woman. I hope this meeting doesn’t take long; I want to get back to Louise and see how her day went. My chest feels tight thinking about her and our night together. I can feel my suit pants getting tighter around my growing bulge. Argh, I don’t need this now.
I start thinking about hairy chested men with a beer guts. Fucking gross, but it did the trick. No more bulge.
I knock once on the door and Mr. Wayne calls out to come in.
This brings so many memories, knocking on my father's office doors. I won’t be doing that again.
It was one night I needed to talk to my father about losing Tiffany. I was in a bad way and in that moment I just needed my father. Damon and Reece tried to help me but I wouldn’t listen to them, in that moment I needed my dad.
“Come in Son.” I had no idea how he knew it was me but I was grateful that he did.
I pushed the door open and he was sitting at his desk as usual. He looked calm considering he just landed a major business deal that day but something seemed off about him.
There was a bottle of scotch and one glass on his desk, it was half full. I looked over at him and he had his tie loose and his shirt hung half open.
“Everything okay?” I slowly walked towards the seat in front of his desk.
“Fantastic son, don’t you worry about me.” I took his word and took the seat.
“What brings you here, your mother called. She is worried about you.” His voice was laced with worry and sadness. My whole family and friends were walking on eggshells around me; I miss Tiff but I can’t change the past.
“I’m fine, I came here to talk to you about changing my major. I want to study to become a paramedic; I want to help those in need. I don’t want to be helpless again.” My hands shook when I thought about Tiffany, sitting still and looking at me. I couldn’t do anything to help her. I never want to experience that again.
“Alright, but Alex. I think we need to talk about her and the baby. You need to let someone in and you need to do it fast. If you expect to heal fully, you need my help or Reece’s and even Damon’s. Your mother won’t understand what you need right now but us men do.” He got up from his chair and walked over to the bookshelf. He pulled out a little black book; it looked like an address book. Why would he keep that there?
“Here son, these people can help you.” I took the book from him and scanned the pages full of black ink. What the fuck?
“How dare you give me a whore book? I don’t need to get laid to feel better.” I threw the book across the room and it knocked over a flower vase.
“Yes, it’s a women’s list book but please trust me when I say these women will help you move on.” He walked towards the book and picked it up.
He handed it back to me, the look in his eyes told me to trust him. So I did.
That little black book saved my life; I met amazing women who helped me grieve and move on. Yes it was all for sex but they helped me so much. If it wasn’t for them and my father, I wouldn’t be able to love Louise the way I do.
The difference is, I haven’t told anyone I loved them since Tiffany and I am afraid to say it out loud.
“Thanks for meeting me again Alex, please take a seat.” Mr. Wayne is sitting on a black couch by the back wall. His office is huge, there are four couches all surrounding a long coffee table, and then in the opposite direction there is Mr. Wayne’s desk. The office space is roomy and has so much color; there are several paintings on the walls of worldwide trademarks. I notice the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sydney Opera House in Australia and Big Ben in London.
“What can I do for you Mr. Wayne?” I took the seat opposite him, I feel like whatever he wants to tell me is going to be big news.
“I didn’t want to tell the other board members of these findings but it’s about Louise and I thought you should be the only one knowing about this.” Fuck. I knew it was going to be big news.
“Go on,” I urged him on.
“As you know, we have been monitoring Matt’s members but couldn’t locate Matt, that wasn’t all false. We do have sources that say where Matt could be hiding out but that’s not the big issue. He has a love interest with a woman.” Seriously? I don’t give a fuck about Matt’s love interest.
“Right, like that’s a huge discovery. The man needs to keep his dick wet, nothing new about that.” This bullshit is wasting my time.
“Alex, it’s the woman who is involved that I’m worried about. We haven’t been able to identify her yet but look at these.” He passes me photos and I only notice Louise. Has he been following her too?
“Why are you following Louise? She has nothing to do with Matt and his organization.” I practically spit the words at him.
“Take a closer look at the images in the background. Do you notice something that’s in the same in all the photos?” I take a closer at all six photos and notice a woman, she has different hair co
lor in all photos but she is around the same height and the same built. She looks familiar but I can’t put my finger on it. Fuck!
“What does this mean? Louise is beautiful and that’s why she has a stalker. Any woman would want to be her.” I try to come up with any explanation for this shocking discovery.
“I’m afraid not, this woman has been spotted with Matt on numerous occasions. We have to suspect that she’s working alongside him and we are concerned that she will harm Louise.” Mr. Wayne takes a long drink of his alcoholic concoction called the Spice and Dice.
“So what would that mean for Louise? Will she have to be in witness protection?” I don’t want anything happening to her and if that means I won’t be able to see her, then that’s exactly what will happen.
“No, continue your everyday life with her. We are keeping a close eye on this woman and Louise’s surroundings. We have set up a 24/7 monitoring system. If this woman tries to harm her, we will be there to stop it. We are trying everything to catch Matt out in public to take the fucker out. We aren’t sure what he is planning but we need you to protect Louise, keep her occupied and do not tell her anything of this. We don’t want her ruining everything.” That is a lot to take in; I’m not sure if I can lie to Louise about this but if it’s to protect her, then this lie is a good one.
“You can go now Alex, take those files with you. Louise is allowed to know about them but what we have said in my office stays in my office. You have 24-hour access to this facility, don’t be shy to come again, especially if you have information or any idea about how to capture these bastards.” I collect my files and make my way towards his office door. I can’t believe what I have just been told.
I just want to go home to Louise.
On my way home I stopped at the mall to get a briefcase, I need to hide these files before they land in the wrong hands and I feel professional carrying a black briefcase. I’ve never needed one before because my job has been saving people’s lives.
