by Korry Smith
The instant we crossed the threshold, the next phase of our life, good or bad, was set into motion and things were going to be different. The time for regrets and second guesses had passed. All our scheming and planning came down to whether or not we could plant the drugs and get out before the stopwatch reached zero.
Click.
The door closed softly behind me and Alex spun at the sound. He assessed me, thoroughly, from head to toe, noticing how much of a nervous wreck his girl had become. Every part of my body reactionary, playing off the pressure to get this job done and within a reasonable time frame. My heart was beating at an insane pace, and the anxiety had me bouncing and switching from foot to foot. I couldn’t stand still. It was crazy.
Alex took one long step towards me, overwhelming me with his presence as he tilted his head to the side and mouthed, “Relax.”
Before I had a chance to argue, he took a hold of my chin and brought his mouth to mine. It was tender and chaste but did nothing to stop the throbbing in my chest. If anything, Alex made things worse.
I rose to my tiptoes and clutched at the lapel of his blazer to gain my leverage against his lips. My guy responded to my fire by dousing it with more gasoline. Putting a strong grip on my waist, he walked me back and pressed my body up against the door. I had the air knocked out of me, but he didn’t care, eagerly chasing my tongue and smothering me with his kiss.
In the back of my mind, I was aware of the clock ticking down, each second faster and more unrelenting than the last.
14:05…04…03…02…
Alex grasped my shoulders to pry me gently but forcefully away. He dropped his forehead to mine and sighed. “I would throw away my freedom for that fucking mouth.”
Panting heavily, I released my death grip and settled my hands on his chest. “You have no idea.”
“Maybe we should try to stay focused, yeah?”
I peered up at him. “That sounds smart.”
“Stay right there for a second.” He walked to the end of the foyer to poke his head around the corner into the main room and surveyed our surroundings.
We held our breath and listened. Nothing but silence. The apartment didn’t even hum. Alex was positive no one was home, but assuming was a dangerous mistake when the consequences could mean a bullet to the head, or worse, imprisonment.
“All right, everything looks good,” he said, coming back over to me, and grabbing my hand. “What’s our time?”
“Let’s see,” I said, digging the stopwatch out of my front pocket. “Thirteen minutes.”
“Fuck! I hate cutting shit so close.” The step in our stride picked up, and Alex was no longer giving me the scenic tour. “We’re going have to double-time it.”
This nugget of information brought me up short, and I shook my head, not understanding his meaning.
“What are we double-timing? It’s just planting the drugs in his office, right?” I chuckled. “How long can that take?”
“Not long,” he said, and I watched as the muscles in his back tensed, his shoulders hunched in, and he avoided all eye contact.
I knew right then he wasn’t telling me something.
“Alex?”
“But breaking into a safe and hacking into the computer is a tad more time-consuming.”
“Excuse me?” I pulled back, stopping in the middle of the hallway, unwilling to go any further.
Alex glanced down with his brows furrowed, surprised to see his hand was empty. He shot his eyes back up to me. “Listen, baby...”
“No, don’t baby me. Since when has this hacking business been a part of the plan?”
“It’s not important, okay?” He spoke low and soft as he slowly approached a highly volatile and skittish animal.
Me.
He had his hand outstretched, beckoning for me to take it, but I dug my heels into the dirt and folded my arms over my chest.
“Jesus, Madi!” Alex erupted, furiously running his hands through his hair. “We don’t have time for this.”
“Time for what, exactly?”
“This!” He gestured to the space between us. “I don’t want to fucking fight with you.”
“And why would we be fighting?”
“Because you’re going to be pissed off at me when you find out why we’re here.”
“Oh, you mean it’s not just about planting drugs in your dad’s office."
“He’s not my dad.”
“Ugh, whatever, Alex! That’s not the point—NO, you told me that we were here to plant drugs and that was it. You never said anything about all this other, spy-like, fucking James Bond-type of shit!”
“Come on, Madi, let’s be fucking honest, all right? You never believed it was all about the drugs.”
“What? Yes, I did!”
“No, you didn’t. I saw it in your eyes this morning, you knew I was full of shit, and I wanted to tell you the truth, believe me.”
“Which is what?”
“The drugs were a ruse.”
“A ruse?”
“Yeah, just a means to an end, but my true goal was this office.” Alex pointed to the dark cherry wood door less than a foot behind him. “Everything we need to destroy that bastard is in that safe and on his computer.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that, huh? Why all the charades?”
“I wanted to, but…” Alex trailed off and his eyes panned down, momentarily distracted by his phone. It was buzzing in his hand, and he stared at the lit-up screen, too conflicted to answer it.
“Who is that?”
“Dev,” he said, finger hovering over the send button.
“Dev?” I wrinkled my nose in confusion. “Why would she be…” But even before I could get the question out, he answered it by taking her phone call.
“Hey, D. Yeah, I know, I’m an asshole for not picking up, but we’re right outside the office and...” he paused, seeing the fury rising behind my eyes and soaring to astronomical proportions. “Um, can you hold on for just a second?”
“You fucking told Dev?!”
If she knew, the whole family knew, and once again, I was the fool. The one person who was walking into a situation blind, believing a complete farce provided by the man who said he loved me. Alex promised to tell me everything, and he lied.
He lowered the phone and covered the mouthpiece. “I know you’re pissed.”
Hurt was more like it, but right now, pissed would suffice.
“You told her before you told me.” It wasn’t a question, just a sad and heartbreaking truth.
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” I snorted, running my hands through my hair, wanting to rip out each strand. “You’re always keeping me in the fucking dark! And here I am, stupid me, risking my neck—for you! Just so that you can get even with your dad.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, “Don’t do this. Not now.”
“Do what?”
“Overreact,” he said, snapping his head up and shooting daggers at me. “We don’t have time for you to throw a tantrum.”
That punched the air right out of me, and the anger spiraled, heat gathering in my face and flushing my cheeks a bright red. I could feel my eyes bulging out of my skull.
“Fuck you, Alex!”
There was no team; it was just him. He flat-out withheld the truth from me, and then dared to act like I had no right to be mad at him?
Enough is enough.
“I’m done with you!” I chucked the stopwatch at him. It hit his chest and bounced off, landing on the floor. “How’s that for a fucking tantrum?”
He said nothing, eyes darker than I’d ever seen them, and his face was so severe.
“That’s what I thought you might say,” I said, shrugging my shoulders, and backing away. “I’m leaving.”
“No!” He sprang to life and grabbed my wrist, squeezing and locking his fingers together. Taking a step into me, he pressed his hot mouth against my ear. “You’re not going
anywhere.”
I jerked my head away and glowered up at him. “Oh, yeah? Fucking watch me.” Twisting my wrist, I broke free of his grip and turned to leave again, but of course, I didn’t get far.
“God fucking damn it!” Alex let out a loud and frustrated groan. He stormed up from behind me, his fingers seizing me around my neck. It didn’t hurt, but he was strong, and his command was forceful as he dragged me back down the hall towards the office. “Look, you can be mad at me all you fucking want after this shit is over—"
“Oh, you can bet on it.” I elbowed him in the gut.
“But,” he grunted from the sharp pain, “right now, I need you to come in here and open the fucking safe for me, can you do that?”
I was half-tempted to kick him in the junk and make a run for it. The thing that kept me in my place was the ticking time as it dwindled into nothing, and my promise to stop acting on my rash emotions—no matter how justified they were. Despite all his lies and secrecy, I still fucking loved Alex with every breath I took and would die a million and one times for him.
“Fine!” I relented. “Whatever you want, I’ll do it.” Ducking my head down and wiggling my neck out of his clutches, I swung around and rammed my fists into his chest. It didn’t move him. That pissed me off more. “But you don’t get to fucking touch me or kiss me or any of that shit; you got that?”
He sucked in a breath, debating on my terms, but eventually succumbing to my demands, knowing full well that I would bolt out of this apartment so fast and never come back.
“No problem!” Brushing past me and thrusting the door open, he smiled tightly. “After you, princess.”
“Piss off, Alex,” I said, stomping past him. “If that’s even your real name.”
He laughed, calling me a ‘pain in the ass’ under his breath, and locked the door behind him.
I stilled in the middle of the room as my eyes popped out, besieged with sensory overload. “Holy…”
The senator’s office was huge, exquisite, and decorated with dark amber colors. Bright sunlight streamed in from the floor to ceiling windows and showcased the remarkable view of the Gateway Arch. The walls paneling crafted out of mahogany, and this room had a distinct smell of new money and vanilla. There were shelves on every wall, filled with law books and encyclopedias of knowledge. There was one spot, suspiciously cut out, and framed by a painting. The single piece of artwork struck me as odd and seemed out of place compared to everything else in this room.
“That’s where the safe is,” Alex whispered in my ear as he passed.
“Are you serious?” I shot him a look, eyebrow raised with skepticism.
He laughed. “Take it down and see for yourself.”
“Okay,” I said, grabbing the edges of the frame, and lifting it off its hook. Setting the painting down on the floor and leaning it against the wall, I looked back up and smiled. There buried inside the wall was the senator’s safe. “Not much of a hiding place, is it?”
“Finding it is not the problem, breaking into it is,” he said, sitting behind his father’s desk with the phone attached to his ear again.
“Right…” Standing back to get a better look at the safe, I frowned at the digital keypad. Not that I would have been able to do much with it if it was the spin-combination kind, but this one was more high-tech and harder to crack. “Yeah, there is no way in hell I’m going to be able to open this.”
“Sure, you can,” Alex said to me, but quickly going back to his conversation with Dev, the Goddamn computer whiz.
I was a tad bitter and saddened that she got Alex’s trust. He lied and kept things from me—his fucking girlfriend but told Dev all about his true intentions. It drove me mad just thinking about it.
That resentment boiled over and came bursting out in a fit of anger. “No, I can’t! God, this is stupid. This whole thing is bullshit!”
“Hold on for a sec.” Alex lowered the phone to address me. “What’s the problem?”
I whirled around and waved my hand over the problem. “In case you haven’t fucking noticed, I’m not some genius safe-cracker, all right? I’m going to need a little help over here.”
“Did you try my birthday?” he asked, redirecting his attention to the computer screen, the light flickering off his beautiful, sexy, lying…
Ughhhhhh!
Hating myself for wanting to jump over that desk and sit on his face, I opted for cruel deflection.
“You think he would use your birthday as a safe combination? Really?”
He chuckled, but it had such a sad edge to it. “Yeah, I know, it’s fucking doubtful, but a son can hope.”
The want in his voice to have his father’s love broke me, and I felt like absolute shit for being a callous bitch.
“No, it sounds legit,” I said, entering his birthday into the keypad. The small screen flashed a red ‘x’ and beeped a loud, God-awful noise. I was disappointed that it didn’t work.
“Well, that sucks,” Alex grumbled.
“Any other ideas?”
He listed off several different combinations, and all were having the same negative results. We had less than ten minutes to go now, and he needed to accept that whatever he wanted out of that safe wasn’t going to happen. It was a waste of our precious time.
At least he was having better luck.
I listened as Dev walked Alex through the steps to hacking into the senator’s computer. There were a lot of passcodes, keyboard clicks, and interweaving of software. It was far more complicated than randomly entering numbers into the safe.
No, that benign task was my job.
I wondered what Alex was going to do with the drugs that were sitting cozily in his pocket. Would he hide them in the office for the hell of it or sell them later? At this point, I had no idea who he was, or what he planned to do.
“If your hunch is right, D, do you realize what this will mean?” Alex asked, grinning from ear to ear. “Yeah, it’ll fucking crush him…wait, what’s this?”
My curiosity got the better of me, and I wandered over to see what got him all excited. He was leaning forward in the leather seat, his nose inches away from the monitor, with this intense look on his face. Coming around to the side of him, I saw that there were multiple windows opened on the computer. He moved the mouse over one shortcut labeled The Shepherd and his Sheep.
Bending down, I could hear Dev’s deep, cool-chick voice over the phone. She wasn’t as loud as Len, but he rubbed off on her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Bank statements under the Wallis account,” Alex answered. “They’re billed out to a company called American Solution Systems and Software.”
He scrolled down further through the dates, highlighting, and clicking on various payments throughout the year. The sums were in the five figures, the lowest being ten thousand.
“Are you sure?”
Alex nodded but said nothing.
He opened another file, this one named Back-up, and there it was, clear as fucking day. The senator made multiple transactions and withdrawals from the National One Bank during the 2012 calendar year and the years before. Amongst these charges, there was one payment that stood out above all the rest. Every two years and on the same day, half of a million dollars had been paid out to American Solution Systems and Software.
It was like clockwork.
“Are you fucking seeing this, kid?” Alex asked me, making sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
“Yeah,” I said, but not processing it myself. “What does it mean? Who’s the company? And what is up with the date November 3rd?”
“I don’t know,” he said, kneading out the creases in his forehead.
“Hellooooo!”
“Hey.” Alex brought the phone back up to his ear. “Sorry about that. I got fucking sidetracked for a moment.”
“Listen close, because I’m sure you guys don’t have much time left. Do you still have that flash drive?”
“Yeah, it’s connect
ed to the USB port. I’ve been downloading shit as we’ve been going along.”
“God, I love you. You’re such a forward-thinking guy.”
Alex peeked up and smiled, slyly moving his hand to cover mine.
“This doesn’t change anything,” I said, pushing myself away from the desk and going over to do my job. “I’m still pissed at you.”
“Of course, you are—No. I was talking to Madi.” Alex laughed, giving me a sideways glance. “Yup, she sure is, just about every other fucking minute.”
I blocked him out, putting forth all my energy and concentration into this fucking safe. There was still a matter of cracking it open and exposing all the senator’s secrets. It seemed like an impossible feat. I had five minutes to get it done.
“Are you shitting me? That’s what the company does?” Alex pounded his fist on the desk, startling me. “That bastard has been rigging the elections for ten fucking years. Son of a bitch.”
“Wait, what’s going on?” I asked.
“That company sells electronic poll machines,” he explained, and seeing that I still wasn’t following, broke it down further. “They control the votes. He pays that company to swing it in his direction.”
“Are you serious?”
He nodded.
“Makes sense,” I said.
I’d always wondered how he continued to get votes despite the sex scandal. Julian Ryan was a resourceful man and found a way to win. He would buy, sell, and steal from anyone, just to get a seat on Capitol Hill.
Election day was his day to celebrate and revel in his cheat.
It hit me, like a sledgehammer to my thick skull, and I knew what the combination was.
“Alex, what day is the election this year?”
He rose from the chair and came over to me. “November 6th. Why?”
“I’ve got a hunch,” I said, clearing out the keypad and entering the numbers. “One...one...zero...six...one...” taking a deep breath, I squeezed my pendant La Virgen De Guadalupe and prayed, “eight.”
It flashed green, beeped softly, and popped open.
“Holy...” I said.
“…Shit,” he finished.
