In My Life (3) (The Mile High Club)

by Jade Powers

  Lucas felt better for hearing it. Somehow the pain faded, and they were just faced with a logistical problem that could be corrected through stealth and care. He said, “Then we’ll be okay.”

  “We’ll lose each other with the distance.” Lauren had plenty of experience with long-distance relationships, with absent men. She knew how the end played out.

  “If Kendall wants us to stop seeing each other, we’ll stop for a while.” Lucas said this more for the benefit of any bugs planted on the phones than because he thought it to be true. Then he added, “True love cannot be thwarted. Kendall will back off eventually Think of this as a test. As competitive as we both are, neither of us will want to fail.”

  Lauren laughed, because it was true. Her other relationships had been easy to release because she never felt invested. This time was different. Every moment with Lucas made her life happier. She sighed, “Okay. I feel better. I’m going to hang up the phone now.”

  It never occurred to Lucas how lonely the drone of an empty telephone line could be. The ring was tucked away. He had thirty days to change Lauren’s mind, thirty days to propose. Maybe, just maybe, he could find a way to get Kendall out of their lives. He’d have to make a phone call for that to happen.

  Lucas swept the apartment for bugs. When he confirmed his space was clear, he immediately dialed another number, a super-secret number that no one, not even Lauren knew. A gatekeeper answered, which was to be expected, but she passed him immediately onto McFarland.

  “Lucas. I didn’t think I’d hear from you for a while after that fiasco last week.” McFarland dug right into the sensitive spot.

  “Yeah. Are you and Kendall on the outs? He just told my girlfriend that she had to break up with me. He threatened my life and one of Drake’s guys, Tom, in the process.” Lucas paced while he spoke. When speaking to McFarland, he liked to go for monotone. The general could ferret out the slightest weakness.

  “He’s in my stable of producers, but we’re not on friendly terms,” McFarland said.

  “So...if I want to make him change his mind?” Lucas asked.

  “Well, it’s your funeral.”

  Which would have been funny if it was a joke. McFarland was deadly serious.

  Lucas said, “What if something I do runs counter to your program. I like working for you. I don’t want to screw that up by going after Kendall.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Kendall’s too full of himself. I don’t want to be involved in any way, so if you get yourself in trouble, don’t count on a rescue, but you have my distant approval.” McFarland said.

  General McFarland was the exception in the ‘leave no man behind’ philosophy. Every other military man Lucas had ever known would walk through nuclear fallout to save a comrade in arms. Not McFarland. If throwing his man in front of a tank would get him a promotion, McFarland would do it. He was a treacherous friend and a dangerous enemy.

  Lucas said, “I can forge my own path. Just wanted the okay first.”

  “You cause any waves that trace back to me, you’re off the payroll.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  McFarland hung up on Lucas.

  Lucas looked at the phone for a minute before returning it to the cradle. An apartment complex didn’t offer top security. He roamed the apartment, finding weaknesses. If Kendall wanted to hire a hit-man to kill Lucas, he’d have an easy time of it. Lucas stretched and padded to his computer. He had work to do.

  Hours later and Lucas was no closer to cracking Kendall’s personal computer. That man had some hardcore protection. Lucas set his bots to work on the password and turned off the monitor. The computer would do a brute force attack on the password while he slept.

  Or didn’t sleep.

  Lucas tossed and turned, punched his pillow. Dragged himself out of bed for a glass of water. Stood behind the curtains staring at the lights. Sighed. Took himself back to bed. Flipped pillows. Groaned and turned on the light.

  He checked the clock and flipped on the monitor. Lucas grumbled at the lack of progress, turned the monitor off and stared into the dark room, lit only by the outside lights that filtered through the blinds. In the twilight darkness of his room, he reached to the top of the closet and pulled down the bag. He took the ring box out of the bag and held it in his hand.

  This ring belonged on Lauren’s hand. He could see her in a stunning blue dress with a sparkling sapphire necklace with matching bracelet, and his ring on her finger. In his daydream she was at the top of a balcony with her hair shining glossy black and falling down her sparkling dress, her smile shining from above. She would slowly approach with one hand on the rail and the other on her dress.

  He clasped his hands over his head. With a sigh, he returned the ring to his closet. Midnight. He had work in six hours. Climbing back into bed, Lucas pondered his moves. Kendall’s actions in the past week revealed a darkness that left Lucas with no options.

  He would fight for Lauren.

  Chapter 11

  TOMORROW WAS THANKSGIVING. It had been three weeks since Lauren sort of broke up with Lucas. In all that time, she hadn’t heard from Lucas at all. And the silence had been deafening. Shutting down her computer for the evening, Lauren dreaded the emptiness of her apartment. In Spokane she had a couple of friends to hang with. Here, there was no one.

  Lauren locked the door to her office. This lab rivaled Drake’s in security with badge locks and fingerprint scans in the research section. Lauren’s office was within that section and technically safe. Everyone else kept their doors unlocked. Not Lauren, although she wasn’t naïve enough to believe that she alone had the key. She set tiny traps, small things to see who was getting into her files and what they were looking at. So far, the most interest seemed to revolve around her research on combining DNA with robotic filaments. Someone dug around that file every few days.

  Information was power. It helped to know which of her projects were garnering the most interest. Unwilling to break her confidentiality agreement with AIT, Lauren had quickly picked up on the direction SpaceTech was moving and pointed out the projects where she could help the most. Working for Drake at Advanced Innovative Technologies, Lauren wielded a lot of autonomy. Here, she followed orders. Fortunately she liked her immediate supervisor. If only Vice President Kendall would go on an extended vacation and get eaten by a Tiger shark.

  It was past seven and the sky was beginning to turn to twilight. The lab was quiet, with everyone eager to get home to their families for the long weekend. Lauren strode through the hallway. She nearly stopped when she saw Kendall exit the elevator, but she refused to be intimidated by anyone. She lifted her chin and continued to walk as if he didn’t exist.

  It was childish, but Lauren wouldn’t acknowledge Kendall. Not that he would say anything to her either. It was an uneasy truce, one that Lauren kept only for the sake of Tom and Lucas...and if she were to be completely honest with herself, Drake. Now that he was dealing with a pregnant girlfriend with pancreatic cancer, Drake didn’t have time to deal with little things like psychotic assholes.

  Kendall walked in the opposite direction toward the research floor conference room, and Lauren released the breath she was holding. She didn’t even know why she let him throw her like that. It wasn’t like Lauren respected him. He should be in jail for a dozen different crimes. Lauren stabbed the ground floor button. She couldn’t get away from Kendall fast enough.

  Miami no longer thrilled Lauren. Or rather, she should say, she still loved Miami, but detested the job that brought her there. With a downtrodden step, she unlocked the door to her Toyota and slid into the driver’s seat.

  Lauren had just turned the key in the ignition when Lucas popped out from the back seat, scaring the crap out of her. She screamed and threw her hands in the air, reaching for a weapon that didn’t exist. Her brain caught up to her eyes, and Lauren laughed, “What are you doing?”

  “We need to talk. I’m going to duck down. If you would drive somewhere out of town, I’ll pop
forward when it’s safe.” Lucas said. He disappeared behind her seat. She looked over her shoulder and saw the remnants of a blanket popping out in the space behind the console.

  She loved Lucas, but sometimes he was a goof. Lauren lifted an eyebrow, “That disguise isn’t going to fool anyone.”

  Muffled under the blanket, Lucas said, “Enough to pass. Can you turn on the AC? It’s scorching down here.”

  It really wasn’t that hot. As a matter of fact, Lauren felt a little chilled. Still, she wasn’t the one beneath the blanket so she complied out of compassion for her sometime boyfriend. It would take a few minutes for the cold to really kick in, anyway. She pulled out of the parking space, and drove at a sedate pace, hoping that none of the cameras were angled in such a way to capture Lucas and his poor attempt at a disguise. To be fair, maybe he did look like a lump of junk under a blanket.

  “Where are we now?” Lucas asked, not even two seconds after Lauren put the car into drive. Impatient much?

  “In the parking garage. I’m just barely taking the first turn now.” Lauren glanced into the rearview mirror. She was paranoid that someone might be following. Kendall was a psycho. And all it took was one mistake and he would bring his army crashing down on her friends.

  Lauren turned out of the parking garage, but didn’t mention that fact to Lucas. When she had made a few turns from the side streets to the main roads and felt reasonably safe, she said, “Okay. Tell me why you’re here.”

  Lauren cringed as Lucas climbed over the console into the front passenger seat. One break-check, and he’d have had a lump on his head. With a content sigh, Lucas grabbed the seat belt and pulled it over his lap. “I’ve made some rather startling discoveries. Kendall is into some hugely bad stuff. Human trafficking and human experimentation for starters. Someone really needs to pull him down a peg or ten.”

  “You do remember he threatened your life and one of my ex-coworkers?” Lauren asked. Somehow this whole conversation would revolve around the fact that she worked for the douche bag, and she would end up having to spy or give Lucas information. What happened to punching the clock, doing your job and going home? That’s what Lauren wanted to know.

  “Yeah. And I’ve made it my life’s goal to figure out what he’s into,” Lucas said.

  “How does it affect me?”

  “I passed everything I had to a contact in the FBI last week. You should quit this Friday, before the shit starts flying.” Lucas leaned forward, his hair tousled from the blanket. If Lauren hadn’t been so perturbed by this whole FBI confession, she would drag him into her apartment for some one-on-one.

  Lauren slow-counted to ten. Lucas was doing this for her, for them. But it felt like a personal attack, submitting her company to the FBI. She said, “I’m not quitting. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “You work for the biggest sleaze in the United States. Why would you keep going?”

  “How many other companies are lining up to research neuroconnections and robotics?” Lauren asked. She said, “Whatever happens, I’m going to stick it out. Once you pull the FBI in, there’s a fairly good chance Kendall will fire me anyway.”

  “What about the whistle-blower laws?” Lucas said.

  “How does that even apply to me? You’re the one going to the Feds. I’m not saying to hold back. God knows Kendall needs to be imprisoned. I’m just saying that when the FBI raids our offices, I’m going to be in my lab working.” Lauren drove past her apartment complex. As nice as it would be to have Lucas over for an evening romp, she was fairly certain Kendall had bugged her place. After listening to Sven describe the lengths he had gone to in Spokane, she wasn’t taking any chances.

  “What if Kendall decides to hold you hostage? You can’t stay. That’s insane.” Lucas raised his voice, and Lauren realized that they had hardly seen one another in weeks, and they were going to have their first argument.

  “I’m not going to live my life by ‘what if’. I’ve already bent my life to keep this job. I don’t see how this is any different.” Lauren didn’t want to argue anymore. She’d made her decision. Changing the subject she said, “Let’s not talk about this now. Do you want to go to the beach?”

  Lucas ran a hand through his hair and pursed his lips. He was ready to argue. Lauren could see it coming. At the last minute he expelled a breath, “Fine. The beach would be great.”

  Parking in a Metro Rail parking lot, Lauren grabbed her purse. “Do you have your pass?”

  Lucas pulled out his wallet, “Does an elephant fart?”

  The evening was warm and the ocean the bluest of blues. Lauren pulled off her heels at the edge of the walk, stepping into the cool sand with her bare toes. Lucas held out his hand. Lauren’s heart beat faster as her hand slid into his.

  The waves delicately licked the crumbs of sand. The stress of the past few weeks faded in the late evening sun. Somehow the whole FBI raid left Lauren feeling at nervous peace. Even if she lost her job, at least the extortion would be over. Not that she looked forward to starting over, but Vice President Kendall had to go down. Lauren knew too much about Kendall’s evil to feel right about his ability to evade justice even if it meant keeping her job.

  “Are you okay?” Lucas leaned close, the warmth of his breath caressing her cheek. He smelled like cinnamon gum.

  “You know? I really am. You did the right thing,” Lauren said. She tilted her head up. Their eyes met. She could see the need in Lucas, the need for her to see him as a hero, the desire for her approval. She dropped her shoes in the sand and wrapped her arms around him.

  Her whole body felt the kiss. She longed for him with a primal desire that ignored all else. They kissed for an eternity before coming up for air. Lauren whispered, “Let’s take this somewhere private.”

  Home was too far. Lauren and Lucas sat side by side on the metro leaving no space between. There were a couple of students in the back and an elderly woman in one of the seats at the front. Lauren took the window seat. She felt electrified, hungry and wanting, and in no mood to wait. Lucas ran his fingers in a prancing staccato up and down her leg with his fingers and it was driving her crazy in every good way imaginable.

  “This is taking forever,” Lauren groused. Lucas moved his hand from her leg to her hair, his fingers sifting through her silky black tresses. He played with her hair oblivious to the grandma rolling her eyes at him.

  “We have time. I love your hair.” Lucas wrapped a strand of Lauren’s hair around his index finger while he gazed into her eyes. She had the strangest feeling of dislocation. She couldn’t forget she was in a public space, and yet, it almost didn’t matter. Almost. Lauren was a private individual. Her last public outing with Lucas had been a disaster.

  As Lucas moved from teasing strands of hair to scalp massage, Lauren closed her eyes. When the train came to her stop, Lauren was more than ready to get off.

  Lauren unlocked the door to her apartment, holding it open. He didn’t lead the way. Instead, he bent down, teasing her lips against his. She couldn’t hold back. She hungrily mashed her mouth on his, sucking and licking his lips until he picked her up, shutting the door with his leg and carried her to her bed.

  Lucas tossed her on the bed. She laughed when she bounced once. He tugged off her sandals. She was glad she hadn’t worn sneakers.

  Her heart ached with longing and her intimate self throbbed with desire.

  Midway through the kiss, Lauren interrupted, “I have to lock the door.”

  It was a thing. Lauren didn’t like to leave the front door unlocked. As hot as Lucas might be, the idea of that front door open to the world stopped her cold.

  Lucas groaned as his lover broke rank and stopped all hot interludes to run across her apartment and turn the bolt. Barefoot, Lauren ran back to the bed, hopping in beside Lucas who decided that he could speed things up by tearing off his t-shirt. Lucas welcomed Lauren back into his arms, his lips capturing hers with grace. He said, “I feel it was a waste of talent carrying you to the bed. And
energy.”

  “This conversation is a waste of your talent,” Lauren said between kisses. She added, “Did you lose your mojo?”

  “I am kissing the most beautiful girl in the world. One short break won’t hurt the mojo. Just don’t make it a habit,” Lucas teased, slipping his hand under Lauren’s shirt. He teased her nipple. He pushed it forward and made shooting sounds, “pew, pew.”

  “You did not just turn my breasts into a computer console,” Lauren said, pulling off her shirt.

  “Nah, you were a navy vessel about to release a nuclear missile. Those breasts are too high quality for a simple game,” Lucas could have insulted her further, but instead, he decided to draw her down to the bed with his mouth on hers.

  She would have complained more, but he found that other button, the special super-power—the singularity that drew Lucas into her body like the gravity of a neutron star. Yeah, he was a total nerd. To find a woman like Lauren wouldn’t happen again in his lifetime, so he played with that singularity until she arched her body, and hoped she would forget that he had ever played battleship with her breasts. Ah, hell, he would do it again. He wasn’t a saint.

  Lauren groaned, “Oh, God. Lucas.” She wrapped her hand around his shaft, helping him slide on the condom. He propelled it toward her singularity. She said, “Now.”

  Lucas slid into Lauren. She was perfect for him, her body welcoming his body with its wet joy. Throbbing with life, Lucas drove deeply into Lauren until he came.

  “I love you.”

  It was the grand finale, the final note to a perfect symphony. Lucas spoke the words, knowing that this woman might leave him for a company that didn’t appreciate her. It didn’t matter. She was a scientist and needed all of the facts. And the fact was...the past few weeks without her had been miserable. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving and he wanted to spend it with Lauren.

  He couldn’t imagine life without her.