Freedom

by Riley Edwards

  Anna was a lifesaver, and Nick liked her. She picked him up from school and watched him until I got home. While she was there, they did his homework together, and the extra work the school had given him. She was a blessing, even starting dinner if I was running late.

  The only snag Nick and I had was when he’d asked about his dad and wanted to see pictures of him. The issue had been on my part, not his, as we sat on the couch and I told him about my childhood with my brother, his father. It was painful remembering how close we’d been, all the memories I’d blocked once he’d betrayed me. I’d forgotten about the times Nick had followed me around with hero-worship. After I joined the Army, he’d followed there, too. He was a proud soldier and a good one. I’d known Nicholas was a dead ringer of Nick but seeing the pictures was uncomfortable and gut-wrenching. I wished Reagan was there with us as we went through the photo album. I couldn’t explain why, but it felt like she should’ve been there.

  Damn, I missed her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I hated Florida.

  My job was boring, but that could’ve been because my heart wasn’t in it. Hell, my heart wasn’t even beating in my own chest anymore. I’d left it back in Georgia along with the other half of my soul. Or was it my whole soul that I’d left? I was stupid, and over the last month, I’d reminded myself of that every morning I’d woken up. I thought it would get easier not seeing Clark or hearing his voice. That’s why I’d refused to call him and only texted when I couldn’t take the ridiculous ache any longer.

  Like now, the radio was on, and I was getting ready for work. A Justin Bieber song came on, and all I could think about was Clark and his extreme distaste for the Biebs.

  Me: Just thought I’d let you know that with the release of the new JB soundtrack you may be correct in your initial assessment of his musical ability. FLOP!

  His reply was immediate.

  Clark: I can sleep better at night knowing that you’ve seen the light.

  I frowned when I read the message. Sleep? I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a restful night’s sleep. Well, I could remember. It was the last night I’d slept tangled with Clark. After the night at Jasper’s when Emily and Blake had announced their pregnancies, I’d stopped cuddling with Clark. After we’d make love… sex… it was sex; I had to keep reminding myself of that. After sex, I’d wait until Clark fell asleep then I’d roll over. It wasn’t because I wanted the distance. It was the opposite; I wanted to curl into him and never let him go. I didn’t want him for fun; I wanted him forever. But that’s not what Clark had offered, so I rolled over, reminding myself he wasn’t mine.

  Me: Glad I can be of service. GTG. Getting ready for work. Have a good day.

  Me: Be safe.

  Clark: Always. Have a good day.

  Always.

  I wished we could have always.

  Work sucked today. I had to go to the Alger Energy headquarters today, which required me to dress nicely. I was spoiled not having to wear heels to the office every day. Days like today when I had to suffer through a full day with my toes pinched into pumps; I cursed being a woman. I would be investing in a plethora of flats as soon as I could make time to get to the mall.

  This project was taking all of my time. Even after office hours at home, I still had my laptop open and was working. Alger had two oil spills in the last two years. Not good. Their safety protocol had been called into question, and they were currently under review. One was an ocean spill costing the company millions in clean up; the other was a land spill. The tanker company was actually to blame, not the drill, but the media and OSHA didn’t care. It happened on Alger property. That had cost less to clean up but was still costly. I couldn’t imagine how the company hadn’t folded after all the money they were bleeding.

  Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about their financial competence. My only job was to make them look good to the public. That’s why I was at Alger HQ instead of my office. Lenard Glass, the new CEO, was meeting with me to go over all the philanthropic work the company did - the charities they gave to, the man hours they donated to the communities where they drilled. It was all smoke and mirrors. From my research, I’d found that Alger Energy raped the environment. They had the worst eco-stats in the industry which made me question why the EPA hadn’t closed them down.

  Sure, they gave money, they did clean up the messes they made, and they donated energy to other countries. But there had to be something hanky going on. A government payoff somewhere. Not that it was my business, merely an observation. One that made me feel kind of yucky for helping them with their public appearance.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Reagan. A pleasure,” Lenard cooed when he came into the cubicle I was given to use while at the office.

  I hated that he called me, Miss Reagan. I’d asked him not to, but he’d ignored me. He’d also ignored me when I lied and told him I had a boyfriend when he asked me out. He was persistent and schwarmy.

  “Hi, Lenard. What do you have for me today?”

  The next few hours he combed through files, bragging about all the good deeds Alger Energy had done over the years. His grandfather had started the company, delivering propane and heating fuel in rural Texas. When Lenard’s father, Lenard Sr., was old enough to join his father they had bought land that was oil-rich and started drilling. From there his father had bought more land, then started leasing oil platforms until the company could buy a small rig of their own. It was a great rag to riches story. Lenard’s grandmother had died in childbirth, leaving Lenard Sr. to raise his son on his own. He never remarried, the story that had been passed down was one of true and lasting love. Lenard’s grandfather had loved his wife so deeply she was irreplaceable. Somehow I doubted the story, but I’d use it in my campaign. Nothing worked better than pulling on someone’s heartstrings, especially when dealing with an industry that was widely disliked.

  I was relieved when Lenard’s secretary called to tell him he was needed in a meeting. He’d rushed out, apologizing for his speedy exit, luckily forgetting to ask me to dinner for the twentieth time.

  I was packing up to leave when I found a file he’d left on my desk. Rolling my eyes at his obvious attempt to make me see him again, I stowed it in my computer bag with the rest of my paperwork and left. I would’ve left it on the desk but some of the files he’d shown me had tax-exempt numbers in them, and I wasn’t sure if those were like social security numbers and needed to be guarded. Just because I thought he was a little douchey didn’t mean I wanted him or the company to fall victim to identity theft.

  I forwent the office and headed straight home. The great thing about my job, my boss didn’t care if I worked from home as long as the work was done. It was late enough in the afternoon I could ease my guilt of playing hooky by using midday traffic as an excuse.

  It didn’t take me long to finish my first draft of a series of press releases that would go out. My boss and I had gone over the PR strategy and decided press releases would be a great way to start before moving to the broader marketing campaign. We had to make Alger likable before we tried to sell the energy company as eco-friendly. It was truly laughable; however, Alger was paying a mint, so we’d delivered a great plan.

  I was missing some details about one of the charities Lenard had told me about and pulled out my notes when the folder he’d left fell off the couch, its contents spilling and papers scattering on the floor.

  I gathered them neatly to put them back when the top sheet caught my attention. It wasn’t charity information; it was an invoice from AmeriMed.

  Anesthesia machine, connectors and valves, breathing circuit, artificial resuscitators. What the hell was this? I moved to the next page and it was more medical equipment. Defibrillators, ECG machine, infusion pumps, there were pages of expensive machines. I was so confused at what I was looking at. There weren’t only machines but supplies as well. The invoices ranged from a year old to just a few weeks ago. The bills were addressed to an LJ Glass with a PO Box here
in Florida. I flipped through the pages again and all the purchase orders were listed as Horizon III.

  A quick internet search came up with an old oil platform that Alger owned, but it hadn’t been operational for many years. Something wasn’t right. I snagged my phone out of my bag and called the one person that I knew would help me.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey Blake, how are you?”

  “Eh. Morning sickness sucks. How’s Florida?” she asked.

  “Eh. Hot, humid, sandy. I hope I’m not bothering you, but I was hoping you could help me. But before I ask, you can tell me no. I know you’re busy at work.”

  “Sure, what do you need?”

  Now that I had her on the phone I was second guessing myself. Why did I even care about some invoices anyway? It wasn’t part of my scope of work. It had no bearing on whether or not I could do my job.

  “I feel silly bothering you. It’s something I found in a file at work. I’m being nosy, that’s all. Something felt off, but now that I’m thinking about it I feel bad about wasting your time.”

  “If something feels off, Reagan, trust your gut. What is it? I’m sure I can help.”

  “I’m working on a PR campaign, and while I was at the client’s office I took a file home on accident. I looked in the file; it’s full of invoices with a PO notation - Horizon III…” There was a knock on my door cutting me off. “Hold on; someone’s at the door.”

  “Horizon III? Reagan, what oil company are you working with?” she asked as I looked through the peephole seeing Lenard standing outside my door.

  Jesus this guy is a creep. How the hell did he get my home address?

  “My boss is at the door,” I told her.

  “Reagan! What oil company?”

  “Alger Energy.”

  “Do not answer the door.”

  It was too late. I already unlocked the door and started to open.

  “Lenard, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Hang up the phone.” His voice was demanding and much harder than I’d ever heard.

  “Don’t hang up. Just set the phone down, leave the line open so I can hear.”

  “Okay. Talk to you later,” I said into the phone and lowered it from my ear.

  What the hell was going on? Why was Blake freaking out? She sounded almost scared. Why would she care what company I was working with?

  Lenard silently stalked toward me, backing me into my apartment, slamming the door behind him.

  “It’s a shame.”

  Then my world went dark.

  Chapter Twenty

  My attention had piqued when I heard Blake talking to Reagan on the phone, but I tried to be as nonchalant as I could while I eavesdropped on the conversation. It seemed like chit-chat until Blake’s voice got hard and she started to question Reagan about her employer.

  An oil company?

  It had to be a coincidence.

  Blake had the whole team’s attention when she told Reagan not to answer her door. She put her cell on speaker, and for the first time in over a month, I felt my heart beat when I heard her voice.

  “Lenard, what are you doing here?” she asked.

  My heart stopped. She had a man. I couldn’t listen to her greeting her boyfriend.

  “Hang up the phone.” He sounded like a dick; a rude one. I immediately hated him and not because I was jealous of him. The thought that anyone would speak to her in such a harsh tone pissed me off. I’d talk to Jasper about telling Rea to dump his ass if this was how he treated her.

  “Don’t hang up. Just set the phone down, leave the line open so I can hear,” Blake said at the same time she wrote ALGER OIL on a piece of paper and held it up, then pointing to the whiteboard that displayed pictures of the Horizon III.

  “Okay. Talk to you later,” Reagan said then there was movement and rustling, but she hadn’t hung up.

  There was silence for a beat then a door slamming before his next words made my blood run cold.

  “It’s a shame.”

  The line went dead, and my insides turned to stone.

  It had been hours and still no word from Reagan. Her phone was off, and she hadn’t gone into the office. Levi was able to hack into her computer and activate her laptop camera. Unfortunately, it didn’t tell us much as it was facing the cushions of her couch. The feed was live streaming on one of our large monitors just in case someone came back to her apartment.

  Blake had contacted one of her connections to access any CCTV city cameras in the area surrounding her building. It was taking too fucking long. This asshole could’ve taken her anywhere by now.

  “What did she say again?” I asked Blake again.

  She didn’t complain when she went through the conversation again.

  “Invoices?” I asked rhetorically. “What invoices referencing the Horizon III could she have found that bothered her so badly she’d call you about them?”

  I knew she didn’t have the answer to that, but we were missing something.

  Blake’s phone rang and after a short conversation she hung up and grabbed her laptop.

  She asked Levi to connect her to the big screen. When he did, CCTV footage from a traffic cam came on showing Reagan being walked to an awaiting car at the curb. Lenard Glass had his hand on her bicep, easily directing her into the backseat. He followed, joining her in the backseat and the car sped away.

  The next hour was used to isolate and enhance the two-minute video. Facial recognition verified what we knew, the man who’d taken Reagan was indeed, Lenard Glass Jr, CEO of Alger. The driver was still unknown, even though we had a clear image of his face.

  “Wait. Let me see the driver again,” Blake stopped us before we could change the image.

  She rummaged through her desk until she found what she wanted. “Thought so!” she exclaimed and held up a picture. “Same man as the tugboat captain I was following in Texas.”

  I examined both images, and she was correct. The driver and the tug captain were one in the same.

  “Damn, you’re good,” Levi praised.

  “Plate came back to LJG Holdings,” Lenox announced.

  “Lenard Jr. Glass,” I surmised.

  “Levi and Blake, run LJG Holdings, see what exactly they hold and check out LJ Glass, that’s the only alias I can dig up. Jasper, go through the rest of the CCTV footage. Clark, you come with me.” Lenox walked me through the hangar and outside. He was leaned against the building watching me pace in front of him.

  “Fuck!”

  Lenox remained quiet.

  “I let her go. What the hell was I thinking? I should’ve told her. You know what stopped me?”

  Lenox didn’t answer.

  “My damn pride. The last night she looked unaffected she was leaving, happy even. I got pissed because I felt like she was ripping my heart out of my chest and there she was smiling.”

  He still hadn’t said anything.

  “I told her that I didn’t want a relationship, that I wasn’t capable of it. After what Stephanie and Nick did to me I never thought I’d want another woman for more than a few nights. She knew the score. Agreed that we would have some fun then she’d leave. Goddamnit, I fell in love with her. I didn’t even try and stop it. I couldn’t. That first time in my car, her listening to that shit music acting goofy as hell, blurting out anything and everything that popped into her head – I knew I could love her. She’s honest to a fault and calls me on my shit. No one has ever done that. And I let her leave even though I love her. I’ve been dying a slow, painful death and I still didn’t call her and tell her. Now some prick has her, and I may never see her again. All for what? My fucking pride.”

  Lenox remained watchful, not interrupting my thoughts.

  “I’m going to find her and bring her ass home. Here to Georgia where she belongs. If she doesn’t feel the same way, I’ll wait her out. Hell, if you could talk Lily into marrying your ass and pop out your boys, surely I can do it.”

  “You straight?” he a
sked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Great. Good talk.” Lenox laughed and held open the door for me.

  “How’d it go?” Jasper yelled to Lenox when we entered.

  “So much easier than the rest of ours. He didn’t even punch me in the face. You both owe me fifty,” he answered.

  “Fuckers!”

  It would’ve been funny if I hadn’t been so worried about Reagan.

  After Lenox had freaked out and left Lily, he almost beat the hell out of Jasper when he found out Jasper knew Lily was pregnant with Carter and he still allowed her to leave. During Jasper’s meltdown, when the guilt of his first child’s death got to be so much he’d bailed on Emily, he came to the hangar and beat the punching bag until his fists were bloodied. Both Lily and I had to talk him down. Then there was Levi. His dumb ass had allowed a misunderstanding to drive a wedge between him and Blake for years. I’d cashed in every favor I was owed by the brass to get Blake transferred to the 707, so the two of them could work out their shit. It worked like a charm, and she hadn’t even officially been embedded with the team for two hours before he drug her to the courthouse and married her. After I’d watched my three best friends lose their minds over their women, I still hadn’t taken my own advice to them and held on to her when I had her.

  The car had been a dead end, it had come back registered to LJG Holdings. There was no sign of it after it pulled away from the curb. We caught a break when Levi and Blake found what tipped Reagan off. Medical invoices. The purchase orders referencing the Horizon III matched up to what she’d told Blake. But other than that piece of information, we’d hit a dead end.

  I was running out of time. I had to get home to Nick, it was almost time for Anna to leave. Fuck. At this rate, I was going to be bald by the time the night was over if I kept yanking at my hair. I had to go, but I had to stay too. Maybe I could run home and pick up Nick and bring him back here. He could chill on the couch and play on his tablet. Not the most responsible parental choice, but it was all I had.