by Watkins, TM
He's your access to the info, remember that!
I rolled my eyes and continued to eat my breakfast. Time would run out real fast now that Amber had her magna doodle out. Her mouth opened to say something and I crammed the last of my cereal into my mouth, muttering that I had to go. I could see her frowning at me but she said nothing. As I leaned on the closed door of my bedroom, I couldn't help but sigh. My head was still pounding hard, I was lethargic and in desperate need of more sleep. I quickly did a sweep of the room, picking up what had been discarded last night, finding more than I bargained for. A wallet. Dorian's wallet. I picked up the soft black leather case, assessing it and wondering what to do.
Did I dare investigate? The spy in me said yes, get the gloves on and have a good pick through but the enamored woman in me said no, allowing privacy was a must in order to develop the trust between us. Problem was, there wasn't going to be an ‘us’ and I had a job to do. With much reluctance I tossed it onto the bed and went to the bathroom, searching out the packet of hair dye. In it was a set of gloves.
Amber was giving me a look of curiosity, following me when I re-entered my bedroom. Her eyes were wide as she sat on the bed opposite me and watched with anticipation. Carefully I opened it, one side held various cards and his license. I pulled it out and Amber grabbed a pen and note pad. Amber was a wise woman, instead of writing it on the pad she ripped out the piece of paper and leaned on her leg. She wrote his details down and I moved onto the cards, her nose twitched as she shook her head. Both of us silently agreed that they weren't worth much value in terms of information. I pulled the cash part aside, noting there was a few varying notes that totaled around two hundred dollars.
Moving back to the cards, I flipped the card holder up to the section underneath it. It had more card slots but there was only one card in it. It was his business card which was a little curious. Just one, in his wallet, not in a card carrier. Amber twirled her finger and I pulled the card out and turned it over. It was a series of twelve numbers that were sequenced in lots of three. Underneath that was a long string of numbers and letters. Amber quickly scrawled them out and I checked the rest of the wallet, finding nothing. She passed the piece of paper to me, a knowing look passed between us. Neither of us knew if this was intentional or if it wasn't but either way, we both knew they were important.
Amber left me to dress and the piece of paper was tucked into my bra, I had one that had a double layer for hiding things in. A little bit of hollowed out hard padding and I could hide a few good things in this bra.
The bus ride to work was uneventful, aside from almost missing my stop again because of wayward thoughts. After I dumped my bag into my locker and made my way to the mail room, I quickly made a cup of coffee and sunk back two headache tablets, the bus ride had made it a whole lot worse.
I walked out into the main section of the mail room, finding several large trolleys filled with envelopes and parcels. They looked pretty full, the cloth bag was stretched to the limit and the strips holding it to the metal frame looked like they were ready to give way at any moment. With a big sip of the hot coffee, I set about sorting the mail and trying to ignore the monster headache. Something clicked and a whooshing swept through the room, within seconds I was surrounded by frosty cold air. I span around to see Dorian leaning on the wall with a small remote in his hand and an inane grin on his face.
“Ask and ye shall receive.”
I looked up at the wall above the garage door, an air conditioning unit had been installed. With a huge grin I pulled him out of the view of the glass window and hugged him hard.
“Thanks, you are awesome.”
“I know.”
“Here.” I retrieved his wallet, giving it to him. “You left this behind.”
Dorian frowned and patted his jacket, shaking his head.
“Thanks. Now get back to work, slacker.”
I might have narrowed my eyes to thin slits but there was a crazy happy smile happening. When I began to walk away he pulled me back and pressed me to the wall.
“The boss wants to know what you're doing for lunch.”
“Uh sitting in the cafeteria daydreaming again?”
“I think we can do better than that. Be ready at twelve.”
Dorian kissed me hard, his grip around me was tight and unrelenting. The sounds of someone pressing the buzzer and knocking on the window broke our heated moment and I swear that the person on the other side of that window had better want something so damned important. Dorian swept out of the room with a dirty smirk and the promise of another kiss when I delivered his mail. Do I need any more motivation to get my butt into gear? No, his offer was plenty. The man at the window was Jack who was being a smart ass by pretending to be one of the annoying staff members.
“How's it going?” He pressed the glass. “I see they finally fixed it. Is that air con? How did you manage that?”
Oh let's see, uh, got drunk with the boss last night and maybe doing lots of naughty things with him, then slept almost completely naked with him. Hmm, I think that sums up how I managed to get the air conditioning unit without even asking for it.
“I might have complained about the heat in here yesterday.” I shrugged nonchalantly.
“Lucky you. I've been complaining for a year now, I got told to buy a desk fan.” He frowned. “Who did you complain to?”
I leaned into the slots in the glass.
“Gallagher himself.” I whispered.
“No.” Jack gasped. “You met the boss man?”
Met him? My mind snorted with laughter.
“When I delivered the package yesterday, the chick on the desk wasn't there and it had to be signed for. You didn't say what to do in that situation so I did what I thought was necessary. I knocked on his door.”
“Oh my god.” He gasped, wide eyed. “You’re a lucky bitch.”
We both burst out laughing.
“I am going to have to visit more often. Got to get some kind of payback for all these years of going without.”
“You do that.” I grinned.
After Jack left I continued to do my mad sorting of the mail, there was a lot of it. As I searched through all of the names, I came across one that was familiar, one that I had heard yesterday. Hiroki Nakano was in the lab section on level one and lucky me, I had mail to deliver to him.
Chapter 18: KC has a light bulb moment
The mail was packed with pure enthusiasm, the headache was gone thanks to a flood of caffeine and I was pushing the cumbersome trolley out the door and to the service elevator with a monster sized happy smile. Clearly I had too much coffee but who was I to refuse a pick me up? With far too much happiness, I pressed the button for my first port of call. Level one, I have encountered your nonsense before. You are the level that contains people that think they are above everyone else, that they are better just because they are smart enough to earn a degree. The doors swung open to the first floor, it was the same drab place as yesterday. I pushed the trolley over the doors and grabbed the bundle of mail, pressing the buzzer for someone to grace me with their glorious presence. The door opened and a woman came through, then followed by the surly thing from yesterday.
“See you tomorrow Jeannie.” The surly one from yesterday grumbled.
“Sleep well Mickey.”
The new woman was far more upbeat than the other one who was like she was yesterday. Maybe I had mistaken her mood for tiredness, maybe she was a night shift worker and it was the end of her shift. Casually I glanced at my watch and noted that I was running half an hour behind. This would become a regular habit considering that I would rather face perky Jeannie than snippy Mickey.
“Hi.” I smiled brightly. “I'm Kasey, I started yesterday.”
Jeannie smiled back at me, she certainly was perky.
“Hi, I'm Jeannie. You sure are going to build some muscles pushing that thing around.”
“Yeah.” I chuckled. “Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though.
Only time will tell. Here's your mail, have a great day.”
“Thanks, you too!”
I pushed the trolley back into the elevator and pressed the two. A happy but rather bewildered Jeannie waved slightly unsure of whether she should or not. I gave her a crazy wave like I was super high on caffeine and waited as the stupid doors shut way too slowly.
“Damn you, doors.” I hissed as the elevator slowly started to move. “Learn to shut faster so I don't look like a fool waving at the woman.”
When I reached Jack's floor he was leaning on the wall of his cubicle door, casting obvious glances at his watch and then at me.
“Yeah, yeah.”
I pulled out his mail and shoved it at him.
“Take your damned mail time waster. I'm late because of your flappy trap.”
“Excuses, excuses.” He sighed happily. “You will be happy to hear but there isn't actually a time frame to get this done other than before lunch.”
“Oh good.” I grumbled.
It was rather faked; I was actually pleased that I could delay my deliveries slightly. Though I still hadn't figured out how I was going to get Hiroki to the front desk.
“Well. Got to go. Mail to deliver and all that. Rather important, you know.”
Jack rolled his eyes and returned to his desk.
“Later Kasey.”
As I moved through the remaining floors, I thought about Hiroki. How much could this man tell me? I wasn't sure but I had to get a visual on him, it would be easier to get him followed if I knew what he looked like. I'm thinking that a quick visit to Wal with a tech order is necessary. He's my gizmo man, if I wanted anything on this mission I had to get it through him. But what though? A camera might be a good idea, that way I could get vision of him when I somehow managed to lure him out of his hidey hole.
I moved the trolley to the twentieth floor, I had a parcel for a Larry Myers. This was another restricted floor but at least this one had a receptionist.
“Hi, Larry Myers has to sign for this.”
“One moment, I will buzz him and get him to come out.”
The woman did her thing with the phone and I stood there rather stunned. Package. Sign for. In person. Hot dog, I think we have a wiener. Larry Myers came, signed and left with his package and I returned to my delivery duties faster than before. Now I had to escape to the local coffee shop and hatch my plan with my gizmo man.
My only issue was the diversion that was waiting for me on the thirtieth floor. It was an internal tug of war, one side was eager to get going on the Hiroki plan, the other was eager to be lavished in kisses. Now I knew why Tilley was a fool for getting wrapped up in her missions in such a way. I had just joined the ranks, not far behind Tilley was the clearly besotted KC.
He was leaning against the front desk when the doors of the elevator opened, a wide grin was waiting for me and to my delight, no Amy.
“Leave the trolley over there and hurry up.”
I pushed it against the wall behind the reception desk and followed Dorian into the boardroom, wondering why he was going in here. The view was spectacular, I looked across the city, through the buildings and to the parks. The trees were a green blip but still pretty good to look at.
“When you are acquainted to my body.” Dorian purred in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me from behind. “You and I are going to christen the boardroom table.”
I giggled at the thought, wondering how many people would sit at it afterwards and be none the wiser.
“Is there a chance that your friend won't be home again tonight?”
“Possibly, it would take some persuading though. Her parents tend to lecture her so she's rather hesitant to visit them too often.”
Dorian moved us away from the glass wall and to the board room table. It was a long one, the wood was glossy and I wondered what kind of impression I would leave if we were to christen the table. I wiggled my way onto the edge as Dorian moved in between my legs, wrapping them around his waist.
The clock was always ticking on our kisses and indecent hand placement, after a few minutes I reluctantly continued on my way. Lunch wasn't that far away and I had to get to the coffee house before Dorian came looking for me.
Chapter 19: Pestering the barista
I was back down on the ground floor, almost shoving the trolley through the door and ignoring the pile of parcels within five minutes. Casually I walked through the lobby, taking a sly glance to the security desk. Oddly, there was no one there. Of course I knew I would be watched so I acted as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. I would come back with a coffee in hand and maybe a muffin so my actions were explainable. When I was out of sight of the building, I ran to the coffee house, puffing when I finally burst through the door. Walter stared at me for a moment and then started to make my coffee.
“How many coffees have you had today slugger?”
“You're making number six. Don't forget the choc… ugh no, I'll take the bran muffin thanks.”
My stomach turned over at the thought of another bit of chocolate.
“I uh, you know.” I cleared my throat and raised my eyebrows quickly.
He nodded and looked around the partly full shop.
“What's up?” He said quietly.
The hiss of the coffee machine was annoyingly loud, I moved to the other end of the bench and stood in the gap between it and the wall.
“I might have an in. I need a teeny camera maybe in a pen or something and I need a parcel delivered to the building.”
Walter turned to me with a slight frown.
“You know how to do a parcel up right, don't you?”
He rolled his eyes at me, continuing to make my coffee.
“Just put any old crap in it, he's a scientist so I don't know, make it appear like it's a gift or merchandising or something. You have to make sure he is the only one that can sign for it, okay?”
“Sure.”
I passed the scrap of paper with Hiroki's name on it.
“Not before I have the pen. I want visual on him so he can be watched.”
“He's important?”
“Not sure but I overheard a conversation that the boss was having with him on the phone. He talked of a treatment and something about two in the paper.”
Walter nodded and put the lid on my coffee, bagging my muffin quickly. He must have known I was in a hurry.
“I'll have the office search the papers for something to do with them and anything that relates to them twice as well. I don't remember seeing much about them aside from advertising. Stop by for your morning coffee and I'll have your pen.”
“Thanks, don't forget where to put the charges for these.”
Walter huffed with a grin, knowing that we both piled our expenses onto Tilley's account.
I had made it back to the building within fifteen minutes, coffee and little brown bag in hand. The guard gave me a big smile when I waived at him, no doubt he suffered from the same affliction. Coffee was a harsh mistress. When I had wolfed down the muffin and almost scolded my insides with the coffee, I set about doing the parcel delivery before Dorian arrived. I had excess energy to burn and in doing the extra trip around the building, I was adding to the visual mapping of the interior of the building.
There was another parcel for Dorian, unfortunately for me it wasn't one that he had to sign for. I smiled at Amy as the doors opened, she gave her obliging smile back.
“Morning.” I cheerily greeted her. “I didn't get to say hello to you earlier.”
Her grin died slightly, it looked kind of pained.
“I uh I had to get Mister Gallagher's dry cleaning.”
“Oh, lucky you. A trip out of the office.”
She smiled but it was forced. I was missing something here.
“Miss Ryan.”
I turned to the familiar voice, holding back my gleeful smile for one that was restrained and pleasant. One that would be expected between an employer and an employee.
“Another p
arcel arrived for you.”
“How positively exciting.” He was being sarcastic of course. But that was for Amy, not me. “Amy, could you go to financing and get the reports I've been asking for? It appears they cannot be bothered to get off their backsides and deliver it to me as I have asked repeatedly for the past week.”
“Of course sir.” She said quietly.
I watched, curious to her behavior. When the doors to the elevator were closed I looked at Dorian.
“What's up with her?”
“Change in her duties and hours and she isn't overly impressed but there isn't much I can do about it. Finance is cutting costs everywhere and…”
“But you're the boss, how is that you can't do anything about it?”
He looked at me sharply, those very kissable lips twitched with slight derision and then smirked.
“Okay so maybe that's not entirely the truth. HR said that she has too many leave days owing so she is being forced to take two weeks off.”
I frowned, who would be annoyed at being forced to take holidays?
“Then there's the promotion that she got and didn't want.”
“Then why apply for the job?”
“This isn't a job to be applied for, it's one that is gifted upon a worthy employee. Now, this parcel?”
Nothing more was said about this so called wondrous job that was given to people which was driving me crazy. What was this job and why was Amy so rattled at taking it? It made my curiosity worse when Dorian cut all conversations about it off. Here's a tantalizing smell of the cheese little mouse oh, but you cannot have any of it. Just one little whiff of it and nothing more.
My investigation into this bizarre promotion of Amy's would have to wait, Dorian wasn't easily pumped for information and I knew to be wary of being too inquisitive around him. Maybe I could try Jack tomorrow. Lunch was the next thing on my list of things to do today. Lunch with the no longer a mystery man Dorian. I had to rename him now that he wasn't a mystery. Definitely no longer creepy, though he did sometimes stare at me. Maybe I could go with weird, except that I was actually gearing myself up to 'take one for the team' with the so called weird Dorian. Weird wasn't a good name. This I would have to mull over.
