by Alice Ward
If my time in Chicago had taught me anything, it was that I really did want the peace that came with settling down. That was probably why I’d waited so anxiously for Corey. I thought he could be the one I could settle down with. My new family. But neither of the Stafford brothers had proved trustworthy. Corey clearly wasn’t going to keep his promise to find me, and Noah had no intentions of committing himself to anyone. They were both playboys who fished for women, caught them on the end of their hooks for fun, then dropped them back in the water.
As soon as everything I owned had been stuffed into my suitcases, I wheeled them out into the front room, planning to leave a note for Julia, who I assumed was still sleeping. I froze when I saw her, standing near the couch with her own set of baggage.
“Why are you all packed up?” I asked.
“Why are you all packed up?” she returned.
“I’m leaving.”
“So am I.”
I sighed. “Maybe neither of us should leave until we’ve had a cup of coffee. Would you like one?”
Her fingers pressed into her temples. “I would kill for one. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Neither could I. That’s what happens when you find out that not only is your boss a tyrant, but he’s a super tyrant.”
Julia fell down onto the couch, her arms flopping by her side, and yet she still managed to look elegant. “The problem is, Mr. Stafford really isn’t such a tyrant. I’m as much to blame as he is. I knew what I was getting into. As a consenting adult, I didn’t feel at all manipulated or pressured. It was made very clear to me that I could end the agreement at any time. Because loyalty is part of the agreement, I just assumed that since he had moved on to you, that it was over.”
Putting the conversation on pause, I went to the kitchen, chose a hazelnut flavored coffee, and flipped the machine on, stalling for time. Neither of us could act irrationally. Julia had sacrificed a year of her life to work as a personal assistant, a job she was way overqualified for. I had nothing left in Milwaukee to return to. I had found my new family, not with Corey but with Julia, my sister. It broke my heart to imagine us fleeing in opposite directions.
“I still don’t understand his outburst last night,” I said, carrying our coffees over to the couch.
Eagerly, Julia took hers. “Mr. Stafford feels the need to control everyone. It’s in his nature. I know I sound like I’m trying to defend him, and I’m not, his behavior was inexcusable, but sometimes I think the reason he feels like he has to exert so much control is because there’s something in this life that he feels really helpless over.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. Women’s intuition.”
I sat on the couch beside her. “What are we going to do? This is so messed up.”
“I know what I’m going to do. I’m going back to Boston, and I’ll use my connections at Harvard to find another job. The way I spoke to him last night, he’ll never forgive me for that. The best thing for me is to resign.”
“Do you love him?” I asked, hoping she would forgive my forwardness.
“No. I don’t love him. I never did. He’s a jerk, but he still has a way of making you care about him. I’ve never known a man so gorgeous, so steady, and yet so lonely.”
I understood loneliness.
“You should stay,” Julia insisted. “He knows now that the line has been crossed. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’re strong. You can handle it.”
“Promise me you won’t leave yet,” I begged her, forming a plan. “Please just wait here. Don’t go yet.”
Before she could protest, I flew out the door and drove straight to the company. On the top floor, I stormed into Noah’s office, expecting to wait on the couch until he arrived, but he was already there, going over his schedule on his wall of screens.
“I guess it’s business as usual for you,” I sniped.
He didn’t seem at all put off by my temper, returning to his cool exterior, as if the previous night had never happened. “My employees have families they need to feed. Work doesn’t stop because you’re angry at me.”
“Don’t fire Julia,” I demanded.
“I didn’t plan to.”
I studied him, trying to figure him out. “You understand that Julia can’t be your personal assistant anymore, don’t you? She’s humiliated. You need to give her the promotion. Now instead of later.”
He turned away from the wall. “Let me make one thing clear, Imogen. No one tells me what to do in my own company.” He stepped closer to me, his eyes seeming to sear through my soul. “But I can see how much Julia means to you, so I’ll allow her to transfer whenever she chooses, but only if you trade me something for it.”
I almost stomped my foot. I couldn’t believe him. “You’ve gotten all you’re going to get out of me. I’m not interested.”
“Not that. I want your loyalty. Don’t leave. I’ll let Julia have her promotion, but only if you stay.”
I stared at him, trying to read between his lines, but he was as closed as I’d ever seen him. “I can do that,” I said finally.
“Good, because I already sent her an email with a copy of her transfer. I never intended on letting her go. Her mind is too valuable to this company.”
I exhaled, feeling a fraction of the tension inside me slide away. “So Julia has her job?”
“Yes. My business people will be expecting her to call in tomorrow. I told her she could have today off.”
“Then we’re okay,” I said, trying to maintain my standing. “I’ll stay, and Julia will stay, and everything will be very professional.”
Returning to his wall, Noah smiled. “Until you give in to the inevitable.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
Ignoring that I still wore flannel pajamas, I went into my office before the stitches of our relationship opened up.
For reasons I wouldn’t admit, I could no longer tolerate the red in the office. It glared at me like an angry bull. Ignoring how tired I was, I went to my laptop and spent most of the morning picking out new furniture. Then, thinking it only fair after Noah’s behavior last night, I also used the company credit card to purchase yellow and aqua curtains and a rug for the apartment, the color template Julia and I had agreed to the night of our drinks in the blues bar. If Noah was going to take liberties, so was I.
Against my will, I looked towards the door, wondering if he would come through, but he never did.
It’s only because he looks like Corey, I told myself. Corey is the one I want, not his domineering brother.
And yet, I continued to look towards the door.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Scratch tickets lay across the floor at my grandma’s house. As I scribbled on the back of one, a pizza in one hand, a crayon in the other, I was filled with a childlike whimsy. My grandma sat on the couch beside me watching an old Western on television, cotton stuck between her toes as her polish dried.
“You know what the thing is about these Westerns,” she said aloud, talking to no one in particular. “The bad guys, they aren’t always so bad. And the good guys, they aren’t always so good. That’s life. We all have our own reasons for doing stuff.”
Suddenly, the house began to shake, and the scratch tickets flew around the front room as if trapped in a tornado. I tried to run to my grandma, but the house crumbled on top of us before I could.
Gasping, I woke with a start, my hand over my heart, sweat streaming down my brow. I was safe, but I was still caught in the dream. Outside my apartment, the wind howled, beating against my window like a bat hitting a baseball.
Wrapping myself in a blanket, I went into the front room, frightened by the ferocity of the wind. I wasn’t alone. Julia sat on the couch, sheltered in her own blanket.
“I’ve never seen it so bad,” she said. “We get windstorms, but not like this.”
At the window, I looked down upon the street. Litter was tossed around by the gales,
rising almost as high as our apartment. Branches from the trees that lined the street shook, releasing their foliage all over the ground. I wouldn’t be surprised if, come morning, some of those trees had toppled over.
“I’ll make us some cocoa,” I decided. “I know it’s not the season for cocoa, but it’s comforting.”
“I won’t argue with you there,” Julia said. “Cocoa sounds perfect right now.”
An hour later, we still sat in the front room, our mugs empty, the electricity of the storm and the roar of the wind making it impossible to sleep.
“How is the new department going?” I asked her.
Her eyes lit up. “Wonderful. They really respect me, and it’s such a joy to actually be able to apply my degree. I have a lot to offer, and now I get to do just that.”
“Have you talked to Mr. Stafford?”
“No. I told you, once you’re gone, you mean nothing more to him. How is it going for you up there all alone?” she asked with concern.
“I’ve got Peter, but it’s lonely without you. Thankfully, Mr. Stafford and I’ve reached some sort of homeostasis. He messages me when he needs something, and I get it done. It’s a strictly professional relationship. If I’m being totally honest, I kind of miss the friendship that we were starting to build.”
Julia tapped the side of her mug. “In an effort to be a truly supportive friend, I feel I should say something to you. If you ever did want to extend your agreement with Mr. Stafford, I won’t judge you. How could I judge you? I understand the enticement of it all, especially when you’re new to the city.”
I bristled a bit. “I’ve lived in the city before.”
“But not this one. And you know there’s more to the agreement than just the lessons he tries to teach you. When you agree to be loyal to him, he treats you like a queen. On one of our dates, he took me to a Red Sox game in Boston, and I got to meet the players.”
I appreciated Julia telling me that. I would never admit to her, but my intrigue of all the promises Noah made had not diminished. My darker, more sensual side was being drawn out by him, and he had barely even touched me. With his perfect body and his designer suits and his fast lifestyle, he was hard to resist. As the days passed, I began to wonder if he was right when he claimed the ultimate freedom was to live without the burden of choice, no longer tormented by insecurity or indecision.
“So when did nerds get so good-looking?” Julia asked, changing the subject before it got awkward. “I went down to analyze the market value of a new unbreakable beaker for high school science labs, and man did I choose the wrong department. Lab technicians are hotties.”
“That’s because they’re all so stylish underneath their lab coats. Everyone looks better with style.”
“Says the girl wearing pajamas covered in a Japanese cartoon.”
“Anime is my style.” I pulled at a thread on my pajamas, contemplative. “If a new department doesn’t open up that’s more suited to me, then research is probably where I’ll request to go when my year as an assistant is over. I’d like to develop something useful for the environment.”
She grinned. “As long as whatever you develop makes the company a lot of money, you have the approval of my department.”
A formidable burst of wind shook the apartment, causing a few pans in the kitchen to topple over, the bang of their fall like echoing thunder.
“Are we safe up here?” I asked, pulling my blanket closer.
“I want to believe so,” Julia said. “But I think I’ll sleep out here for the rest of the night.”
“Me too,” I decided, and we arranged it so that we were both stretched out on the couch, her head at one end, mine at the other.
Julia laughed. “Look at us. Aren’t we a couple of old grandmas.”
With a comedy playing on the television in the background, it didn’t take long for Julia to drift off. She kept laughing in her sleep, for reasons I doubted had much to do with a comedy invading her dreams. She was happy. Being promoted suited her. She was where she belonged.
I thought of Noah again. I hadn’t actually seen him in two weeks. We only communicated through messages on my wrist device. It was probably one of his games. He was ignoring me to catch my interest.
It was working.
***
The microchip in my arm didn’t work. I ran it in front of the door to Noah’s office, my white dress reflected in the solid gold sheathing, but it wouldn’t scan. None of the doors that led me to Noah were willing to open.
“Noah,” I called, knocking on the door. It hurt my knuckles. “Let me in. I want to talk to you. You can’t avoid me forever.”
“He’s not in,” Peter said, coming up behind me. “He hasn’t been in all week.”
“Is that normal?” I asked.
“Not for him.”
“Maybe he’s traveling,” I speculated.
Peter didn’t think so. “If he were, we’d both be traveling with him.”
Worried, I knocked on the door again, knowing it would do no good, stopping only when a shrill alarm sounded throughout the building. Instantly, I covered my ears, protecting them from the horrendous noise.
“What is that?” I asked, shouting over the alarm. “Did one of the monster robots get loose?”
“It’s an emergency drill,” Peter informed me. “It’ll be over in a second, followed by a message.”
The alarm did stop, but there was only silence afterwards. Peter frowned. “That’s strange. “There’s usually a message from… you. The personal assistant.”
“Me?”
Moving quickly, I went to my office and scanned my tablet. Sure enough, there was a message from Noah telling me to send everyone home.
“It’s no drill. It’s real. He’s worried about the storm. Why didn’t he forward the message to my wrist device?” I muttered. “And who activated the alarm? Why didn’t they tell me Noah had sent us a message?”
“Mr. Stafford has remote access to everything in his company. Wherever he is, he’s probably the one who set off the alarm.”
None of this had been part of my training. “What do I do?” I asked Peter, frantic. “I need your smarts, boy genius.”
He went to Julia’s desk and looked around. “There must be an intercom around here somewhere.”
“An intercom seems a little old-fashioned in a place like this.”
“You’re right, girl genius,” he said with the excitement of someone who had just discovered a new species. Returning to me, he took the tablet out of my hand. “The reason you didn’t get the message on your wrist device is probably because it’s not linked to the app that systemizes the emergency alarm. An oversight, really.”
He swiped the screen a few times. “You’ll probably get a bonus if you bring it to Mr. Stafford’s attention, like the big internet companies who pay people who find flaws in their programming. There.” He handed my tablet back to me.
An app for the emergency alarm dominated the screen. Above a copy of the message Noah had sent was a flashing red button. As a test, I pressed it, sounding the alarm once more. When it died down, I made my announcement, using the microphone of the tablet. “Attention, please,” I said tentatively.
An image of Julia popped up, and I realized that while I spoke, it was her image and voice broadcasting throughout the company.
I continued. “Last night’s tempest is predicted to elevate to one of the worst category storms in recent history. Please safely secure your work and proceed home. Under the advice of our mayor, do not leave your home until it is safe. You will receive a message when Stafford Scientific reopens.”
Finished, I hit the button to repeat the message every ten minutes and set the tablet down. “It sounds pretty serious.”
Peter looked terrified. “Stafford Scientific has never been shut down before. From my understanding, the lights have never turned off, not since Mr. Stafford founded the company. Whatever is about to hit us, it must be big for the doors to close.”
> “That explains why the app was hidden away. It’s probably only ever been used as a drill.” I reached into my bag and pulled out my keys. “Do you have a way to contact Julia?”
He nodded. “I can contact anyone.”
I handed Peter a key. “Before the storm gets worse, I want you to go to Milwaukee. You’ll be safer there than you will here. Take Julia and whoever else you can find. You can stay at my grandma’s house. Just don’t destroy anything. There are some precious relics of hers in there. And if you find any winning scratch tickets, they’re mine.” I gave him the address.
“What about you?” he asked, tucking the key into his pocket.
I shoved him toward the elevator. “I might be down later. I have something I want to do first.”
***
Once again, I stood outside Noah’s door, but this time, it was to his penthouse apartment. I’d had packages couriered here but had never been myself. My name was familiar to the concierge, likely because of the packages, so I’d been allowed up the elevator, but the door was still a barrier between me and the man I was certain was behind it. A giant, in his own way.
Evidently, Stafford Scientific had not been responsible for the design of the building. A plain looking buzzer with a security camera was fixed outside his apartment. I pressed the buzzer, but no one answered. I tried knocking, but that didn’t work either.
“Open sesame!” I shouted. Nothing. “Open sesame!” I tried again. Still nothing.
Defeated, I turned to walk away, but my instincts pricked at me. They were on high drive, feeding off the storm.
Maybe the ordinary looking buzzer is a decoy.
On a whim, I scanned my arm beneath the security camera. Like magic, the door slid open.
“Noah!” I called out as I entered. “Noah, it’s Imogen. Are you here?”
The place was massive, like a labyrinth, filled with rooms with unknown purposes. African masks were the sole occupants of one room. Another contained a single piece of art. Like his office and my apartment, the penthouse was contemporary, comprised of as much bare space as it had furnishings.
