by Leigh James
He turned to look at me and the angry, hunting look dropped for a second. He relaxed his grip on me. “I’m sorry, Nic,” he said, and gently rubbed his thumb along the back of my hand, never breaking our clasp. I knew better than to ask any questions. I just moved my five-foot-six body as fast as I could, next to his six-foot-two one.
No one else was on the street. As we got closer to his house, I saw that the gentleman who’d been walking his dog was sitting in a white Lexus SUV, talking on his cell phone and petting his dog. He looked totally normal. There was no sign of the van, no sign of the Range Rover, and no sign of the blonde we’d seen in the supermarket. I let out a huge sigh of relief.
Except that when we got over to Walker’s garage, the cover to the keypad was open.
And there was a large wet stain, which insidiously looked like the pee of a small, fluffy dog, on the stone of Walker’s foundation.
He stopped, looking at the pee, and paused for just a second. Should we go in? I wondered, my head pounding. Was someone waiting in there?
I looked back at the white Lexus, where the man was still talking away on his cell phone, seemingly totally oblivious to us.
Were we both just totally crazy paranoid?
“Let’s go in,” I said. I sounded braver than I felt. Walker jaw was clenched as he punched in the code and the garage door opened.
“That man is not in here,” I mouthed to Walker in the darkness of the garage. “If he’s in on it, maybe he just wanted to check the keypad.”
“Or give us a warning,” Walker said, his eyes still burning.
“Right. Or give us a warning,” I said. We went into the house; Walker dragged me silently through the all the rooms to see if anything had been disturbed. I held my breath the whole time. Finally, once he was satisfied that it was clear, we went back to the kitchen and sat down. He opened the box of desserts, handing me a large brownie, which I immediately started stuffing into my mouth.
I grabbed my legal pad in between bites, and wrote: I feel like we need to tell someone. The police?
He shook his head at me and grabbed the pen. We have nothing concrete to report, he wrote, and I nodded at him. But maybe you should tell one of your friends at work. Not David. Not yet. We need more proof before we get him involved. But tell someone you trust. Tell them to watch their back.
I nodded at him. Are you going to tell Lester Max?
He shook his head. Lester can take care of himself, he wrote, and my company is safe. The company is what they want. Whoever they are.
We just looked at each other for a beat. “I have to go into the office for a little bit,” I said in my fake-normal voice.
“I’ll be waiting for you right here,” Walker said in his fake-normal voice. He looked at me tightly.
Even though his voice was fake, I fully believed him.
CHAPTER 16
I called a cab and ten minutes later, I was on my way downtown. I watched the cars behind me, out the back window. I wasn’t surprised to see a white Range Rover a few cars back, but then again, I couldn’t see who was driving. I couldn’t see, but I felt certain I knew. My stomach was in knots by the time we got to the Financial District. I looked around nervously when I got out: no Rover in sight.
I exhaled in relief, but I kept looking over my shoulder. I was starting to think I was always going to be looking over my shoulder.
Still paranoid, I slid into the office unannounced, just nodding briskly to the receptionist; I didn’t want to risk a run-in with David Proctor, or with Norris Phaland for that matter.
“Hi,” said, Tammy, jumping up from her desk when she saw me. “I wasn’t expecting you today! Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I said, feeling jumpy and wired. “I’m here to see Mandy really quick. Can you buzz her for me and ask her to come down?”
Tammy scanned her computer quickly before picking up the phone. Our firm kept a calendar with everyone’s schedules on it; making it easy to know who was where. “Mandy’s at a deposition,” Tammy said, looking worried. “She’s scheduled there for another three hours.”
“Okay,” I said, my temples pounding. I should have checked the schedule before I came in; I would have saved myself the trouble. It wasn’t like me — I was normally meticulous, checking everything before making a decision, a move. I was being reckless.
I hated reckless.
I sighed and looked at Tammy.
“Nicole, you look stressed,” she said quietly.
“I’m a little on the stressed side,” I said, thinking of a back-up plan. “What about Alexa? Is she here?”
“I’m almost positive she is,” Tammy said, checking the schedule. “Oh, her highness is here, all right. She’s been complaining non-stop about being chained to her desk while you’re out gallivanting around.”
“Great,” I said, through clenched teeth. “I’m going to go splash some cold water on my face, so I can calm down before I have to deal with her.”
“Okay, honey. Splash some extra on there for me. I can’t do it,” Tammy said, motioning to her hair. “It’d trash my bangs.”
I went into the ladies’ room closest to my office and gently put some cold water on my forehead, psyching myself up to deal with Alexa, wondering what I should actually tell her. I wanted to warn her, to warn Mandy, but I didn’t want to reveal too much. I also didn’t want to put them in danger.
I wasn’t even sure what sort of danger I might be putting them in.
I glanced at myself in the mirror as I dried my face. I looked different. It wasn’t just the clothes — the new form-fitting grey dress, the push up-bra. It wasn’t just the fact that I was wearing contacts, and that my hair was hanging in loose waves around my shoulders, instead of pulled back into its usual high ponytail or bun. It was my face. My face looked thin and my eyes looked bigger than normal, my pupils dilated. I looked like a junkie.
I straightened myself up. I looked like the junkie I was: a Walker junkie. I allowed myself a quick smile at my reflection. I couldn’t help it — when I thought of him, I had to smile. He was my secret-secret. And that was the secret I would never tell, not anybody, not ever.
I sighed, the smile fading from my face, as I went into one of the stalls. It was quiet, silent even, except for me. I leaned down to grab some toilet paper and as I did, I looked to my left. There were shoes in the stall next to me. Someone had been in there this whole time and hadn’t made a single sound.
Someone wearing men’s wing tips.
I opened my mouth, ready to scream. But then I hesitated — he didn’t know I’d noticed him yet, whoever he was. Or had he? Who the fuck is in there? Who the fuck’s hiding in the women’s bathroom at my office?
I made myself go through the motions: I wiped myself, stood up and flushed. The shoes didn’t move. I hoped whoever was wearing them was dead. My heart was thudding in my chest, my adrenaline racing through me, but I didn’t make a sound. I watched the shoes as I opened the stall door…they stayed still. Outside the stall I turned, putting my back against the wall, and slid towards the door. I desperately wished I could wash my hands — but I didn’t give into that instinct — I stuck with the one that told me to get the hell out of there, run back to my office, call security and just use some hand sanitizer. Not necessarily in that order.
I was almost to the door. So close, I could almost feel the cool metal handle against my skin.
And then the stall door opened.
“Don't move,” a cold voice said, and I looked up into the flat, reptilian eyes of Norris Phaland.
“Norris,” I said, a sick pit of dread in my stomach. I was surprised to not be totally surprised that it was him. “I didn’t know you liked this bathroom, too. It’s my favorite.” I was jabbering, pretending to be friendly and pleasantly surprised, while I felt a cold sweat fall down my back in rivulets. What? The? Fuck? I moved incrementally towards the door.
“Don’t open that, Nicole,” he said, icily, and stopped just as he got close enough
to touch me. Or grab me. I grabbed the handle, anyway, and he gave me an icy look. “You’re doing lots of things you’re not supposed to do lately, young lady.”
“I’m sorry?” I asked, politely, and wondered if Tammy would be able to hear me from in here if I screamed.
Norris pointed a stumpy finger at me. “Your dress. Your makeup. Your hair. Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Did you think we wouldn’t know what you were up to?”
“Excuse me,” I said, and I heard an indignation in my voice that I didn’t think I was capable of at the moment. “I am not ‘up to’ anything. I don’t appreciate what you’re saying. And I don’t appreciate your hiding in the bathroom just to jump out and scare me to say it, either.” I yanked the door open and Norris blinked at me.
His hands were balled into fists now; anger was rolling off of him. “This case is our firm’s reputation. It’s worth millions. I know someone like you can’t appreciate what it means…”
“Someone like me? Really, Norris? The fact that I grew up without tennis lessons and expensive drapes makes my ethics questionable? I have bad judgment because I never learned to sail?” We glared at each other.
“Keep your voice down,” he hissed at me, like I was misbehaving child. “You have bad judgment because you lack the imagination to quantify the ramifications of your actions.”
“I can quantify just as many fancy ramifications as you can,” I said. You pompous, scaly fuck. “If you want to talk to me about this, feel free to do it in my office.” Somehow, although my hands were shaking, my voice was steady. I opened the door and charged out of the bathroom. I didn’t hear him follow me out, but I didn’t turn around to check. I couldn’t. I was worried I would start screaming and running, and although I now knew for sure that Norris was dangerous, I didn’t know how dangerous.
I didn’t know how he knew I was going to the ladies’ room. I looked down at myself in horror. Had he bugged me? Had he bugged Tammy’s desk? What? The? Fuck? I thought again.
Tammy was sitting, typing, when I practically ran into her desk. “Honey,” she said, looking concerned, “your face is white.”
“Norris Phaland may or may not be right behind me, and he may or may not be listening to me right now,” I said, breathing hard.
“He’s not back there,” she said, looking worriedly over my shoulder.
“Go to lunch. Now,” I said, my breathing jagged. “And stay away from the ladies’ room.” I grabbed her pocketbook and shoved it at her. “You don’t need to close out your computer. Just go.”
I waited until I saw her head safely to the elevator, then I booked it to Alexa’s office, slamming the door behind me. Alexa was sitting behind her desk, scrunching her face up at her computer. Her face did not un-scrunch when I threw myself into a chair across from her.
“What the hell do you want, Nicole?” she asked. “You trying to break my door while I’m busy doing all the research on this case? Just to keep your boyfriend out of jail?”
“I’m only here because Mandy’s at a deposition. And Walker’s not my boyfriend,” I said, still breathing hard, feeling my face get hot.
“Oh, I know he’s not,” she said meanly. “But we all know your panties are soaking wet for him.”
I shook my head at her, defeated. Norris Phaland and now Alexa. Why did everyone I worked with have to be so rude? “Do you always have to be…so…disgusting?” I asked. “I mean, talking like that, through those veneers on your teeth and a forty-dollar tube of lipstick...it just seems like such a waste.”
We glared at each other across her desk.
“I’m assuming this isn’t a social visit, as you clearly have no social skills, and you look like you just ran a road race,” Alexa said. I briefly thought about just getting up and walking — perhaps running — out of her office, not telling her what I knew, or at least what I suspected.
But I was a good girl, and I would be until the bitter end. No matter how bitter.
Something was wrong on this case. Something was…dangerous. I didn’t know what it was, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know. But I no longer had a choice. It was about me now, too. I couldn’t go back to my office and just pretend that things were normal.
It struck me that I might never be able to do that again, and I shuddered.
“Let’s go to lunch,” I said, quickly. I felt certain that I couldn’t say what I wanted to in here.
Alexa sighed, stood up and grabbed her enormous lime-green designer bag. “As long as you’re buying,” she sniffed, and stalked out in front of me.
“Great,” I said, “I know a great little place. It’s called Bargain Burger.”
“I've never heard of it,” Alexa said.
That’s because it doesn’t exist, I thought, and I don’t want to be followed. I dragged her to the elevator and looked quickly over my shoulder as we got on; no one was near us. Toby was on duty and he smiled warmly at us. He’d become much more friendly since Walker had become a client. “Ladies,” he said. “Beautiful day.” I looked through the glass entryway at the late afternoon sun; it had somehow turned to late July, and I hadn’t even noticed.
“This way,” I said to Alexa, pulling her around the corner, towards Faneuil Hall. She walked with me quickly, keeping pace and not complaining for once. I kept checking to see if anyone was following us, but I didn’t see anything.
“Why do you keep looking around like that?” Alexa hissed at me. “You’re being weirder than normal, Nicole.” I dragged her down a dark side street towards an Irish pub.
“This isn’t Bargain Burger,” she said, looking around suspiciously. “Seriously, Nicole. What’s your problem?”
“Sit,” I said, and dragged her to a table in the darkest corner. I took a seat so that my back was against the wall, so nobody could sneak up on me.
“Ladies?” A waiter appeared out of nowhere, tall, tattooed, with his nose pierced.
“Well, hello,” Alexa said, visibly perking up, and promptly stuck her chest out at him. As much as I was bothering her, it apparently didn’t affect her ability to flirt. I glanced up at him again and noticed that underneath everything else he had going on, he was exceedingly handsome.
“We’ll have two pints,” I said, willing him to stop looking appreciatively down Alexa’s shirt and leave us alone.
“Done,” he said, smiling at her and ignoring me.
“We’re drinking at lunch?” Alexa asked, suddenly serious again. “You need to tell me what’s going on. You’re totally freaking me out. What is Walker doing to you?”
“It’s not just Walker who’s doing things to me,” I said, miserably, picturing Norris Phaland’s wing tips in the stall next to mine. I dropped my head onto the sticky table. I heard the waiter set the beers down. “Thanks,” I said, without picking my face up.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” he said.
I finally looked up miserably at Alexa. “This case is a lot more excitement than I’m used to,” I said.
She snorted. “Tell me something I don’t already know,” she said, and took a large gulp of beer. I was used to her being mean to me; but suddenly, instead of bothering me, it was actually a relief to hear something so familiar. I didn’t know if I could trust her, though. Probably I couldn’t.
That didn’t mean I wanted her to get hurt.
I gave another look around the restaurant: there were four men at the bar, and three tables occupied other than ours. The problem was, I didn’t know if they’d been here when we came in. At least I didn’t see Norris Phaland anywhere, although he might be in the ladies’ room. I was going to have to start being more careful. I was going to have to stop thinking about Walker’s naked chest and his…
“Nicole,” Alexa said. She was staring at me, exasperated, like she’d been trying to get my attention. “Snap the fuck out of it. Walker’s hot, but don’t let him suck your brain out. Jesus, you’re a mess,” she said. “I can’t believe it. I didn’t think you were capable of falling apart.
”
“It’s worse than you think,” I said. I still wasn’t sure how much I should tell her. That we were being followed? That we believed Walker’s house was bugged? That Norris had been waiting to pounce on me in the ladies’ room just a few minutes ago, and he’d somehow known I was going in there?
“Please tell me what’s going on,” Alexa said. “I know you didn’t invite me out because we’re buddies. Speak.”
I let out a big sigh and had another big gulp of beer. “How well do you know David?” I asked, looking up at her.
She looked shocked, for once. “My father’s been friends with him forever. I don’t know him well — but I’ve seen him at parties and stuff since I was a little girl. He’s always been nice to me, obviously. He gave me a job,” she said. “Although I earned it, despite what you might think. Yeah, I know what you say about me.” She laughed.
“I don’t say anything about you,” I said. “I just told Mandy I get tired of your superiority complex and I roll my eyes when you talk, sometimes. That’s all.”
“I’m sure you don’t like the competition for being the top associate. But you’re not the only one who’s pretty and smart,” she said. “You act like you are sometimes. But remember? I went to a little place called Harvard? You might have heard of it?”
“It’s overrated,” I mumbled, not wanting to get into it right now. I had much bigger, uglier fish to fry. “But yes, of course I know you earned your job. Of course I know you’re smart. And clearly, you’re much prettier than me.”
“Broden Walker doesn’t think so,” she said, looking a little plaintive. She shook it off. “But that’s not why we’re here. Why are you asking me about David?”
“I need to know if you trust him,” I said. I need to know if I can trust him, I thought.
“I don’t know if I trust you, Nicole,” she said.
“I don’t know if I trust you, either,” I said, “but that’s kind of not the point at the moment.”
Alexa drank some more and looked at me like I had three heads. She motioned to her waiter-boyfriend for more beers. “So…do I trust David Proctor?” She asked, and shrugged. “No. My father’s in politics, and what you learn from growing up in politics is that you can trust people for the moment, but when things change, so do people’s loyalties. Why are you asking me about him? I need to know that, Nicole. So I can see whether I can trust you for the moment.”
