As promised, the ride to work was safe and uneventful, and Bex pulled into the parking lot on his new, barely-street legal Ducati Streetfighter just as I stepped out of the car. Kim stayed behind as I rushed into Titan, thankful that being the CEO sort-of-in-training granted me a spot on the elevator.
“Good morning,” I said to my co-workers as the doors slid closed.
Riding in close proximity to so many proved not so lucky after all. The thought of everyone breathing in such a confined space made me a bit claustrophobic.
When the elevator doors opened, I pushed my way out, taking a deep breath when my heels hit the carpet. “Oh, thank God.”
Grant's door was open, and his ankles were crossed on top of his desk, and he was lazily leaned back in his chair. My momentary relief from the elevator was short-lived, and my face screwed in disgust.
I made a bee-line for my office, hoping Grant would be too comfortable to get out of his chair.
“Hey Peanut,” Grant said just as I sat down.
“Nina,” Beth said, walking in with her head down. She was biting on the end of her pencil, concentrating on her notebook planner. “The meeting with Yawa…Yaw…the Japanese is on Thursday, but the Wellington’s will be in town, and hoped to squeeze in some time.”
“Make time. I’d love to steal them away from Donaldson,” I said tapping a pen against my desk.
“Sounds like it’s a better day,” Grant said, nodding. He bowed out without another word.
“Now it is,” I said, noting Beth’s smile as she stifled a giggle.
“So,” she said, forcing her smile to fade. “Chad’s been asking. Have you heard from Ryan lately? Or at all?”
I no longer had to fight a smile, my face immediately fell. “No. Nothing.”
Beth nodded. “I hope he’s okay.”
“If he wasn’t, we would find out, right?” I said to reassure her.
She took a deep breath, and nodded. “Right. I’ve gotta make some copies. You want coffee?”
“No, thanks.”
Once Beth was off doing other things, Grant returned.
“I actually had a point to coming in here. I needed to talk to you about Beth.”
“Oh?”
Grant flashed his million-dollar smile, and I had to physically restrain myself from recoiling.
“Peanut, I realize she’s your friend, but it’s not exactly cost-efficient to keep her on-board during the school year.”
“Are you suggesting I fire her?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
Grant sighed. “You’re not looking at this objectively. You’re in the office, yes, but technically you’re still an intern until you graduate. Why would I pay someone to assist an intern?”
“Because I told you to.”
After a short pause, Grant smiled, wider than before. “You’re going to do just fine here.”
“Thank you, Grant. That will be all.”
He shook his head, chuckling to himself as he left the way he came.
Buried under a few stacks of documents, Beth brought me back to reality with her chirpy voice. “Time to go home, Nigh.”
“Oh.” I looked at my watch, and then smiled. “Home.”
I haphazardly stuffed a few files into my brief case before rushing down the hall, and then pressed the button. As soon as the doors opened, I hopped inside, fidgeting the entire trip to the first floor. The doors slid open, revealing the brilliant late-afternoon sun gleaming through the lobby glass. Jared was waiting by the Escalade, a contrived smile on his face.
“What is it?” I asked, after greeting him with a quick kiss. My excitement to see him was infiltrated by a sense of dread. The two didn't settle well, and I instantly fell nauseous.
He raised a pair of my sneakers. “I thought we could check out what’s left of the loft. See if anything’s left.”
I could only nod, dreading the sight of our home reduce to a heap of ash.
“Put these on,” he said. “It'll be hard enough sifting through everything, let alone in heels.”
I took the shoes in my hand, and then sat on the curb. Jared handed me a pair of socks, and I tugged those on, followed by the sneakers. He watched me in silence, a residual forced grin on his face. He wasn't looking forward to the aftermath anymore than I.
The drive seemed to take an eternity, yet it still wasn’t long enough for me to prepare. When Jared pulled to the curb, I stumbled from the Escalade, each side of my hair bunched in my fists. “Oh my God,” I whispered.
Jared milled about the charred remnants, bending down once in a while to inspect something not-quite destroyed.
“There’s a few boxes in the back,” Jared said. “Would you grab one?”
I took wide steps and hopped until I was clear of the debris, and then went to the Escalade, opening the back door. I brought back a large, cardboard box. There were two more, but it was overly optimistic to bother with them, we couldn’t fill up the first one. Silverware, a few brittle-edged pictures, and the monitor of my laptop were among partially intact documents, and a set of throwing knives. Yellow tape surrounded most of the carnage.
My hands turned black as I dug slowly, but surely through the black mess under our feet.
“What are you looking so ambitiously for?” Jared asked.
“I was hoping we’d find at least pieces of your journal, but I haven’t even seen the binding. Have you come across it?”
He smiled. “I keep it in the Escalade. It’s safe and sound.”
“Good,” I said, overwhelmed at the mountain of rubble.
“We should go. The Fire Marshall has already interviewed me twice. If anyone sees us poking around, it’s going to attract attention.”
“I guess.” I stood up from my squatted position, throwing down a charred piece of the frame that the last picture of my father was in.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Jared said. “I should have tried to get that out, too.”
“It’s not your fault. They did this to get a reaction, to see if we’d retaliate, or if it would cause dissension between us. The last thing I’m going to do is give them what they want. It’s just stuff.”
Jared walked over to me, tenderly wiping my face. “You’re covered in soot. Let’s go home.”
“That’s not home, Jared. This was home, and it's gone.” I was surprised at the tears that welled up in my eyes. Crying hadn't crossed my mind until that very moment.
“Maybe we should start looking for a place?” he smiled.
“So they can torch it again? No, thank you.”
Jared’s expression was pained. “It won’t happen again.”
“You don’t know that,” I said, tugging on his hand, leading him to the Escalade. “We have no idea what they’ll do next.”
Chapter Ten
New
Summer wound down, and Beth and I undertook the process of delegation. Our schedule at Brown would make it impossible to maintain the hours we’d been keeping at Titan.
Jared made frequent calls to Claire to check on Ryan’s progress, which steadily improved. At times faster than Claire would have liked. To all of our surprise, Ryan wasn't fighting the decision to decommission him. He was focused on getting well and getting back to the States — something none of us had anticipated.
As promised, Jared didn’t try another ambush on Shax, or Donovan and Isaac. Instead, he became obsessed with constructing a fail-safe plan, one that included a Plan B, and help. He refused to let the book get away from him a second time.
