Page 32 of His Obsession

“She’s been asleep all day,” someone said. “Yes, I’ve checked on her!”

The door cracked open, and I hurried to pick my phone up, pretending to use it. It was cool, act normal—youtotallydidn’t just have saliva hanging from your face like a dog.

“Oh, hey, you’re awake,” Randall said, bending around the door. I looked at him, my brows knit together in confusion. I thought it was Alek that was coming through that door. Why was I so disappointed?

“Yeah, I just woke up.” I held up my phone. “Just checking my messages.”

“Glad to see you haven’t killed yourself,” he said.

I was even more confused by his statement. When did I ever give the indication I was suicidal? Who says that to someone, anyway?

“Hey, I meant to ask you,” I said, shrugging off his lack of social etiquette. Randall's posture stiffened. “Alek said he was my boss. Do I still have a job tomorrow? You know, since I didn’t come in on Friday.”

He stood frozen in place. "Alek is my boss; therefore, he is yours. So, yes, that is true. Why did Alek say you were fired?" he asked. Doubt smeared his words.

Well, that cleared that up. "Uh no, Alek didn't say I was fired, but I told him I quit." I held up my hand to stop him from interrupting. "I told him it was a joke, but he didn't respond, and then all this chaos broke out."

"You’ll be fine, you have a job. Alek will not let you quit so easily," he said and then cursed, chastising himself.

Before I could ask, he shut the door without another word, and he left me to ponder. Randall lacked some primary communication skills. He reminded me of someone who was locked in a room most of their life, or just someone who had no emotional care about what you had to say.

Judging from the fact that he was successful, I’d say he just didn’t give a flying fuck what people had to say.

“Idon’t know what happened. We were talking one minute and getting the transfer ready, then shots were being fired outside the next,” I said to my seller. “It wasn’t my men.”

He wasn’t happy about the deal going awry. In fact, it pissed him off. And now, his client was off the list for this shipment. I had a new client ready to fix all this shit.

The longer it sat in the locker, the more it costed money—pissing him off more. It was all about the money.

I kicked my feet up on my desk, being more leisure than average, flipping a quarter across my bruised knuckles. Jake sat at my desk, going over the checklist for the upcoming PEN test. Tonk sat in the living room eavesdropping and flipping channels, the sound coming in like voice roulette.

I stared at Jake and hung up the phone.

“What? You know that it’s creepy when you stare like that,” Jake said, not lifting his eyes from his laptop.

“It’s creepy that you can tell I’m doing it,” I jest.

“ESP. It’s a real thing, look it up.”

Jake was a smart guy, but he was a crazy conspiracy theorist that I think secretly played D&D as well—that shit must run with the IT community.

“I’ve got better things to do. How was Liz when you checked on her?” I had gotten back home over an hour ago, and I still hadn’t seen her. Jake told me she stayed in her room all day, not talking to anyone. She needed time, I understood that. I’d been dealing with this bullshit most of my life, and I still felt out of my element—it was a lot to process.

“She was sleeping, looked like a wreck, but she was breathing. So there wasn’t a need for concern,” he said, still not removing his eyes from his screen. “Look, I can’t watch her tomorrow. I need to be present for this meeting. Plus, I have my Krav Maga class tonight, so I’m going to leave soon.”

Jake was a seasoned Krav Maga practitioner and a fucking nerd. You would never suspect a guy who carries around a laptop bag and wears sarcastic IT t-shirts would be dangerous. There were times I wouldn’t want to fight him. His aim was wicked straight, and his fighting skills were ruthless and bloody. Plus, he had a dark spot on his soul that would scare off the devil when it showed up.

“Fine, we are going to be in the office tomorrow, anyway.” I had every intention of dragging her ass back into work for some sense of normality.

Besides, I couldn’t let her think she could slack off and keep her job, even though I would pay her to sleep all day. She would always have a job at Blackstone Tech. It was one of the many ways I took care of her.

“I’m going to go check on her,” Tonk said from the door. Jake jumped up from his chair. “I’ll go with you.”

I glared at them both. “If I find out that Liz is sleeping naked, I’m going to murder you both and bury you out back.” I joked. They knew I’d put them in a vat before I took the time to dig two, six-foot deep holes. They both disappeared, not caring.

Last night, when she asked me to lie down with her, I couldn’t believe my ears. She was so pissed off; it surprised me she had even called for me to come and get her—she sounded so defeated and torn.

I purposely ignored her first call. I needed to see if she had truly changed her mind—if she had, she would call back. Besides, I watched her destroy her room, looking for the gun the old man took. I knew she was fine when she curled up into a ball on the floor, fighting her sleep.