Chapter 8

“You need to get home,” Steve was in the middle of a meeting when his phone rang. When he saw it was Ana, he didn’t answer it. She could wait. He went on with his meeting. He was trying to secure a lucrative contract with a company that makes carburetors. They wanted the company to make a special carburetor for their cars and then they wanted a patent on the design so no other racing companies can have the same. Steve was making headway when the phone rang. Ana could wait.

“I apologize for that,” he told the two men he was talking to about the buzzing phone. As soon as he silenced it, it began to buzz again. Shit! What the fuck is her problem? He silenced it again. Not two minutes later, the secretary of the CEO he was meeting with stuck her head in the room and said,

“I’m so sorry to interrupt sir, but there’s a call for you Mr. McAllister. It’s your sister and she offers her apologies but she says it’s an emergency.”

Steve suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. It had to be about Angela. She hadn’t been feeling well and he’d left her there with Thomas! He jumped up out of his chair and all but ran into the outer office. He picked up the blinking line and said, “Ana? What’s wrong? Is Angela okay?”

“You need to come home…now.”

“Do not make me fly for four hours without knowing what’s going on! What the hell is going on?”

Ana gave her brother an abbreviated version of the events of the past few days. With each word she spoke it got harder for Steve to breathe. Besides the panic he was feeling an overwhelming sense of rage like nothing he’d ever felt before. Thomas was going to wish he’d never met him…No; he was going to wish he’d never met Angela. “I’ll be there soon,” he told Ana. “Where is Angela?”

“As far as I know she should be coming into work any minute now. Joanne is shadowing her and keeping me updated. From what she says, the creep gave her a hard time last night, but they got out of there safely and she and Angela spent the night at Angela’s new place.”

“So, she’s safe. That’s for sure?”

“For now.”

“Make sure it stays that way. I’m going to see her “friend.”

“Steve, he’s a fucking psycho path. I’m going to call our security team and have them meet you…”

“No! That will just scare him off. I want to talk to this son of a bitch one on one.”

“What should I do with the evidence I have against Kim?”

“I can’t think about that right now. I have to deal with this bastard first. We’ll deal with that one later.” He hung up and without even telling the men he was meeting with that he was leaving, he headed for the airport. The four hour flight turned out to be the most agonizing four hours of his life. He tried to call Angela four times…she wouldn’t answer. He tried calling Joanne, she didn’t answer either. He called Ana back then and got Joanne’s number at work. He called her office and he suddenly felt like he needed to vomit. Her assistant told him that she was out for the day. She was tight-lipped with the details. Frustrated and ready to throttle someone he hung up and called his sister back. He was yelling at this point, telling her to find out where Joanne was…Twenty excruciating minutes later she called back…

“Steve, she’s in the hospital.”

“What? What’s wrong with her?”

“After she walked to work with Angela, she was apparently on her way to her own job when she was jumped and pulled into an alley and beaten. She’s bad off, he left her for dead.”

“Fuck! Does Angela know?”

“I don’t know. She’s not answering her phone. I’m on my way back to the agency now to make sure she’s still okay.”

“Call me as soon as you get there. Put security on her…now!”

“I will. Steve…please be careful.” He didn’t answer. He hung up and stumbled to the bathroom to relieve his stomach of what was left of his lunch.

Ten minutes before the plane was scheduled to land he called the advertising agency and asked for Thomas. Thomas’s voice was friendly and professional as he said,

“Good morning, this is Thomas…”

“You son of a bitch!”

There was a hesitation and then in a very different voice, a deep and frightening one that said, “Steve, I’m so glad you called. You and I need to get together and talk.”

“You’re damned right we do. I’m landing in five minutes. Meet me at your loft fifteen minutes after that. Don’t make me come looking for you.”

Thomas laughed. He sounded like a lunatic. “Oh, I won’t. You have no idea how long I’ve anticipated this conversation.” Steve’s hands were shaking when he hung up. He’d never felt this kind of rage before and he didn’t know what to do with it. He was almost afraid of what he might do to Thomas when he saw him…almost.

**

Thomas walked into Kimberly’s office in spite of the closed door. She was sitting at her desk, staring out the window. When she looked up at Thomas, there was pure hatred in her eyes. “You ruined me.”

He looked at her like she was crazy. “I don’t have time for your dramatics, Kim. I’m taking off for the rest of the day.”

“Don’t bother coming back,” she said, arrogantly. “Steve and Ana know everything. They’re going to pull their contracts and maybe even turn me into the police. If they do, I’m not going down alone. This was all your idea.”

Thomas smiled at her. As soon as he did, he saw the fear in her eyes. It was the first time she’d looked afraid of him…and he liked it. He leaned across the desk so his face was nearly touching hers and he said, “Don’t you dare threaten me, Kim. I promise you that you will regret it…every time. Now that we’ve cleared that up, I’m leaving for the day. If I want to come back tomorrow, I will. You may own this company, but guess what? I own you now. I can crush you…in more ways than one. If you get arrested, just remember this…My hands are clean of all of this. What you chose to do to Steve that night…that was all you. You can say we discussed it or that you got the drugs from me…but guess what, pretty Kim? I’ll deny everything and I’ll tell them how obsessed you were with poor Steve and I’ll give interviews to every paper and news outlet in this city about your…extra-curricular activities. You’re nothing but a cheap whore, like all the rest of them and I will use your indiscretions to ruin you…if you’re not already behind bars. You don’t want to fuck with me.”

He could tell by her face that she was scared to death now. He liked that…she looked almost as scared as that smug bitch Joanne had been when he’d pulled her into that alley. He felt a surge of anger when he thought about that. He hadn’t planned on leaving her alive. She was going to talk as soon as she woke up…if she could…and she was going to point the finger at him. They’d been interrupted by some fucking old man walking his dog. If Thomas would have had his gun, the old man would have been dead too. That was okay though. He’d go with plan B. He had plenty of money saved up to take Angela far away from this fucking rat hole of a city. It would just be him and her then…and she would finally understand and appreciate everything he’d gone through for her. At least, she better.

He left Kimberly at her desk, likely feeling like her life was over, and he went to meet Steve. He thought about stopping by Angela’s office…but he would catch up with her later. Right now, he needed to deal with her boyfriend…he had a tire iron with Steve’s name all over it.