Abby

 

Abby paced in the bathroom, waiting for the shower to heat up. Zed had let her come in alone to get cleaned up. Now, she worried about her future and her safety. No matter what had just happened, she still had to be careful about him. She had to convince him, somehow, that she was wholly and totally committed to helping him with his brother.

 

Her thoughts turned to her phone call with Jackie. Her assistant had said she had cut her vacation short to come in and deal with complaints about Abby missing work because of the car accident. Apparently, people were whispering about how inopportune it was.

 

Abby had a good idea where those complaints were manifesting from, too. In fact, it was one malcontent in particular who could probably accept the brunt of the blame—Mark Letterman. He had to be the one stirring the pot and making up rumors about her.

 

She went and checked the shower. Satisfied it was hot enough, she stepped within the stall and stood beneath the pulsing streams, luxuriating under the heat. She soaped herself up and went over the problem in front of her.

 

She'd already been gone for four days. A whole week, at this point, wouldn't make any difference. Whatever small amount of damage had already been done was going to remain done, even if she rushed into work today. Waiting any longer, though, was out of the question. She'd begin to look like she couldn't manage her private life and keep it from interfering with her position at Pharma-Vitae.

 

As she shampooed and conditioned her hair, she continued with making her plans. If she wanted to get out of this in one piece, and do it quickly, she needed to play Zed's game. She needed to go along with him in whatever he planned on doing to her, or because of her. The cameras had been a screw up on her part; she'd honestly forgotten most of them were even there. But, going forward, she couldn't have anything else like that happen. Any more screw ups, and she would undo all the advances she'd already made in getting him to trust her.

 

And, sure, she thought Zed was hot. Crazy, but still fucking hot. He did things to her no man had ever dared to try, and those were things that her body apparently loved and lusted after.

 

She couldn't let that get in her way, though. She could do the all dirty, filthy, kinky acts he wanted, and she might enjoy them, but that didn't mean she needed to fall entirely into his line of thinking. Illnesses like his brothers sometimes ran in families. Clearly.

 

After finishing in the shower, she dressed in a fresh set of clothes and met Zed back in the bedroom, a small smile on her lips.

 

Zed was standing in the middle of the bedroom, his back to her, when she walked out of the bathroom. “All showered?” he asked.

 

She nodded to his back, instinctively going through the motions that he expected. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

 

But that's all they were—motions. At least, that's what she hoped they were.

 

# # #

 

Zed

 

Zed turned around to face Abby. She looked beautiful with her wet hair, glowing skin, loose fitting clothes, and a corona of steam surrounding her angelic face. He bit his thumb, agitated, as he looked her over.

 

He'd been wasting precious time on this little mission of breaking Abby Winters, and he knew it. Sure, it had been amazing, and he couldn't stop thinking about how wonderful her lips and tongue had felt as they encircled his cock, but he needed to be focused on getting Kai out.

 

That was the mission, here. The mission he'd lost sight of in his lust for her body, and in his need to subjugate her to his demands. Eventually, the little ruse they'd been able to pull on Phara-Vitae was going to expire. It had a time limit, after all, and each tick of the clock brought them closer. If he didn't manage to find some kind of evidence of Kai's innocence, and do it quickly, he'd end up losing his best asset in this fight. Abby Winters wouldn't be CEO anymore.

 

“What, sir?” Abby asked, after a moment.

 

“We need to go through any kind of files you have on Dimalerax that you can access from here. Can you do that for me?”

 

She nodded. “I can try, sir. But no guarantees. They may not have what you're looking for, or the files might not say what you want them to say.”

 

She was right, of course. Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they hadn't seen the results that Kai had experienced. He put his hand on her shoulder and watched as she started to go through file after file that had been emailed to her. He kept his thoughts to himself as she looked through the files, not wanting to disrupt her concentration.

 

“These look good,” she said, after a little while of searching.

 

Zed leaned in close over her shoulder as she began scrolling through a bunch of notations, emails, and PDF documents. She was far and away faster and more competent with a computer than he was, that much was for sure. “What are we looking at?” he asked.

 

She made a low, grumbling noise in her throat, an uncertain sound if he'd ever heard one. “I'm not exactly sure, but I think . . .”

 

“You think?” he asked after a moment, trying to get her to continue her thoughts.

 

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head as she opened up another set of documents. “No, that can't be true.”

 

“What?” Zed asked, getting excited and troubled at the same time. Had he been right? Had he been wrong? Were they hiding something? “Tell me, Abby.”

 

She sighed and looked at him. “Study after study,” she said, then seemed to pause and swallow as she searched for the right word, “show that it doesn't work—not as effectively as they claim it does.”

 

“Study after study?” Zed hissed. “You mean they have been lying?” he demanded. “This whole fucking time?”

 

She just kept shaking her head. “How did I not fucking know this?” she mused, her eyes shimmering with angry tears. “How could I have been so stupid?” she asked aloud, her voice trembling.

 

Zed watched her face as it ran through the gamut of emotions. Anger, betrayal, anger again, and, finally, fear. He believed her. At least, he thought he did. He slapped a hand down on the edge of the desktop. “That's it,” he announced. “This is what I need. This is definitely it, isn't it? I can get those pieces of shit and hold them accountable, can't I?”

 

Abby turned to him, her almond-shaped eyes full of shock.

 

“I have to hold Pharma-Vitae accountable,” he said. “You know that. It's the only way my brother will ever get free, Abby. It's the only way.”