Chapter 21
Vic reluctantly opened her eyes and sighed. Glancing at the clock she confirmed that it was 4:55 a.m., five minutes before her alarm was supposed to go off. She hit the button, threw the blankets off and got out of bed. Padding across the cold floor, she entered her bathroom and turned on the shower.
She’d slept fitfully last night. The situation with her uncle was so surreal and overwhelming, and definitely something she had no interest in getting involved with. Whatever the hell Austin was up to, it didn’t involve her. She shouldn’t have to be part of it. But he was family, whether she liked it or not. That should mean something. And here she was, about to betray him. She let the hot water pound into her shoulder blades, trying to melt away the guilt building in her gut.
It was all Ryker’s fault. He was making her do this. He was so sure her uncle was up to no good. Part of her wanted to prove him wrong; wanted to show him that her uncle really wasn”t that bad of a guy, that he was just doing what everybody else in Washington did, play fast and loose here and there. But the other part of her, the part deep down, the part that knew no matter what his excuse, he really was trying to pimp her out to one of the Washington elites so he could make a strong alliance. That part of her knew her uncle was not acting in anyone’s interest but his own. And it was that part that she had to deal with.
In the end, it was really her own fault. She’d called Archer Gray. She all but demanded Archer supply protection. And he’d done exactly that. He’d sent Ryker and Ryker was calling all the shots here. That was probably the worst part of this mess. She’d slept with him. Slept with a killer. Hadn’t he told her as much?
She scrubbed her skin with a loofah. What rankled her more was that she didn’t feel bad about her time in bed with Ryker. If she were one hundred percent honest, she wanted to do it again. When he’d kissed her last night after she’d said she hated him, he was calling her bluff. He was right. She didn’t hate him. As a matter of fact, she was falling for him. Falling for him was the dumbest thing she could do, but somehow spending time with Ryker always made her feel better. She was safe with him. And she could be honest with him. There was no need to pretend to be something she wasn’t. She could just be Vic with him no matter what and she hadn’t realized how much she needed that. Needed him in her life. Stupid.
She rinsed the conditioner out of her hair. Ryker was a major problem that she’d brought on herself and wasn’t going to go away. The more time she spent around him, the more she fell for him. She not only physically wanted him in every way, shape, and form, but emotionally, she craved the way she felt around him. Safe and secure as it nothing could touch her. Yeah, Ryker was an issue. Her addiction to him had to stop. She was leaving soon and then they would really be over. She could make it for another couple of weeks, couldn’t she?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Shit.
She wiped the soap out of her eyes. She’d been so pissed at him when he was ordering her around but when he threw her over his shoulder, it was…exciting. Her nipples went taut just thinking about it. What did that say about her? She put her face under the spray. Yeah, it was all too much.
Frustration and anger were two emotions that had always lived within her. They overwhelmed her at times. When she was a teenager on the commune, she was always frustrated and angry. Everyone said it was just because she was a teenager, hormones and all that. In reality, it was because she wasn”t able to do what she wanted to do. She did not want to live her parents’ lifestyle, and that was hard for them and everyone else to swallow, but it was hardest on her. She was a square peg in a round hole. And the present circumstances brought it all back.
She toweled herself off and dried her hair before putting it up in a messy bun. She pulled on a gray pencil skirt and a white blouse. She looked exactly as her uncle would want her to, proper and professional. She checked her makeup and then went downstairs to wait for Ryker.
He arrived within five minutes. She opened the door and climbed in and he handed her a coffee.
“Thanks,”she said softly as she wrapped her fingers around the heavy paper cup.
“Are you ready for this?”he inquired as he pulled away from the curb.
“Ready to betray my friend and my uncle? No.”She studied him. He was wearing another light gray suit with a white pinstripe and a snowy white shirt. His sky-blue tie matched his eyes. Why the hell did he have to be so damn sexy? She turned to stare out the window.
“If there was any other way?—”
“I get it. I get it,”she waved him off.“I know there”s no other way. I know what you told me. And if I”m being completely honest, I agree. My uncle is up to something. The thing is Ryker, I”m just not sure I want to know what that something is, and I don’t want to be the one who betrays him. Some of what he does might be… is questionable but he has given me a life outside of the commune. I owe him for that.”
“It would be nice if we could all be ostriches,”he commented, not unkindly.“The problem with that is if we all have our heads in the sand then there”s no one left to know what”s really going on. Look at it this way; we figure it out, stop your uncle if he’s going to do something stupid or dangerous, and it”s over. You get to go on to whatever life you want to live.”
He made it sound so easy. Like doing this didn’t matter at all. But it did.
The guilt that stabbed a knife between her ribs said it mattered a great deal.“No, that”s not how this goes. I”m out of here in a couple of weeks and no matter what my uncle”s doing whether you”ve fixed it or not, I am gone.”She meant what she said. When she couldn”t sleep last night, she’d made her decision to leave no matter what. That stupid rule about having a job was brutal. She”d take vacation if she thought her uncle would let her. Just call in her resignation. She”d even sort of tried to float the idea a couple of weeks ago before all this started. Her uncle had told her in no uncertain terms she had to be around the whole summer, and if she wanted a vacation she could take it over Christmas.
Ryker seemed to sense that she was done talking about it. Instead, he said,“Do you want to run over the plan again?”
“No. I know what we”re doing. I”ll be quick but you have to promise me something. Promise me that no matter what we find out: no matter how bad it is, you”re not going to drag me any further into this. I don”t want to be anywhere near the rest of this.”She meant this down to her very marrow. It was like she was already drowning. One more big wave and she’d be gone forever.
Ryker glanced in her direction.“I can”t make any promises, Vic. I wish I could, but I can”t. Until I know what”s going on with your uncle, everything is on the table.”
Ryker parked his Porsche in front of the building, and she hopped out, immediately going down the street to her favorite bakery. She got Tracy an orange cranberry muffin and a poppyseed for her uncle. The guilt was eating her alive. Then she ordered herself a double chocolate one. She was going to eat that guilt right back. She made her way up into the office but was surprised when the elevator doors opened. There were at least eight to ten people already here. What was going on?
“Hey girl, what are you doing here this early?”said Tracy.
“I… uh, couldn”t sleep. What”s everyone doing here this early? Do you guys always come in this early? And why are there so many people here?”
Tracy laughed.“Nah, not this early. We”re getting close to your uncle”s big reveal. He wants us to work double time to make sure everything is lined up and all the pieces of this marketing campaign are in place. He brought in the IT guys to beef up the network security. He thinks that when he announces his special project that all kinds of people might try to cause issues. So, that means lots of early and late hours.”
The alarm bells in her head couldn’t possibly get any louder. Made it hard to concentrate, but she gamely put on a smile.“Well then, I guess it”s a good thing I brought coffee.”Vic set the coffee down on her friend”s desk,“And this muffin. Cranberry orange, I believe that”s your favorite?”
“Vic, you”re the bomb,”Tracy said with glee as she ripped open the bag and immediately started peeling the paper wrapper off the fragrant muffin.
“People, if I could have your attention, please,”Ryker said in an authoritative voice.“I need you all to follow me into the boardroom. We need to have a quick chat about some security issues.”
“Does he mean now?”Tracy asked with her mouth full of muffin.
“Yes, he means now. He means business. I got the lecture on the way over.”Vic rolled her eyes.
“Your boyfriend is a bit intense,”Tracy said as she swallowed another bite of muffin.
Heat rushed into Vic’s cheeks.“He’s not my boyfriend,”she blurted.“He just gives me a ride to work sometimes. I think my uncle makes him.”
Tracy grinned.“No way your uncle makes that man do anything. And the glow in your cheeks tells me you like him. Don’t blame you one bit. He is definitely hot.”Her friend winked at her.“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything, but you have to tell me the deets Friday night over drinks.”
“There’s nothing to tell. Honest.”Vic’s stomach curled into a ball. She hated herself for telling her friend a bald-faced lie.
Ryker stood outside of the conference room with his arms folded across his chest. His face was a mask of seriousness with no hint of humor or warmth.
“I’d better get in there. He’s not looking happy,”Tracy darted her eyes towards Ryker and then back at Vic.“I hope it’s not too serious.”
Vic also kept her voice low.“Someone got in through security without showing their ID or something. I don”t know. He rambled on about it this morning on the drive here. I didn”t pay that close attention. I didn”t sleep well last night and honestly, I just couldn”t focus.”Vic figured a partial truth was better than a complete lie.
Tracy came up from behind her desk and followed the crowd towards the boardroom. She squeezed Vic”s shoulder on the way by.“Hang in there, girl. Your birthday is coming. We’ll be done with all this by then and we can go out and celebrate in style.”
Nerves bounces around Vic’s gut as she watched the whole office staff walk into the boardroom.. She held her breath as the boardroom door closed. She lied to her friend whose only crime was following her uncle’s rules. She hated this. Hated it.
She quickly dashed around the desk, flipped open Tracy”s laptop and stared at the screen. What was her password? Vic typed in Paddington Bear* capital P capital B but the screen stayed locked. Sweat broke out across her back now. When did Tracy change her password? Oh God, this was a nightmare. What was she gonna do?
Frantic now, she looked around Tracy’s desk.“Did you write it down somewhere?”she murmured as she started searching in the desk drawers. Nothing. She rifled the papers on the desk, but still she found nothing that resembled a password. Then she looked under the blotter. A small piece of paper was lodged underneath. On it was the word Scorpion with an exclamation point, a dash, and a colon, along with the number thirteen. This had to be it. Tracy always said thirteen was her lucky number.
She typed in the letters and symbols as she found them, and the device unlocked. Yes!
Now, where to start looking? Vic quickly clicked on several files but didn”t find anything super-secret. Just old work. It wasn”t until she found the file marked SSP that she knew she”d hit pay dirt. Super-secret project. So totally Tracy, it made Vic smile. And then it made her stomach drop; she was betraying her friend.
Vic clicked on the file and it opened. She stared at the screen. There was no possible way. This just couldn’t be true. She blinked and rubbed her eyes just in case it was some kind of trick but no the screen didn’t change. She clicked off the banner that had appeared and clicked on a few more marketing pieces. They all had the same information. Vic”s knees gave out and she crashed into Tracy’s chair.
It just couldn”t be true. Her breath caught in her throat and there was a loud sound that came from the boardroom. Shit. She quickly closed the files and made sure everything was exactly as it had been. She closed the laptop and then skirted around Tracy”s desk to go sit down at her own.
She had no sooner parked her butt in the chair than the boardroom door opened, and everyone started filing out. Tracy walked towards her and rolled her eyes and then went over and sat down at her desk again. Vic’s heart was slamming so hard against her rib cage it was almost impossible to sit still. Would Tracy know that she’d been at her desk? Vic waited, sweat dripping down her back. When Tracy started chattering on about her date, her cat, and why she hated D.C. in the summer, Vic drew her first deep breath since she’d sat down at Tracy’s desk. It was a damn good thing Tracy wasn’t expecting any kind of real response because Vic was incapable of giving one. She was speechless.
Of all the things she thought her uncle might be up to, this one had never entered her head.
Ryker came out of the boardroom a few minutes later, glancing in Vic’s direction. She gave him a slight nod.
“Are you okay?”Tracy asked from over the top of the cubicle divider.
Vic jumped, and then turned and stared at her.“I”m…I’m sorry what?”
“I asked if you are okay? I”ve been talking to you for the last five minutes and you haven”t responded.”Tracy frowned at her.
“Uh, I”m sorry I guess I just wasn”t paying attention.”
“You’re pale as a ghost. Are you feeling okay? There”s some sort of spring cold going around. Maybe you caught something.”
“I… I don”t know. I guess it”s possible. I”m not feeling great. I think I”m going to go to the bathroom.”
Vic made her way over to the bathroom and slipped inside, making sure the door was closed tightly. She braced both hands on the sink. This didn”t make any sense. Why would her uncle want to do that? Well, that was a stupid question. She knew why her uncle would want to do that but it just didn”t make sense. She splashed some water on her face and then dried it.
This was insane. She just wanted to get out of there. The hell with having a job. She could make her father change his mind, and revoke that rule, couldn’t she? She stared at herself in the mirror. That could be a problem. She didn’t know her parents well at all and had no clue if he would let her off the hook about the job. She doubted it though, and she wasn’t willing to risk it. She just needed to keep her head down and, hopefully, all this wouldn’t come out before she left. It would turn her life into even more of a circus than it already was.
Returning to her desk, she tried to focus on her various work assignments but hadn’t been able to concentrate on any of them. She’d made all kinds of mistakes as she waited for an opportunity to talk to Ryker. But so far, there hadn’t been a single time they were both free.
Austin had barely stopped and acknowledged her when he arrived earlier. That was fine by her. There was a palpable frost between them. For the first time ever, she wanted to be as far away from her uncle as possible. She realized now she”d always sought his approval for everything she did. Now, she didn”t want to be anywhere near him. If the flyers were true, his life and that of anyone else around him was about to turn into a zoo.
Vic stood and stretched. Finally, it was after six and everyone was heading out slowly to go to dinner. Tracy and her crew were going to go out and eat and then come back and work. Her uncle had left an hour ago to go to some function. Normally, he”d make her as well, but he was still annoyed with her, and she was fine with that.
She grabbed her purse out of her desk drawer and hurried toward the elevator. She hit the sidewalk moments later and started towards the bus stop and then paused. She was done with public transport, at least for the time being. She”d been saving all her money just in case the solar farm wasn”t in good condition, but her plan for her future was only two weeks away. She’d take an Uber and damn the expense. The expense would be worth it.
Twenty minutes later she was home.
She poured herself a drink and was making dinner when there was a knock at the door. She walked over, glanced at the peephole, and sighed heavily.
She opened the door and admitted Ryker.“Hey,”she said as she went back over to the kitchen.
“So, you got in?”he said as he leaned against the counter.
Couldn’t he take a minute to acknowledge what she’d done? That she’d abused her friend’s trust as he’d asked? A little respect would’ve been good.“I”m fine. Nice to see you too. How was my day? It was not too bad. Of course, betraying my friend by breaking into her laptop sucked, but after that, it was much better. I only had to draft fifteen pointless essays on legislation for my uncle who”s never gonna read them and then I had to schedule three meetings and pick up some dry cleaning. But yeah, overall, not a bad day.”
“Vic.”Ryker cocked an eyebrow.
She was getting emotional, and who could blame her, but crying wasn’t helpful.“I know, I know.”She raised her hands.“This is serious, I know you just want your information, but a little courtesy might be nice.”
“Fine,”Ryker said through clenched teeth.“How was your day, Vic? Are you doing okay? What are you making for dinner?”
Vic glared at him and then stirred her vegetables.“Yes, I got into the computer. You are not going to believe what”s going on.”She still couldn’t believe it.
“Why don”t you enlighten me?”He picked up her glass and took a sip of her drink.
“My uncle has Tracy and her team creating marketing paraphernalia, fliers, banners, stickers, all the stuff he’ll need to run for Vice President.”
Ryker stared at her. Vic crowed internally a little because it seemed she’d rendered him speechless. The clock ticked loudly on the kitchen wall.
Finally, he exhaled sharply.“Vice president? Your uncle is running for vice president?”His voice was harsh.
Vic nodded.“It would appear so. At least, he”s making all the paraphernalia for a run.”She added a pinch of salt to the veggies.“It doesn”t make sense to me. We have a Vice President. The man”s still in office. He’s running a campaign together with the president. Why would my uncle create this stuff now? Is he thinking four years out?”
Ryker was staring at the floor. His gaze met hers, but it was more of a thousand-mile stare. She took her drink back from him and took a sip. As she put it back on the counter, her hand brushed his. His gaze locked on hers again and, just like that, she knew he”d connected some dots. She saw it in his eyes.
“He”s not waiting four years. He”s making all the stuff because he thinks the VP is going to back out. No, not thinks, he sure the VP isn”t going to make the run.”
“I mean I know he”s been sick, pneumonia, I think,”Vic commented,“but there hasn’t been a single mention about him not running for re-election. Or that he”s that sick. They”re playing it off like it”s a mild case.”
Ryker nodded.“As far as I know, it is. But what if your uncle plans on making it worse? What if he has…”Ryker stopped talking.
Great. Now he was shutting her out. She didn’t go through all of this so she could be left in the dark.“What is it?”Vic demanded.“What are you thinking?”
Ryker gave her an assessing gaze and then he leaned forward.“I”ve gotta go, Vic. I know today was hard. You did an amazing job.”He kissed her. It was a quick buss on the lips and then he kissed her again. A much longer kiss that curled her toes and made her want to spend the rest of the night kissing him. And then he was gone.
Vic stood in the kitchen and stirred her dinner. What in the hell was her uncle up to? And why did every instinct she had scream run?