Chapter 12
AHRI ARRIVED AT WORK MONDAY morning still a little blurry from the rough night. What a day Sunday had been. Nik had started throwing up in the late afternoon. His parents arrived not long after, so she’d been able to turn his care over to them.
Her new mindset had Ahri looking forward to the date with Ken. There were plenty of reasons she shouldn’t think about Rafe as anything other than her boss and one of her brother’s best friends. She would not make things awkward between any of them.
It helped that Rafe had meetings most of the day, and she hardly saw him. When she did, they were both strictly businesslike, not letting anything personal color their interactions. It was perfect, just how they needed to be around each other.
Then why did it hurt? That was just stupid. She gave herself a mental kick; she would get over this rescuer crush.
The next thing she wanted to do was get a status update from Bill. She dropped by his office on the way to lunch and found him sitting at his desk, eating a homemade sandwich.
“What, none of that great food from the cafeteria?” she asked from his doorway.
“My wife enjoys cooking, and she insists on making my lunch. I’m not about to turn down such a gift.”
“You’re a good man.”
“I’m a lucky one.” Bill waved her to a seat. “What can I do for you today?”
“I’d like to know if you’ve heard anything.
You know, on my situation.” Ahri folded her hands in her lap, trying to calm her nerves.
“It’s been a few weeks since they stole the truck.
How do we know they didn’t get what they were looking for?
What if I’m hiding in Rafe’s office when no one’s looking for me anymore—if anyone ever was? ”
He sat, his eyes slightly narrowed, considering. Was there something he hadn’t told her? The acid in her stomach started churning, and she swallowed bile at the back of her throat. How bad were his concerns?
“All I want to know is how long I have to wait before I can be me again,” she said.
“Aren’t you happy here?” He pushed aside his sandwich and did something on his keyboard.
“Yes.” Which was correct, but it wasn’t the same thing as having her true identity and the freedom to go where she wanted.
“Do you plan to return to Arizona?”
“Maybe.” Ahri glanced out his office window. “Maybe not. I haven’t decided.”
“What’s your hurry then? I thought you were working for Rafe while Cass is on maternity leave.”
“I am.” Why was he making her feel defensive? “But I’d like to know I have a choice when she comes back.”
Bill studied her, making her uneasy.
“Please tell me whatever you have.” She hated how soft her voice came out. It made her feel weak.
“All right. I wonder if we should call Rafe in here for this.”
“He’s in an important lunch meeting.”
Bill heaved out a breath and leaned forward.
“As you know, we’ve got your decoy, Sona, set up in the New York condo.
Her instructions are to act like she’s alone in a big unfamiliar city after the murder of her husband, that she believes she’s being watched, and she has no friends or family nearby. ”
Ahri ran her thumb over the badge that hung from her belt, suddenly not feeling sorry for herself anymore.
She could be stuck in New York, hiding out.
Instead, she was here with family and new friends, working a job she enjoyed.
She’d even started helping Lessa’s piano teacher with her group lessons for underprivileged kids.
Ahri needed to learn to be grateful for what her brother and Rafe, had given her—the semblance of a real life.
“I’d be scared to go out anywhere.”
“Exactly,” Bill said. “She does leave the penthouse a couple of times a week, but not far, and we have an obvious bodyguard. What we’re really watching is someone trying to hack the internet there.
Sona has two routers. One is scrambled and rerouted for her personal online use.
She’s getting a lot of college work done, by the way.
The other obvious router has excellent security. It’s received several attacks.”
“Attacks?” Ahri squeezed the badge in her hand so hard it nearly ripped free. She released it.
“We believe they’re trying to hack the system to get access into the apartment.”
Ahri leaned forward in her chair, feeling like she might throw up. So they hadn’t found what they were looking for. What would happen if they managed to break into the penthouse—
She straightened and opened her mouth to speak.
“Don’t worry. Sona’s safe,” Bill said, answering her question before she could ask it. “Remember, it’s a penthouse with lots of built-in security already which we’ve enhanced. We also have paid bodyguards onsite.”
Ahri heaved out a breath, not sure she was comforted by that.
“Would you like to know what we’ve found about your late husband?”
“What?” she asked, her pulse quickening.
“My team found it curious that as soon as one of them initiated a search about Zed Meisner’s business accounts, we started getting an unusually high number of hacker hits out of Mexico. We have a private investigator doing some footwork for us in Phoenix.”
“I don’t understand the significance of Mexico,” she said.
“There’s the possibility that he was working with some accounts for a company or companies that are fronts for a drug cartel.”
Ahri blinked, her mind in a frozen state of disbelief for a few seconds. “This is a bad action movie, right? I’m in a theater, and I can get up and go home.”
“I’m sorry.” Bill spread his hands in front of him.
She stared at a picture on the wall, not seeing it as her thoughts swirled in different directions.
What had Zed been involved with? It’d be nice to be able to tell Bill there was no way her husband would have willingly worked for a drug cartel.
The truth was that she didn’t know. He’d been a stranger for so long that she wondered if she’d ever really known him.
“It’s still preliminary,” Bill said.
“Why haven’t you told me any of this before?” Ahri couldn’t help feeling a little irritated.
“Because we don’t have anything conclusive.”
“All right.” She let out a breath, having to accept his reasoning. “Please let me know if you learn anymore.”
“Absolutely.”
Bill picked up his sandwich again. Having lost her appetite, Ahri headed for her last training with Cass.
Rafe met the guys for a quick lunch at the PC Café, grateful Ahri wouldn’t be there for this first game as an official member of their team. It would give him a chance to casually see what Kayn knew about where Ahri’s date was taking her.
“I’m thinking about taking the family out to dinner tonight,” he said to Kayn as the game loaded.
“Where to? Ahri’s going for pizza.” Kayn started tapping the keyboard as the battle began.
“The kids are over their stomach bug and love pizza,” Rafe said.
Pizza. He had to play the boss here at the office, but nothing said they couldn’t run into each other accidentally. On purpose. He grinned. Nothing would please him more than to see how her date turned out.
“Do you know where your sister’s going?” Rafe asked.
“Huh?” Kayn shot him a sidelong glance. “Oh, I think she said Capones.”
Ahri drove to the restaurant and found Ken waiting for her at the door. His expression lit up when he saw her. It was the best kind of compliment and just what she needed after that depressing talk with Bill.
“You look really nice,” Ken said and signaled the hostess who seated them at a large table.
Ahri glanced around the room, surprised that all the smaller ones were taken up by college-aged couples.
“In the meeting I didn’t hear what you do at REKD,” Ken said after they’d placed their orders.
“Admin support.”
“Ah, a clerk.”
“Executive assistant.” Ahri decided that while it might be nice if he didn’t realize she worked for Rafe, he was bound to find out eventually anyway.
“Oh, up there.” Ken looked impressed. “Nice. Did you play REKD before you started to work there?”
“Yes. My older brother is a big gamer, and he got me into it.”
“Did he teach you all his secrets?”
“Some.” More than anyone would know.
“We ought to meet at lunch sometime and team up.”
“That would be fun, but I’ve been invited to join a team.” She searched for another topic, not wanting to say she was on a team with the four owners. “What is it you like about your job?”
That was the perfect question, because Ken turned out to be intensely passionate about his art. He went into lengthy detail about his current project, an update on one of the older champions.
As Ahri listened to him, memories of Zed kept intruding.
Once, he’d talked with that kind of enthusiasm.
Looking back now, it was easy to see how they’d drifted away from each other.
Well, he’d gradually pushed her away, but she’d let him.
What surprised her was that her heart didn’t ache for the loss of their love.
It made her wonder if they’d have lasted anyway. It made her sad.
The server set the pizza down before them.
“I’m sorry.” Ken took a piece. “You shouldn’t have let me run on like that. I want to know more about you. You don’t have a Southern accent, so where are you from?”
She took a bite of her pizza, so she didn’t have to answer right away. She hadn’t thought about a different history for herself. Thinking back on what Bill had said, she didn’t want to say too much, but if she made up a bunch of stuff, she’d have to remember it all.
“We moved around a bit but all out West, you know, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico.”
“Where in New Mexico?” Ken took a sip of his drink. “I have an uncle who lives out there.”
“It was when I was really little, so I don’t remember a lot about it.” Ahri took a big bite of her pizza and said around her food, “Mmm, this is so good.”
“Isn’t Shen Chinese?” When she nodded, he said, “Your eyes are striking. That’s the first thing I noticed about you. I’d love to draw you sometime.”