Chapter 13 #3
I swallowed hard, my throat dry as beads of sweat formed on my head, dampening my hair.
My heart started to beat faster, or maybe it just seemed that way since I could hear it pounding in my ears.
I refused to let my outward appearance show how freaked out I was.
Leaning forward, I placed my elbows on the island and brought my empty coffee mug to my lips, pretending to drink out of it as I flipped the page on the newspaper feigning interest in the content.
Outwardly, I presented the air of nonchalance and not giving a damn.
“Max,” Fizz thundered.
“Issues?” I had to force the word out of my throat and was slightly proud of myself when it didn’t come out choked or as a breathless whisper.
“Big issues. She’s not Debbie.”
I froze. I was staring at the paper unseeingly, and my hand hovered over it. Not Debbie? As in, not the maid hired to replace my pregnant maid? As in, a stranger and someone who had not been vetted? I couldn’t look up, couldn’t do anything beyond ask, “What the fuck do you mean?”
“Whoever set her up in the system was good, but not good enough. It was enough to pass her vetting process, but that’s it. Debbie is actually a thirty-three-year-old mother of three.”
“That woman who was here today was at least eighty.”
“Maybe not that old,” he corrected.
“Really?”
Huffing out a breath, Fizz stepped closer, bending so that his face appeared in my line of sight. “Listen to me, Max. Nothing is going to happen to you. I have someone coming over to do a thorough sweep of the place. In the meantime, I’m getting you out of here so they can do their job. Let’s go.”
“Huh?” I could see him, but I couldn’t focus on his face, which was nothing more than a peach blur in front of me, and the pounding in my ears drowned out his words.
I thought he shook his head and sighed, but I couldn’t be sure. A moment later, he clutched my arm, lifted me out off of my barstool, and dragged me to the door. I let him.
Why was I acting like this? It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to conjure up a fake persona to get into my house.
I’d had women attempt it more times than I cared to count, and a few men.
A time or two, they checked out and were allowed into my humble abode.
Usually, I laughed it off, but not today, not this time.
Numbly, I followed Fizz, trusting him to prevent me from running into walls or anything else. My brain had shut down and stopped functioning. I couldn’t think or process anything right now.
“Max, come on!” he snapped and jerked me toward the open car door, pushing me into the seat. When I just sat there, he buckled my seatbelt for me, mumbling something about “taking care of a thirty-two-year-old baby.” In my current state, he was right.
“Max, snap out of it. I need you to listen to me. You can have your fucking pity party later,” Fizz said as soon as we left the parking garage.
When I didn’t respond, he flicked my ear with his fingers causing me to gasp and clutch my ear, covering it with both hands to protect it from his attacks.
“Finally,” he grumbled, and if I knew him, which I did, he rolled his eyes too.
“What?” I seethed. My jaw was clenched so tightly, it hurt.
“Listen to me.”
“What?” I was being an ass and didn’t care. “You were the one who got me into this mess.” It wasn’t fair to lash out at him like that, but I couldn’t stop myself.
His head dipped and lifted once, but he never glanced in my direction, concentrating instead on the traffic surrounding us.
I hated the throngs of people who lived in the city.
It didn’t matter if it was the middle of the week or the weekend, there was always a surplus of people, and the only time the crowds tended to thin out was during bad weather or when it was too cold for even penguins.
Sometimes, I thought about moving out of Chicago, but here I could hide amongst the crowd of people. The city was my self-made prison. I could brood and feed my ire, blaming everyone else except me like all of the princes in those stupid fairy tales.
“Sorry,” I muttered without sparing him a glance as I sank into my seat. “Where are we going?”
“You’re right. I did get you into this mess. Brianna recommended Debbie, and when I did the background check, everything appeared fine. I’m not sure how she passed, but she did. Now, we need to figure out what she did and what her motive is. I have people working on that now.”
“Did Dad tell you what he found?”
“The warning?”
I nodded, biting my lip, unable to voice anything.
“Yes, and we have taken extra precautions. She made it through those too.” Fizz rubbed the back of his neck and laid on the horn when a pedestrian tried to walk when the sign clearly said DO NOT WALK.
Our light was green. After she flipped us off and skipped—yes, she literally skipped—to the other side, Fizz pressed the accelerator and sped through the intersection on a yellow light.
The bitch had taken her sweet time crossing.
“I see.” I didn’t really. My head was swimming, and the pounding in my ears got louder.
What if the warning was real? I tried to play it off, act like nothing could touch me, but that was all it was, an act.
Unlike the times before, when someone managed to make it past the various of levels of security I wrapped myself in to keep my secret hidden, there was something about this fake Debbie that I couldn’t shake or laugh off like before.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to worry. You know it’s not my style to lie to you. It bugs the hell out of me that she managed to fool the system. This is serious, and with the threat hanging over you, we need to be careful.”
“What if it’s nothing?” There was always that possibility.
“Could be, but I’d rather err on the side of caution.”
“Where are we going?” I finally turned my head to look at him, and he was smirking. What the hell? “What?”
“You have a date.”
“I what?”
“Lorde called while I was on the phone with Shane. I’m taking you to meet with your temporary owner,” he told me, his smile widening.
Licking my lips at the thought of seeing Lorde again, I willed my heart to slow down even as I rolled my eyes at Fizz. And then something occurred to me. “How do we know we can trust him?”
“Because I had him thoroughly checked out. Both when he won and today. I’m not taking chances, Max, but I do think he might be able to get your mind off of what happened.”
“I don’t?—”
“If you really don’t want to see him, I’ll take you to the cabin, and you can brood there with only me for company.”
My cabin was the one place I owned that no one knew about, except Fizz.
My parents hadn’t a clue I had bought ten acres with a private lake in Missouri.
The place was self-sustaining and entirely off the grid, and one of my favorite places to be when I needed to unwind and get away.
No phones, no computers. Only me and whatever I wanted to do.
“What about work?” I snidely asked, my small grin dampening the effect of my words and attitude.
“You are off work this week after passing out for two days, and after discovering Debbie wasn’t Debbie. I called Eve earlier and informed her of the change in plans. She canceled everything for the next two weeks.”
“Now, wait a minute,” I snapped and could feel my cheeks heating with irritation.
“No. We have to re-evaluate anyone new to the company, anyone who started in the last six months. I’m not taking any chances.”
“But Lorde is good?” I chuckled a little.
Everyone was on lockdown, no one was allowed in, but Lorde had permission.
Made all the sense in the world, didn’t it?
Then again, even with the gaffe today, I trusted Fizz’s judgment.
He wouldn’t put me in a situation where I was not safe, not intentionally.
What if he doesn’t realize he’s doing it? I wasn’t sure why I thought that or what prompted it. How would he not know? Almost immediately, a small voice inside whispered, “What if she was a witch? Witches have magic. Look what they did to your family?” I pushed my stray thoughts aside for now.
Staring out the window, I frowned at my reflection and lifted my hand to rub against my sternum again.
The swan inside me wasn’t squawking and felt peaceful, unlike earlier.
Fizz told me to trust my instincts, to trust the animal within me, and I would.
For now, I pushed away the question and forgot about it, but it lingered in the back of my mind.
I was going to have to be alert and on guard.