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Chapter Twenty-Four — Alexandra
“I honestly have no idea what to do. He's still at this and I think I might be losing my mind,” I complained to my friends.
“There's no need to worry, sweetie. He'll let it go soon,” Inés stroked my arm soothingly.
“That's what you said last Sunday and it's another week now!”
I put my face in my hands.
It had been precisely two weeks since Carson started on his quest to find Butterfly and he was going nowhere fast even with a PI.
I remembered the conversation with Big Mac like it was yesterday.
I was pacing my office when the door opened and the beefy, massive form of Stanley MacIntosh entered with his signature half-moon smile and unruly mop of ginger curls.
Big Mac was what he was affectionately known as to the people in Miller Inc. who used his services. Despite his intimidating size he was really
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“Duuude!” came a jovial voice from the door of my gym.As I was lying face-up on the bench I couldn't see who it was so I continued my strenuous workout with the weights.My muscles burned as I raised and lowered the heavy barbell but I welcomed the pain and continued.Soon not only the steel bar and the geometric pattern of the ceiling was in my line of sight. The upside-down image of a head of brown hair and a raised dark eyebrow had entered the mix.“Didn't you hear me call you?” Casper asked.“I hardly . . . think my mother . . . named me dude,” I puffed out, slightly miffed that my exercise regime had been interrupted.“What? Dude, you're not being intelligible right now.”Finally giving in to the irritation that Casper brought I slammed the barbell on the rack and sat up.“The fuck are you doing in my house?” I heaved as I tried to catch my breath.“I came to check up on you, find out what's going on. Man, the ladies miss the ol' C-train! When are you getting back out there?”“A
Under the Cover of Darkness Chapter Twenty-Six Part One — Carson
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I didn't think that I would be so happy to see the neon lights of an ice cream shop.After a particularly horrid day at work with my new dunderhead of a PA, Helen, I was more than ready to stamp down whatever discordant feelings I had for the brightly colored shop and accept all the bizareness it offered with open arms.I locked my car and started up to the shop with my hands stuck in the pockets of my leather jacket.My heart was racing at the thought of finally seeing her after a very difficult four weeks.As I got to the door I had to wait for a young couple to exit before I could enter.The raven-haired woman held an ice cream cone in one hand and her boyfriend in the other and she was laughing. They were both laughing.I stood there and watched as they turned a corner and disappeared.It was only after they were gone that I realized that I wanted that. I was ready for that.I never thought that I would but for the first time in my life I wanted a serious relationship. With someon
Under the Cover of Darkness 27 | Alexandra
All he did was stare.For the five minutes since I let go of my mask he'd been staring at me with an expression that looked worryingly like that of an electrocuted individual.I was starting to feel squirmy under his gobsmacked gaze.“Please say something,” I urged.The sound of my voice seemed to thaw him a little and he rightened his slacked jaw.“I don't understand,” he started after a while. “So you're telling me that all this time, this whole time, it was you?”I swallowed. My courage had started to fail me.“I can explain . . .”“I am so fucking confused,” he continued as if I hadn't said anything. “So you're telling me that this whole time it's . . . you've . . . God, I'm so confused.”He started rubbing his temples the way I'd seen him do after a long day at his desk.“I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to go as far as it went, truly.”“Why?” he asked all of a sudden. “Why make me believe you were someone else? Why pretend? Why me?”I hated that my eyes had filled of their own ac
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Goodbye Carson.Goodbye Carson.Goodbye Carson.Those two words had been stuck on repeat in my head after the disaster that was last night.I had barely recovered from the shock that the woman of my dreams was actually my unassuming assistant when she'd told me she was leaving for God knows where.After I got home I fell into a fitful sleep before I couldn't take it anymore and broke one of her rules. I called her number.Unfortunately it didn't even ring or go to voicemail. There was nothing. And now I was back to square one.“Sir,” a tiny voice and a snap of fingers brought me back to the present.I was in my office, a mound of work on my desk and the frightened blue eyes of my new assistant peering at me as she clutched a brown styrofoam coffee cup like it had the power to protect her from me.Mary — or Marion, I wasn't exactly sure what her name was — was my second assistant since Alex had left. I had fired Helen over the phone sometime last night after I called to ask about my sc
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It was the same house I grew up in but somehow it seemed colder, more frightening than usual.I was in my upstairs bedroom cowering under my favorite Bratz duvet while I listened frightfully to the heavy footsteps ascending the stairs, intent on my room.Tears coursed down my face as I silently pleaded for the angry man to leave me alone. Assuming the fetal position, I shut my eyes firmly.I heard the creak of my door and strangely I could smell the alcohol from the man at the door through the thick material of the duvet over my head."Alex," he drew the first vowel in my name. "You've been a naughty girl."Suddenly the duvet was yanked from me leaving me cold and vulnerable to the man with the strange red eyes and feral smile. The scent of alcohol was almost choking at that point."Pl ... ease," was all I could mutter through my torrent of tears.He made a tsk sound, the animalistic smile still on his face before he
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After yesterday night I got back into my normal sad, indifferent self and the alarming speed with which it happened made me wonder if I'd imagined my whole encounter. That my mind was so in need of some respite that it'd conjured up some mysterious woman.But I knew she was real. I could still smell her lavender shampoo, could still fell the soft skin of her thigh and the spark of mischievousness in her eyes.Her eyes.I found those globes even more odd than her mask. They were obviously contact lenses-they were the colors of the rainbow. Seriously what's with her and rainbows?-but she wore them like they were her real eyes. They could've easily been her eyes.I thought that a night's sleep and a good dose of reality would remove her from my mind but by three o'clock I'd replayed my conversation with her about a million times, give or take. It could've been more. I always ended up with the same question. Why'd she suddenly disappear?I sat fe
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