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16
Pain of Love
Griffin
Arrick’sunhingedwhenhe finally comes out from his lockdown.
I walk into the main warehouse to find him surveying the damage of the day. Bricks are singed and destroyed. The acidic vinegary smell of burnt heroin permeates the air, and a layer of powder coats everything that wasn’t completely destroyed by the fire.
Arrick paces about the floor with a murderous expression on his face.
The warehouse is a wreck, and everyone is doing their best to simultaneously clean up the mess and stay out of the boss’s warpath.
When he’s destroyed enough, he bellows out into the rafters, “How in the hell did this happen?”
Everyone is quiet, but it’s expected that I will be the one to buffer his anger. Young as I am, it’s my responsibility to oversee security. I’m the one to answer for this.
“Sir, we’re still getting an update from those who were on patrol. The intruders cut the security feed when they entered, and we were flying blind during the incident.”
“Griffin, thank fuck. Okay, well, tell me what we do fuckin’ know then.” He mumbles under his breath, “Fucking useless, all of them.”
For a man with unlimited resources and riches, he really has no understanding of how his own business works. Nor does he value the people who support the whole operation.
“Damages so far seem to be contained to the warehouse. We lost a total of five men. Two were stationed at the southern entrance to the building by the garage. We found the other three in the building.” I have a moment of guilt as I remember the two men I killed myself. But I remind myself it was necessary. “It appears they were making their way to the upper floors and the residence quarters.”
I pause to see if he has any kind of reaction, but the control he exudes is almost more unsettling. Like a kettle heating until it screams, he stands there with his boiling rage while I give my report. Though technically I shouldn’t know much of this information—I haven’t talked with the men yet—but a lie is easy enough, and I can cover my tracks later.
“What else?” he asks.
“They managed to escape through the garage.” I pause in anticipation of an outburst. “And they took one of your cars to do it.”
“They what?” he roars.
“They took the Aston Martin as their escape vehicle.”
Then it comes, the explosion I’m anticipating.
He picks up the nearest object, which happens to be a glass beaker, and throws it across the room, where it shatters against a metal beam.
Turning to me, he growls, “What did they want? What did they take?”
I stand my ground as I reply, “Nothing as far as we can tell. They destroyed bricks of product here with a fire, but they didn’t appear to take any of it, and upon a cursory search, they didn’t take anything from the upper floors either. They were here, and then they weren’t.”
Several more beakers and various other lab equipment in the vicinity are then victims of his tantrum.
Finally seeming to have expelled the final bit of anger in him, Arrick composes himself and turns to walk out of the warehouse.
I don’t want anything to do with this man anymore. The assignment no longer matters to me, and a part of me is done. But I know my obligation, and I follow the man anyway.
I can only think of Jules as we make our way back to his office, to the room where I first laid eyes on her. When we enter, I have to suppress a wince as my eyes are drawn to the column where I found her chained. The area is clean as if no one were ever there.
I pray the people who took her away, Cy and Ember, make sure she’s okay. That they really were sent by her friend, Jay. That they can be trusted.
There’s an itch in me saying I won’t truly ever trust anyone with Jules. I won’t be satisfied until I have my eyes and hands on her. Until I’m by her side. Or at her feet.
Arrick is pacing the room. Every once in a while, his eyes glance at the column, but he never says anything about the girl he kept there.
“How did this all happen?” His anger is building as he continues. “First, that bitch ran off with my son, my son, and they’re nowhere to be found. Now we had someone completely shut down the compound and trash the product?”
