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“Fuck me.” I breathe the words as I fall back into my chair, totally deflated.
For months we’ve been trying to get eyes on this guy, and for months he’s been meticulous about covering his tracks. Our web crawlers haven’t been able to pick up a single thing. Until now, that is.
“Does he have anything else? Phone number, address?”
“I can do you one better,” Ross says, a sly smile creeping onto his face. “He’s got the car.”
Chapter Fifteen
Emily
I texted Heather the all-clear as soon as Peter left for work. Less than an hour later, she was sitting with me in my living room, a paper bag from the pharmacy on the table in front of us.
It’s her first time in our new apartment, so I have to give her time to take the obligatory tour. We have a small, two-bedroom apartment, but Heather makes a big deal about it anyway.
“Oh my God, Em, I love the Masao prints,” she says, fawning over my freshly framed photos on the living room wall.
“It’s not a grand opening at Robert Klein, but I guess they’re okay.”
She turns to me and pouts. “Ugh, it wasn’t the same without you there, Em. I hated it.”
“Shut up, you didn’t.”
“I swear, I was sulking the entire time.”
I roll my eyes at this, but I’m thankful she’s trying to make it sound like it wasn’t a great night out for my sake. It’s even more confirmation that I made the right choice having her here today.
Another thing Heather goes on and on about is Ted, Peter’s colleague and her private security detail, who I called and asked to bring her over. “I feel like I’m Jason Bourne, or Queen Elsa or something.”
Several other references to various spy movies are made, much to my amusement.
I get a kick out of her reaction because she makes me laugh, but also because that was pretty much my reaction to this whole setup when it first started becoming a thing. Now it’s just a nuisance. Particularly when I try to do something that I don’t want Peter to know about.
So far it’s been trivial things, like sneaking out to see a lunchtime movie with Heather and the gang. Things that I don’t mind Peter finding out about after the fact in the reports he makes the security write up.
But this time is different.
I asked Ted to please keep Heather’s visit to himself. It took some convincing, but eventually he agreed. He could have been lying, of course, just telling me what I wanted to hear so I’d get off his back, because he’s under direct orders to report any and all activity to Peter. For obvious reasons.
But I’m hoping he wasn’t lying. And that he’s downstairs, keeping my secret about my stealth plans to arrange a surprise for Peter. It was something I made up on the spot, but if things go the way I think they’re about to, I might turn out to have been telling the truth all along.
“You look happy,” Heather says. “I mean, even with everything else that’s still kind of up in the air.”
“I know, right? I don’t get it either. I shouldn’t be this happy.”
Heather makes a face. “Screw that. You’ve been through enough, don’t you think? Take your happiness where you can, Em. You shouldn’t be feeling guilty about any of it.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I say.
“Hey, I’m always right, remember? Now, can we do this already?”
“I equally want to and don’t want to.”
Heather grabs the bag and shoves it into my hands. “I’d pee on it for you, if I could. But you’re going to have to settle for me holding your hand while you pee.”
A laugh bubbles out of me. It’s crazy how she can get to me like this, as nervous as I am.
“I love you, H, but I’d rather you not be in my personal space while I’m on the toilet.”
