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And when I felt him thrum inside of me, my body sang too. We held each other in that moment as long as we could. Tears rushed to my eyes. And when we were spent, we parted, more connected than ever.
There was something I was bursting to say, and so I said it. “Forest. I love you.”
For something that had been such a long time coming, had given me so much inner turmoil and could still prove to have much more turmoil to come, in the end it was easy to say. I hoped for his response, but didn’t expect it.
But he gave it. “I love you too.”
We looked at each other and we smiled. I was flying high, but I felt no need to say anymore. When I met his eyes, I felt he understood. And that I understood him.
It was simple.
We could gush sweet nothings later, when we were out of the fire, when all of this Apollo stuff would be behind us. But for now, we formed our own little eye of the storm, a little pocket of peace in a tumultuous landscape.
FOREST
Even in the high of mine and Ria’s mutual love declaration, I was still stewing over the intervention from my brothers. I didn’t feel good about blowing up at them the way I had.
There was a tiny, tiny bit of truth to what I’d accused them of – of leaving everything to me, while they were able to have some enjoyment in their lives. But the real reason I’d gotten so angry is because I, for some reason, didn’t want to share my plan with them.
And now the plan was coming to fruition, it was time to draw up the scheme with Ria.
In her bedroom, Ria laid out the loose strands we needed to tie together. “So, we’ve got the knowledge that the evidence against Apollo is somewhere in Apollo’s headquarters. We’ve got a twin, Jenni, of Apollo’s receptionist, Helli, who has pledged revenge against Apollo and her twin if she is ever given the opportunity.”
I was perched respectfully at the foot of the bed. Now was a time for business, not pleasure. Though sitting in Ria’s bed was almost giving me a Pavlovian reaction in my pants.
I cleared my throat. “Yes. And from what I’ve researched, Jenni and Helli’s campaign went on for some time before Apollo swooped in and did whatever he did to Helli – paid her off, blackmailed her, who knows. They’d been gathering evidence from other ex- and current employees of the same warehouse chain. That leads me to think they’d just come into possession of a piece of evidence that could really take him down. He wouldn’t have bothered with them otherwise. They’d have just been a kind of amusement to him if they weren’t a serious threat.”
“Right. But Helli retracted her offer of co-operation. She’s likely scared of Apollo. Which is fair enough. Any of you Brock brothers can be fairly formidable when you want to be.”
“Don’t lump us in with him. He’s something entirely of his own.”
“Hmm. Sure.”
I looked sharply at Ria, but she’d moved on. I didn’t like what she was implying – not least because it tapped into one of my deepest fears about myself and Apollo. Were we alike?
Eventually, we settled on a plan. It wasn’t perfect, but I’d forgone perfectionism in my attempts to mirror Apollo’s schemes. We would plot out the start of the plan, but after that, it was all up to fate and chance. Destiny would be too dramatic.
The plan was thus: we’d distract or somehow remove Helli from reception, during which time Jenni would take her place and assume her identity. Using what we knew about Apollo and Helli, Jenni would then have a limited time to try and locate the evidence in his offices. We would be relying on her a lot, here. And of course, the whole plan relied on her agreeing to it. Ria seemed to think she would, and I trusted Ria’s opinion.
After making the plan, I went for a walk around the block to burn some nervous energy. Since I’d been at Ria’s, I’d not been keeping my usual fencing and tai chi appointments, so I was starting to feel out of sorts. The high of contact with Ria had only lasted so long, and now I was stiff and cranky and worried about the future, just like I had been most days before.
As I was arriving back at Ria’s, I saw a suspicious car with darkened windows pull up outside her place. I hung back around a corner, watching as Ria came out of the house and got in the back of the car. After a few minutes, she left. She hadn’t brought anything with her or been given anything while she was inside there.
The car pulled away. I jotted down the number plate in my phone.
I returned to Ria’s flat, intending to ask her about the car, trying not to jump to conclusions. But my phone started to ring. Worse still, it was Apollo.
I ducked into the hallway to take the call.
His horrible voice rang out, clear as if he was in the room. “Brother.”
“Apollo. For what do I have the pleasure of hearing from you?”
“I just thought you should know. I’ve been paying Ria Moon to spend time with you. Quite handsomely.”
My mind raced. What was his game plan here, telling me this now? And how would I react if I hadn’t known this all along? Disbelief. I’d be disbelieving. “Is that all? Trying to get me to doubt my girlfriend? I thought you were above cheap tactics like that.”
“You can disbelieve me if you like. But I speak the truth. When have you known me to lie?”
