Annihilate Me (Vol. 3) (The Annihilate Me Series) (17 page)

“Are you sure you want to be here?” she
asked.

“Sometimes you have to face the past
before you can truly step away from it.
 
I know what I’m going into with Wenn.
 
You and I know everything I’m leaving behind.
 
So, yes, I want to be here.
 
I think I need to be here and to
remember him and me as we were before that night.
 
The board thinks it’s simple.
 
They think it’s easy to just walk away from all of it.
 
I’m here to tell you that it isn’t
easy.
 
I’m grateful to be in here
and to relive the day Alex first interviewed me.
 
It was smooth as silk, indeed.”
 
I turned to her.
 
“I owe you for this.
 
Nobody
else could have gotten me in here.
 
I’m grateful, Barbara.”

“So there it is,” she said.
 
“After all of this time, who would have
thought?
 
You finally called me
‘Barbara’ without me prompting you to.”

My voice was choked when I looked around
the room and at the photo of Alex and me before I spoke.
 
“That’s right.
 
And you know why.”

When she came up behind me and put her
hands on my shoulders, I started to sob again.
 
Uncontrollably.
 
She held me until I was able to pull myself together.
 
Once I had, I looked away from the
photograph, left the room and its scent of him behind, and moved forward with
the next chapter in my life.

*
 
*
 
*
 

After all documents were signed in
Blackwell’s office, we looked at each other, and knew there was nothing left to
say—at least for now.
 
It
would just prolong the inevitable.

“So,” she said.
 
“You have your passport?”

“I do.”

“That’s all you need.
 
Are you ready?
 
Is there anyone you’d like to say
goodbye to?”

“Just you.
 
But I’ve already done that.
 
And it’s not a goodbye.
 
It’s a ‘see you soon’.”

“It is indeed.”

“You know, I never thought I’d leave
Manhattan.
 
At least not once I
started earning enough to afford to live here.
 
As for leaving Lisa, that’s probably the toughest of all.”

“I’d imagine it is.
 
I know you love that girl.
 
But she and Tank seem to be getting
along well.
 
She won’t be alone.”

“I hope it works out between them.”

“Time will tell.
 
It’s up to them now.”
 

She stood and smoothed her hands down the
length of her skirt.
 
There was a
grim sadness about her that I could tell she was trying to hide.
 
She looked somewhat older to me.
 
Stressed.
 
Neither of us wanted to say goodbye.
 

“We should get you to the airport,” she
said.
 
“It’s a long flight, but the
board expects you to start work tomorrow.”
 
She picked up her phone and dialed three numbers.
 
“Jennifer Kent is ready.
 
We’re coming down now.
 
Have the car waiting for us there.”

*
 
*
 
*
 

When we left the elevator, we walked
silently across the lobby, where Tank was waiting for us at one of the doors.
 
He was fully suited up.
 
Gun at his side.
 
Black pants, black shirt, black
boots.
 
Muscles popping.
 
Solid and menacing as ever.
 
Perhaps more than ever since what had
happened to Alex.

“I won’t miss stepping out onto the
streets of New York in fear,” I said to Blackwell.
 
“At least there’s that.”

“We’re removing you from the
situation.
 
You’ll return when the
beasts who did this to Alex and you are found and brought to justice.”

And
how long will that be?

“Hello, Tank,” I said as we neared him.

He nodded at me.
 
“Jennifer.”

He held out his hand for me to shake, but
I brushed it aside, gave him a hug, and said in his ear, “Take care of her for
me, will you?”

“Consider it done.”

I looked out the window.
 
“That’s the car?”

“That’s the car.”

I took a breath, reached out and squeezed
Blackwell’s hand, and with tears in my eyes for all that I was leaving behind
and for all that was ahead of me, I let Tank lead the way.
 

The sidewalk was bustling with
people.
 
I felt the sun on my face
and the cool breeze against my neck.
 
It seemed like only yesterday that I left Wenn after interviewing with
Blackwell and meeting Alex, only to walk home in heels to my apartment on East
Tenth Street, where it was a sweatbox in August and where Lisa and I had no
money for a mere air conditioner.
 
Now, autumn had taken its bite out of Manhattan, and it felt wonderful.

The limousine’s windows were tinted so
that they were almost black—another safety measure.
 
When Tank opened the door for me, I saw
the guard seated in the back of the car, and the driver at the wheel.
 
Without incident, I stepped inside, sat
next to the guard, and moved away from the door when it was shut.
 
Once Tank was inside, the car darted
into traffic.
 

And Alex, dressed undercover as the guard
seated next to me, reached over and gripped my hand.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Weeks of planning had brought us to this
point.
 
And even though I was
devastated to be leaving Lisa, Blackwell, and Manhattan behind, there was only
one direction my life would take, and that was living the rest of it with
Alex.
 

What worried me most was leaving
Lisa.
 
Would she be all right?
 
Would I be all right without her?
 
I’d made certain that the penthouse was
hers and that Wenn would absorb the mortgage and all fees going forward, so she
always would have a home, but that didn’t mean I’d have her in my life
everyday, as she had been for years.
 
Few knew the depth of our relationship.
 
Still, when I discussed the options with her, we both agreed
that I needed to be with Alex.

“We’re not exactly going to marry each
other, Jennifer—though it probably would work out better than most
marriages, don’t you think?”

“Just the lack of arguments over, say,
going shopping at every opportunity would be a game changer,” I said.

“And since there’d be no sex, we totally
could get fat.”

“Blackwell wouldn’t have it.
 
She’d tape our mouths shut.”

She gave me a hug.
 
“Go and live your life.
 
You’ve been given a second chance.
 
Not many get one.
 
I’m not about to stand in the way of
that, and I’m not about to let you pass it up, either.”

I would miss her terribly, which is one of
the reasons why today had been so difficult for me.
 
I knew that it might be months or even years before I saw
her again, which filled me with such a profound sense of loss that I felt wrecked.
 

And then there was Blackwell.
 
I didn’t want to leave her,
either.
 
But I was.
 
As we hurtled down Fifth, I was filled
with such a mix of emotions that when I finally looked at Alex, he saw the
troubled look in my eyes and said, “I know.
 
It’s hard.”

“It is, but I’m so happy to see you,” I
said.
 
“You have no idea.”

He took off his cap and leaned over to
kiss me.
 
At first, it was a gentle
kiss, but then it became searing as our bodies at last were able to touch.
 
He wrapped his arms around me, pulled
me into his lap, and gently stroked my hair before he looked at me.
 
“We’re going to pull this off,” he
said.

“We have little choice.”

“Just you and me on a private island.
 
A place where few have been or have
even heard of.
 
It’s that
tiny.
 
It’s that remote.
 
A few houses, a landing strip, and
beauty beyond words.
 
We’ll run
Wenn from there.
 
Together.
 
It’s a global world, Jennifer, all
connected by the Internet.
 
Everything already has been set up for us.
 
If they catch the bastard who did this to us, maybe we’ll
decide to come back.
 
Or maybe
we’ll decide to stay in paradise and raise a family.
 
What matters to me is that finally, we can be with each
other without any threats to our lives.
 
You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.
 
Or how much I love you.”

“Yes, I do.”
 
I kissed him fiercely on the lips, felt his stubble against
my cheek, and felt my body tingle at the memory of it.
 
“Can you feel me?” I asked.

He nodded.

“No,” I said.
 
“I mean my soul.
 
And my heart.
 
That’s what I
mean.
 
Can you feel me?”

“I feel you.”

“That’s how much I love you.
 
I hope you can feel even a trace of
what I feel for you.
 
I hope it
sinks inside of you and fills you up the way you fill me up.
 
Because it’s been building for a month,
and right now?
 
It’s been unleashed.”

This was the first time Alex and I had
seen each other since he pulled himself out of the East River and went into
hiding.
 
The bullet grazed his left
shoulder and he stumbled back into the river, but he was able to pull himself
up onto the dock that ends at Forty-First Street and slip away into the night
before the helicopters, scuba divers, and police could search for him.
 
Instinct told him to run, and he did.

Once he was able to call Blackwell to tell
her that he was safe, the Wenn machine went into motion.
 
Alex was collected and given medical
assistance.
 
It was decided that
for the time being, he would be pronounced dead.
 
He was taken to a safe house in the city, and instructed not
to leave.
 
After my time in the
hospital, I was directed to stay in my apartment.
 
No one could see me.
 
Alex and I were ordered to have no communication between us until a plan
was devised to get us out of the country.
 
Not talking with him or being with him had been hell.
 
But after all this time, we were here
now.
 
Finally.
 
Together.

“Where are we going?” I asked him.

“Somewhere in the Pacific deep.
 
There’s no name for it.
 
It’s just an island I own.
 
I’ve never given it a name.”

“Will we be the only ones on it?”

“We won’t.
 
Ann, my former executive assistant, has moved there with her
family.
 
They are there now and
will live in one of the houses for free.
 
She will work for us.
 
Her husband
is a computer whiz, but he wants to take a back seat, so he’ll tend to the
grounds.
 
He’ll home school their
son.
 
He believes that there’s much
to be learned from the ocean and the earth.”

“I really liked Ann when I met her.”

“I have a feeling that all of us will
become close friends.
 
I know what
you’re thinking because Blackwell told me about the concerns you voiced to
her:
 
How will we survive so
remotely?
 
We’ll survive on fish
provided by the many fishermen on the neighboring islands.
 
Fruit trees are everywhere on the
property—you won’t believe what’s there.
 
Drinking water, beef, chicken and other supplies will be
delivered every month via plane—we’ll freeze what we need to freeze.
 
Fresh vegetables already are starting
to grow in a garden that’s been set up for us—some of that also can be
frozen, including the herbs I thought you’d like.
 
We’ll need to supplement for a few months, but that’s not an
issue.
 
We’ll live a sustainable
lifestyle.
 
We’ll leave Manhattan,
its threats, and its phoniness behind.
 
Wenn is still mine.
 
Wenn is
still yours.
 
Wenn is now ours.”

“When will the media be alerted that
you’re alive?”

“The moment we land on the island, Wenn
will issue a vague press release that I am alive.
 
My lawyers have documented proof of my life—the media
will demand that, so we shot a video, which they’ll receive.
 
After that, the world will know that
I’m still leading Wenn, but no one in the world will know from where.
 
No one will be able to find us.
 
It’s just you and me.
 
Are you up for that?”

I smiled at him and touched his face with
the palm of my hand.
 
“Would I be
here now if I wasn’t?”

He kissed my hand.
 
“One more question,” he said.

“What’s that?”

He reached into his jacket pocket and
pulled out a small blue box.
 
I
closed my eyes at the thought of what was coming next.
 
He opened the box, and I saw the most
beautiful diamond ring.
 
It wasn’t
obnoxious.
 
It wasn’t small.
 
It was just brilliant and perfect.

“Will you marry me, Jennifer?
 
Will you be my wife?”

“Is that even a question?” I asked.
 

There was a glint of mischief in his eyes
when he said, “Actually, it is.
 
For legal reasons, I kind of need to know.”

“Of course I will,” I said.
 
“Of course I’ll be your wife.”

“Did you get that, Tank,” Alex said as he
slipped the ring onto my finger.
 
“Jennifer Kent has agreed to become Jennifer Kent-Wenn.”

“Noted, sir.”

But I shook my head.
 
“I didn’t agree to that at all.”

Alex furrowed his brow at me.

“I agreed to be your wife.
 
But there’s no ‘Kent’ involved.
 
I just agreed to be Jennifer Wenn.
 
I’m fully yours.”

“You heard it first, Tank,” Alex said.

But before Tank could respond, Alex had me
full in his lap.
 
His lips were on
mine, and his hands were on my waist.
 
And as we left Manhattan for another world with new adventures and
challenges, I knew in my heart that I’d just made the best decision of my life.

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