RAGE (The Rage Series Book 1) (12 page)

                “Charlotte,” he said. Then, he hesitated; but, she didn't let him say anything. Without a word, she merely threw herself into his arms and clutched him tightly, as if he were her only anchor to the world she knew. His arms came around her, and he embraced her. In that embrace, she was warm, safe, and home.

              “What's going on?”

              The next week at work, the young woman found herself constantly flanked by Addy, as the woman interrogated her. “Charlotte, answer me. You haven't been yourself at all lately.”

              “I'm fine, Addy,” She professed, refusing to meet her friend's gaze. “And I'm also very busy. Don't they need you in the tech lab?”

              “Don't brush me off.” In her typical manner, the redhead took the blonde's arm in a firm grim and pulled her aside in an alcove near the elevators. “Look at me, Charlotte.”

              When the woman finally managed to meet her gaze, she was fighting back tears.

              “
Shit
.” With that hushed explicative, Adeline quickly drew her into her embrace. Burying her face in the older woman's shoulders, Charlotte finally let herself sob. She cried for the way her father demeaned her, for the man who seemed utterly lost without her, and for the years she'd worked to run a company that wasn't hers. “Talk to me, honey.” Rubbing her back gently, Adeline lowered her voice to a much gentler version of her normal growl and asked, “What is it? Did David do something to you? If he hurt you I'll break his face.”

              Despite herself, Charlotte laughed through her tears. “He didn't do anything. Addy, I'm sleeping with him.”

              To her surprise, the redhead didn't immediately draw back and begin berating her. Instead, she merely held the blonde closer to her chest. “Well, that's obvious. Is that the issue? Is he that terrible in bed? I would have never guessed.”

              Charlotte offered her a watery smile. “No. He's perfect in bed.”

              “Then why the tears?”

              “Because he's broken...and I'm broken...and I don't know how to fix it.” Fresh sobs broke from her throat, and Adeline shushed her and patted the back of her head gently.

              “You're not broken.” She returned under her breath, drawing back for a moment so their gazes locked. “Everyone's a little battered, Charlotte. You're only broken if you give up.”

              How she would love to give up—to give up this mammoth of a company and to give up the ostentatious gifts and frills that her father flourished to make her feel more loved. She wanted to give up the fear that she wasn't enough to help David come to terms with whatever it was that haunted him.

“You're not a quitter,” Adeline insisted firmly. “I know you're not, so don't act like one.”

              Nodding, Charlotte tried to stifle her tears. From the bag she wore over her shoulder, Adeline produced some pocket tissues, and she gratefully took them.  “Now, what can I do to make you feel better?”

              Charlotte laughed forlornly. “Switch jobs with me.”

              “I don't think that would turn out well for either of us.”

              “Ship my father to Timbuktu.”

              “Tempting, but impossible. I don't think UPS runs people these days.”

              By this time, Charlotte was smiling slightly. “Help me figure out what's bothering David.”

              Though she'd thought before that she didn't need to know about the man's demons to love him, she'd quickly realized that if she was going to vanquish the damn things, she was going to need him to talk to her. Unfortunately, all her attempts to get him to open up were halted before they even left the gate. When it came to talking tech, the company, and lovemaking, David was an open book. However, when it came to his personal life, getting even the tiniest detail from him was like squeezing blood from a turnip.

              “Now, that, maybe I can help with.” Charlotte looked to her in surprise, and the redhead shot her a confident smile. “He works in my department. I'm his boss. I'm sure I can find out a thing or two.”

              “Don't be obvious, please, Addy,” Charlotte begged. “I want to help him, not scare him off.”

              “Apparently, what you want to do is screw him, and I'm sure a lot of that's been happening.” Blushing crimson, the young woman quickly glanced around to make sure no one beyond the alcove had heard her companion's statement. “Don't worry, your secret's safe with me.” Charlotte turned back to face her, her expression grateful. “But
after
we fix your little boyfriend, you are going to get the lecture of your life.”

              Sighing, Charlotte merely shook her head.

              What was she going to do with her tech specialist?

              Be grateful, she supposed. It was really her only option.

              The rest of the week passed without incident. Charlotte continued to meet with David for their late night lessons every weekday, though more and more he seemed reluctant to talk about anything that went beyond his college education and his job history. Try as she might, Charlotte couldn't get him to open up. It didn't help that the man seemed so engrossed in some of the projects that they were working on that he completely tuned her out at points. He did continue, however, to be a wonderful connection between her and the tech department. He'd been with the company for about four months, and she had a file of new projects three inches thick.

              One day she'd gone down to watch him work in the design room, and she'd been astonished at the rate at which his hands had flown over the paper— measuring, drawing, and correcting calculations as he went along. The man multiplied numbers in his head and even took cosines and tangents at an incredible clip. She'd often wondered how the best minds of their time worked, and it was amazing to watch David in action and learn.

              No matter how troubled his personal life was, the man didn't let it affect his work one single iota. He was in the office ten minutes early every day, and he often worked through his lunch breaks. Plus, he always stayed late, even after she'd gone home. He was one of their most dedicated workers, and that fact, coupled with the efficiency of their tech department, was going to give them an edge that would take the market by storm in a few years.

              She often wondered what David did when he worked straight through his lunchtime and late at night. It appeared the man worked quickly, so there didn't appear to be a need for him to work as much overtime as he did, but whenever she mentioned it, he merely told her that he felt at home in the lab. It led her to believe that maybe there was someone or something in his apartment that was causing his suffering.

              Addy was apparently on the case.

              She hadn't reported anything to Charlotte yet, but she'd said that she'd had some men discreetly following the man. Apparently, he was slippery. They always lost him on the train, and his apartment building had visitor rules so strict that they weren't allowed anywhere near it. It figured, Adeline had huffed, that he would live in the Lower East Side among all the hippies. As free as they were, they definitely didn't let strangers into their houses.

              By the time the end of the month rolled around, David was staying at her apartment two to three times a week. The fact that he'd never invited her to his place only further cemented the notion that whatever was causing his distress was there; but, she didn't press him on the issue. Hopefully, he would eventually trust her enough to reveal things on his own.

              Her father, however, was a different story entirely.

              The man was relentless.

              He was now quite obvious in his efforts to have her followed, and whenever she encountered his pairs of men, she angrily told them to go away. Emerson Mathers' paranoia knew no bounds. He was more invasive than the media, and there were few things Charlotte hated more than the biased, untruthful media.

              She needed a break, and one day, while flipping through a magazine at her desk, she realized exactly how she would take one.

              “A vacation?” David was more than a little surprised.

              Ever since Charlotte had taken an interest in his past and his troubles, he'd tried to monitor his conversation with her as closely as possible. Every sentence was one that he perused for signs that he was giving something away. As the days wore on, and he found himself more and more entangled with her, the charade was beginning to become exhausting.

              He told himself that he could end it. He could go public with the information on his flash drive, and it would all be over. However, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

              For the first time in his life, he had found someone who was trying to understand him. There had always been teachers who empathized with him, and he knew that his friend Marshall pitied him. However, only Charlotte had ever attempted to crack his outer shell and see what made him tick.

              And now she was asking him to go away with her.

              “Where would we go?”

              She smiled at his inquiry. “I was thinking Hawaii, the Bahamas...somewhere sunny. We could get away from all the craziness of the firm...and we could be alone.”

              The prospect, like anything involving Charlotte, heated his blood.  “How long would we be away?” He was thinking of his mother. Though they had finally been granted insurance, and he had found a balance between paying for her psychiatrist and slowly getting rid of all the debtors who were chasing them, he was still reluctant to leave her. She would hardly eat unless he reminded her, and he was worried that someone else wouldn't understand her condition.

              To be alone with Charlotte,
truly
alone, away from her father's prying eyes and Adeline's judging stares was tempting. He could even leave the flash drive behind in a safe place. He wouldn't even think about it while they were gone. He could pretend, just for a little while, that fate had brought them together and that their relationship could work.

              “Maybe a week? Is this you agreeing?” she said with a hopeful smile.

              “This is me saying I'll think about it.” His reply was as gentle as he could make it, considering the circumstances. Leaning across the kitchen counter that separated them, he kissed her, softly and leisurely. When her lips parted, he tasted her, and it was divine.

              Apart from having to hide a portion of himself from her, David was finding that being with a woman who genuinely cared for him was different from any experience he’d had before. He didn't have to ply Charlotte with gifts and flowers to win her affections. She could buy any of those things herself. She was more impressed with his mind and his conviction than anything else, and the realization made his chest swell with pride.

              He wondered whether this was what it felt like to actually look forward to the next day. His entire life, David had dreaded the next morning. He dreaded what it would feel like to go a whole day without sleep after working all night and having classes the next morning. He dreaded having his mother stare at him with dull, vacant eyes. Most of all, he dreaded facing everyday with the thought that his father had killed himself for a company that practically ruled the East Coast.

              But now, he barely thought of any of that.

              Certainly, he was still worried about his mother's recovery, and there were nights that he still woke up covered in sweat after dreaming about the day he'd come home to his father's dead body. But, Charlotte was there. Though he could never explain the nightmares to her, she held him until his shakes subsided, and every day when he left his mother to come to work, she was present with her patience, cunning, and wit.

              It was easy to pretend he loved her.

              He practically did.

              “Let's stay in for dinner tonight.” He coaxed lowly against her lips, making her smile. “I'm not so much interested in food as I am dessert.”

              Charlotte laughed softly, and he scooped her into his arms before taking the steps upstairs to her bedroom two at a time. At first, the sight of her luxurious apartment made him both marvel and envy her, but he'd quickly grown to realize that her apartment and all of her things were just the trappings that went along with her life. She didn't show off her designer bags or drag him on shopping excursions. Quite the opposite, actually.

              She seemed embarrassed to spend money in front of him.

              And the fact made him adore her all the more.

              As soon as he tossed her playfully onto the bed, she was upright and tugging him down against her, their mouths fusing once more. She tasted rich and sweet, like the cappuccino she'd been sipping all afternoon, and he groaned against her mouth at the flavor.

              The woman was voracious.