Saving Each Other (BWWM Romance) (7 page)

“You are a control freak,” she diagnosed me.

“Only when I need to be.” I smiled at her and she smiled back. What is happening?

“I had a really weird dream the other day,” she said to me.

“What was it about?” My breath hitched in my throat. Could she have had the same dream?

“Uh…I don’t know, it was weird. I don’t really remember.” I could tell she was lying, for the first time in the whole conversation, she looked away from my eyes.

“Who was in it?”

“You and I,” she said nervously. I swallowed heavily.

“I had a dream about us too,” I admitted before I knew what I was doing. She bit her lip nervously and looked away from me. My reasoning had gone out the window when I reached up to touch her face. Even in this horrible environment, her skin was so soft and beautiful.

My eyes drifted down to her soft lips, her bottom lip was trembling. I touched it softly with my thumb, stopping its movement. Our eyes met again and my heart fluttered in my chest, no one had made me feel that in a long time… or ever. I leaned closer to her, until I could feel her breath on my face. I licked my lips in anticipation but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I moved away from her and grabbed the tray, getting up to leave. I turned to look at her before I left, I could see her big brown eyes even in the dimly lit room. I shook my head and walked out the door, subconsciously leaving it open.

Chapter Five: Tamara

The words rang in my head over and over, just making sure I heard them right.

“You are going to read the screen exactly as the words appear, if you deviate from them--”

“I’ll shoot you.” I jumped internally when Justin’s voice interrupted Dan’s. I didn’t have to turn my head to feel the gun pointed at me. I didn’t let any tears fall from my eyes, I didn’t want them to see me afraid. I looked over at Dan, thinking he would say something about Justin’s violence but he didn’t, he just looked away from me and back to the computer. The words already began to appear but I couldn’t bring myself to even open my mouth.

“Read!” Justin yelled at me and pressed the gun to the back of my neck, I spoke as if I was on auto pilot.

“My name is Tamara Taylor,” my voice was shaky and unrecognizable, “and I have been taken. I don’t know who my captors are--” I stopped and looked at Dan, he gave me a stern look, prompting me to continue, “but they have a message for you. We know what you are doing, we know about your gun and cocaine transport and we know about the money laundering. We don’t want any money, all we ask is that you cease all illegal and immoral activities.” I let out a breath of air I had been holding in since I started, when Justin put down his gun.

I couldn’t stop the tears from falling from my eyes so I let them come.

“Come on, time to go back to your hole.” Justin yanked me up from the chair and nearly dragged me back into that room. He threw me down on the ground forcefully.

“Hypocrite,” I murmured, but I didn’t think he would hear me.

“What did you say to me?”

“I said you are a hypocrite. How can you crucify someone for using guns, when you use one yourself?” He chuckled darkly.

“My gun didn’t kill millions of people, hun.” He shut the door behind him and left me in the darkness.

I couldn’t believe any of it. I went over what I read a million times but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. A company that I had worked for, for almost five years, had been secretly transporting guns and cocaine, and laundering money. Where did one even get off on that, if it even was true?

I had good relationships with every single member of the board. Were they all in on this? Or was it just one man calling the shots? I exhausted my brain trying to find all possible solutions or explanations, but all it did was drive me into an uneasy sleep.

The unlatching of the deadbolt brought me to. I slept a lot lighter since everything happened, everything made me jumpy.

“Dinner.” Dan’s deep voice reverberated through the room. He sat next to me and put the tray in front of me. I reached for it greedily and attacked the soup, I never thought I would enjoy it so much.

“So that’s why you took me?” My voice was quiet.

“Yes,” he answered simply, not looking at me.

“How long has this been going on?” I asked him.

“Since Chris Simms became the CEO.” I thought back to then. I was already with the company for a year; once Chris came, things didn’t change much, except my twenty-percent pay raise…could that be where the money came from? Did he pay me more because he needed me to make things go their way a lot more?

“I had no idea,” I nearly whispered. The impossibility was still etched into my mind. I needed proof, I needed the numbers.

“I know you didn’t.” I looked over at him then to see that he was looking at me too. When our eyes met my heart skipped a beat, like I had some high school crush.

“How did you know about it?” I asked him to try and fill the awkward silence. I was fighting myself to keep from coming across the space between us and kissing his perfect, kissable lips. Even in the dim light, his sharp jaw line was prominent, and his dark eyes hooded over his thin, long nose.

“It’s my job to know what’s going on in the world.” I admired his desire to do good, even though it was what got me in there.

“So you’re an activist then?” I clarified. I assumed he had to be something along those lines.

“Gun control and drugs are red flags for me.” He smiled at me softly.

“Any particular reason why?” My voice started sounding different to me, it sounded better, happier since I started talking to him. “Was it your family?” I pressed for answers. When he didn’t say anything, and looked away, I knew that was it so I left him alone.

“I’m so sorry, if I had any idea what they were doing I would never have represented them, there is no way I would have,” I told him sincerely. I did want proof, but I just didn’t think Dan would lie and call such a large, influential corporation out. Rory Corp provides over thirty-percent of the world’s oil, and had done so for decades.

“I know.” I looked back at him and smiled softly.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore.” Words were just flowing out of my mind before I knew they were coming.

“I never wanted you to be afraid of me, I just wanted you to obey me.” I giggled softly.

“You are a control freak,” I reasoned. He was more like an alpha male type to me.

“Only when I need to be.” He smiled back at me. It was a full smile this time, his bright, perfect teeth practically lit up the room.

“I had a really weird dream the other day.” I don’t know what I was doing when I said that but I said it.

“What was it about?” His voice had changed, it was still very deep and throaty, but it softened as the conversation went on. I didn’t want it to end…what is going on?

“Uh… I don’t know, it was weird. I don’t really remember,” I lied. How could I tell him I dreamt that we had hot, steamy sex in the shower? I looked away from him out of embarrassment when the memories started to flood through my head…how his hands felt on me, how he felt inside of me…

“Who was in it?” he asked me softly.

“You and I,” I whispered. I could hear him swallow deeply.

“I had a dream about us too.” I bit my lip nervously, could he have had the same dream?

He surprised me by crossing the space between us and taking my face in his hands. They were soft, heavy and warm. I felt my bottom lip jut out and tremble in his wake, him touching me so simply made me feel him everywhere. He pressed his thumb to my lip softly, stopping it from trembling. My heart was about to jump out of my chest when he started coming closer to me, so close I could feel his cool breath on my face. Our eyes met again, his smoldered beneath his thick eyebrows. I drew my attention to his cherry red lips, I wanted to feel them against mine but he surprised me by pulling away quickly. He grabbed the tray and stood up, heading for the door. He looked back at me before he left, shaking his head and leaving me in a cloud of desire.

The time in that room got worse only because I couldn’t wait to see Dan. I forced myself to go to sleep early that night because I wanted to see Dan again. It almost worked, I woke up just before dawn and I watched the sun come up. I got used to having absolutely nothing to do, so before I knew it I was hearing the deadbolts unlock.

“Good morning, Tamara.” Dan’s voice brought a smile to my face.

“Good morning, Dan.” I think that was the first time I said his name, it felt good coming out of my mouth.

“Breakfast,” he set a tray down in front of me. It took me a second to notice that it was different. Today, it was eggs and link sausage.

“Thank you, this is different,” I commented but dig in greedily.

“Yeah I uh…put some effort into it.” He sat down in front of me.

“Does it have anything to do with what happened last night?” I asked him boldly. I was never really nervous when talking to men, it was only Dan that could get me all hot and bothered. But the circumstances were so…I didn’t know what was going on here but I knew it wasn’t normal.

“Um, maybe.” I ate quickly, probably too fast. I drank the orange juice, which was cold, and looked at Dan nervously.

“Can I ask you something?” I said to him.

“Sure,” he replied easily.

“Can I see the evidence? Like the proof of what Rory Corp was doing,” I asked him nervously, I really wasn’t sure of what he would say. He looked at me solemnly for a while before he said anything.

“Come with me.” He took the tray and left, that time I was going with him. “Meet me in the den.” He nodded at the open door, telling me to go there.

I sat on the small couch and looked out the window. The sun hadn’t risen fully yet, but it was enough to make my eyes hurt from trying to adjust. I caught a glimpse of myself in the computer screen. My eyes were sunken in, and I definitely looked a lot thinner but I did look better than I did before the shower I took yesterday, or the day before…who knows, all my days ran together now.

Dan returned shortly and rummaged through some stuff in the desk. He handed me a stack of papers --a big stack -- and sat next to me on the couch.

“This is what we’ve acquired from the past five years.”

I started looking through the papers. I saw the statistics, the rise in sales and the rise in profits. There was money coming from all kinds of places, and money going all kinds of places. There were about fifty pages with numbers then I started seeing pictures. Pictures of cargo ships filled with crates, crates that I assumed had oil in them but I guess Dan managed to acquire something behind the scenes. Inside some crates were gun parts and in others, white powder, which I assumed was cocaine.

I could handle that much, now I knew for sure that Rory Corporation was dirty.

“Yesterday, Justin said something about millions being dead…what did he mean?” I was hoping he was just being an ass but now that I’d seen that much, I could only assume that there was more. Dan sighed and took the files from me and replaced them with a new, smaller stack.

When I opened them, the tears immediately flooded my eyes. There were women and children strung out on coke and men shot dead in the streets of what looked like Iran or Iraq. There were so many of them, so many dead people, so many people who were hurt by a company that I fought for, lost sleep over, was kidnapped over…

“Take these, please.” I put the pictures away and gave them to Dan.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t speak between my sobs. I couldn’t believe my eyes, the things I saw. I saw those people every day, laughed with them, and ate with them, all while they murdered innocent people under my nose.

Dan tried to console me by rubbing my back, it helped a little bit but not much. Then he pulled me closer to him, I could smell him easier then. He buried my face in his shoulder and wrapped his arms around me like a vice. I could feel his muscles contract around me, and breathed in his sharp, clean scent.

“Sorry,” I mumbled when I had finally calmed down and pulled away from him. Being that close to him was making my thoughts go haywire.

“It’s okay.”

“I guess I should go back to my cell now. Thank you for showing me those…even if I never get out of here, I don’t work for Rory Corporation anymore.”

“Somehow I’m not surprised…I always took you for someone who does the right thing.”