BRIELLE
I don’t know how Dylan had done it, but whatever he did had worked. Never had I felt so much at ease since the incident, and now thanks to his wonderful connections and that restraining order, I had gone about my daily activities without stress or worry for the past two weeks.
I finally felt free, you know… like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders. I was even sleeping much better now.
Of course, Dylan still had to go out with Madeline for her usual checkup and all of that other stuff. And hey, though it wasn’t that easy dealing with the whole thing, I had resigned myself to the fact that that was probably going to be our new normal. But Dylan had told me that the doctor said they could do a fetal cell analysis to determine if he was really the father without waiting for the child to be born, and he had told me they would be doing that tomorrow, which meant that the day of reckoning was going to be here much sooner than I thought.
I honestly didn’t know how I wanted the results to turn out, because even though Dylan didn’t show it, I could tell he was pretty excited about the whole prospect of having a child, even though he was quite bummed out that it wasn’t with me, and I couldn’t even stand to think about how broken he’d be if the test came out and he wasn’t the father.
And then, there was the fear of Dylan actually being the father, which would mean Madeline meddling in our lives for as long as I had a relationship with Dylan.
Talk about being in a Morton’s Fork situation!
I was at work.
My whole morning had been spent talking to Mr Palmer, COO of RetroCorp about new, fresh wave of ideas we could venture into to boost sales and productivity, and I must say, it had gone smoothly well. It was almost time for lunch now, and I had a date with Silvie. We were having lunch at Johnny’s, her treat for being cooped up with Nick all the time and barely having time for me, and like the gracious bestie I am, I had good-naturedly accepted.
Amy entered my office after a quick knock, snapping me out of my day dreaming, a smile on her face as she brightly reminded me that I had told her to notify me when it was almost time for lunch. “Thank you, Amy. Are you ordering in or going out?” I asked as she turned to leave. “Oh, I’ll be ordering in, I’ve got a few files to sort through before the close of day.” She told me. I stood up to reach for my bag and shut off my laptop. “You can go out if you want to, I might be in late after all.” I informed her. We both walked out of my office and I locked the door behind me, handing them over to Amy as I made my way to the elevators.
I was still not used to being on the top floor with all the other executives. My new office was so huge and spacious, with plush, elegant white furniture and magnificent floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the city and often had me blanking out from time to time.
Someone had to appreciate all of that beauty!
I paused over at Dylan’s office, my mind automatically replaying the many ways we had christened both his office and mine.
Lucia, now’s not the time to think such thoughts.
I chided myself.
I was just going in to let him know I was having lunch with Syl, something that would take but a few minutes and I didn’t want any wild thoughts derailing the reason for my visit.
Chloe wasn’t at her desk, definitely out for lunch with Savannah. The two were fast becoming besties.
“Hey babe.” I greeted after popping my head into his office following a quick knock. His grin was to die for. “Babe?”
I chuckled as I stepped into the office. His was quite similar to mine, but mine had a more feminine touch to it. “Yeah, babe. After careful deliberation, I decided that you can’t be the only one coming up with other nicknames for me in addition to Bree.” I told him haughtily.
“But babe? Really?” He cringed, as though the thought of being called that disgusted him beyond imagination. “What’s wrong with babe?” I asked defensively.
“Come on Sunshine, be a little more original.” He teased with a smirk.
The nerve!
“This is one of the cases where Dy means go hang yourself.” I threw at him snootily, but he only laughed, “Another nickname you completely failed at, Bree.”
I looked at him blankly, not quite getting what he was droning on about. “The full name’s Dylan, Brie… which means the short form should be something like the letter D or even Dee, and yet you call me D.Y.” He clarified, chuckling some more. “Don’t get me wrong princess, I absolutely adore the nickie— but I’m just saying.”
“Well, fuck you.” I quipped sardonically, turning on my heel to exit his office.
I’d changed my mind, I wasn’t even going to tell him I was going out for lunch with Syl again.
The cocky bastard only laughed even harder, standing up to quickly reach out for me before I flew out of his office in my anger-that-wasn’t-really-anger. “Not so fast, princess. Where do you think you’re going?”
“Some place where my terms of endearment would be appreciated, that’s where.” I huffed.
“Aw, come on Bree… I’m sorry— Even though I can’t deny the fact that riling you up fills me with so much joy.” He pouted.
“You don’t apologise and then ruin your case by saying stuff like that, Dylan Thomas.” I told him, getting even more riled up.
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry.” He chuckled. “The next time you come up with another term of endearment for me, I’ll be sure to applaud your brilliance.”
“There will not be a next time because you just destroyed my morale.”
“Come on Bree, I apologised.” He pulled me close, his expression suddenly thoughtful. “I know, maybe I need to kiss it better.” With those words he roughly claimed my lips.
He was definitely hard to stay mad at, especially when he was kissing me senseless with that amazing mouth of his. I found myself chuckling at the adorable look on his face as we pulled away to catch our breaths.
“Feel better now?” He asked with a grin.
“Much.”
“Wanna have lunch together?” He suggested, peppering light kisses across my jaw.
“Mm, I’d love to but I can’t.” I sighed. “I’ve got lunch with Syl, I told you about it?”
“Yeah, yeah… I guess I forgot.”
I pulled away. “I’ve got to go. I’m now going to pick Syl up from my place— I swear the girl needs to buy a car already.” I told him.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford it too, she just considered it an unnecessary luxury,
Well most of the time at least.
“So dinner?” He tried again.
“Looks like someone really misses my company.” I teased, planting a loud kiss on his lips. “Definitely.”
I made to leave his office, but the handsome hunk just wouldn’t let me go. “Is that all I get? That— that fickle kiss?” His face contorted in disgust, causing me to chuckle. “Yes, that’s all you get.” I told him, shrugging out of his embrace. “Next time, learn to appreciate my terms of endearment a little more.”
His laugh rang in my ears as I breezed out of his office, his last words; “See you later, ‘babe’.”
The drive back to my apartment didn’t take too long, which was surprising really, because I expected some serious traffic due to the lunchtime rush hour, but I was grateful anyway.
I chided myself for taking the underground parking lot route seeing as I was just going to go in for a few minutes to grab a few stuff and Silvie, but the harm was already done.
Force of habit, I guess.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of my car was how deserted the parking lot was. It was pretty unusual especially for a Monday afternoon. Had it been a Sunday, I’d have understood the situation much better, but this really felt weird. A creepy sensation run down my spine at the observation and I quickened my steps, my heels making clickety-clack noises against the pavement.
As I made my way over to the elevators, a feeling of calm gently washed over me and I suddenly found myself wondering if I was going to meet Mrs. Robinson on my way in. I hadn’t seen the endearing oldster for so long— you could almost say I missed her even. Knowing her, she was probably cooped indoors with a mild illness and making poor Annette’s life a living hell for not being able to go out. I made a mental note to go check up on her in case I didn’t bump into her on my way to my apartment.
I didn’t get far with that thought.
“Oh, Lucia!” Silvie called out in surprise. It was obvious she had just stepped out of the elevator and I had been so deep in thought to realise. “What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were going to come up?” She asked. She looked nervous.
“Uh, it’s my apartment too, remember?” I retorted. “I actually wanted to grab a few things for Dylan’s. Why, what’s up?”
She shifted on her foot, her gaze everywhere else but on me. “Uhm, it’s just that Nick’s in there—”
“Say no more.” I cut her off, reaching for her arm and doing a full 360, the act making her burst into a fit of giggles. “Let’s go get that lunch you owe me.”
As we walked towards my car, I could still sense the nervousness emanating from my best friend in waves. “Syl, is that the only thing bothering you?” I asked in concern.
She sighed. “Not really, it’s just that uhm—” Whatever reply she was going to give me was cut off by the sound and sight of the huge white van that approached us so quickly, we had to jump back to avoid being knocked over.
“HEY, IDIOT!!! WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING.” I yelled angrily as the car pulled to a stop, four masked men in dark clothing stepping out, their intent very loud and clear. Silvie and I were surrounded before we even realised it, and we clung to each other in fear. “Please don’t hurt us! You can take our bags, our jewelry, but please let us go, we promise not to say a word.” Silvie cried out, but I wasn’t going to let these bastards see my fear.
No.
One of us needed to remain strong.
“What do you want? You do realise that it’s broad daylight and that cameras are everywhere, right?” I asked, injecting as much venom as I could into my tone. They ignored my questions. “Brielle Renaud, step into the van calmly, and we’ll let your friend go.” One of them said.
They were after me?
Silvie was pulled away from my grasp, and a gun was quickly pointed at her temple. “Try anything crazy and I kill her.” The guy holding her said. Silvie was shaking her head, tears flowing down her face as she begged me over and over not to listen to them, but I had already decided.
I didn’t know what these men wanted, but I sure wasn’t going to let them harm my friend. They wanted me,
They were going to have me.
I did as they asked, my hands raised in surrender.
Silvie was butted in the head with a firearm and the last thing I saw before the van pulled off and a gas-filled rag covered my nostrils was my best friend slumping to the ground in a faint;
And then there was darkness.