Chapter 107
1099 Words
Dallas skidded to a stop in the parking lot. His stomach jumped when he saw his entire staff outside without coats, looking confused.
“Oh, Christ,” Mark said.
Without a word, Dallas headed for the door, and stepped back when it opened. Sully emerged, gun drawn, looking grim.
“Wallace has her, doesn’t he?” Dallas said.
Sully didn’t ask how his boss knew that. “In the large conference room.”
“You saw them?”
Sully nodded. “Through the window.”
“Tell me.”
The others gathered around to listen.
“He’s got a knife,” Sully said. “She was sitting in a chair, unrestrained, conscious and alert. No blood, no bruises. He was calm and talking to her.”
“Her clothes?” Selena asked.
“Fine. No rips, no damage.”
They all nodded.
“He saw me and shouted for everyone to stay away from the outside-facing window,” Sully said. “Said that if he sees so much as a shadow on the ground out here, he’ll gut her without a second thought.”
“What do you want to do, Dallas?” Griff said.
“I’m going to call him.”
“Wallace?” Mark asked.
“Yeah. Ask him what he wants.”
“He wants Olivia, man,” Sully said.
“But what does he want from her?” Dallas said. “If he was looking to rape her or hurt her or kill her, he had a thousand chances at her house. She lives alone, and her place is pretty isolated. He could have had her a dozen times, then killed her and walked out the front door. Nobody would have known anything. Why is he making his move here – in an office full of professionals with weapons? Why?”
“Maybe it’s about you,” Griff said.
Dallas shook his head. “I don’t see how. This all started long before I came into the picture. Whatever his endgame is, I need to figure it out… that’s the only way to stop him, and to get Olivia out alive.”
“You sure you want to make the call, man?” Mark said. “Maybe you’re too… close to all of this. Too close to Liv.”
Dallas’ jaw tightened. “I won’t trust anyone else to make the call, Mark. Sorry. This is between me and Wallace now.”
****
Greg smirked when he saw the number that came up on his cell. He turned to Olivia.
“It’s your boyfriend. f*****g took him long enough to figure it out, huh?”
Olivia shut her eyes in relief. She knew it didn’t technically change anything for Dallas to be on the other end of Greg’s phone – she was still trapped in the conference room with a f*****g whack-job waving a knife in her face – but she felt like Dallas was closer, somehow. Like she wasn’t alone in this.
“Foreman!” Greg broke into a huge smile. “You were almost late to the party.”
“Greg.” Dallas’ voice was calm and quiet. “What are you doing, man?”
“What am I doing?” He looked at Olivia. “I’m just spending some quality time with Liv, of course.”
“Yeah, I can get why you’d want to do that, OK? But you must be scaring her. Do you want to scare her?”
“Yes. I do.”
Dallas paused. That wasn’t the answer he’d been looking for. “Why?”
“Because,” Greg said. “She’s a f*****g skank who lounges around half-naked, flashing her ass and t**s to the whole f*****g world… and then she turns around and acts holier-than-thou when a man shows her some attention.”
Olivia was stunned at the venom in his voice. He was looking at her now, his blue eyes blazing with hatred, and she was suddenly so afraid that she felt sick.
“Did you show her some attention, man?” Dallas said calmly. “And she acted like it was nothing much?”
“Yes.” Greg sucked in a deep breath. “I took care of her, you know, when that f*****g b***h started stalking her. I watched her and protected her and cared about her. And she treated me like some f*****g nobody.”
Dallas’ head was spinning. “Wait, Greg. You’re talking about the texts in the very beginning? The ones that got Blue Star involved in the first place?”
“Yeah.”
“Who were they from?”
Greg snorted. “Some f*****g little nobody intern in the Hope Perfume local office. She got ahold of Liv’s cell number off her boss’ Rolodex and sent her some bullshit texts. Liv’s dickhead assistant changed her number, the moron intern got the new one. That’s when Liv’s manager called Blue Star in.”
“You found out about the intern?”
“Hell, yeah. Took all of twenty minutes. I waited for her outside her apartment and beat her until her ears bled, told her to leave Liv alone.” Greg shrugged and Olivia felt horror wash over her at the casual gesture. “She did. She also quit at Hope Perfume. Good riddance, really.”
“So, then – what?” Dallas asked. “Even though the job was over, you wanted to stay close to Olivia for a while longer?”
“Wouldn’t you?” Greg smirked again. “Don’t you?”
Dallas ignored that. “So why not just ask her out?”
“You think I didn’t?” Greg shouted, and she jumped in fear. “I asked her for coffee, and I asked her for dinner.”
“She said no?”
“She said yes!” Greg glared at her. “But she acted like it was all just part of the service… like it was part of my f*****g job to take her for dinner. Like I was some f*****g chump who wasn’t anywhere near good enough to take seriously. And there I was, watching her every move, following her hour after hour to her f*****g boring meetings and fittings, and she was just asking for my invoice every month.”
“Greg,” Olivia whispered. “Greg, I didn’t know that –”
“Shut up, you f*****g w***e!” he shouted at her. Dallas froze, hoping that he didn’t hurt her. “Not one word out of your goddamned slut mouth, you hear me?”
She nodded, beyond terrified now.
- Writer
