ChapterThree
718 Words
By eleven-thirty, Heather was back on the street with nothing confirmed and no indication of how long their decision-making was going to take. She walked two blocks away before stopping at a coffee shop to order breakfast she wasn't really interested in eating all she wanted was a reason to stand still for a moment.
She sat at one of the empty tables by the counter when her phone buzzed with a call from an unknown number. She just stared at it until it stopped, them it buzzed again.
She picked up and said nothing.
"Miss Cross." The voice on the other end called, it was a male and had no single warmth in it. "You've been quite difficult to reach."
Her hand tightened on her phone. Around her, the cafe moved up unbothered, with food orders flying over her head but she sat in the middle of all of it completely still.
"Well… I think you have the wrong number," she said.
"Ohh… I don't think so though." It paused as if wanting her to feel the silence. "We'd like to arrange a meeting, omething informal. There are matters we need to dis…"
She ended the call.
Her heart was pounding loud and irregular against her ribs, when her ordered was given to her, she pulled her collar up, and walked away. She walked like one who knew where they were going, even though the only destination she had right now was away.
Not only have they found her, now they have her number. They had people in the park and a car outside her building and now a direct line to a phone she had bought six months ago under a name that didn't exist with a voice that expected her to stay on the line.
She needed the job and she needed it immediately.
When she got back to her apartment, she checked the street from the corner before approaching her building, and took the stairs two at a time. Inside, she secured both locks and sat on the edge of her bed, pressing her palms flat against her knees and breathed.
Her laptop was still open on the kitchen counter just where she'd left it. The Cameron Group website was still in the browser tab, the company profile photograph still on screen with Raymond Cameron looking directly at the camera with that expression that gave nothing away.
“You were targeted,” she thought, looking at him. “By the same people who are standing outside my building right now. You just don't know it yet.”
Her phone buzzed again on the bed beside her, she looked at the screen. It was a different number this time.
She picked up.
"Hello, Miss Cross." It was a woman's voice, sounding professional and brisk. "This is Sandra Yee, executive assistant to Mr. Raymond Cameron and I'm calling to let you know that Mr. Cameron would like to offer you the position of the Strategy Officer, which would be effective from the first of next month. We'll send the formal offer to your email within the hour. Do you have any questions?"
Heather closed her eyes, as a shaky smile curved her lips.
"No, no miss…" she said. "No immediate questions."
"Wonderful. We look forward to having you."
The call ended. She set the phone down on the bed and sat with the strange double weight of it, the threat and the lifeline had arrived within twenty minutes of each other, as if the universe had its own sense of timing and wasn't above using it.
When she opened her email, it was already there, The offer had arrived at twelve seventeen and the salary was exactly what the listing had stated. The start date was the first of the month, which was justeleven days away.
She accepted it before she reached the end of the document.
Then she went to her window and looked down at the Escalade in the street and thought about the unreadable man in the boardroom who had been targeted by the same people hunting her and had no idea that the woman he'd just hired was the reason why.
“Eleven days, Heather.” she thought. “ Just hold on for eleven more days.”
Outside, the Escalade didn't move.
- Writer
