Secrets in the Ashes: Fragments of Desire

Chapter 1: Laundry and Lunch

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I placed it to my ear and smiled as I greeted no one in particular. There was no one on the line, but the man following me didn't need to know that.

I stopped at the window of a small shop on my way to work and pretended to look over the wares the shop owner had placed out front. To be honest; I wasn't even aware of whatever I was holding, so focused was I on the strange man that also stopped a few shops down and picked up something, turning it over as if to inspect it.

Setting down the bundle of fabric in my hand, I resumed my walk to work. After a minute or two, I turned to see the man was much closer than he had been. My heart rate increased, as did my pace. I ended the pretend call and slipped the phone into my pocket.

My boss had said that there might be people following me for some time. At least until the security breach at his work was resolved. It was still unnerving though, to have some stranger follow you everywhere you went. Even if they were supposed to be friendly.

My boss said it was for my own safety, but I was struggling to find any kind of feeling of safety in the matter. How was I supposed to know that the man that tailed me was friendly and not just some creep? I needed to put a stop to this – for my own sanity.

After hailing a cab and climbing in, I told the driver the address and let myself relax a bit as the strange man disappeared into the distance in the rearview mirror.

When we finally pulled up to the large estate that was my boss's home, I climbed out after paying the driver and made my way through the locked gate and up the long driveway to the front door.

After typing in the eight-digit code to get into the side entrance, I finally let myself breathe a full and cleansing breath. I was safe, I was locked away in the proverbial castle that would be my home for the next week. It was difficult to take any measure of solace in that, though, try as I might.

I pulled my blonde hair up and off my neck, tying it up high on my head with an elastic. The laundry had piled up over my weekend off and I huffed out a sigh as I stared at the two overflowing baskets. How did one person manage to make so many things dirty?

"You know, I could have that all dry cleaned. You don't have to do it," Olly said from the doorway and I nearly jumped from my skin.

“How long have you been standing there?" I asked as I unconsciously covered myself with the dirty shirt I was holding. I hadn't been expecting him home and didn't feel as if I'd dressed appropriately. The small crop top and high-waisted shorts I'd picked out this morning suddenly didn't feel like they were enough.

Olly eyed me for a moment and then smiled as his eyes finally met mine. “I decided to come home for lunch. The office is too loud for me to get any work done anyway."

I put the shirt in the washing machine and closed it, filling it with soap and pressing the start button. “Did you want me to make you something to eat?" I asked once my heartbeat seemed to settle back down again.

“If it isn't too much trouble, a salad would be lovely." He pushed off of the doorframe and began to walk away. But then, he stopped and looked back, his eyes looking over the length of my body as I stood there, too anxious to move. Olly made me feel somewhat unnerved when he looked at me like that. Sometimes, when his eyes were on me, it was as if some small part of me was being burned away, leaving me raw and exposed.

When he finally left me to do my task, I picked up the nearest basket and began sorting through it; separating the darks from the lights, the delicates from the jeans. It was all I could do to not melt away into a puddle on the laundry room floor from anxiety.

I fished my bottle of anxiety medication from my purse on the hook and placed one on the back of my tongue before swallowing it.

I had been working for Olly West for just over a year now and I honestly enjoyed the work. The young tech genius had put out an ad on a job listing site and after contemplating it for about a week, I had finally applied. The next day, I was called for an interview and hired practically on the spot.

The whole thing had been sketchy and I almost had not applied. He was offering way too much money for just a live-in maid and was very particular in his listing about looks and personality. It seemed like a fake listing or a scam, like one of those ads that after you answer – you're never heard from again. But I couldn't deny that I fit what he was looking for to a fault. It was the only reason I'd applied in the end.

Luck had been on my side though and Olly had turned out to be just your average quirky billionaire who liked pretty girls.

Olly was a wonderful boss, it turned out. Once, when I was sick, he had tried to make me soup. When I needed to take time off for family emergencies, he gave it to me without hesitation. When my car had broken down, he was there in a heartbeat to pick me up and even paid for the tow-truck and the repairs.

"So, you remember that I'll be heading out of town next week, correct?" He asked as I finally joined him in the kitchen.

"Of course. Got it marked down in my calendar and everything." I beamed a smile at him as I grabbed some ingredients from the fridge, blowing a stray piece of hair from my face.

He smiled back at me and disappeared into the living room.

"Oh," I shouted out after him. He reappeared a moment later, his phone in his hand. "Do you know that thing we talked about last week?"

"You want to switch to those natural, unscented cleaners. I remember."

"No-" I gave him a skeptical glare and he returned it with a mischievous smile.

"Yes, Harlow. I remember. We can talk about it more when I am done with my afternoon meetings."

I nodded and he returned to the living room once again, dismissing the conversation for the time being.

The week before, Olly had brought up the possibility of me moving in permanently. I still had a flat downtown where I stayed on the weekends, but Olly wanted me to move in full-time.

It was a big step. I would have to break my lease on my flat and figure out what to do with all my furniture. There was the option of bringing it with me, but I already had a fully furnished room in Olly's ridiculously large house. And if I was being honest, the furniture that Olly had provided upon hiring me was much nicer than my own.

Olly had been rather insistent though, saying that he needed someone he trusted to run the house while he was away on his business trips. He stressed to me that I was the only one he felt he could trust with the task and while it seemed like a huge step, it appeared that he'd already made up his mind and anything I said was dismissed as silly worries.

To his benefit, there had been a rather large and worrisome security breach and Olly was big on safety and due diligence.

When it had happened - I'd say about two weeks ago now - Olly's security team had sat me down and asked me a hundred-and-one question about who I'd been talking to recently. They'd asked about my family and friends and even did a deep dive into my childhood.

I'd thought it odd that he'd go to such lengths after hiring me, and not before. When I asked him about it after the interrogation, he'd simply waved me off and said that he knew he could trust me, but that he simply had to 'appease his security team' on the matter.

The only thing that still bugged me on the matter was the nature of his supposed security team. They hadn't seemed like your average cyber security people. They were all military looking types. And, I'd definitely seen a few of them with guns on their person.

I'd never been to Olly's office, never had a reason to even walk through the front doors. But, when I tried to ask him about everything, he said that he dealt with lots of dangerous people, people that wanted to take down what he'd built. He'd said that he'd rather be safe than sorry.