Blackout Sam

Chapter 4

Samantha stared bleary-eyed at her computer screen. She hadn't slept a bit last night or early that morning. Her heavy hands typed away at her keyboard as she fought to get all the information looming inside her head out.

"Jesus f*****g Christ," A lanky man in thin glasses, exclaimed on arriving at Sam's desk.

Startled, Sam slammed her laptop and almost fell off her seat. On recognizing the man, her hands flew to her chest and she groaned.

"It's just you, Caleb," she sighed,

"Yeah and you look like s**t," Caleb snorted.

Samantha rolled her eyes and slowly opened her laptop. She was tired. She couldn't keep up this pace forever, but couldn't afford to slow down. She had to keep pushing forward, no matter what.

Last night, she'd worked tirelessly, fueled by a combination of adrenaline and caffeine. She was so focused on her work that she didn't even notice the hours slipping by.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that she finally allowed herself to take a break. She stretched her arms and rubbed her tired eyes, feeling the exhaustion creeping up on her but it was too late because she had to prepare for work.

She was terrified but she refused to let the idea of Mason Black intimidate her nor find her wanting. Another thing was that for the first time in a long time she had found someone who had become a worthy challenger. Others had been almost too easy. Sure they had threatened her life and peace many times than she could count, but each case she'd cracked had been following the same routine. Manson Black was enigmatic and she needed to explore every single perspective when it came to him. The man was very tricky and slippery. He'd also built a perfect public persona; a good businessman with a thriving business who had no criminal record. She was one of the best investigative journalists in the business, and she was determined to c***k this case no matter what.

"So…" Caleb drawled, "do you mind telling me where you were last night and why you look like the walking dead this morning."

Without taking her eyes off her screen, Samantha croaked, "Feed me. Give me coffee."

Caleb snickered, his brown eyes lighting up with amusement.

"For someone who's supposed to be upright, you take too much bribe from me, Sam."

Sam managed a chuckle.

"Fine," Caleb huffed, "I'll be back."

As soon as he left, Sam opened the file she had on Mason Black and his company's questionable dealings. As she cross-checked the evidence, her amusement and confusion grew. How could someone so powerful and wealthy be allowed to get away with such blatant corruption? Why? Her eyes focused on a sentence she'd highlighted.

It was about Black Enterprises acquiring of Bella-Roma, an Italian chain of businesses that had services that were the complete opposite of Black's. It was a multi-billion dollar company and supposedly too big and ambiguous to be swallowed up just like that.

That wasn't all, Bella-Roma was a family business, so why were they agreeing to a merger with Manson Black? And more questionably, why were they rushing the deal especially after they'd just lost three of their heads in the past two months?

Everything about it screamed shady! And it was why she'd ventured to Black enterprises to scour information after being snubbed at Bella-Roma. She thought she was very careful because Mason Black was not someone to be taken lightly, and she needed to be smart if she wanted to uncover the truth. She had made a mental list of all the people she needed to talk to and all the leads she needed to follow up on but he'd somehow outsmarted her, again.

A hand slammed on her desk jolting her back to the present.

"Oh come on, Caleb," she hissed, quickly removing the file.

Caleb sneered, "Oh come on, Caleb," he mimicked, dropping a box of doughnuts and coffee before her. "Tell me, Sam. You disappeared without trace yesterday evening and no one could reach you for hours. Then you turn up looking like a train wreck this morning."

Samantha sighed, then shrugged. "I've got a story I'm working on." She said,

"Yesss… go on …" Caleb stressed.

"It's urgent and I've got to submit my pitch to Camille before noon today."

"Hmmm, that's not enough information but okay, Sam. I'll leave you for now."

Samantha flashed him a grateful grin. Caleb was the closest thing to a friend she had, but she couldn't tell him yet.

"But you're going to tell me this evening," he added suddenly, chuckling as her smile fell off her face. "See you later munchkin."

Before walking away he ruffled her hair and stuck out his tongue.

Samantha found herself smiling although she doubted she'd be able to tell him the truth until she was sure she'd gotten a full go-ahead on the case.

She propped open the box of delicious-smelling pastry before her, took out one, and bit into it. Her eyes flipped close as she savored the tasty goodness. She didn't remember taking breakfast that morning or taking anything other than coffee.

"This is the last one," she reminded herself, rubbing her temples as she munched the sugary goodness while ignoring the acidic grumbles of her belly. She didn't realize how hungry she was until that first bite and now she couldn't do anything until was done wolfing down Doughnuts and Coffee.

She slowly worked her way through each doughnut as she took small sips of her coffee and allowed her mind to wander through the details she had in her custody and ways to build her Case. It took a few minutes until she was done. Wiping her fingers on a paper towel, she stretched her limbs and began typing again. There was a lot of work to be done and it needed to be done quickly.

She'd spent about 10 minutes working when her phone rang. She eyed the unknown number skeptically. Her heart began racing as she gingerly picked up the phone.

"Hello?" She answered,

There was no response, only heavy breathing.

"Who's this?"

Still no response.

"What the hell? Is this a prank call?" She asked, looking over her shoulders.

There was a derisive chuckle before the line went dead.