"Are you telling us we can't be up there? We have an appointment with him at this time."
"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait. Mr. Thompson is already in a meeting. He'll call for you whenever it's over."
"But, we can't wait till it's over. We need to see him now."
"Kat, baby, calm down."
"Calm down?! He needs to learn what it means to be in a hurry."
I watched silently as Kathryn pulled out her gun and pointed it at the receptionist. I saw his eyes widen slightly, but that was it. Nothing else on his face changed. It was like he had gone through this with other people before. I respected him. I'd have to ask him to come work for me whenever we got what we wanted.
"He should be in his office by now. The meeting shouldn't last that long," He said. "Here are your guest cards. Use any treatment room you want if he's not in his office just yet."
Kat put her gun away and snatched the card from him. I apologized and we walked away to the elevators. It would have been faster to take the stairs, but I gotta respect the woman who was packing. Even I was slightly scared of my fiancée.
Once we got into the elevators, Kat smiled widely and handed me the key card. This woman was crazy. What was I getting myself into with marrying her? Did I hit my head? Did her father ever threaten me? I wouldn't doubt he did and I don't remember.
"How'd I do?" She asked.
"Great. The authorities might be here any minute. We need to find Lexi and get out fast," I said. "That gives us at least ten minutes."
"Five?" Kat hid her gun under her shirt. "We can never give ourselves too much time.
Just as we were getting close to Asher, more security guards came out and blocked our way. This was annoying. There was so much I could be doing right now, but someone wanted me to freaking go and get the drive myself. I was going to anyway. After everyone couldn't get it themselves. No one knows where Lexi has been since Saturday.
"Hard way?" I asked.
"Hard way," Kathryn agreed.
I saw Asher run after where Lexi had gone. I wanted to go. Gosh, I sounded like a whiny kid. Reminded me of Sean. Kathryn was busy with her fight while I was just daring all the men in front of me to interrupt my thinking. Weird. I know.
"Kat, swing," I said and turned around. She did the same. I grabbed her wrists and spun her around. Two guards right behind me were kicked backwards. They hit three men behind them who tripped two more behind them. Back to back, Kat and I threw punch after punch. After a while I was tired of fighting.
We hightailed it from the fight in the direction I'd seen Asher go. After making so many rights, we finally turned left. It was quiet for a moment, so we stood there to catch our breaths. Being evil was tiring. I actually want to enjoy today like I'm a normal human being. That's literally never going to happen.
"Do you hear that?" Kathryn asked.
"What?" I slowed my breathing and listened.
Indeed you could hear someone talking down the hall. I swear I heard another voice, but I wasn't sure. Whoever it was had to know where Lexi had gone.
"Lexi," I called out. "I know you're around here somewhere."
"Really?" Kat hissed. "She knows you're going to kill her now."
"Why would I kill her?"
"...Why wouldn't you?"
I sighed and we both went around the corner. Asher had his back to us, but was beginning to turn around. His face showed no clue for what he was doing. I don't even know if he had seen Lexi come through here or not.
"Where'd she go?" I demanded.
A look crossed his face that confirmed my suspicions. Lexi had come through here. What was he waiting for? I needed to know where my drive was. It didn't matter how I got it, I just wanted it.
"She went around the corner," Asher said. "Better catch her before Luca finds her."
⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️
My ego was bruised. I have never been more embarrassed to have someone slip out of my grasp so easily. We had rounded the corner to see Lexi falling into Luca's arms. I had everyone leave the building before the press got ahold of this as a rumor. It was better they knew the truth when Lexi and Luca came out on their own.
We waited for a while until we noticed Lexi's car was leaving. I knew it was to trick the media and it did just that. The camera crew jumped into their vehicles and rode after the car. A few moments later, Luca and Lexi came out with guards surrounding them. They got into another car and drove off. We immediately went back inside to get our tapes.
"What did you salvage?" I asked.
"Lexi came down here...Saturday night before immediately leaving. She had us delete the footage of her being here, but I managed to save it for you," A technician explained.
"Good." I turned to another. "What about the hidden cameras?"
"A copy of the footage is sent to you, then deleted immediately," She said.
This was going better than I thought. At this rate I could figure out where Lexi could have gone in the time she left my company and went to the Agency.
"Oh. Could you make sure that I get footage of her from the last two weeks?"
"Yessir. It'll be in your files when you get back to the hideout."
Perfect. Now for the next part of my devious plan. Lexi was going to go down in the next few days. I was going to be around to see all of it happen. It didn't matter if I had to tear her family apart. I want my drive back. I will get my drive back.
At home, Kathryn and I called to check in on Sean's flight. According to his bodyguards, he was sleeping right now. They would drive from Santa Barbara to Thousand Oaks and spend the night there. Before leaving for Los Angeles, they would allow Sean to visit my parents. I knew that would cause a huge delay for them. Towards the middle of the day, they were planning to leave for here and hide Sean till the gala.
Speaking of the gala, I needed to get our tuxes and Kat's dress. I wasn't supposed to see it before her, but what husband actually listens to his wife? I'm surprised I was even able to get the clothing this late. Usually I have to go to more than five different companies.
That wasn't the case this time. I had enough time to secure a spot with Asher before his team in France were swamped in designs and stuff. Lucky for us, Asher made sure our clothing had been made first. That meant anyone else attending this party were either going to have their clothing arrive late or not have anything new to wear at all. Made me feel better after that.
"Kat, I'll be back. I have to go pick up the clothes," I said.
"Can't you have the maid do it?" She asked. "I told you not to look at my dress."
"I never said I would get out of the car to look at it anyway."
"Then what's the point of going to get it?"
"So I can actually go and do something besides worry about Lexi getting away with my hard drive. Maybe I'll be able to give Asher the files to look at."
"Alright. I don't know when Sean will get here, so I'll go and fix his room."
Kathryn was hopelessly in love with our son. Made me wonder if she ever made time for me in her head. It was my fault he had gotten sent off, but come on! He needed a good education away from people who didn't want to hurt him every time he breathed.
The way to Asher's house wasn't as long as I thought it would be. Along the way, it allowed me to think about everyone Lexi has contacted in the past couple of days. There's no way she would contact Asher. She couldn't. Asher would say something to me. Or...Nah. There's no way she could have multiple phones without having to throw them out every so often. Not unless...
I pulled into the driveway and jumped out with the engine still running. With Asher's spare key, I opened the door and ran inside to get our outfits. Ash told me they were in the front room, so it shouldn't take long. I purposely didn't tell Kat where the outfits actually were just so she would let me leave.
When I picked up the bags, something fell and slid under the couch. I debated on whether I should just look for it or pretend nothing happened. I had seen this in movies where the person would miss something important, because they didn't check. I didn't want to be that person, so I put the clothing down and prepared to look for whatever had dropped.
I had to hurry, because the car was still running. Couldn't run out of gas. The sun streaming through the open curtains helped me see under the dark couch. Just as I was about to reach under and grab what fell, my phone rang. I was going to ignore it, but it might be something important. I answered it.
"What?" I barked.
"Sean called the house," Kathryn said.
"Why?"
"He said it was important and didn't want to tell me. What should I do?"
Ugh. I guess finding this thing would have to wait.
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute. I have the clothing right now."
"Okay. Love you, baby."
"Love you too, Kitty Kat."