Gold hair as Phoebe referred to him or Collin Baltimore couldn't believe what he was seeing, for some unknown reason he could see the thoughts of the pretty woman rushing to get away from him as fast as she could.
They were right there above her head, in a text like box, clear as day. He had never encountered anything like this in his life.
He shook it off and tried to convince himself that he had seen wrong. It was exhaustion that was bothering him perhaps. But the thought of being called a pervert stayed with him, nagging at him like an itch between the buttocks.
"Pervert? Did she just....Pervert?" He mumbled as he rushed to meet her because she had dropped her wallet in the elevator.
For all the years that he had lived on this earth, this was the first time someone was calling him a pervert. Usually he was referred to as Mr. Dreamy or Mr. handsome because he actually was most women's dream man going by looks alone.
Before he could get the chance to hand over the pink leather wallet that had floral drawings on it, the pretty woman quickly opened the door of an apartment and quickly jumped inside with a little squeal.
A muffled chuckle slipped through his lips as he wondered why she would think of him to be a pervert.
And what was even more puzzling was the fact that he could see her thoughts. It was still stuck with him.
"Was I mistaken?" He asked himself.
"Her mouth was definitely closed, am not delusional or anything like that."
The poor guy kept doubting himself something that he rarely did. Was he loosing his mind?
Quickly he walked to his apartment and once inside Collin looked at his teenage sister who was sitting on a couch by the window scrolling through her phone.
"Do i look like a pervert?"
His question caused her to look up and let out a chortle. It was quite funny to see her normally well put together brother looking a little frazzled.
"Yes, did you not know that? Why?" She spoke with nonchalance which compelled him to ask her to get serious about the issue.
"This is important Cassie, am not joking around here." His sober tone was enough to let her know that he was indeed serious.
The Baltimore siblings were fond of joking and pranking one another hence the initial response. Some people found their pranks to be extreme because they sometimes went out of control. A perfect example was their mother who absolutely loathed their jokes after that one time when Cassie shaved off Collins eye brows in his sleep.
Cassie sat up straight and stared at her brother. "Who called you a pervert and what did you do to warrant someone to call you that?"
She asked a question to which he had no answer.
Shaking his head silently because he still couldn't fathom what had just transpired between him and the pretty woman, Collin dismissed her question and retired to bed.
"This early? What about dinner?" Cassie's questions fell on deaf ears for her brother continued to walk away silently.
****
Back at the Saxon mansion, David who was still convinced that the woman he had seen was the same woman that he had been looking for had all the security team on their toes.
"What's taking so long Polly? I need to review that footage myself...in fact forget it, let's go the surveillance room." He stood up from the chair from which he had been nervously sitting waiting for Edgar the head of security to bring the surveillance footage.
The two men briskly walked to the surveillance room which was situated at the basement floor of the castle. Although Polly was in very good shape, he had a hard time keeping up with his boss who appeared to be running instead of walking.
Without announcing his arrival, David asked Edgar who was looking through the footage with squinted eyes to move over.
"Mr. Saxon,,,," He said and paused. He wanted to advise David to slow down in case it wasn't this mystery woman.
"Have you seen her? Have you seen my Phoebe?" David asked impatiently.
Edgar sighed and shook his head. There was a lot of footage to go through since thousands of people visited the Saxon tower every day.
Just to be fair, it had only been a minute since the man had come down to the surveillance room before his boss barged in.
"Move over." David ordered as he shoved the man aside unintentionally. If not for Polly who supported Edgar's back when he stumbled, he would have fallen to the floor.
Slowly and meticulously, David began to scroll through the footage. Since he knew the person he was searching for it was way easier for him to identify the woman.
His finger pressed the pause button hastily when he saw the red head, then he went on on to play the video until Phoebe's face came into view.
"Yes! That's her, that's Phoebe Gabriel. The woman that I have been searching for all this time." He raised his hands to his head and let out a triumphant laugh.
The two security guards stared at the flat computer screen in disbelief. David had been right all along however the question was, if that was Phoebe Gabriel how come she didn't exist anywhere? She had no phone contact, social page on the internet, even the connections in the government couldn't find her.
"Find out everything about that woman, I want to know where she stays, where she works, where her family moved to. Bring me everything you can get on her, today." David's tongue pressed on the word today.
He even pushed his right hand pointing finger on one of the keyboard buttons continually as if he was pressing a demolition button to blow up something in a game.
They excused themselves and got to work because whatever a Saxon wants a Saxon gets especially those that come from the first branch of the family like David.
It was just a matter of time before Edgar came back with the answers that David had been searching for. This was possible because the 200 security personnel at the castle had to pause their tasks and focus on finding Phoebe Gabriel.
David was briefed immediately about the new findings.
"Mr. Saxon, the woman that you have been desperately searching for changed her identity from Phoebe Gabriel to Phoebe Hopkins, she lives and works at the Cerene luxurious apartments in this same city." Came Edgar's words that compelled David to rush out without waiting for the remaining information they had found out on Phoebe.
He met his grandmother in the foyer, the old woman was coming out of the dinning area and she was about to retire to bed.
"Why the rush dear?" She blocked his path using her foldable walking stick.
It was a chilly but perspiration ran down his forehead and his crystal blue eyes held excitement as he replied.
"I am moving out."
His response elicited a strong 'WHAT' from his grandmother because none of the Saxons were allowed to live outside their family homes.
All members of the Saxon family remained together and David knew that so why in God's name was he moving out.
Before she could ask her excited grandson follow up questions, he dashed out. He jumped into an elevator, went all the way to the garage, jumped into his car and drove off leaving the old woman puzzled.