Page 51 of Locked Down

“Thanks,”she said softly as she wrapped her fingers around the heavy paper cup.

“Are you ready for this?”he inquired as he pulled away from the curb.

“Ready to betray my friend and my uncle? No.”She studied him. He was wearing another light gray suit with a white pinstripe and a snowy white shirt. His sky-blue tie matched his eyes. Why the hell did he have to be so damn sexy? She turned to stare out the window.

“If there was any other way?—”

“I get it. I get it,”she waved him off.“I know there's no other way. I know what you told me. And if I'm being completely honest, I agree. My uncle is up to something. The thing is Ryker, I'm just not sure I want to know what that something is, and I don’t want to be the one who betrays him. Some of what he does might be…isquestionable but he has given me a life outside of the commune. I owe him for that.”

“It would be nice if we could all be ostriches,”he commented, not unkindly.“The problem with that is if we all have our heads in the sand then there's no one left to know what's really going on. Look at it this way; we figure it out, stop your uncle if he’s going to do something stupid or dangerous, and it's over. You get to go on to whatever life you want to live.”

He made it sound so easy. Like doing this didn’t matter at all. But it did.

The guilt that stabbed a knife between her ribs said it mattered a great deal.“No, that's not how this goes. I'm out of here in a couple of weeks and no matter what my uncle's doing whether you've fixed it or not, I am gone.”She meant what she said. When she couldn't sleep last night, she’d made her decision to leave no matter what. That stupid rule about having a job was brutal. She'd take vacation if she thought her uncle would let her. Just call in her resignation. She'd even sort of tried to float the idea a couple of weeks ago before all this started. Her uncle had told her in no uncertain terms she had to be around the whole summer, and if she wanted a vacation she could take it over Christmas.

Ryker seemed to sense that she was done talking about it. Instead, he said,“Do you want to run over the plan again?”

“No. I know what we're doing. I'll be quick but you have to promise me something. Promise me that no matter what we find out: no matter how bad it is, you're not going to drag me any further into this. I don't want to be anywhere near the rest of this.”She meant this down to her very marrow. It was like she was already drowning. One more big wave and she’d be gone forever.

Ryker glanced in her direction.“I can't make any promises, Vic. I wish I could, but I can't. Until I know what's going on with your uncle, everything is on the table.”

Ryker parked his Porsche in front of the building, and she hopped out, immediately going down the street to her favorite bakery. She got Tracy an orange cranberry muffin and a poppyseed for her uncle. The guilt was eating her alive. Then she ordered herself a double chocolate one. She was going to eat that guilt right back. She made her way up into the office but was surprised when the elevator doors opened. There were at least eight to ten people already here. What was going on?

“Hey girl, what are you doing here this early?”said Tracy.

“I… uh, couldn't sleep. What's everyone doing here this early? Do you guys always come in this early? And why are there so many people here?”

Tracy laughed.“Nah, not this early. We're getting close to your uncle's big reveal. He wants us to work double time to make sure everything is lined up and all the pieces of this marketing campaign are in place. He brought in the IT guys to beef up the network security. He thinks that when he announces his special project that all kinds of people might try to cause issues. So, that means lots of early and late hours.”

The alarm bells in her head couldn’t possibly get any louder. Made it hard to concentrate, but she gamely put on a smile.“Well then, I guess it's a good thing I brought coffee.”Vic set the coffee down on her friend's desk,“And this muffin. Cranberry orange, I believe that's your favorite?”

“Vic, you're the bomb,”Tracy said with glee as she ripped open the bag and immediately started peeling the paper wrapper off the fragrant muffin.

“People, if I could have your attention, please,”Ryker said in an authoritative voice.“I need you all to follow me into the boardroom. We need to have a quick chat about some security issues.”

“Does he mean now?”Tracy asked with her mouth full of muffin.

“Yes, he means now. He means business. I got the lecture on the way over.”Vic rolled her eyes.

“Your boyfriend is a bit intense,”Tracy said as she swallowed another bite of muffin.

Heat rushed into Vic’s cheeks.“He’s not my boyfriend,”she blurted.“He just gives me a ride to work sometimes. I think my uncle makes him.”

Tracy grinned.“No way your uncle makes that man do anything. And the glow in your cheeks tells me you like him. Don’t blame you one bit. He is definitely hot.”Her friend winked at her.“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything, but you have to tell me the deets Friday night over drinks.”

“There’s nothing to tell. Honest.”Vic’s stomach curled into a ball. She hated herself for telling her friend a bald-faced lie.

Ryker stood outside of the conference room with his arms folded across his chest. His face was a mask of seriousness with no hint of humor or warmth.

“I’d better get in there. He’s not looking happy,”Tracy darted her eyes towards Ryker and then back at Vic.“I hope it’s not too serious.”

Vic also kept her voice low.“Someone got in through security without showing their ID or something. I don't know. He rambled on about it this morning on the drive here. I didn't pay that close attention. I didn't sleep well last night and honestly, I just couldn't focus.”Vic figured a partial truth was better than a complete lie.

Tracy came up from behind her desk and followed the crowd towards the boardroom. She squeezed Vic's shoulder on the way by.“Hang in there, girl. Your birthday is coming. We’ll be done with all this by then and we can go out and celebrate in style.”

Nerves bounces around Vic’s gut as she watched the whole office staff walk into the boardroom.. She held her breath as the boardroom door closed. She lied to her friend whose only crime was following her uncle’s rules. She hated this.Hated it.

She quickly dashed around the desk, flipped open Tracy's laptop and stared at the screen. What was her password? Vic typed in Paddington Bear* capital P capital B but the screen stayed locked. Sweat broke out across her back now. When did Tracy change her password? Oh God, this was a nightmare. What was she gonna do?

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