Page 35 of Bound By Mistake
“She tried to tell us... She tried to tell us, and we just thought it was part of the game.”
Silence follows my statement, heavy and oppressive. We may not want to acknowledge it, but none of us can deny it, and I have to stuff down the urge to punch something, because I know it won’t help.
“What the hell do we do?” Erik asks, his eyes haunted. “How do we make this right? The things we did to her…”
He can’t finish the sentence, but he doesn’t need to. I know we’re all thinking the same thing.
“We need to find her,” Gray finally states. Though how we’re supposed to do that, God only knows.
Erik nods. “Hopefully Tina can pinpoint a number. Hell, I’ll personally dial every single call that came in this morning, if we need to.”
“Do you think she’ll even see us?” I wonder out loud. “After what we did…”
Gray shakes his head, his expression harrowed. “Who knows, but… she called, didn’t she? That has to mean something.”
“Yeah, probably that she’s about to have us all arrested,” Erik spits, derision in every word.
“I’m not sure she’d give us any forewarning of that,” I say, trying to ease the dreadful shadow that’s engulfed the room. It falls flat, only making things worse.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Erik replies with barely restrained anger, which I know is aimed at himself. “She probably wants to check she has the right people, at least.”
We’re interrupted by Tina who stops short when she sees the mess Erik made, then, like the consummate professional she is, stoically ignores it and places a neatly written note on the boardroom table in front of us. “I believe this is the number you asked for,” she tells us, casting a furtive look at the wall before she leaves.
This is exactly what we wanted, but now we have it, the three of us just stare at the innocuous slip of paper like it might bite.
“Ah… this doesn’t seem like the kind of conversation we should have over the phone,” I tell my friends as I commit the number to memory. Gray isn’t so subtle. He inputs Sierra’s details into his contact list.
“So how do we handle this?” Erik asks the question we’re all mulling over in our minds.
“Think we track her down and go see her in person,” Gray says, decisively.
“Yeah, ‘cos that’s not at all stalkerish, after everything we’ve done to her”, I goad, even though I agree. I’m just not sure what kind of reception we’ll get… But actually, that doesn’t matter, does it? Because what we do need to do is man the hell up and try to make this right.
If that’s even possible.
“And if we end up on the wrong side of a jail cell?” Erik challenges, though I have no doubt he’s also on board with the plan.
I huff out a resigned breath. “Then we do the only thing we can. We tell the truth.”
Gray finds another contact on his phone, and I listen with half an ear, my mind wandering over various scenarios. He supplies the IT guy who ferrets out information for us with Sierra’s name, phone number and a description, telling him he wants a last name and an address as soon as humanly possible.
Nobody mentions how all this could tank the company, endangering the jobs of hundreds of people. How it might cripple our reputations to the extent that no amount of money can insulate us from the fall out. Or how we really might end up in prison because of a mistake that had such dire consequences.
Well, if that’s the way things go, then it’ll be our cross to bear.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
SIERRA
It’s been twelve days, two hours and fifty-one minutes since I last set eyes on Gray, Erik and Cain as they drove away after leaving me at Wildwood Retreat, but who’s counting?
Me, that’s who.
Despite calling them three days ago, I haven’t had the nerve to try again, but the idea mocks me. It whispers through my mind when I should be concentrating on other things.
And now it’s Friday evening. Work is done, the weekend looms ahead of me, and the thoughts that threaten to consume me are ten times worse now I don’t have my job as a business analyst to divert them.
