Page 23 of Year-End Bonus
"She doesn't want forever, and we do. For four years, I’ve thought of no one but her. I’ve jacked off to her every night, every morning. I’ve fucking pined for her."
"We all have," Mark reminds me.
"You offered her one night, and you think she's going to fall in love with us?" I raise my hands, unfamiliar with the despair coursing through my body. "I don't know what to do."
"You feel helpless. We all do. But, Paul, we're going to find her."
I shake my head, refusing to listen to him. I can't remember the last time I felt this defeated.
"Look, if we can't find her, no one can. And that's simply unacceptable."
Suddenly, Mark is speaking my language. Itisunacceptable. We’re one of the best tech companies—nay,thebest tech company—in the city. We, of all people, have the resources to find her.
Hunter chooses that moment to storm through the door. He sits behind my desk, his laptop in his hand. "I'm tired of messing around with your private investigators. They know how to find credit reports, but they don't know how to find a woman who disappeared into thin air."
"What are you going to do?" I ask, the adrenaline of hope coursing through my body and tempering my rage.
"Well, tracking her for four years like psychopaths can only be to our advantage," Hunter opines wryly. He clicks away on his computer, stopping for a moment to toss me his phone. "Call HR. Ask for a complete file on Skylar Miller. We want everything. Find out who she named as her beneficiary on her life insurance policy."
It’s a smart move. And something that would have occurred to me if I had my head in the game. As a company, we offer a free life insurance policy to all employees, so she certainly would have named someone.
"I should have thought of that," I admit.
Hunter grunts at me. "It's why I get paid the big bucks."
"Where's the note again? Maybe we missed something," Mark suggests.
I scoop it off the floor and hand it to him.
Mark reads it out loud. “Guys, I can never, ever thank you enough for making all my fantasies come true. I had a family emergency, and I have to go, but I’ll live on these memories for the rest of my life. Thank you. XOXO. Skylar.”
"The little minx," Hunter says, a grin on his face despite his concentration.
“I’ll x her o’s,” Mark grits out.
I laugh reluctantly. Mark is unflappable. He never gets upset. But right now, he’s furious. He looks like a man who would like to punish someone. He looks like a man in love. And I have a sinking suspicion he’s a reflection of all of us.
“How much longer do you need, Hunter?” I ask.
He doesn't take his eyes off the screen. "As long as it takes."
"All right, you keep working. Mark, order some coffee." I stand and head to my bedroom to get some pants.
"Where are you going?" Mark yells after me.
"It's Christmas Eve. HR is home for the day, so I'm going down to the office to pull the files myself."
One of the many benefits of having an experienced assistant is that Debbie also loves to make duplicate paper copies of almost everything. We've had to buy her additional filing cabinets to hold all the paperwork she accumulates and refuses to get rid of.
It was my New Year's resolution for the office to convince her to scan the documents onto an external drive. But now, I'm letting Debbie keep her filing system for as long as her blessed heart wants because it's the reason we’ll be able to find our girl.
An hour later, Hunter storms into Debbie's office as I'm knee-deep in files. Mark hustles after him, his cellphone to his ear as he barks orders to get the jet ready. Hunter's face is triumphant as he holds a small piece of paper above his head.
"She got a call sometime during the night. They left her a voicemail. I can't access it, but I was able to track down the phone."
"Good job. Who is it registered to?" I stand, holding two files I thought might be helpful. I shove the remaining folders back into the cabinet, knowing Debbie will yell at me for my lack of organization but not caring at this moment. She gets an excellent bonus for tolerating my insolent ass each year. I'll double it after we find Skylar.
"It's a payphone."
