Page 31 of In Bed with the Enemy

My eyes widened. "That's not much notice."

"Did you have another commitment or something?" Jeff asked, obviously aware of the fact that I'd been doing next to nothing in my job since the conference.

"No," I replied, not feeling the need to try and hide it.

"Great. I'll email you the details. Be ready in a few minutes. We'll drive together."

"Okay," I said before we both hung up.

His email came within a few seconds and all it had was an address. I wasn't even sure what I would be doing there, but I didn't really think to ask, because I really wasn't sure that I cared. When I got there, I guess I'd understand more.

I took a look at the address and realized it was one of the solar fields for the original investor that had pulled out of investing in my invention. I let out a dramatic sigh. It was a fairly long trip to a random spot on the highway, which was where a lot of these fields were being built, at least in the Bay area.

I really wasn't thrilled with the idea of taking an hour's drive with my boss, but I guess it would fill up another afternoon of boredom.

An hour and a Starbucks stop later, we arrived at the site. There was already a black Mercedes sedan there and I furrowed my eyebrows at it. I didn't remember these particular investors being super fancy. They were more of your blue-collar type.

I got out of the car and looked back at Jeff with a questioning look. He didn't get out of the car, instead, he just rolled down the window. "See you later, Amy," he replied and my eyes widened.

"Jeff, what the fuck is going on?" I screamed at him, but he was already putting the car in reverse and driving off.

Did he really just leave me in the fucking desert on the side of the road? My heart was pounding, and I started to shuffle through my purse to fish out my cell phone, praying I hadn't been an idiot and left it back at the office.

I breathed a sigh of relief when my hand latched onto the little device.

"Amy," a voice behind me called out and I jumped. I turned around, and my eyes widened.

"Ethan?"

Ethan Greene was standing in front of me, in a pair of jeans and a black tee-shirt. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't be too mad at Jeff. I asked him to bring you here."

"You asked him to drop me off in the middle of the desert? Because I refused to answer the phone for you?"

"Sort of, yes," Ethan replied a bit bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

"This better be fucking good," I said, stomping my feet into the ground, a plume of dust rising up around us.

"Come here, please," he said, holding out his hand. "I want to show you something."

I stood still, just looking at him, scrunching my face.

"Please, Amy?"

I looked up into his green eyes and sighed. His eyes were always so sad, so sincere.

"Fine," I said, trying to keep my defenses up around him. I moved forward but didn't take his hand. He wrapped it around my waist, and I huffed but didn't push him off of me.

He guided me through the heavy gate that protected the solar field, using the pin code that only the owner should have known. "We purchased this solar field a few months ago," he explained, obviously catching on to my confusion. "And in that time, we've made some changes."

He walked me up to the first panel system, and I nearly fainted. There, at the base of the stand, was my device. I followed the lines that ran from it into the ground and looked up. Ethan pointed a little way to our right, and I saw the corresponding battery tank where the additional energy was being fed.

"They've been installed on this entire field," he said.

My eyes widened even further. This was an over one hundred acre solar array. It was a massive undertaking. I stayed silent, but only because I didn't know what to say.

"Not only that, but we've purchased three other fields in the state of California, and we're working on getting permits to purchase in other states as well. Everything we own already has your device installed. Everything we will own will see that it's installed, as well."

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