“I bet you can.” She jumped to her feet and ran toward the door. He turned to block her, so she threw the coffee at him. It bounced off of him and splashed on the floor. Uninjured by her missile, he grabbed her arm.
Without thinking, she cocked her fist back and punched him full on the face. He went down hard, his glasses, wig, and hat flying off, and she gaped at his short, bright-red hair.
He made a spitting noise. Some type of mouth guard dropped to the floor, and she glanced at her hand. It had a smear of makeup across the knuckles.
Ignoring the bruise forming on his face, he jumped up, grabbed her by the shoulders, and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Lily. Stop.”
She bit him hard, but he didn't move. Of course he didn't, he’d already proven to her on numerous occasions he could withstand a considerable amount of pain.
He pinned her against the wall, and Gene’s voice said without a trace of a lisp, “For the love of God, Lily. I'm with the Cleveland Police.”
She struggled again, but he held her tighter. “I will let you go if you don't scream. I'll take out my wallet and show you.”
She shook her head. This was impossible. Her security guard was her lover who was also a police officer.
“I understand why you wouldn't believe me, then come with me to the Second Precinct. Hell, call the Second Precinct.”
Lillian stopped fighting. He was giving her permission to call the police?
She walked over to her computer and googled the Cleveland Police Second Precinct. She called their direct number.
“Ask to talk to Sergeant Charlie Layton. She should be in,” he suggested and opened his wallet to display an authentic appearing badge. If any part of him was authentic. “My name is Officer Sean Gene Murphy.”
They only took a couple seconds when she got transferred.
“Hello, this is Sergeant Layton,” a woman's voice said.
“Hello, this is Dr. Lillian Hernandez. I'm at MetroGen with an Officer Sean Murphy. Or so he claims.”
There was a loud sigh over the phone. “I see.”
“I need you to tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“Why don't you come down to the station? It's better if I explain it in person and not over an unsecured line.’
“Now?”
“Yes. I'm looking forward to seeing you and Officer Murphy,” Sergeant Layton said.
On what continued to be one of the weirdest days in existence, Lillian couldn't believe what she was hearing.
She’d been escorted into Sergeant Layton’s office with Officer Sean Gene Murphy standing silently in the corner.
“You're saying you thought a drug kingpin was following me?”
“Yes. We assigned Officer Murphy to confirm that and when it was confirmed, he continued to interact with you with the hopes that you may be approached again,” the blonde woman said calmly.
“So you sent him to my hospital. And then you sent him to…” Seduce her? “Do what undercover police officers do?”
“After Halloween, he already had your personal confidence. He simply continued your relationship with additional utilization of resources from the department.”
Something awful occurred to her. She’d gotten text messages back from Gene while Security Guard Murphy had been standing next to her giving her ‘unbiased’ romantic advice.
“Who was sending me flowers and text messages?”
“The members of our surveillance team, primarily myself during the day, and then Officer Murphy at night under my advisement.”
Every word made this worse and worse. “None of this was real. Not a single shred of truth.”
