Page 14 of Kaine

“About what? There’s nothing to do. She’s looking for a guy about 6”3 who wears a hoodie all the time. That’s three quarters of Harlem.”

“She mentioned the hospital bill.”

“Well, you and I are the only two people who know about that, and you’re not going to talk, and you pay me too much for me to talk, so you’re safe.”

“Fuck. What a mess. I do NOT want this out, Xavier.”

“Where are you?” he asks, ignoring my stress.

“In the shower,” I reply as I squeeze some body wash into my palm and lather up my chest and arms, letting the heat from the shower massage my aching body.

“Yeah. I’m going to call back. When you’re done being naked while I speak to you.”

“Don’t you fucking go anywhere until we’re done. Take care of this, Xavier,” I warn him.

“Okay, okay. Geez. You think she’s going to find you in city of 8 million? Based on a HOODIE? Egotistical much?” he chuckles, enjoying my pain.

I am not impressed.

“Take care of it,” I tell him one last time before hanging up the phone to finish my shower.

Truth is, I wish there was a way I could see her, without being found out.

Seeing her, albeit on screen, reawakened, or to the completely honest, amplified, my inexplicable obsession with her. Before, I had only seen her dazed, confused and drugged up. But watching her come completely alive and so animated, breathes life into my thoughts. I feel a strange sensation dig its nails into the darkest pit of my stomach, and I claw at my abs to try to dislodge it.

This is out of my control and that is not allowed. I don’t have a place for it in my life.

I rest my head gently against the cool shower wall, letting the water fall over my neck and shoulders, hoping it’ll wash this weird feeling away.

***

Dressing in the spareclothes I keep in my private bathroom in the small apartment I keep on the second highest floor, I take a glance in the mirror before I go to my office. I run my fingers over my left cheek, feeling the bumps and lines there. It’s been a while since I’ve studied them, but something makes me scrutinize my face more than usual. For a split second, I ponder how Jade will react if she ever saw me without my hoodie, but I banish the thought from my mind before the indulgent idea runs too far.

Running my fingers through my hair, I pull the hood over my head and ride the elevator to my office.

The floor is dark when I arrive. Except for the faint row of solar powered LED lights around the edges of the windows, I prefer that the building is kept dark outside of office hours, to preserve electricity. I press the button on the keypad, to illuminate just the area around my desk and go for a walk around the perimeter of the floor, looking out at the city before it floods with life.

She is out there somewhere.

And she is looking for me.

It seems like the plot for a story of star-crossed lovers, but there is nothing romantic about me. And I know better than to let my thoughts go down this road.

I walk back to my desk, passing the workstation on my way.

On the desk lays a plain white envelope, my name written on the front. The hand writing matches the one on the parcel I received the day before.

I turn and look around me, instinctively, wondering if I am being watched.

The envelope is sealed and I slide a finger under the flap, pulling out the single piece of card.

“Tick tock. You can’t stop me, if you don’t know who I am.

Your launch is in four weeks...I wonder when I should schedule mine?

The day before yours? Next week? Tomorrow?

Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.

J.”

My jaw tightens. Who is this guy? And how did he get this note here? Only one person has unlimited access to this floor, and that is me. Even Jemima is only allowed in after she receives the daily passcode from me when she arrives in the mornings.

I call down to the security office. “Carlos. I want to see the security footage of the workshop for the last 12 hours. Now. Call me when it’s ready and I’ll come down.”

I am going to get to the bottom of this. No one threatens me, and no one puts my company at risk.

I am going to find this ‘J’ and I am going to crush him.