The rest of the week drug on and only seemed to confirm my suspicion as there was no sign of Cooper. Every morning, I arrived on time and went directly to my office to work on the project Cooper had assigned to me before he had dropped off the face of the earth. At some point, on my first day, he had emailed me the name of the competitor he was interested in, along with a list of all of their products. I had spent the week making a spreadsheet of all the products and listing out each ingredient. I had worked every day from eight-thirty to five and had seen no sign of him. I’d even stayed late a few days, hoping maybe he would come by once the majority of the other employees had gone home for the day.
Nothing.
By Friday, I was more than a little irritated. I had called him a couple of times, but had hung up before leaving a message, never able to find the words to say once the beep sounded. I had started to write multiple emails to him, but never knew what to write. I didn’t want to be clingy and desperate-sounding and I didn’t want to release my rage and alienate him even further. In the end, I always deleted the messages and tried to refocus back on work.
I was typing away at my desk when an assistant came by and gave me an envelope. It was stamped with the company logo and my heart soared, wondering if it was from Cooper. I tore it open and it was only a paycheck stub showing what had been deposited into my account. I couldn’t help but push away my frustration for a moment as I stared down at the huge number. And that had just been for my first week! I also noted another figure—five hundred and three dollars. The line next to it said Misc.
It took me a moment before I realized it was the money that had been left at Cooper’s house when he had taken me away from the strip club. During our weekend together, I had completely forgotten to ask about it and he hadn’t brought it up either. But obviously, it had not been altogether forgotten.
A sad smile spread across my face as I tucked the statement into my bag and went back to staring at my computer screen.
Where is he? I thought about going up to his office, but the prospect of asking his dragon of a secretary for his whereabouts was more than I could deal with at the moment.
I tried to focus on building my spreadsheet, knowing that the next week I would have to actually start hacking and gathering real data, but it was pointless. My mind kept flitting back to Cooper and before I could get any real work done, it was five o’clock and I was ready to shut it all down and go home.
I ‘d been driving my car to work, since riding Cherry Bomb wouldn’t exactly allow me to wear most of my professional attire, and decided that when I got home I would start looking up a place to take Cherry Bomb to get her seat replaced and then go for a long ride up the coastline on Sunday. A good, long ride would help clear my head.
The disaster with Cooper aside, everything else was working out just fine. My rent was paid, I would be able to get my bike seat replaced, get the remainder of my debt paid off within a matter of months, and then start a savings account and whatever else it was people with extra money do. I had never been in that position before, but I knew I could figure it out.
Once home, I made a quick salad and sat down at the computer to start looking up shops for Cherry Bomb. I knew Tank would give me a good referral, but I didn’t want to go to the bar. I wasn’t in the mood. So, I did my own research.
“Shit! Dammit!” The ad showing Plush’s newest fragrance displayed, and I growled in frustration, angry that I couldn’t escape Cooper no matter what I was doing.
My fingers twitched over my keyboard, dying to track him down and end the mystery. To confront him once and for all. If I got fired, oh well. I had enough in my bank account to scrape by for a while now that my first check had been deposited.
I waited a minute, trying to talk myself out of it, but in the end, my fingers won and they typed frantically into the GPS hacking software. I hit the Enter key and waited.
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I saw the result.
He was at the actress’s house…again.
“That’s it!” I shouted, launching off the couch. I slammed the laptop shut and stormed into my bedroom to get changed.
I changed into my leathers in record time and strapped my feet into my riding boots. Feeling absolutely wild, I said goodbye to Sam and flew out of the apartment and down to Cherry Bomb. The bike rumbled to life underneath me, I revved the engine and then took off into the rapidly descending darkness.
I retraced the path to her house by memory and parked in the same place, across the street, and waited. Every cell of my body was alive, pulsing with anger, as I mentally laid out the charges against Cooper in my mind.
All he does is lie.
He played you, Allie.
He used gifts and money as a way to use you however he saw fit.
All he cares about is his money and himself.
What were you thinking?
I shook my head at the last thought. I would rail against myself later, possibly for years to come, for losing my head over a man…this man.
Not waiting another minute, I stomped across the street, loving the badass sound of my boots hitting the cement under my feet. I nearly charged right up to the front door when I heard sirens in the distance, racing closer and closer.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed. I stepped off the path that led to the front door and ducked behind a stone wall. I didn’t know why I was so panicked, but I didn’t want to be found prowling around some actress’s house, looking like I was about to murder someone.
The wailing sound got even louder and I peeked over the wall to see that there was an ambulance pulling into the driveway.
What the…?
I ducked back again and listened.