Under His Watchful Eye

I am nearly running around the house as I locate my diary, clothes and money jar. It is not slot, but there is enough money to get me where I need to go. When I rush back outside, I almost sag with relief when I find the cab still waiting. Clambering inside, I give him directions to my cousin’s place.

Ava, my friend from work, is who they will go to first.

It is a gamble but Liam is not about to find me before he finds the truth.

Chapter Seven

Liam

It seems like a wonderful day when I wake up, but then again every day has been wonderful since Anna came here. She came into my life just when I needed a change and she turned out to be what I needed.

Not the company.

Not the wealth.

Just her.

I had planned on asking her to be my girlfriend yesterday, but when we started making love, I forgot all about it. Today is definitely the day I ask her to exclusively be with me so that we can see what we can make of this connection between us.

I take my shower wishing I had woken up earlier, but still looking forward to eating breakfast with her. We seem to have fallen into a routine of sorts and I would be lying if I said I don’t appreciate the normalcy. Sex aside, Ilike helping out while she is cooking in the kitchen, I like discussing decisions and life in general in the dining room, I like seeing her on the other side of the desk, and I especially love waking up next to her.

How can I not when Anna is the best thing that ever happened to me?

The house is really silent when I get out of the bathroom so I figure out she must be in the office. I am really famished, but I may as well say good morning before the day starts officially. However, when I get to the office, there is no sign of Anna apart from her laptop and some of the papers she was working on yesterday in the printer.

Perhaps she is downstairs.

Deciding I may as well, I sit down to check my work email. When I do, I find that the most recent ones are from Tim asking me about why I hang up so fast and how to proceed. Surprised, I go to find the office phone and find it placed on the side of the dialer instead of sitting on top of it. There is a persistent bad feeling in my chest when I ring Michael and in a few seconds, I understand why that is. The phone rings twice before he picks it up on the third ring.

“Hello.”

“It is Thorne Michael. Do you have anything for me?”

He launches into one of his excited babbles as he tells me of the methods they used and how they went about finding out who our saboteurs are. Ultimately though, it all points to Tim Buck the head of marketing, and Anna Mallon, an employee from marketing.

He keeps talking, but my heart all but sinks. I can hear his talk on the other end, but I cannot think past the name Anna Mallon. Anna has been in the company for a while now and she has never shown any suspicious behaviour. She has been in my life and has never…

“Wait a minute Michael.” I interrupt him as an idea pops into my mind.”Apart from her IP address being used, are there any suspicious emails, calls or apps she has used in the past two months?”

He is silent for a while before telling me that he will need to check. I hang up as the sense of dread pools in my stomach.

Anna’s computer and papers are the only thing on the office. Tim said I hang up on him earlier, and the house in eerily quiet.

“ANNA! ”

i am running before I realize what I am doing.

There is no sign of her in the kitchen, the dining room, thriving room…not downstairs at all. I take the stairs two at a time to run to the room she had upstairs and almost collapse on the bed itself. The bag she kept there has been taken.

Anna Mallon has just disappeared.

Running back, I hit the panic room in record time to access the front door and front gate camera and there she is. She is in my T shirt and some black leggings when she leaves on the call with someone. She waited at the front gate for thirty minutes before a cab came and she ran in.

It isn’t the thought of her leaving that has be gripping the sides of the chair. It is the expression on her face in the camera. She looks scared and hurt as she waits for the cab like she is running from something dangerous. Her knuckles are while from clutching the bag so hard and there are tears she keep wiping away from time to time until she pulls up a blue face mask and jumps into the cab.