Besides, Thorne Tech does not deal kindly with saboteurs. In the three years I have been with the company, I have seen Liam hire the best lawyers to get an internal saboteur the maximum sentence.
He has a way of looking calm yet dangerous when dealing with such matters and I would hate to have such vehemence aimed towards me. Based on previous observation, Liam, IT, and Thorne Tech’s security will investigate on their own first before they report anything. Quickly, I jolt down a note for him to find and place it on the coffee table.
I am nearly running around the house as I locate my diary, clothes and money jar. It is not a lot, 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.
So, her place is out, of course.
Hopefully my cousin will be understanding.
It’s a gamble, but Liam is not about to find me before he finds the truth.
Chapter Eight – Liam
It seems like a wonderful day when I wake up, but then again, every day has been wonderful since Anna arrived. She came into my life just when I needed a change and she turned out to be exactly 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. Our sex is always mind-blowing and leaves me little room for my brain cells to be active about anything else. 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, I like 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 that 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 Michael, asking me about why I hung up so fast and how I’d like 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 call 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’s Thorne, Michael. Do you have anything for me?”
“I guess you’re finally ready to hear about it,” he says.
Then 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 had hung up on him earlier, and the house is eerily quiet.
“Anna ”
I am running before I realize what I’m doing.
There is no sign of her in the kitchen, the dining room, thriving room… nor is she 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.