Page 66 of Anarchy Missing
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - LULU
He stands up from the table and comes around behind me. I know we’ve been fighting, and I still think I’m right and he’s got things inside that head of his that could help me and Randy figure out what’s going on. But I really did come here for the sex. Maybe that wasn’t the entire reason I came back to Cathedral City, but I’d be lying if I said Case wasn’t on my mind when I made the decision.
His hands are so warm when they press down on my shoulders. “Come on, Lulu. Let’s start over.”
When he takes my hand to pull me to my feet I don’t object. And when he leads me towards the stairs and starts climbing, I submissively follow.
I’m tired of the arguing.
At the top of the stairs we turn left, towards two large double doors standing open, and walk into his master bedroom. It’s neat and tidy. Not a lot of furniture, but what he has—a low, king-sized, platform bed, end tables on either side, a chrome lamp atop each, and metal artwork on the walls—is extremely modern.
His style is minimalistic. Sleek lines, hard edgy surfaces, and a monochromatic scale of white, gray and black.
There’s a fireplace hanging from the ceiling by a long chrome-plated pole. He leads me towards it, tells me to “Sit,” pointing to a luxurious Flokati rug. I kneel down, my hands pressing into the soft, thick fibers, and watch him carefully as he flicks a switch on the wall and the fireplace lights up with a quick whoosh of flames.
He takes off his suit coat and tosses it onto a nearby chair.
When he turns to face me, loosening his tie just enough for me to understand what will be happening next, he looks… different. Not the man I’m pursuing for Randy. Just the guy I once knew so many years ago.
“I’ve missed you,” I say. Meaning it.
He smiles as he crosses the small distance from the wall back to me, and then drops down on the rug and lies back, kicking off his shoes. “Tell me what you’ve been doing since you left. And leave all the bad parts out.”
I giggle at that, then slide my shoes off, tossing them aside, as I lie back next to him. His arm finds its way underneath me and he begins to stroke my shoulder. Even through the fabric of my blouse, I can feel his warmth.
“For now, anyway,” he adds to his request. “I want to know about them, of course. But we’ve got enough bad parts going on at the moment. No need to add to the list.”
“I went to school,” I say, skipping the stupid details like university and major. “Then law school. Then home to Wolf Valley where I worked for a while as an assistant DA. Then I came… home. That was two weeks ago.”
“You just covered seven years in four sentences. I might’ve given you the wrong impression when I asked for the short version. Please don’t tell me it was all so bad, that’s all there is to say?”
Welp. I’m not answering that, for sure. So I change the subject. “Give me your four sentences, Case.”
“OK,” he says, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “I finished college too. I started ToyBox back when I was in high school, but I got funding help from Thomas to build this compound. Partied a lot with Lincoln. And then Thomas moved SkyEye Corporate back to Cathedral City, and now we’re a team again.”
“Hmmm,” I say, closing my eyes so I can enjoy the newness of how we feel together. “What about your childhood? Can you sum that up in four sentences?”
“Well,” he says, hesitating a little longer this time. “I went to boarding school where I met Linc and Thomas. We left there together as teens. Thomas went one way, Linc and I went another. Then we met up again. And that’s that.”
“Somehow I don’t think that’s that. Although I didn’t realize you thought of your kidnapping as school.”
“It was a school,” he says without emotion.
I don’t even know how to process this. I knew, even back in my teens when I had that huge crush on him, that he was kidnapped. But he never talked about it when we were at rehearsals. I sorta forgot. “Was it a kidnapping?”
“No.” He says it with such finality, there is no room for doubt. “My father made me go.”
“So all that hype about the kidnapping when you guys came home, that was a lie?”
“One hundred percent lies. You’d be shocked if you knew how little truth is out there, Lulu. Reality is nothing but lies.”
“Do you want to have sex with me?” I ask, searching for some truth.
“For sure.”
“Even if we can’t get along tomorrow when the problems come back? Even if we become enemies?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
