BARRY DROVE him to work, dropping him off at the office, and then went to park the car away from the building, saying he should have done that yesterday. Phillip joined some of the others and rode up to the office, trying to stop his leg from bouncing the entire time.
He went to his office, and when Barry messaged, Phillip let him in and walked with him to the conference room he’d been using yesterday. Then Phillip did his best to get back to work. His productivity sucked, but he did his best.
A knock on the door interrupted him as he was scrolling through his email. “Morning, Clark,” Phillip said he saw his VP of operations standing in the doorway.
“I just wanted to see how you were feeling. You seemed uncomfortable yesterday. Is everything all right?”
“Yeah. I’m still a little sore from my accident, but it’s getting better.” Phillip met his gaze, looking for some sign of obsession, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Clark was a hardworking, earnest type of guy who took things very seriously.
“Can I ask who the man is in the conference room?”
Phillip nodded and messaged Barry before getting up from his desk. “Let me introduce you.” He met Barry outside his office. “Clark Gunderson, this is Barry Malone. He’s my boyfriend and a security consultant. His offices are being remodeled and expanded, and he asked if he could use one of our conference rooms for a few days.” He met Barry’s gaze, and Barry gently placed his hand on Phillip’s shoulder for just a few seconds. It was a tender gesture, and Phillip was pretty sure than anyone who saw it would understand what it meant.
“Good to meet you,” Clark said with a genuine smile.
“Clark is my head of operations,” Phillip told Barry. The two men shook hands, and Phillip was pleased as they began talking.
“You’re in security?”
“Yes. I design and manage security and access systems.”
“Excellent. What’s your background? Military?” Clark was his usual go-getter self. When Barry nodded, Clark continued, “I’ve been wanting to do a review of what we have and see where improvements can be made. Would you be able to get together next week to see if what we need is something you can handle? The usual sources aren’t doing it for us right now.”
Barry nodded. “I would be happy to.” He and Clark exchanged business cards. “I’ll call and set something up.”
Clark smiled, checked his watch, and excused himself, hurrying off the way he normally did. Phillip flashed a quick smile and turned to go back in his office, pausing at Leonard’s desk.
“I see you added some new meetings for today?” Leonard said.
“Yeah.” Phillip rolled his eyes. “Hopefully they’ll be short. I have some ideas about the new platform, but I needed some additional expertise.” Like he had been with everyone for the past two days, he checked Leonard’s expression for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. He released a breath he’d been holding. “Would you mind picking us up some Greek food from the place a few blocks away? I’d like to do some planning with you for the next few weeks. That is, if you don’t have lunch plans.”
“That will be good. I’ll go ahead and place the order. You need to go get to your meeting.” Leonard turned away to go back to his computer, and Phillip went into his office, grabbed an empty file, and left his office for his meeting with Heston.
“Did you have any trouble getting in the building?” Phillip asked as soon as he closed the door.
“Everything was good. I checked out the room before you got here just in case, and it’s clean. We can talk. Did anything unusual happen this morning?”
“No. Did you get your desk?”
Heston nodded. “Good job with the whole boyfriend announcement thing. People are already talking about it, so everyone is going to know about you and the big guy very soon, with few words needing to be said by either of you. That was subtle and effective.”
“Now we wait,” Phillip said. That was the hard part.
“Yes. But I’m here and you have my number.” He opened his case and pulled out a small plastic device that looked like the part to a game. “Put this in your pocket. If something happens, just push it. That’s all you need to do. I can track you and will be there as fast as possible. Call or text if you can, but this will alert me that you’re in trouble.” He pressed the button, and his phone vibrated across the table and didn’t stop until Heston answered the message. “Just an additional precaution. Keep it in your pocket at all times.”
“Okay.” He hated that he was so damned nervous.
Heston leaned over the table. “Look, nothing may happen today or tomorrow. But it will happen. This guy isn’t going to stop—this kind of guy doesn’t. We arranged for me to be here a few days, and the button has infinite range as long as it’s near a cell tower. However, it works best in close range, for obvious reasons. You and I will only meet in our ‘meetings,’ so otherwise, go about your work, and I’ll do the same. Are there any questions?”
“I don’t think so,” Phillip said, still nervous, and wishing Barry were here as well.
“Okay. I’ve gone over everything with Barry.”
“Does he have a button too?” Phillip asked. “I know he can take care of himself, but he’s already been the target once.”
Heston nodded. “I already gave him one. You know… you’d have made a good Marine, I bet. You’re gutsy, plan well, watch out for those important to you, and you have a damned lot of heart. That’s Marine material.”
Phillip looked down at himself. “Yeah, the skinniest, geekiest Marine ever.”
“We had geeks in the corps, and they were highly sought after. They could scramble enemy communications and make them run in circles better than anyone you’ve ever seen.” Heston leaned back in the chair for a few seconds before standing and opening the door. “That will be just fine, Phillip. If it’s okay, I’ll stay here and work to refine the proposal. I know we had time set aside this afternoon. I’d like to try to put together something much closer to your needs, and we can talk about it then.” Heston deserved an award for how easily the cover story they had concocted rolled off his lips. Phillip actually found himself believing it, which only made it easier for him to go along.
“Great. I’ll leave you to it then and speak to you later.” They left the room, with Heston heading back to the guest area, and Phillip to his office, where he prepped for his next teleconference, which went well and ended a little early. That gave him some time alone to think.
“Manny would like to speak to you,” Leonard direct-messaged him, and Phillip slipped his hand into his pocket after answering to send him in.
He tried not to act tense as Manny came into his office and closed the door. “What can I do for you?” Phillip sat back in his chair, hoping he looked relaxed, because he sure didn’t feel like it. Yeah, he didn’t think Manny was behind this, but what if he was and they were all wrong? It was hard not to discount the entire idea. “Is there an issue?”
“Yes,” Manny said, tensing slightly. Phillip fingered the little button in his pocket again. “But it’s the best type of problem we can have. We know that word has spread that we’re working on a new, more dynamic platform, and we’re getting calls about it very steadily. We have for a while.” Manny stood behind one of Phillip’s desk chairs, his hands resting on the back. “So far this morning, we’ve received eight calls congratulating us, and I had no idea why.” Manny pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket. “We were named Gaming Platform of the Year by Video Gaming Magazine.” Manny beamed. “I hadn’t seen it, but apparently it just came out today. I wanted to give you the good news personally.” He rocked back and forth on his heels.
“That’s awesome.” Phillip smiled at the piece of encouragement. He certainly needed it today. Phillip pulled his hand out of his pocket and read over what Manny had given him. “Would you send this to Clark in operations and Wilson in marketing? They’ll know exactly how to make the most out of something like this.”
“Sure thing,” he said with a grin and turned to leave. “This is going to be a real boost for all of us.”
“Yes, it is.” Phillip stood and thanked Manny again before he left the office with a spring in his step. Phillip was actually smiling. This was very good news and was guaranteed to send sales through the roof, at least for a while. He messaged Barry about it and got a text whoop and a grinning face in return.
We’ll definitely need to celebrate, Barry texted back.
Phillip checked his schedule and the time before messaging Leonard to join him when lunch arrived. Phillip got out his materials and was reviewing what he wanted to go over with Leonard when his assistant came into the office and closed the door. “Where’s lunch?”
Leonard stalked over to his desk, standing right in front of it. “No one is going to disturb us today.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gun, pointing it right at Phillip. “Sometimes I think you are the most oblivious man on the face of the earth.” His lips twisted, and Phillip slowly slid his hand into his pocket… only to find it empty. Shit! He stared down the barrel of the gun and wondered if he was about to die.
“What are you doing?” He tried to think of ways to get Leonard talking, like they did on television. He only hoped he could do that without wetting himself.
Leonard shook his head. “Everyone around here thinks you’re the nicest person, the leader, the one no one can live without. But fucking hell, you’re so obtuse, you can’t even see what the fuck is right in front of your face.”
Phillip stayed still. “I don’t understand.”
“Bullshit. I know you’ve been hiding, and I know you were there when your current huge boyfriend’s car blew up. I know a great deal about you, and I always have.” He grinned. “I’ve seen you all the time. I know when you stay late that you sit in here with your little headphones on sometimes and work away. I know that when you’re working through a problem, you bite your lower lip almost until it’s raw. You always have, even when we were in high school.”
Phillip slowly pulled his hand out of his pocket, checking the seat for the button, but it wasn’t there either. Damn, he was in real trouble and, fuck it all, he had never really thought of Leonard. How stupid could he be?
“But why?” Phillip asked. “I don’t understand. I was your friend, and I gave you a job when you needed one. You’re the best assistant I could ever have. Why are you doing this?”
Leonard leaned over the desk. “Slide your chair back so I can see your hands. Move too fast and you’re dead.” He glared until Phillip did as he asked, moving slowly, trying to think of a way out of this mess. Phillip glanced at his phone on his desk, getting farther and farther away from him. One avenue for help was out, and he couldn’t find the damned emergency button.
His heart pounded a mile a minute as he tried to think. “Okay, I did as you said.” Phillip glanced down and saw the button on the floor, right near the leg of the desk. He was just close enough that he might be able to reach it with his leg, but Leonard was sure to spot the movement. “Why are you doing this?”
“God, you really are stupid. All through fucking high school I was there for you, and you were my friend. I watched a parade of guys hit on you, wanting your attention. Hell, I wanted your attention. Some of those assholes were the devil to get rid of, but I did.” Leonard leaned closer over the desk. “You were supposed to see me. I was always there, but you never noticed. Then I started working here and you were so busy. I screened most of your calls. That made it easy to get rid of the parade of losers you hooked up with.”
“You broke up my relationships?” Phillip asked, going over them in his head. Damn, he really was out of it. He’d thought his boyfriends had become tired of him, but fucking hell, Leonard had been scaring them off.
“Sure. You were supposed to be mine. We’re perfect for each other. Why in the hell do you think I’m such a good assistant? Because I know you as well as or better than you know yourself. You dated all those losers when I was right under your nose the entire time. All you had to do was see me, but you never did.”
Phillip swallowed. “Then why didn’t you say anything? You know I thought you were my friend and I didn’t want to mess that up.” He had to stall for time to figure something out. Leonard’s hands shook, and that couldn’t be good. The gun could go off at any time and blow a hole in his head. “I mean, what if things hadn’t worked out? I would have lost both you and your friendship.” He hoped that sounded plausible. In truth, Leonard was a much better assistant than he had been a friend.
“You should have seen what was in front of you. I did everything for you and I still do, but you never open your eyes. I got rid of the losers, and then they started coming back, so I had to resort to a more permanent solution. But now we’re going to bring all of this to an end.”
“Shooting me is going to draw a lot of attention.”
Leonard grinned. “I’m not going to shoot you. I have something much more ingenious in mind.” He turned toward the window. “You are going to be so stressed over the new platform and the loss of your friends that you decided you couldn’t live with yourself any longer. I have your suicide note all written and already planted in your drawer for the authorities to find. And then I’ll be rid of you forever. I won’t have to worry about the losers you date or look out for you. I won’t have to bring you your fucking lunch anymore. And I have documents in the files that will be found that will name me as your replacement because I know all about the company, and everything will go happily forward.” Leonard’s grin chilled him to the bone. “All this could have been so easily avoided. Of course, I’ll have to clean up my mess and dispose of your latest loser, but that will be easy enough once you’re gone.” He turned slightly, looking out toward some unseen horizon.
Phillip used the moment of distraction to step on the button, hoping his foot activated it. He kept it still and dragged it and the button slowly back toward him, praying that it set off the alarm with every fiber of his being. “But now that I know how you feel….” A glimmer of hope shone in Leonard’s eyes, and Phillip wondered if playing to his obsession might help.
He continued moving his foot, hoping he could activate the button without crushing it. If it had worked, he’d have expected Heston and Barry by now.
“I mean, you were always there for me, but you never said anything. Now that you have, maybe there can be a chance for the two of us.”
Indecision warred behind Leonard’s eyes. “You really think so?” He didn’t lower the gun, but as long as Leonard had hope, then maybe Phillip did too.
“Of course. It’s been just you and me for years. We make a great team, so why not try to build a life together? I can dump Barry. Hell, I haven’t even known him that long.” He shrugged, and the gun wavered. Phillip actually thought Leonard might be buying what he was saying. Leonard was obviously so far into his own delusions that Phillip’s words were starting to make sense to him, even after the things he’d done. Phillip’s skin crawled at the thought of going anywhere with Leonard, but he needed a way out.
“Okay. Maybe we can go somewhere, just the two of us. I can make all the arrangements, and—” The gun lowered about halfway, and the office door burst open, with Barry charging inside. Leonard leaped around the desk, pressing the gun into Phillip’s side, right at the point of his cracked rib. He winced and tried like hell not to cry out.
“Move and I’ll kill him,” Leonard snarled as he jammed the gun farther into his side. “I should have known you were lying, Phillip. You never saw me, and now that you could have had someone as devoted to you as I would have been, you fucking blew that.”
“It’s over, Leonard,” Heston said firmly. “The police are already on their way. You aren’t going to get anywhere with Phillip. So put the gun down and step away.”
“It’s you who are going to put your guns down or I’ll blow a hole right through him.” Leonard looked right at Barry, and Phillip saw the conflict in his boyfriend’s eyes. Leonard jabbed the gun again. “Stand up. We’re going to walk out of here and to the elevator. No one is going to stop us, or so help me, I’ll kill him just for sport.”
Barry stepped back as people gathered outside his office. “Clear out,” Barry said as he turned to the others. “Get everyone out of the building, now. Elevators and stairs, get them the hell out.”
Phillip realized what Barry was doing. Every exit out of the building was going to be jammed, and Leonard wasn’t going anywhere.
“You fucker! I should kill him just for that.”
Heston took a small step forward. “You know if you do anything, you aren’t getting out of here alive.”
“I’m not so sure of that.” Leonard’s hand shook, and Phillip knew he had to hold it together. His ribs ached from the gun, and he felt as if his knees might go out from under him at any second. But he had to hold it together and be strong. Use his fear and anger, like Barry had told him.
“Phillip has been through a lot these past few days, and he’s exhausted,” Barry said calmly. “There is no way he’s going to be able to do what you want him to do without falling—”
Phillip got the message. Letting his knees buckle, he crumpled to the floor, bracing for a shot to enter his body at any second.
Barry was there in an instant, gun to Leonard’s head, holding him. Leonard’s gun dropped to the floor as Barry squeezed his wrist. “I ought to blow your fucking brains out for what you did to Phillip’s friends and what you tried to do to Phillip and me,” Barry growled, jamming the handgun to Leonard’s head. “You’re one sick fucker, and the world would be better off without you.”
Phillip hurried away and got to his feet near Heston. “Barry, don’t. Just hold him until the police get up here. It shouldn’t be long.” Sirens were already sounding. “It’s over. You don’t need to stoop to his level.” Phillip put a hand on Barry’s arm and felt the muscles relax under his touch. “He’s not worth the price you’ll pay.” Looking at Leonard, he could see the toll that obsession and killing took on a person’s soul. It left them hollow, just the shell of a person. At least that’s what it seemed to have done with Leonard.
Phillip stepped back, and Barry loosened his grip, keeping his gun on Leonard. He kicked away Leonard’s gun, and they settled in to wait for the police. “This is over,” Phillip said hopefully, knowing there would be trials, media, and God knows what ahead of him. But at least he and the people he loved would be safe.
“Yeah, it’s over….” Leonard twisted away from Barry, and grabbed Phillip’s chair.
“Stop,” Heston said, already getting ready to shoot. But Leonard just turned and tossed the chair through the plate glass window. It shattered, and as the chair went out, Leonard followed right after it.
“Shit,” Heston said as he raced over before peering out the jagged hole ten stories up. Phillip turned to Barry and hugged him, burying his face in his chest, wishing he could unsee what he’d just witnessed. Barry hugged him, and Phillip couldn’t move.
“What do we do now?” Phillip asked.
“Now it’s over.” Barry’s stance relaxed, and his hand cradled Phillip’s head. “It’s over,” he repeated again until Phillip somehow began to believe it was actually possible.