Victoria approached the reception desk and let out a long and heartfelt sigh.
“We meet again, Terry,” she greeted the employee of the self-storage company.
“Hello, Miss Hastings,” he replied with a gormless grin on his face.
The entire charade was ridiculous, but Victoria was willing to jump through any hoops if it meant getting Holly back in her life as quickly as possible.
Terry slid a key with a large, wooden block attached to it across the table top and issued some directions. Victoria remembered the way. She’d visited the dingy storage centre three times to pick up Holly’s belongings, and the memory of the first time they’d found the storage room was etched into her memory forever.
Holly had been so excited to discover that she’d been in the process of moving when she’d travelled to Paris, and all her belongings had been safely tucked away in a storage room for the year she’d been gone. Clothes, photos, books, CDs, and all manner of personal effects had been thrown into the storage room, often in black sacks.
The real highlight had been the discovery of Holly’s journals, something Victoria hadn’t even known existed.
She snatched up the key and walked down the corridors. In the back of her mind, a thought lingered that she was perhaps walking into a trap. An anonymous email which just said, “A16, 6pm,” had sent her scuttling from her office.
A16 was the storage locker number, and Victoria had naturally assumed it was a message from Holly. Only now did she wonder if it might have been from someone else.
She approached the metal roller door of A16 and knew that on the other side of the door was either Holly or the person responsible for whatever was happening. As far as she was concerned, it was win-win. Either the love of her life or her mortal enemy would be in there. She smirked at the thought of murdering them with her own bare hands.
The padlock was missing, which confirmed that someone was inside. She took a deep breath, bent down, and grabbed hold of the handle. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and then quickly stood up and opened the roller door.
She blinked and took a step inside.
“Oh, is it six already?” Holly asked with barely a glance from the whiteboard she was scribbling on. “Come in, close the door.”
Victoria closed the roller door again and then turned her attention to the room. Inside were two scruffy office chairs, a folding table, some boxes of paperwork, and three whiteboards on stands.
“Let me just finish this,” Holly said distractedly, looking at a piece of paper in her hand and then writing on the whiteboard with a marker pen.
Victoria looked around the storage room with fascination. Holly had been busy; she’d converted the empty space into a working office.
Holly finished her task and abruptly turned around, crossed the room, and pulled Victoria into a passionate kiss. Before she had the proper chance to reciprocate, Holly was gone again. Her lover crouched on the floor, opening a sports bag. She produced a towel from inside and unfolded it, placing it on one of the chairs and gesturing for Victoria to sit down.
“There, nice and clean,” Holly said.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Victoria gestured around the sterile room.
Holly ignored the sarcasm. “It’s my war room.”
“Why is my mother’s name on your whiteboard?” Victoria asked, pointing to the middle of the second one. “In fact, why is most of my family on your whiteboard?”
“Suspects,” Holly explained. She plopped down into the second chair, a notepad on her lap. “Until we know better, they are on the list. Remember? No free passes.”
“My mother is eighty-two,” Victoria reminded her.
“You said yourself that she’s not to be trusted,” Holly said.
Victoria closed her mouth. She had said that, and it was true. Her mother was rigid in her opinions and fought hard to manipulate people into doing her bidding. She wasn’t happy that Victoria had chosen to date a woman nearly half her age, so maybe she deserved to be on the board.
“How did it go at Arrival?” Holly asked.
Victoria shrugged a shoulder and looked to the floor. “Difficult,” she admitted.
“Do they know?”
“Yes, I let it slip to Louise as soon as I arrived. She seemed surprised, but I couldn’t be sure. Gideon appeared within a quarter of an hour to ask if I was all right. He seemed genuine, but…”
Victoria could feel Holly’s eyes on her but maintained her appraisal of the concrete floor. She didn’t have anything to add. This wasn’t her forte, and they both knew it. Asking Victoria to detect any subtle changes in her employees’ moods was like asking time to stop sweeping by.
“Okay, that’s a good start,” Holly said. “I spoke with the kids.”
Victoria winced. She wasn’t looking forward to returning home and having to field their questions. Especially Alexia’s.
“And, I think…” Holly trailed off, allowing silence to fill the room.
“You think?” Victoria looked up, worried at what might come next.
“I might be… being… followed,” Holly confessed.
Victoria jumped to her feet. “That’s it. No more. You’re coming home, and we’re getting security. I’m not taking any more chances.”
Holly stood up and softly took Victoria by her upper arms. “I could be wrong,” she said. “Maybe I’m being paranoid.”
“Paranoia is good,” Victoria told her. “Worrying keeps us alive.”
“I don’t think that’s necessarily true.”
“How are you not more worried about this?” Victoria demanded, shocked by Holly’s casual demeanour.
Holly took a step back and gestured to the board. “Someone on this board is to blame, and I’m including the question mark in that statement. I don’t think they want to hurt us, just keep an eye on us.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because if they wanted to hurt me, then they would have done it already. Why go through the hassle of making and sending those images? They’re messing with us on an emotional level.”
Victoria pinched the bridge of her nose and turned around to give herself a couple of seconds’ peace. She hated the whole situation from top to bottom, but she had to agree with Holly. This was psychological warfare.
The fact that someone had created and sent the images to Holly was enough to make Victoria’s blood boil, but the reality was that she had no idea what else they were capable of. What would they do next? At least now this person thought they were split up; hopefully it would stop until they could track the culprit down.
“Are you any further in finding out who is behind all this?” Victoria slowly turned around and regarded Holly with as calm an expression as she could manage.
“Nothing concrete. But I have discovered that faked images leave markers,” Holly explained. “I have a friend looking into that, as well as the location where the emails were sent from. They were anonymous, but nothing online is truly untraceable. We’ll find something.”
“So, what next?” Victoria was almost afraid to ask.
“I keep investigating,” Holly said.
“And you will presumably continue to stay in some seedy motel in the bad part of town?” Victoria asked.
“Yes, I’ve made friends with all the drug pushers,” Holly replied. “They’re nice guys, just misunderstood.”
Victoria sniffed at being ridiculed and walked over to the whiteboard to examine it in more detail. Holly had written a lot of names; some she didn’t even recognise. This wasn’t necessarily surprising as Victoria didn’t often waste her time remembering people’s names.
“I miss you,” she whispered, her back to Holly.
“I miss you, too,” Holly said.
She felt Holly’s arms wrap around her middle, and she sank into the embrace.
“We’ll be able to meet here, as long as we’re careful about not being followed,” Holly explained.
Victoria didn’t like the idea of sneaking around, especially to see her own partner, but she knew she didn’t have a choice.
“You’ll email again?” Victoria asked.
“Yes, I’ll send you an anonymous message with a time.”
Victoria held back the bitter comment about that strategy not exactly being conducive to her packed schedule, but she knew Holly couldn’t help it. Neither of them had chosen this, and if she had to reschedule a meeting with some of the incompetents in the office in order to catch a few minutes with Holly, then she would.
“Shouldn’t we just contact the police?” Victoria asked through a sigh.
Holly raised a hand and pointed to the whiteboard. Victoria followed her outstretched finger and read a few names. Then her eyes settled on it, the chief of police.
“What’s that traitorous buffoon doing on the list?” Victoria asked.
“He doesn’t like you, because you call him a traitorous buffoon,” Holly explained as though this were obvious.
“Well, he is.” Victoria wasn’t about to give the man a free pass simply because she needed him to be competent at his job for five minutes.
“I know, but it means that going to the police isn’t really our first option. Not unless things get more serious or we really can’t crack it ourselves. I don’t think the police will care that much anyway, do you?”
She shrugged and nodded. She’d hardly endeared herself to the police department over the years. Living in the middle of the city was convenient, but it also meant there were a lot of things to complain about, crime levels being one of them. And Victoria wasn’t known for being a quiet soul at the local council meetings. It was one of the few things she made time for outside of work, being of the opinion that the City was falling apart at the seams and being determined to do her part to hold it together.
“Is the hotel treating you well?” Victoria enquired.
“It is.” Holly gave her middle one last squeeze before letting her go and walking over to the table to look at the paperwork again.
Victoria sucked in her cheek and looked at Holly’s back. It was clear that she wasn’t going to tell her the location of the hotel.
This annoyed Victoria in two ways: firstly, the assumption that she couldn’t be trusted with sensitive information; secondly, the fact that Holly was correct to think that she couldn’t be trusted.
Victoria had already bookmarked a food hamper that she had found online. It would be the perfect gift for Holly while she stayed in whatever rancid accommodation she had decided upon.
“We need to come up with a scheme so I can speak to Louise. I need to see if she’s acting suspiciously,” Holly said.
“Agreed. The sooner we can eliminate her from our enquiries, the better. I’d like to have my first assistant back without constantly looking at her and wondering if I should be murdering her.”
“I have an idea on that subject,” Holly said. She turned around and levelled a look at Victoria. “But, before that, I have one other item of business.”
Holly closed the gap between them in two strides before pulling Victoria into another searing kiss. Victoria almost heard the gears in her brain crunching at the sudden change in direction. She recovered quickly and held Holly tightly around the waist, putting every ounce of feeling she could into returning the kiss.
After a few moments, Holly pulled her lips away and started to worship Victoria’s neck. Her pulse sped up; having Holly lavish hot, wet kisses on her throat always sent her wild.
“This is temporary, I’ll be back before you know it,” Holly whispered in between kisses. “And you better be prepared, because I miss you.”
Stress fell from Victoria’s shoulders like a set of weights falling to the ground. She’d needed to hear that, more than she knew.
“I’m glad to hear it,” she returned, her breathing ragged. “But you have to stop what you’re doing because I refuse to engage in carnal activities in a damp and dusty storage locker.”
Holly slumped against her, her shoulders shaking.
“Are you laughing at me?” Victoria demanded.
“I am,” Holly confirmed. She stood up and wiped at the happy tears in her eyes. “Never change, Victoria. Never change.”
“Why would I?” she asked in confusion. “What a thing to say. Now, who was next on the list?”