MARCHANT
My P.I. called today. So did my finance guy. Apparently someone has been attempting to log into my money accounts. I can only assume it’s a minion following orders from Rex Hawkins, who is still pissed off despite my self-fine.
I spend most of the morning pacing around the cottage, wishing I hadn’t re-paid the fucker an extra twenty-five percent of what I owed. Wondering if it was he who sent the text referencing the fire. I know I was late paying him back and I grazed his foot with a bullet, but shit. How far will the motherfucker go?
After weeks of reckless mania, worry is a strange, disturbing thing.
I have my money manager report the suspicious activity to a monitoring arm of the FBI, and he comes back with a long list of IP addresses from places like Tokyo, Lima, Paris, and San Diego. Of course he does. My hacker friend is probably using TOR, a black-market-friendly system that keeps their true location hidden.
I spend some time wishing I could hop on a plane and disappear. Lead my pursuants somewhere far away from here. Trouble is, Love Inc. is an easy target whether I’m here or not. And I guess I’m jumping the gun a little. No one’s made a threat. And I really have no idea who is snooping. I’m not exactly low-profile, and a lot of people assume I’m worth a lot more than I really am. Compared to someone like Hunter, I’m a pauper.
I take a long shower and jerk off thinking of Miss Dalton.
After my shower, I get a phone from a withheld number. Normally I’d ignore it, but because of all this other shit I answer, and after a second, I wish I hadn’t. Fuck. All I can hear on the other end is heavy breathing. For a second, I’m worried someone kidnapped Suri. Talk about an easy target. Her father is one of the most financially successful people on the planet. Makes me so fucking anxious.
But when I walk to the main house late in the afternoon, I find her safe inside, talking to Tom about ceiling textures.
I need to calm down.
I have an early afternoon session with Dr. Libby. Three times a week seems excessive, but apparently that’s the protocol after a manic episode—especially one that includes an adventure to the bottom of a pool. We talk about Riker, by some strange twist of conversation. She’s going to school at UCLA, majoring in environmental science. Libby tries to lead me down the path to my mother—do I remember her being hospitalized for mania?—but I veer the other way. I just don’t fucking feel like it.
By the time Suri returns to the cottage around five, I’m like a fucking puppy. I want to feel her. I want to talk to her. And that’s when Dave calls back. He doesn’t even tell me anything helpful, just confirms that he’s got a tracer on my phone line here at the cottage, and the extra security I had Richard bring on are all in place; all doing their jobs.
By the time I get off with Dave, I can hear Suri in the shower. My cock is hard, and I want nothing more than to join her. But I’ve been fanaticizing about confiding in her about my hacker. Ultimately, that’s why I don’t hop in the shower with her. This desire to share things with her is clearly against our rules. I just haven’t decided what to do about it yet.
Another call from Dave distracts me from making proper conversation with Suri before she heads out. I try to tell myself it’s no big deal. I’ve gotten through most of my life without the woman. I can rough it tonight.
I cook some bacon, eat an apple, and pull a Cuban out of my humidor. Everyone’s away tonight. I decided I’ll walk the grounds, then maybe the new building. That’ll make me feel good.
I walk the maze first. Like the libraries in the main house and the cottages modeled after my childhood home, I made the maze for me. Because I get anxious sometimes. Because even though I’ve only been full-blown manic twice, I’ve felt myself start to drift that way much more than twice, and when I do, I have to re-focus. To clear my mind and get rid of my anxieties. I like the maze, because I know it. No surprises.
The sun is setting, painting the sky a vibrant indigo. I can already see stars a few stairs blinking their way through the evening sky. For some reason, they make me feel good. You can see lots of stars from my place. You can take a deep breath and smell the grass. When there’s a breeze like tonight, you can hear the leaves rustle in the trees. This is my business. This is where I live, where others live, where others come for pleasure. It’s not a bad place. And despite how fucking close I came, I didn’t ruin it. I didn’t burn it to the ground. And even though I gambled away a shit ton of money, I’ve got more. So I am able to re-build. I might be fucked up—I might be shit for personal relationships—but I’m good at what I do. People like working for me. And I do well enough that even my own fuck-ups can’t bring me down.
The more I think about it, the more I think maybe it isn’t Hawkins messing with my stuff.
I walk out of the maze nearly an hour later with a weight flung off my shoulders.
As I skirt the pond, I remember being there with Suri, and I have the sudden thought: What if I wasn’t bipolar? How would I feel about her then? If I wasn’t a danger to her…?
Why am I even wondering? I am. I know I am. Just ask Marissa.
I’ll never not be a danger to Suri. Maybe I am good at business, but I’m bad for other people. I like Suri Dalton a lot. I like her not just for the sex. I like her for lots of other things. Like for the Wheel of Fortune. And that’s bad. That’s really bad.
Still, I’m fighting with myself. I’m remembering how good my mother was with Riker and I—how our childhood was normal and, as best as I can remember, happy. I don’t know how the plane went down—because much of the body and the control panel were burned. I don’t know what kind of mood she was in that day. Maybe it wasn’t mom’s fault.
For just a few minutes, I allow myself to remember her. How full her cheeks were when she smiled and how she always smelled like perfumed lotion. I remember the way she used to yank me up off the ground and spin me in a circle while she sang a silly little kid song when I scraped my knee, how one time when I got in trouble for sneaking out of class in high school—planning to kiss Julie Thomas in the janitor’s closet—she took the principal to task when he suggested I was a troublemaker.
“He’s the president of the beta team!” I remember her exclaiming.
My eyes water a little, because I can still hear the pride and the outrage in her voice.
I’m so overcome in that moment, I sit down on the back steps of the new main house. That’s where I am, sometime later, when I hear what sounds like a baby’s cry. I look around in the darkness, and I hear something rustle in the brush.
Did the sound come from inside the building, or somewhere nearby in the brush? If cats are inside… Has any of the new hardwood been put down yet? I don’t think so, but still. I don’t want those damn cats ruining what progress has been made. I look around once more and step through one of the rectangular spaces where the doors will be.
I’m in the lobby area, looking up at the scaffolding of the grand, curved staircase, when I hear a low thump nearby. I look left and right, and left again. Moonlight spills through the huge squares spaces where windows will go, but I can’t make out what’s on the floor.
I flip open my zippo and step slowly closer.
It’s a cat. A bloody cat. As my eyes adjust to the firelight, I realize it doesn’t have a head.
SURI
“I’m telling you, you need to watch it. ‘Girls.’ It starts off a wee bit precious, but you’ll learn to love the little twerps!” Juniper grins and sticks up one hand in a parting wave as I walk to Marchant’s door.
I toss one more glance over my shoulder, and Loveless wags her finger. “Details, woman! Next time I see you, you will provide me with details. Even if they’re little baby ones.”