Infinity & Always (12 page)

“Hello?”

“Hey
Paige, just checking in. Seeing if you have anything for me.”

She
groans and I hear her tapping on the keyboard. “Sorry, it’s
so fucking cold here and my hands are numb,” she says, and I
forward Bailey’s text to her.

“Hey,
I sent you a gift.”

I
hear her phone beep in the background. “You’re an
asshole,” she laughs. I wait for her to do whatever it is she
is doing.

“You
know I keep getting a block, I can’t go further than I have.
All I can get is the carrier and the location of the phone when the
messages were sent.”

“Okay,
thanks for trying. I’ll just have blue eyes try tonight.”

“So
things are going better?” she asks.

“So
far, I just hope it continues,” I sigh.

“Me
too Knox, me too. Anyway, I better go. I have a meeting in an hour
and I’m frozen.”

“Okay,
thanks for trying, Paige. Talk to you soon.”

Hanging
up I sit back in my chair running my hands through my hair. I watch
Max chat away to Alison. She is the only female engineer here and we
have been trying for about three months to get Frank to ask her out,
but he refuses; he said it’s against company policy to date
employees. When I asked him about Bailey and I, he just waved me off.
Throwing my phone on the desk I head over to them.

“Morning
Ali,” I smile at her.

“Morning
handsome,” she answers, “the handsome other half and I
are going to get breakfast. You in?”

“Yep,
lead the way.”

The
three of us head out to the employee café.

Bailey

After
classes, I drive to the office. Dad called and asked to meet me for
lunch. Arriving in his office, I give him a big hug.

“Hi,
sweetheart.”

“Dad.”
I kiss his cheek. We decided to go to a new café down the
block for lunch. On our way out, we end up in the elevator with Knox,
Max, and two other employees. Knox grins when he sees me and I turn
my back to him. Only a few people here know we are together and we
want to keep it that way. I feel his hand rest on my hip and he
squeezes. I take a small step back getting closer to him so I can
feel his breath stir my hair. Max chuckles and I smirk over at him.
When the elevator stops, Max holds the door for Dad and the others,
then he steps out. Knox turns me and plants a kiss on my lips, then
winks letting me go.

I
step out first and walk away with Dad as if I didn’t really
know them. Dad laughs at me. “I take it things are better?”

“Yes,”
I smile, linking my hand through his arm. We walk down the block and
have a seat, ordering our food. I tell Dad about the hearing and he
looks relieved.

“Was
I that much of pain?”

“No,
I’m just happy it’s over. Now we can all move on and get
our lives back.”

“Dad,
you know I think I love you.”

He
laughs at me then tells me it’s good to see me getting back to
my old self. He missed my jokes.

“Dad,”
I ask, getting serious.

“Yes,”
his tone is cautious, which he usually reserves for times when I want
to dip into my trust fund.

“Knox
asked me to set a date the other week.”

“Oh,”
he says, taking up his water, “and what is it you want?”

“I’m
not sure I want to get married, but I also want us to be in a better
place.”

“Maybe
you should take some time and see how things go for the next few
months, then go from there,” he tells me.

“Yeah,
do you think I’m too young?”

“No,
it’s your life sweetheart. You’re my little girl, so
there is a part of me that never wants you to grow up, but you have
too. I just want to see you happy Bailey; that’s all we want
for our kids.”

I
smile at him, “Thanks, Dad.”

We
enjoy our lunch then walk back to the office. We have been gone for
two hours and Dad blames me. He jokes with his assistant not to let
me disturb him for the rest of the day. She never liked me, so I am
sure she took it literally. I make way down to the dungeon breezing
past nosy Meagan.

“Hi,
babe.”

“Darlin’,”
he says, without looking up. I watch him finish a drawing then he
looks up at me. “How can I help you, Miss Mortenson?”

“I
need your phone, the other one,” I nod at the one on his desk.
He opens the drawer and hands it to me.

“Are
you doing that now?”

“No,
I’m bringing it home,” I answer.

“Oh
okay, are you leaving now?”

“Yeah,
see you later.”

He
tells me to wait in my office and he will come up in a few minutes to
walk me out. I walk out of the dungeon and up to my office. Dad’s
assistant gives me one of her looks as I walk past her and into his
office.

“I’m
taking off, Dad. See you later.”

He
gives me a hug and says he will be late. “Oh, I’ll be
staying in the apartment tonight,” I say goodbye when his phone
rings and leave the office. When I walk around to my own, Knox is
waiting for me.

“Ready?”

I
nod, grabbing my bag and lock my door. Knox takes my hand as we walk
out to my car. “I’m going out with the guys after work
tonight, what time are coming home?”

“Oh,
I was going to grab some stuff from dad’s and head there now.
I’ll do my assignment and get started on the phone. I’ll
probably go for a run too.”

“Okay
darlin’, I should be home about seven anyway, I’m not
staying out late.”

“Okay.”

He
presses my back up against my car and kisses me tenderly, “Maybe
I’ll be home at six,” he says.

“No
babe, hang out with the guys. I’ll have you all night.”

He
raises his eyebrows at me. “That so?” he growls at me,
sliding his hands under my shirt.

“Yes,
so maybe you should fill up on some calories.”

I
wink, kissing him again. I get a beautiful smile from him as I pull
out of the parking stall. When I get home, I take a walk over to my
new house, finding Richard and some other men all talking around the
kitchen island.

“Hello,”
Richard calls out wrapping his arm around me. He introduces me to the
foreman and another architect from his firm, who will be helping when
Richard has to leave town. We go over the ideas again and we decide
to replace all the windows because a lot of them are older and
starting to rot. I decide to change one of the upstairs rooms too.

“Can
we take out the closet and make the room bigger?” I ask,
looking at Richard.

“Of
course, you can do what you want.”

I
tell him my idea for what I want and he smiles at me. “You’re
a good person Bailey,” he says, hugging me.

After
another walk around I head across the lake to Dad’s house.
Gathering some clothes and my school stuff, I drive back to the
apartment. Setting up my laptop on the kitchen table, I plug in
Knox’s phone and run the program I developed for one of Dad’s
clients. I know it takes about an hour to work through the phone so I
take off for my run.

When
I get back to the apartment, I have a quick shower then get to work.
My phone rings.

“Hi.”

“Hey
Bailey, listen I have a confession.”

“Okay,
do we need to hide a body?” I laugh.

“No,
haha. Knox called me last week and asked me to help him with
something.”

“I
know Paige, I’m just about to start digging through it,”
I answer, sighing.

“Yeah
I got stuck, I could only get the carrier and a ping tower.”

“That’s
because you’re not me,” I laugh at her.

“Yeah,
yeah miss smarty pants.”

We
talk for another thirty minutes. She tells me that she is fed up in
New York and needs a holiday. We agree, to organize a girls’
weekend away in the new year. I hear the door opening, both Knox, and
Max are home, so I say goodbye.

“Hey
darlin’,” Knox smiles, when he sees me and gives me a
sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“You
drunk babe?” I question, squinting my eyes at him.

“No,
darlin’ I only had two beers. Any luck with the phone?”

“I
haven’t started babe, just about to.”

He
and Max go play video games while I scour through the phone. It takes
me about another hour to sort through the data and figure out who is
who and where they usually call from. I curse Knox for deleting the
pictures because I only have one to go on now. I run another program
when I come up empty and take a breath. Walking into the sitting
room, I sit on the sofa.

“Giving
up already super spy?” Max jokes.

“Nope,
just working a different angle,” I answer.

Knox
turns around to me and gives my knee a squeeze, asking if I have
eaten yet. I tell him no and he goes to make me dinner.

“Hey
darlin’, the computer is beeping.”

He
shouts and I jump up, running into the kitchen. I type in some codes
that Agent Daniels gave me and I am able to get an account number
from where the pictures are sent. Grabbing my phone I call Paige
back, “Hey Paige, which carrier did you get? And where did it
ping from?”

She
gives me the information, telling me the FBI are fools for not taking
me. After we hang up, I do some more digging, then end up tracing
back to Mortenson Engineering. When I find the name, I am pissed off;
more than pissed off in fact.

“Hello
sweetheart,” Dad says when he answers.

“Hi,
Dad. I found out who the phone belongs too.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah
it’s an employee, I’ll fill you in tomorrow. I’ll
meet you in the office.”

After
I hang up both Knox and Max are looking at me expectantly, “Sorry
I can’t tell you.”

“What!
Why? She’s been harassing me and caused my relationship to fall
apart,” Knox says, sounding hurt.

“Babe,”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “I have to tell Dad first and
clean out your phone before I can give it back to you. I don’t
want you picturing her when you find out who it is.”

“Fine,
fine as long as it stops and I get my phone back. All my pictures are
on it,” he pouts at me.

“Fuck
me, you sound like a chick,” Max says, leaving the room.

Knox
and I laugh at him. “ Seriously though darlin’, all our
pictures are on it.”

“I’ll
save them for you, babe, don’t worry.”

I
find myself weirdly calm as I walk into the building. I have never
really pictured it as a business, well, I know it is, but it’s
my dad’s so I think the personal aspect of it always clouded
that point for me.

Today
though, as I walk into the building, I feel like a boss. I know
everyone knows who I am and some are still uncertain about what I
actually do here. Though most of them know it’s some kind of
security. I actually do a lot for my dad behind the scenes but only
he and I know about that stuff, not even Knox knows about it.

“Hi,
Dad.”

“Hi
sweetheart,” he sighs. No doubt, bracing himself for my news.

“So,
before we get started I want to say, I’m pissed off, no –
I beyond pissed off.”

I
hand him the paperwork I printed out from the program scan. He reads
over it and sighs.

“I
don’t want to get any further involved Dad, it’s too
personal for me. I think you and personnel should handle it from here
on out.”

“Yeah,
I know sweetheart.”

He
grabs his phone and telling his assistant to organize a meeting with
the head of personnel in his office, now.

“Okay,
I’ll see you later I have class today and practice tonight.”

Standing
up, I give him a hug and kiss before leaving. On my way out I pass
Mr. Henry, the personnel manager. He looks a little scared when he
sees me come out of Dad’s office. I give him a smile and nod as
I pass him.

After
classes I go straight to practice; the girls and I have fun. We don’t
hold back and I can feel the bruise already forming on my elbow from
when I hit the field hard. Once we are done, I’m still pumped
so I stay out on the pitch and decided to run a few laps. Becky and
Abbey try to coax me for a milkshake, but I refuse.

Running
around the track, I almost feel at a loose end. Although I know I am
safe from Ben now, part of me still feels as though he is out there
watching me. I’m not sure if I’ll get over what he did to
me because it’s always in the back of my mind. I can’t
just wipe away that day. I’ve tried, but it refuses to leave my
subconscious.

After
running for a while I get tired and head back to the gym to grab my
bag. On my way back out I find Knox, leaning against the wall with
his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hi,
what are you doing here?” I ask, reaching up to kiss him.

“It’s
late darlin’ and I’m walking you home.”

He
takes my bag and throws his arm around my shoulders, kissing my
temple. We walk back to the apartment and I notice for the first time
how dark it is. I was too caught up in my mood to notice the
floodlights weren’t the sun. When we get home, Knox turns on
the shower for me and says he will make me something to eat.

“Knox.”

“Yeah
darlin’?” he stops, at the door of the bedroom, his hands
resting on the frame as he leans back to look at me.

“Thanks,”
I smile. A big grin breaks out on his face and winks before walking
away.

After
my shower I put on my pajamas and one of Knox’s BRU sweaters,
walking into the kitchen he smiles when he sees me.

“You
look tiny in that.”

“I
know but I like wearing your stuff,” I shrug, grabbing a water
from the fridge.

“I
like you wearing my stuff, darlin’.”

Sitting
down, I start to eat my dinner. Knox sits opposite me tapping on the
table, “What’s up?” I ask, looking at him.

“So
did you talk to Frank?” I nod in response. “Are you going
to tell me who was sending those pictures?”