Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (139 page)

“Congratulations, that’s amazing.” I found
out that she was easy to talk to. She wanted to hear all about our plans for
the wedding. She seemed sincere in her praise and offered up a few tips of her
own.

“Where are the two of you planning to
honeymoon?”

“You know, that is the one detail that we
haven’t discussed yet,” I told her.

“You should go to Hawaii,” Mrs. Fritz told
her, “That’s where Alex’s father and I honeymooned. It was so lovely.”

“It does sound lovely,” I told her, “I’ve
never been there.”

“We stayed in Oahu. It’s a beautiful
island. The water in the ocean there is warm all the time, and so clear you can
watch the fish swim by.”

“That would definitely be a nice change
from the cold, dirty water we have here in New York, wouldn’t it?” I told her with
a grin.

“Yes, dear, you would just love it.
Waikiki is another beautiful place.”

I listened with sincere interest as Mrs.
Fritz described the islands to in vivid detail. I was about to ask her how long
it had been since they’d been there, when suddenly, all hell broke loose.

From outside of the house came a piercing
scream. It sounded human and male, but when I went over the details of the
night later with the police and in my own head I couldn’t have sworn to either.
Before anyone could react to that, however, the front door crashed in and two
large men dressed all in black and wearing nylon masks over their faces burst
inside.

“What the hell is going on here?” Mr.
Fritz said, surprising them all by rushing towards the men.

“Dad, no!” Alex yelled as he was just
coming into the room from the kitchen. The men were huge, and both were armed.
He tried to grab for his father, but he was too late. One of the men swung his
overly muscled arm out like a clothesline, striking the older man in the head
and knocking him to the floor. Alex was pushed backwards and caught himself on
a chair to keep from also tumbling to the floor.

Suzie Fritz screamed and Alex went over to
her and held her back gently, but firmly as she tried to go to her husband.
“You can’t help him if you get hurt yourself,” I heard him whisper to her.

Alex looked towards the men and asked,
“What do you want?”

Adam had stepped protectively in front of
me and we all held our breath and waited for the men to speak. Neither of them
did. Mr. Fritz was beginning to rouse, and one of the men kicked at him with
his foot until the poor old man had crawled all the way to the dining room to
join the rest of us.

The man in front motioned at the other
with his head. The man in the back nodded and began to approach them. He
pointed his large, black gun at us as he did, but didn’t speak a word. He
reached first for Alex’s mother. As he grabbed her by the arm she screamed out
Alex’s name. Alex tried to hold on to her, but the man struck him with the butt
of the gun, knocking him backwards.

The man forced the older woman to sit in
one of the dining room chairs and then with the hand not holding the gun he
reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of silver duct tape. He held it
in my direction and grunted, motioning me towards Mrs. Fritz using a jerk of
his head.

I knew what he wanted. He was telling me
to tape the woman to the chair. I didn’t want to do it, but I was smart enough
to know that refusing to do something when a man had a gun pointed at you could
get people killed. I sat my purse down on the table and took the tape. I
whispered, “I’m sorry,” to Alex’s mother as I began to wrap it around her
wrists and ankles and the arms and legs of the chair.

“It’s okay, dear,” the older woman said,
making me want to smile at her. I loved the older generation. Even in times
like this they seemed to remember their manners. One man had his gun on me, and
the other on both Alex and Adam. Mr. Fritz sat slumped in a chair, still
looking dazed.

“Can I make sure my Dad is okay?” Alex
asked.

The man simply shook his head no. Alex
looked distressed, but this time didn’t try to move. The dark bruise forming on
his cheek had convinced him that not doing what these men told them to was a
bad idea. After I finished with Mrs. Fritz’s arms and legs, the man made a
motion across his mouth with his hand and pointed back at her. I tore a piece
of the duct tape about six inches long and placed it across the older woman’s
mouth. I could see tears forming in her eyes, and it made me feel like crying,
too.

Afterwards, the man made me do the same to
Adam, Alex, and lastly Mr. Fritz just as he seemed to be coming around. The man
then taped me to a chair, while the other kept the gun trained on them. After
we were all secured, the men left the room.

I could hear shuffling and commotion in
the rest of the house as the men apparently tore things apart, looking for
whatever it was they had come for. I tried to take comfort from the look of
love that Adam gave me with his eyes. He was trying to convey to her that all
would be okay. I tried once to smile at him, but the men had taped my mouth so
tightly that the smile actually hurt. I glanced at Alex’s parents. His father’s
eyes looked both sad and angry, and his mother had hers closed, a stray tear
found its way down her cheeks every now and then. I looked at Alex then. He
wasn’t making eye contact with any of us. His eyes looked cold and angry to me.

After what seemed like hours, we heard the
men leave through what was left of the front door. Adam waited several minutes
to make sure they hadn’t returned, and then began to use his leg and arm
muscles to wiggle his chair towards the dining room table. I watched, in awe of
this strong, brave man that I loved as he used the corner of the table to peel
the tape from his face. He got it off one side, leaving an angry red mark on
his cheek and upper lip where it had clung. He then scooted towards where I
left my clutch, and using his mouth again he opened it and after a great deal
of effort he got my cell phone out. The small gun he had bought me to carry in
my purse also fell out on the table. I could see Alex watching and the look of
surprise on his face when he saw the gun.

Adam wasn’t able to use his face to dial
911, but he was able to press the last number dialed with his nose. He laid his
ear on the phone on the table and said,

“Come on, Kyla pick up.”

“Hi, girl! Thought you had dinner plans
tonight,” Kyla said as she answered the phone.

“Kyla it’s Adam.”

“Adam? Is everything okay?”

“Not really, I need a really big favor,
okay?”

“Absolutely boss, what’s up?” she said.

“We’re out at Alex Fritz’s place on the
Island. The address is 1112 North Sycamore Drive. I need you to call the police
and have them come out here right away.”

“The police? Adam, what’s going on?”

“Tell them there were two intruders here
and they tied us up. We need help,” he looked over at Alex’s father and then
said, “Maybe they should send an ambulance, too, just to make sure everyone is
alright.”

I knew Kyla wanted to ask more questions,
but the urgency in his voice made her simply say, “Okay, I’m on it,” instead.

Adam pushed the “End” button with his chin
and then looked at them all and said, “Help is on the way, guys, hang tight.”

The police and an ambulance showed up
within twenty minutes after Adam had spoken with Kyla. I heard a man’s voice
outside say, “This guy needs medical,” and suddenly remembered the limo driver.
He must have been who we had heard scream. I hoped he was alright.

Two uniformed officers came inside first.
They had their guns drawn and did a search of the house before removing the
tape from me and the others. As soon as they had gotten Alex freed, he grabbed
his cell phone out of the drawer under the kitchen counter.

“Sir, no phone calls yet. We need to talk
about what happened here first.”

Adam gave Alex a questioning look. Who
would he be calling at a time like this?

Alex looked reluctant but he sat back down
and as if suddenly remembering what had happened, he said, “Mom Dad, are you
guys okay?”

His mother simply nodded, and his father
looked angry again and said, “Fine, glad you held off on your call long enough
to ask.” By that time, detectives were on the scene. The lead detective, a man
named Jeffrey Stout asked whose house it was and Alex told him it was his. He
then asked what had happened tonight, and Alex described the past forty-five
minutes or so to him.

The detective took the names and
relationships of everyone in the room, and then asked,

“Did any of you recognize anything about
either of these men?”

We all said that wet did not.

“Mr. Fritz, do you have any idea what they
were looking for?”

Alex ran his hands across his face and
through his hair before saying, “I am the East Coast campaign manager for the
President. I don’t know if they thought there would be money, or campaign
information here…there’s not. I don’t keep anything like that here. It’s all
strictly confidential and it is kept at campaign headquarters.”

“Hmm,” the detective said, as he made a
note on his pad. “You don’t seem to have very good security here for a man who
is so important.”

Alex looked like he was getting frustrated
with the detective. He stood up and said, “I just told you, I don’t keep
anything confidential here. I don’t have money here. I don’t even own a safe. I
didn’t think I needed more security than I have.”

“Sir, please sit down,” the detective
asked him. Alex wasn’t used to having people tell him what to do anymore, but
in this case, he did as he was told.

“Mr. Hanson, I recall that recently your
ex-wife was murdered in an apparent robbery. Do you think there may be any
relation here?”

Adam shook his head slowly and said, “None
that I can think of. They arrested Miles Brigham IV for Marjorie’s murder. I
obviously don’t believe he’s guilty, since my firm is handling his case. The
problem there is that I don’t know who killed Marjorie, or why, so I couldn’t
really say if this was related or not.”

The detective made another note and then
said, “Ms. Winston, you’re from the UK?”

Alicia told him she was and he said, “You
can’t think of anything at all that was familiar about these men?”

“No, they had on masks, their builds were
both very large, and I don’t even know anyone that big. Their hair was covered
and they never spoke.”

“Yes, that’s what makes me think maybe one
of you knew them. They didn’t want their voices, or their accents to be
recognized.”

“Their accents?” Alicia asked,

“Yes, the man outside, Frank, the limo
driver, heard them speak when they thought he was unconscious. He said they
spoke with British accents.”

“I really didn’t recognize them...” Alicia
began.

“I believe you,” the detective told her,
“just heard your accent and thought, maybe… Anyways, I’d like to get each of
your statements individually. The EMTs are going to take Mr. Fritz to Mercy and
have him checked out. Mrs. Fritz, you are welcome to go with him if you like,
I’ll check in with the two of you later.”

Mrs. Fritz already had her coat on and her
purse in her hand. The EMTs had put Mr. Fritz on a gurney, despite his
protests. She thanked the detective and followed them as they took him out the
door. The detective looked at Alex and said,

“Mr. Fritz, before we begin the interviews
let’s take a walk through the house. You can tell me if it looks like anything
is missing.”

Alex reluctantly followed the detective
out of the room. Adam put his arm around me and pulled me in close, kissing my
temple. "You okay?”

I turned towards him where his arms could
envelop me “I’m fine, just wish things like this would stop happening to us.”

He kissed me on top of the head and said,
“Me, too, baby.”

Alex and the detective were gone about
half an hour. Adam made coffee, and he and I were at the table sipping a cup
when they came back in the room. Alex looked more agitated than he had before.
The detective asked which of them wanted to go first, and I volunteered, hoping
it would give Adam a chance to talk to him.

CHAPTER
TEN

ADAM

When Alicia and the detective had stepped
out, I asked, “Was anything taken?”

Alex looked beat. His eyes were rimmed in
red and he had run his fingers through his hair so many times it was sticking
up on top and out on the sides. He looked at me and said,

“Some files from the cabinet in my study.
It was nothing important. I don’t think they even looked at them. Just grabbed
‘em.”

“Why don’t you sit, Alex? You look like
you’re about to fall down.”

Alex nodded, and I thought he was about to
sit down,

“Let me get you a cup of coffee,” I said,
before realizing that instead of sitting Alex was headed back to the counter
between the dining room and kitchen to grab his cell phone. “Who the hell do
you need to call so badly?” I asked him.