50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter Thirty-One

    Monday Morning. Destiny woke up on edge. Last night, she'd considered a lot of things. She considered sneaking into Brian's room to see if he still had the flash drive in his possession. If he still had it, she would have snatched it and taken it straight to the police. She considered hunting Aubrey down, figuring that he would either be at his condo or mother's house. She even considered going straight into the police, even without the flash drive in hand. She wanted this entire ordeal to be over with already. At this point, she wasn't even afraid of Palmer anymore. With all of the people dying around her, she should be. But she was more annoyed than anything else.

    Needless to say, she didn't go rummaging around Brian's bedroom. She'd gone to her own bedroom, frustrated and at wit's end. She'd worried about Aubrey all evening, worried about what would happen to him if he didn't get his act together and turn over everything he knew about Palmer.

    The work day dragged out. Her eyes kept zeroing in on the clock. She would look at the clock and wonder where Aubrey was. Was he still talking to the police? Had he taken his family and left town? Would he call Brian to advise of what was going on? Had Brian leaked the information to the press yet, and if so, how was he doing it? She'd volunteered to help and he had brushed her off. He didn't want her anywhere near the situation. Which is a waste of energy because I'm already waist-deep in all of this bullshit, she thought miserably.

    The door to her office cracked open and Jeremiah poked his head in. "We're ordering lunch. Do you want in?"

    She blinked out of her thoughts, realizing that she'd just been sitting there staring at her computer monitor. "Uh...no, I'm good. I brought lunch in."

    "All right," Jeremiah said, closing the door to her office.

    She sighed and wheeled her chair around so she could stare out of the lone window that her office had. There were so many people down there, milling about without a care in the world. Right now, she would have traded lives with just about any of them.

    A dinging sound caught her attention and made her turn back to her computer. A message from Brian.

Brian Davies: It's done.

    She typed back a simple "thank you" message and chewed her bottom lip in thought. I should probably try to get some actual work done, she thought, even though she didn't know how that would be possible.

    Hours later, there was a loud commotion outside of her closed office door.

    She stood out of her chair and ran over to the door. Throwing it open and stepping out, she asked, "What is going on?"

    Jeremiah, whose cubicle was located just outside of her office door, whirled around. "Aubrey was taken in for questioning for murder!" he shouted. "It's all over the fucking news."

    Brian walked out of his office with his brows furrowed.

    Destiny turned and looked at him.

    He met her gaze and held it a moment before walking over and shushing the employees who were losing their marbles. "Hey! Hey...calm down. No one knows the facts, all right? We know Aubrey. We know he's not capable of anything like this."

    "Why would they even question him?" Zorica asked Brian, tugging on her straight blonde hair.

    Brian rubbed the back of his neck. "All right, look...it's going to come out sooner or later. The person who was killed was Steve McClintock, from accounting."

    Everyone within hearing distance gasped collectively.

    "Because Aubrey knows Steve and because of the recent controversy Graham Enterprises has endured, the police just want to make sure that everything Aubrey says checks out. That's all." Brian glanced at Destiny again.

    Destiny gripped the door handle of her office door. How does the media know that Aubrey is being questioned?

    Brian turned to face her and said in a low tone, "Are you okay? Do you need the rest of the day off?"

    She shook her head. "I'm tired of people asking me that whenever something happens," she mumbled.

    "I just...want to make sure you're all right," he said defensively.

    "I know, but I won't be all right. Not until you and Aubrey deal with this." She glared up at him, then turned and went back into her office, making sure to close the door behind her.

~~~~~~

    Harry Palmer sat in the back of a long, black limousine, flipping a quarter between his fingers. It was a trick his grandfather had taught him when he was a little boy.

    "J.T. on the phone for you," his assistant said, leaning forward and handing Harry a cell phone.

    Rolling his eyes, Harry leaned forward and accepted the phone. He lifted the phone to his ear. "Hello."

    "The news hit. Aubrey is being questioned for the murder of Steve, Bridgette, and Rafael."

    "Good. How is everyone taking it?"

    "They're flipping their shit."

    "Great. That's what I want. And the girl?"

    "Taking it hard."

    Palmer nodded. He'd figured as much. "I wish people would just fall in line and do what they're supposed to do," he mused out loud. "They like to dig their noses into business that is not of concern to them. When I ask politely for them to stop, they try to keep doing it under the radar...like I'm not going to know."

    "You always seem to be a step ahead of them."

    "I run D.C. and there is a good reason why I'm the man who does," Palmer said, chuckling. "They messed with the wrong man. If they haven't realized it by now, they will."

    "So...what do you want me to do. Just sit and wait, or...?"

    Palmer watched the quarter tilting between his middle and index finger. "No, because I'm starting to get bored with all of this. It's time to shake things up."

    On the other end of the line, J.T.'s voice was excited. "I love it when you shake things up."

    "The killing is becoming redundant," Harry said with a yawn. "There is no doubt that while Aubrey is in for questioning, he's going to attempt to place the blame on me. He hasn't learned his lesson. I've sat in the shadows pretending to play along with his game for long enough. So what I want you to do is..."

    "Yeah?" his contact asked eagerly.

    Harry grinned devilishly and caught the quarter in the palm of his hand. "Grab the girl."