Breath of the Future

Chapter 7

**Character switch: Kathryn**

I woke up with my head resting on Michael's chest. I don't exactly remember how I got there, but I certainly didn't mind. He was still sound asleep and was snoring softly. I sat up carefully so as not to disturb him.

Suddenly, the shrill song of a cell phone shook Michael awake abruptly. He quickly jumped up off the couch and looked around anxiously. I put my hands up defensively and pointed to his phone that had fallen on the ground.

"Sorry..." He mumbled, reaching down to pick it up.

He answered the phone and walked into the foyer to take the call. Not long after, he came back to me and motioned for me to get my shit together because we were going for a ride. I obliged and met him in the garage after gathering my things. He held the passenger door open for me and I climbed into the seat. Michael followed by getting into the driver's side and starting the car.

"What're we doing?" I asked.

"Lester called, said he had some little side job for us. He only instructed us to go to this address in the hills."

He opened the center console and pulled out a small leather case which held two earpieces.

"Put this in." He instructed.

I did as I was told and we fell silent for a little while until I finally got the courage to ask about the night before.

"Are you okay?" I whispered.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just the nightmares, you know?"

I nodded and sighed to let him know that I could empathize. I got the nightmares too.

"Are we going to talk about last night?"

Michael looked over at me and a hint of a smile tugged at his lips, but his eyes showed deep sadness, the kind that struck you to the core.

"Was there something wrong with last night?"

I shook my head.

"No, I just don't quite remember how we got there."

"Well, you had a few glasses of wine and leaned on me and...I figured I might as well get comfortable."

I couldn't stop the word vomit from coming up at that point.

"Is it because you miss Amanda?"

Michael chuckled and shook his head.

"I wish I could have done any of that with Amanda, but she hasn't wanted to so much look at me for the last few years. I think she may actually go through with the divorce so I won't even have to."

"Do you want to be happy with her though, really?"

He paused and bit his lip.

"With the way she's been acting, no."

I decided to end the conversation there until we pulled up to the house. Michael sent a quick text to Lester to let him know we were at the location and fired up our earpieces.

"Okay, no one is home. Sneak in through the basement window and look for a bottle that's labeled Baclofen. It should be on a black bookshelf near the west window." Lester said.

"Who the hell is this guy and what are we doing?" I asked.

"This guy is one of the biggest names in the Pharma industry, and he's been a part of one of my operations for quite some time now. Recently though, he's been taking our stock and selling outside our contract. We need to have him exposed."