In His Arms

Chapter 12

With my laptop on my lap, I find myself furiously typing an email to a promising writer who happens to be a seventeen-year-old, not even a paragraph in, I find myself glancing over to the cot in front of my nightstand, where Danny is sleeping. In all honesty, for the last hour since dinner, this is all that I have been doing. Distracting myself, deleting what few words I've written, rewriting those same words and repeating the whole process over and over again.

I guess I'm still in shock over finding out that my brothers though working on the next street around the corner from my office have never bumped into me in the last two years of my working at Bloomsburg Publishing. That's how close Mr Holt's office is to mine and yet I haven't seen them till today.

How is it even possible? I mean...they are the most attentive, observant people I know and there are eleven of them. ELEVEN! How do twenty-two plus 10 pairs of eyes (five of them wear glasses to read) somehow never notice me? Like HOW?!

A loud 'ping' from my laptop snaps my attention from my thoughts, my eyes refocus on Danny briefly before I turn to look back at my laptop screen where a banner hangs from the top of the monitor with the words 'You have Mail!'. Tapping it to open my mailbox, I feel a smile grace my lips when I see the sender's name.

_________________________________________________

To: Janette Summers

From: Damian Higgens

Date: 24 July 2011, 11:27 PM

Subject: RE: Dinner?

Hey stranger,

Are you going to take up my invitation to dinner with my parents anytime soon? The dinner is tomorrow night by the way. What do I have to do to persuade you? I'll even walk on the streets naked if that's what it takes.

Reply ASAP

Your brother is at his wit's end.

_________________________________________________

Oh...I forgot about that... Dragging my legs off the bed, I lean over my laptop wondering how to reply. Damian Higgens...Damian Higgens is one of my brothers but he's not from the Summers family. He's my biological brother from my original family. In all honesty, up until two months ago, I had no idea I had a biological sibling if he hadn't come up to me at the diner to ask if I were willing to take a DNA test with him, I would never have known.

Three weeks ago, on the day Mr Holt left me with Danny, he visited me at the diner to invite me to his family's get-together dinner which is if I'm not wrong tomorrow. Consulting the manila file, I feel my heart speed up in excitement when I see there's nothing planned for tomorrow.

Promptly typing a response and sending it, I jump out of my skin when Danny begins to wail. Leaving my computer open, I pick Danny out of the cot, bringing him into the open space kitchen where I already have his milk bottles warming up for the night.

_________________________________________________

To: Damian Higgens

From: Janette Summers

Date: 24 June 2011, 11:29 PM

Subject: I'm down for a free meal.

Stranger? Couldn't you think of a better starting line?

Send me a pickup time. I'll be waiting.

Janette Summers

___________________________________________________

My heart stops as I walk past Mr Holt's office with Danny sucking on the nipple of his milk bottle, noticing that his door is open to a crack, I distinctively hear his voice murmuring angrily inside, his deep rumbling voice sends a terrified shiver down my spine as I move towards the crack of the door in curiosity.

"Lucifer, I do not have the time nor the tolerance for this," He growls lowly into his phone, pacing in front of his paper-littered desk. "No, she and the child have retired for the night."

Lucifer King? Hold on...Is he referring to Danny and me? Pushing the door open a little more, my heartbeat quickens when I see that in great contrast to all the clothes I've seen him wear in the last three weeks of getting to know him this is the first time he's dressed casually in a loose grey shirt and black soft sweatpants.

His current clothes make him seem even more intimidating than when he wears his suits.

"Fucking hell Lucifer," He shouts suddenly causing me to jump, standing up straight. "I'm on my way. Don't let the little shit go."

Oh, crabs...Desperately looking to the sides for an escape route, I feel my heart drop to my stomach when his office door swings open and Mr Holt stands right in front of me, his grey eyes widen momentarily in shock but he narrows his eyes almost immediately as if he knows what I was doing outside his office.

Spying on him...

"Goodnight!" I squeak, speeding in the direction of my bedroom, clutching Danny to my chest, praying that he isn't running after me.

For a moment, I feel as though I'm home free but my hope is short-lived when Danny is taken out of my hold while I, on the other hand, am flung over a hard shoulder like a sack of potatoes, my eyes at the same level of Mr Holt's grey shirt covered back, a scream of shock rips its way from my vocal cords as he silently carries me away from my room.

The floor becomes something of a white blur to me as Mr Holt walks, torrents of sorries and I-didn't-hear-anythings come raining down on him as he continues to walk, the sounds of Danny's wailing take the noise I'm making to another decibel which echoes off the hall, he knocks briskly on a door.

"Ford, take care of this for me," I hear him state sternly a few seconds into the door opening, his shadow is cast on the wall of the hallway as the light from Mr. Ford's room illuminates the dim hallway. "Ms Summers and I will be home in the morning."

What?! The thought of being alone with Mr Holt until morning is abhorrent to me, my body begins to struggle in an attempt to get away from him but it's to no avail. Moving quicker now, the floor beneath his feet changes from the creamy white sanctuary marble flooring to the clinical white Carrara marble as he enters the living room which then changes to the grey granite of the elevator.

With me still struggling on his shoulder, Mr Holt doesn't pay me much mind as he strides into the car park, the sharp sound of a car chirping makes me panic even more. Throwing me into the passenger seat of one of his cars, he shuts the door tight before I can even try to get out and much to my dismay, the door has a child lock on it.

Damn it. I am in so much trouble right now...