Serial Holiday Shorts: Mr. Mysterious - Easter
Mr.
Mysterious is one branch of a three-pronged holiday short series by
myself and two of my alter-egos. We follow three women through the year,
each with a different goal that may be achieved in ways they can't even
fathom just yet. This is Laura's story. You can read the first part here. All stories are posted in draft form. The combined, edited version will be released in December 2013.
Valentine's Day | St. Patrick's Day |
Easter Egg
Laura sipped at a wine cooler and watched the sun go down as she sat on the patio at Coolers. Melanie and Jodi sat on either side, Melanie scoping out the prospects for her next date, and Jodi trying to look like she wasn’t watching the door. Or checking her watch every five minutes.
“So when are we going to meet this guy?” Melanie asked, looking straight at Laura. “Considering you’ve broken your own rules and not even sent us a picture yet, I think we deserve at least five minutes to make sure you’re not dating a serial killer or something.”
Jodi nodded. “I agree. I mean, it’s a little weird that he’s giving you gifts already, don’t you think? If it was one of us, you’d want to meet him, right?”
Laura set her bottle down and sighed. She couldn’t very well just come out and tell them that David was a spy. She probably shouldn’t even tell them his name. But they had a point. They deserved to know something.
“It’s complicated,” she said, earning two annoyed glares from either side of the table. “I mean, he’s...not your average guy. And he’s not a serial killer, I swear.”
Melanie shook her head. “Not good enough, and you know it. Maybe Jodi and I will just hang around until he gets here tonight. I haven’t picked anyone out yet, and your date will wait Jodi, won’t he?”
Jodi hesitated, and then nodded. “I’m sure he would. I can call and let him know...” She picked up her phone and started tapping.
Laura reached out to put a hand on her arm. “No, don’t do that.” She sighed again, and leaned forward. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I know, but you can’t tell anyone. Not a soul. Got it?”
Melanie smiled, leaning close. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Spill it, Laura.” Jodi put her phone down and rested her elbows on the table, nodding her agreement.
“His name is David,” Laura said. “And he’s a...well, he’s working undercover. That’s why no pictures, and why you wouldn’t see him even if you waited - he’s not coming here tonight.”
Jodi frowned. “Let me get this straight - you’re dating some guy who told you he’s a spy, and he’s having you meet him somewhere else? Somewhere quieter, I take it? Less people? And this is fine with you?” She shook her head. “I never thought you were that stupid. He could be totally feeding you a line of crap, and you’d never know it until it’s too late.
Laura looked over at Melanie, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “I agree with Jodi. It doesn’t sound safe. And we don’t even know what he looks like, so we have no way to track him down if something happens to you. This isn’t what we agreed on. We just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I know it sounds bad.” Laura toyed with the gold coin hanging from her neck. “But I’ve been talking to him online for months now, and I really feel like I know him. And...” Laura stopped, noting the concern on her friends’ faces. “You just really don’t believe me, do you?”
Jodi and Melanie glanced at each other, then back at her, shaking their heads. Then something drew their attention up, and their eyes widened.
Strong, familiar hands grasped Laura’s shoulders just before she would have turned around.
“I know we were supposed to meet later sweetheart, but I got away early and decided to surprise you.”
Laura tried to hide her confusion as she looked up at David. He leaned over and kissed her, winking before he slid into the chair beside her.
“Are these the friends you wanted me to meet?”
She nodded, forcing a smile that she hoped looked genuine. “That’s Jodi, and this is Melanie. Girls, meet David.”
Two cell phones came up, each snapping off a shot as Laura closed her eyes.
“Subtle, ladies,” she said, giving David an apologetic look. He merely smiled, sliding an arm across the back of her chair.
“It’s okay,” he said, addressing her friends. “You didn’t buy the spy story, did you?” The women shook their heads again. He turned back to Laura. “I told you they wouldn’t. We might as well tell them the truth - that we met online, and I couldn’t wait to meet you.” He kissed her again, gently, and she swayed toward him, as if under a spell.
“So what exactly do you do then, David?” Melanie asked. Her smile was cordial, but cool. It surprised Laura - normally Melanie loved all men.
David met her gaze straight on. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” He winked, and then turned to Laura with an easy grin. “Are you ready to get out of here? I’m starving.”
She nodded. “Absolutely - let’s go.” She glanced at her friends. “You two have fun tonight, okay? Don’t forget to check in...”
“We won’t,” Jodi said with a smirk. “You make sure to answer your phone, or we’ll have to hunt David her down.”
Laura just rolled her eyes and followed David out the door, relieved to finally be free. He helped her into her car and then took his seat on the passenger side.
“Do you mind if we go to your place?” he asked. “There are some things we really should discuss...”
Laura nodded and pulled out of the parking lot. “I’m sorry I told them you were a spy, though they didn’t believe me anyways. They were just so worried that you were some sort of serial killer, and --”
He chuckled. “No one ever believes the whole spy story. It’s probably one of the safest covers there is. What I meant was, we need to talk about the coin I gave you.”
“You mean the USB drive?” Laura kept her eyes on the road, all too aware of his eyes on her.
“I wasn’t sure you’d figure it out. Did you look at what was on it?”
She considered lying, but knew he probably had some way of finding out anyways. “I looked, but it was just files with random pieces of information in them. A name here, an address there, letters, spreadsheets...I figured it was something to do with the case you’re working on.”
He was quiet for a long moment, and she glanced at him after pulling into her parking spot and turning off the engine.
“I shouldn’t have looked, right?”
He shrugged, giving her an absent half-smile. “I knew you would if you found out. It was a risk I had to take. It was safer with you than anywhere else just then. But I need to see the information, if I can borrow your computer.”
Laura nodded. “Of course. Come in.” She got out of the car and they walked to the door in silence. She wasn’t sure what to think just then, wondering if he was just using her. Maybe he didn’t actually care. What had been hidden in the other gifts?
Did she want to know?
She fitted the key in the lock and let them both in, locking the door again once they were inside. Then she pulled the coin out from underneath her shirt and the chain over her head so she could hand it to him.
“There you go,” she said with a shy smile as her fingers briefly brushed his. “The office is back here. Follow me.”
As he sat at her desk and plugged the thumb drive into her laptop, she thought about all the nights she’d spent chatting with him in that very spot. Talking to him while he’d been who knows where, doing who knows what. It was an odd feeling, and she wasn’t really sure what to do about it. Part of her wanted the physical man and the possibilities that came with. The other part wanted to go back to that time when he was just a mysterious guy on the other side of her screen, a safe fantasy rather than risky potential.
As he clicked through the files, she stood back and watched, wondering if she should give him privacy but not wanting to leave. It wasn’t long before he opened a black window she’d never seen before and typed in a string of commands that opened another window branded with the CIA logo.
“You can access that from here? They aren’t going to think I’m trying to hack in or anything, right?”
He chuckled, not looking up as he signed into the network. “It’s a secure connection. Yes, they can track it to your place, but since I logged in, they’ll know it was me. I just need to upload these files--”
A loud bang from the back of the house cut him off, and Laura jumped as he terminated the connection and pulled the coin drive out of the socket, cursing under his breath. He pressed the coin into her hand, curling her fingers around it and squeezing hard.
“I’m gonna go check that out - you find a place to hide.” She opened her mouth to speak, but he shook his head. “No arguments. I’ll get rid of them, but you have to keep the drive with you, okay? We can’t let them have it. I’ll explain as soon as I can.”
Heavy footsteps clomped through the hall and David was gone. Laura stood frozen, watching the door and flinching at a shout followed by the sound of flesh striking flesh.
She glanced around the room, knowing that if David couldn’t subdue whoever it was breaking into her house, they’d find her soon enough. Keeping the coin with her wasn’t good enough, but where to stash it?
A basket of brightly colored plastic eggs on a bookshelf near the window caught her eye. She’d put several around the house trying to get in the holiday spirit, and it was unlikely that anyone looking for the drive would look through them.
Crossing the room, she opened one egg and stuffed it with some of the fake grass from the basket to keep the coin from rattling if it got knocked out somehow. Dropping the thumb drive in, she closed the egg and put it back with the others.
Running to the closet, she shut herself in, settling into the farthest corner and tucking her knees up under her chin. The scuffling sounds had stopped, and she wondered if it was over already. Would David call for her soon?
Heavy footsteps clomped into the room, and she hugged her legs tighter, barely daring to breath.
“Is he dead?” a gruff voice asked, uncomfortably close to the closet door.
“Not yet, but he will be soon.” The second man sounded farther away, and Laura knew they were talking about David. She trembled, trying not to panic but knowing that if they found her, they’d kill her too. The knob on the closet door rattled, the distant sound of sirens in the background.
“Local law enforcement headed this way,” a voice crackled from a radio. “Hold position or fall back?”
The rattling stopped.
“Fall back,” the gruff man said. “Bring Eklund. We’ll come back for the disk later if we can’t extract what we need directly from him.”
Laura listened to him leave, straining to hear anything as the men vacated her house, presumably carrying David away with them. Swiping a tear, she couldn’t make herself leave the closet, even after the house was silent.
It seemed like forever that she sat there, wondering why the police hadn’t come in. Why the men hadn’t come back.
Whether or not David was dead.
Then a barely audible ringing sound penetrated the closet door, and it took a few minutes for her brain to register that her cell phone had been ringing.
Check-ins.
She moved tentatively, every sound she made making her pulse jump as she crawled to the closet door and pushed it open a crack. Peeking out, she saw no one, and after a few more moments, she braved the now-silent house to retrieve her phone from the kitchen counter. There were two missed calls, one from each of her friends wondering where she was and admonishing her to call as soon as she could.
Laura took her phone to the kitchen table and sat down, taking a deep breath as she dialed Melanie’s number first. She needed help.
###
Join us for the next installment of Laura's story right here on Memorial Day - May 27, 2013.
Curious about what Melanie and Jodi were up to while Laura was meeting
Mysterious? Check in on Melanie at AlexWesthaven.com (horror), and Jodi at TrinityMarlow.com (erotic romance) - both installments will be posted later this weekend. Thanks for reading! Enjoy
this post? Support your author:
Mysterious is one branch of a three-pronged holiday short series by
myself and two of my alter-egos. We follow three women through the year,
each with a different goal that may be achieved in ways they can't even
fathom just yet. This is Laura's story. You can read the first part here. All stories are posted in draft form. The combined, edited version will be released in December 2013.
Valentine's Day | St. Patrick's Day |
Easter Egg
Laura sipped at a wine cooler and watched the sun go down as she sat on the patio at Coolers. Melanie and Jodi sat on either side, Melanie scoping out the prospects for her next date, and Jodi trying to look like she wasn’t watching the door. Or checking her watch every five minutes.
“So when are we going to meet this guy?” Melanie asked, looking straight at Laura. “Considering you’ve broken your own rules and not even sent us a picture yet, I think we deserve at least five minutes to make sure you’re not dating a serial killer or something.”
Jodi nodded. “I agree. I mean, it’s a little weird that he’s giving you gifts already, don’t you think? If it was one of us, you’d want to meet him, right?”
Laura set her bottle down and sighed. She couldn’t very well just come out and tell them that David was a spy. She probably shouldn’t even tell them his name. But they had a point. They deserved to know something.
“It’s complicated,” she said, earning two annoyed glares from either side of the table. “I mean, he’s...not your average guy. And he’s not a serial killer, I swear.”
Melanie shook her head. “Not good enough, and you know it. Maybe Jodi and I will just hang around until he gets here tonight. I haven’t picked anyone out yet, and your date will wait Jodi, won’t he?”
Jodi hesitated, and then nodded. “I’m sure he would. I can call and let him know...” She picked up her phone and started tapping.
Laura reached out to put a hand on her arm. “No, don’t do that.” She sighed again, and leaned forward. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I know, but you can’t tell anyone. Not a soul. Got it?”
Melanie smiled, leaning close. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Spill it, Laura.” Jodi put her phone down and rested her elbows on the table, nodding her agreement.
“His name is David,” Laura said. “And he’s a...well, he’s working undercover. That’s why no pictures, and why you wouldn’t see him even if you waited - he’s not coming here tonight.”
Jodi frowned. “Let me get this straight - you’re dating some guy who told you he’s a spy, and he’s having you meet him somewhere else? Somewhere quieter, I take it? Less people? And this is fine with you?” She shook her head. “I never thought you were that stupid. He could be totally feeding you a line of crap, and you’d never know it until it’s too late.
Laura looked over at Melanie, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “I agree with Jodi. It doesn’t sound safe. And we don’t even know what he looks like, so we have no way to track him down if something happens to you. This isn’t what we agreed on. We just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I know it sounds bad.” Laura toyed with the gold coin hanging from her neck. “But I’ve been talking to him online for months now, and I really feel like I know him. And...” Laura stopped, noting the concern on her friends’ faces. “You just really don’t believe me, do you?”
Jodi and Melanie glanced at each other, then back at her, shaking their heads. Then something drew their attention up, and their eyes widened.
Strong, familiar hands grasped Laura’s shoulders just before she would have turned around.
“I know we were supposed to meet later sweetheart, but I got away early and decided to surprise you.”
Laura tried to hide her confusion as she looked up at David. He leaned over and kissed her, winking before he slid into the chair beside her.
“Are these the friends you wanted me to meet?”
She nodded, forcing a smile that she hoped looked genuine. “That’s Jodi, and this is Melanie. Girls, meet David.”
Two cell phones came up, each snapping off a shot as Laura closed her eyes.
“Subtle, ladies,” she said, giving David an apologetic look. He merely smiled, sliding an arm across the back of her chair.
“It’s okay,” he said, addressing her friends. “You didn’t buy the spy story, did you?” The women shook their heads again. He turned back to Laura. “I told you they wouldn’t. We might as well tell them the truth - that we met online, and I couldn’t wait to meet you.” He kissed her again, gently, and she swayed toward him, as if under a spell.
“So what exactly do you do then, David?” Melanie asked. Her smile was cordial, but cool. It surprised Laura - normally Melanie loved all men.
David met her gaze straight on. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” He winked, and then turned to Laura with an easy grin. “Are you ready to get out of here? I’m starving.”
She nodded. “Absolutely - let’s go.” She glanced at her friends. “You two have fun tonight, okay? Don’t forget to check in...”
“We won’t,” Jodi said with a smirk. “You make sure to answer your phone, or we’ll have to hunt David her down.”
Laura just rolled her eyes and followed David out the door, relieved to finally be free. He helped her into her car and then took his seat on the passenger side.
“Do you mind if we go to your place?” he asked. “There are some things we really should discuss...”
Laura nodded and pulled out of the parking lot. “I’m sorry I told them you were a spy, though they didn’t believe me anyways. They were just so worried that you were some sort of serial killer, and --”
He chuckled. “No one ever believes the whole spy story. It’s probably one of the safest covers there is. What I meant was, we need to talk about the coin I gave you.”
“You mean the USB drive?” Laura kept her eyes on the road, all too aware of his eyes on her.
“I wasn’t sure you’d figure it out. Did you look at what was on it?”
She considered lying, but knew he probably had some way of finding out anyways. “I looked, but it was just files with random pieces of information in them. A name here, an address there, letters, spreadsheets...I figured it was something to do with the case you’re working on.”
He was quiet for a long moment, and she glanced at him after pulling into her parking spot and turning off the engine.
“I shouldn’t have looked, right?”
He shrugged, giving her an absent half-smile. “I knew you would if you found out. It was a risk I had to take. It was safer with you than anywhere else just then. But I need to see the information, if I can borrow your computer.”
Laura nodded. “Of course. Come in.” She got out of the car and they walked to the door in silence. She wasn’t sure what to think just then, wondering if he was just using her. Maybe he didn’t actually care. What had been hidden in the other gifts?
Did she want to know?
She fitted the key in the lock and let them both in, locking the door again once they were inside. Then she pulled the coin out from underneath her shirt and the chain over her head so she could hand it to him.
“There you go,” she said with a shy smile as her fingers briefly brushed his. “The office is back here. Follow me.”
As he sat at her desk and plugged the thumb drive into her laptop, she thought about all the nights she’d spent chatting with him in that very spot. Talking to him while he’d been who knows where, doing who knows what. It was an odd feeling, and she wasn’t really sure what to do about it. Part of her wanted the physical man and the possibilities that came with. The other part wanted to go back to that time when he was just a mysterious guy on the other side of her screen, a safe fantasy rather than risky potential.
As he clicked through the files, she stood back and watched, wondering if she should give him privacy but not wanting to leave. It wasn’t long before he opened a black window she’d never seen before and typed in a string of commands that opened another window branded with the CIA logo.
“You can access that from here? They aren’t going to think I’m trying to hack in or anything, right?”
He chuckled, not looking up as he signed into the network. “It’s a secure connection. Yes, they can track it to your place, but since I logged in, they’ll know it was me. I just need to upload these files--”
A loud bang from the back of the house cut him off, and Laura jumped as he terminated the connection and pulled the coin drive out of the socket, cursing under his breath. He pressed the coin into her hand, curling her fingers around it and squeezing hard.
“I’m gonna go check that out - you find a place to hide.” She opened her mouth to speak, but he shook his head. “No arguments. I’ll get rid of them, but you have to keep the drive with you, okay? We can’t let them have it. I’ll explain as soon as I can.”
Heavy footsteps clomped through the hall and David was gone. Laura stood frozen, watching the door and flinching at a shout followed by the sound of flesh striking flesh.
She glanced around the room, knowing that if David couldn’t subdue whoever it was breaking into her house, they’d find her soon enough. Keeping the coin with her wasn’t good enough, but where to stash it?
A basket of brightly colored plastic eggs on a bookshelf near the window caught her eye. She’d put several around the house trying to get in the holiday spirit, and it was unlikely that anyone looking for the drive would look through them.
Crossing the room, she opened one egg and stuffed it with some of the fake grass from the basket to keep the coin from rattling if it got knocked out somehow. Dropping the thumb drive in, she closed the egg and put it back with the others.
Running to the closet, she shut herself in, settling into the farthest corner and tucking her knees up under her chin. The scuffling sounds had stopped, and she wondered if it was over already. Would David call for her soon?
Heavy footsteps clomped into the room, and she hugged her legs tighter, barely daring to breath.
“Is he dead?” a gruff voice asked, uncomfortably close to the closet door.
“Not yet, but he will be soon.” The second man sounded farther away, and Laura knew they were talking about David. She trembled, trying not to panic but knowing that if they found her, they’d kill her too. The knob on the closet door rattled, the distant sound of sirens in the background.
“Local law enforcement headed this way,” a voice crackled from a radio. “Hold position or fall back?”
The rattling stopped.
“Fall back,” the gruff man said. “Bring Eklund. We’ll come back for the disk later if we can’t extract what we need directly from him.”
Laura listened to him leave, straining to hear anything as the men vacated her house, presumably carrying David away with them. Swiping a tear, she couldn’t make herself leave the closet, even after the house was silent.
It seemed like forever that she sat there, wondering why the police hadn’t come in. Why the men hadn’t come back.
Whether or not David was dead.
Then a barely audible ringing sound penetrated the closet door, and it took a few minutes for her brain to register that her cell phone had been ringing.
Check-ins.
She moved tentatively, every sound she made making her pulse jump as she crawled to the closet door and pushed it open a crack. Peeking out, she saw no one, and after a few more moments, she braved the now-silent house to retrieve her phone from the kitchen counter. There were two missed calls, one from each of her friends wondering where she was and admonishing her to call as soon as she could.
Laura took her phone to the kitchen table and sat down, taking a deep breath as she dialed Melanie’s number first. She needed help.
###
Join us for the next installment of Laura's story right here on Memorial Day - May 27, 2013.
Curious about what Melanie and Jodi were up to while Laura was meeting
Mysterious? Check in on Melanie at AlexWesthaven.com (horror), and Jodi at TrinityMarlow.com (erotic romance) - both installments will be posted later this weekend. Thanks for reading! Enjoy
this post? Support your author:
Romantic Suspense
| Erotic Romance | Suspense/Thriller
| Flash Fiction | Non-Fiction
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