Bloody Freak (A Bloody Series Book #1) (7 page)

Elkins smiled too, "You can still press assault charges if you'd like. She defiantly meant to harm you Sir. Or else she'd have thrown the box of paper clips."

   "Yes, but I can't fault the girl. Temporary insanity. She's obviously angry at me for taking over the position of her boss."

    "You knew about that?" Elkins asked.

    "Knew about what?" Ethan roared. Elkins backed up a bit.

    "That he favored her.
The guys think there was something going on between them. Nothing obvious but hinted. Is that a problem?" He didn't understand what had cause Ethan to become upset. Ethan was seeing red. He was livid thinking about her involvement with another man. And re
l
ieved again that he had taken the man
’
s place. It was irrational in the extreme he soon realized and took a second to calm himself before he answered.

    "I don
’
t abide fraternization between coworkers is all." That sounded good. Though he'd just burned h
is own bridge as far as these men were concerned. Not that Alexandria would ever forgive him long enough to 'fraternize' again.

    "That shouldn't be a problem since Ken is gone. Well, you might want to watch your own back." He glanced at the woman that
had been caressing his arm when he fell.
Yes, watch out for that,
he told himself. Just then the ambulance arrived. It was very embarrassing for all involved having to explain what happened. After much arguing, Ethan convinced them he was fine. They were c
onfused about why there was no bruising. He pushed them a bit to get them to leave. Before all was said and down he had to push most of the people in the office into calming down. After it was all settled he asked to see Alex. They had put her in the tiny
holding cell the lab had for emergency events.  He asked Capt. Iverson if it was okay to see her, though it galled him to ask permission. He was granted access. They had a camera set up in the corner of the tiny room. He mentally cut the link to the telev
i
sion in the office.

    "Alex?" He tried softly, as she hadn
’
t lifted her head off the table when he came in.

    "Go away." She whispered. That hurt.

    "I'm sorry I didn
’
t tell you Alex. I really wanted to but I was afraid you would reject me right off.
I couldn
’
t risk you looking at me last night how you looked at me a few minutes ago. I don
’
t regret a single thing we did." He meant every word. He would cherish their one night together forever.

    "I don't want your explanations,
Ethan
." She spit his n
ame at him like a curse. Her head cam up but she didn't look at him. "You purposely omitted that you were about to become my boss. Because of you a good man lost his job of twenty years. Just so Iverson and Conner can look good to the Mayor."

    "Doesn
’
t
that make it their fault?" He asked before he thought it about it.

    "Yes, probably. But I'm blaming you." She looked at him then. "Tell me something, Dr. Hollowman. How did you know I worked here when we met last night?"

He just looked back at her. He m
emorized her features, twisted into a hateful mask. He knew she'd never forgive him for this. "I can't tell you."

She could have leapt at him, could have screamed, could have pummeled him with her fists. She did something worse. She put her head back down
and whispered, "Get out."

    She didn
’
t look as he left. After she was dragged into the holding cell, she had a bit of time to cool down and think. It didn't make any sense. That he knew from first sight who she was. It made so much sense now though th
at he knew from the beginning. He never told her his name. Never mentioned his work, what he was moving here to do. That he did try, at the beginning, not to sleep with her. She should be grateful for that but then again he had completely changed his mind
once she had changed hers. She almost smiled at the memory. Almost. Even though she was furious, part of her had registered the way his black suit and cerulean undershirt hugged his shoulders. But she couldn
’
t dwell on that. He said he couldn
’
t tell her.
W
hat the hell did that mean? If he had said, "Conner sent me files of all the employees," or "I looked everyone up on the internet to better access their personalities," any such drivel, she would have believed him. But he told her the truth. “
I can
’
t tell
you.”
  She could very well have slept with the real enemy. The Other Government. They wanted her. Could they have found her, and sent Ethan to seduce her? Would they do that? They usually just kicked doors in when they wanted somebody. She would have to c
o
nsult Brena. Of course that would mean moving away again. Alaska? God help her. She hated snow. She had forgotten to ask Ethan if he was pressing charges.

     It was almost funny, hearing Alex demand her one phone call. She didn't know she wasn
’
t under
arrest. Maybe he'd let her wait it out. No, he wouldn
’
t do that, he knew. After explaining to the Captain and the employees that he wouldn
’
t be pressing charges, they decided she could come out. Iverson suggested firing her, which Ethan couldn
’
t abide. If
she was going to hate him, she could bloody well get used to working with him regardless. He wasn
’
t giving up his one chance to be near her in that small capacity. The crew all looked at him strangely after he suggested maybe they just let her cool off fo
r
a bit. That she would come to her senses. They were probably wondering if they too could get away with throwing things around the office at each other. Somebody had picked up the broken printer and tossed in the trash bin.

    "Lieutenant?" Ethan motioned
the man over.

    "Yes, Mr. Hollowman?" The man was on his best behavior.

    "Did you happen to see Detective Hevenside at the Precinct? The addition to Homicide they sent?" Adam should have arrived early this morning.

    "I do believe there was mention of him coming in but I haven
’
t yet had the chance to meet him. Do you know each other?"

    "Yes, we've worked cases together before. I believe that
’
s why he was sent. He's an excellent Detective. If you should run into
him, please have him give me a call."

    "Of course. I look forward to our piecing this case together Mr. Hollowman. I'm sorry again about your welcome speech. Just let me know if she needs replacing at any point, or gets out of line again." Conner state
d firmly.

    "No, it
’
s all right. I'm sure we'll get along fine. Thank you." He dismissed him and turned to find a quite place to make a discrete phone call. The King would surely hear about this and he wanted it to be from his lips, not someone who would
give him too many details.

    "Harker & Murray Legal Firm, this is Lillia, how my I direct your call?" The Kings private line, quite obviously based on Bram Stoker
’
s Dracula. It was silly.

    "Lillia, it's Ethan. Is the King available?"

    "Let me che
ck, just a moment." She put him on hold. While he was waiting, they were letting Alex out of the cell. She talked briefly with a young man, touched his shoulder in reassurance and walked down the hall to her office. She never looked up to see him.

    "Yes
, Ethan, I
’
m here." The King sounded distant.

    "Am I on speaker phone?" Ethan asked.

    "Yes, sorry, I'm in the lab. I know I shouldn
’
t be tinkering but the Scanners have found nothing yet and Jones has been sending me notes every hour demanding an upd
ate. I'm positively nerve wracked. It was a bad idea sending you away." The King sounded less like a patriarch and more like a child.

    "You handled Jones wonderfully at the board meeting. Just threaten to have his hands removed if he pens one more lett
er to you." Ethan smiled thinking on that satisfying idea.

    "I think his secretary pens the letters," the King said absently.

    "Your Majesty, you handle everything in the lab with precision and a steady head. Just apply the same to your work elsewher
e. Now, I called for a reason. There was a small incident with a co-worker today that might get back to you, and I wanted you to here it first from me before it was blown out of proportion."

    "Yes? What happened?" He could hear the King shuffling papers
around.

    "One of the Lab technicians grew quite upset at my arrival, they fired the man previously running the lab you see, and she was so upset she, well, she threw some things. It
’
s all handled now though." He hoped that sounded less dramatic then it
was.

    "She what?"

    "She threw some things at me. Everything is fine now, all smoothed out, but just so you know things didn
’
t go one hundred percent. I've seen to it though. It's not a problem, I assure you."
Liar, liar, liar.

    "Okay, Ethan. Well
, I hope you had her fired. No one threatens my friend and gets away with it." He laughed at his small joke. If only he knew this particular female.

    "No, I didn
’
t have her fired. She was upset, you know how females get." If she heard him say that she'd
be throwing things again. Probably him, off of the roof.

    "Yes, I see. I trust you Ethan. Any news on the case yet?"

    "No, nothing substantial yet. If they don't find anything within the next twenty-four hours we might have a shot at diverting thi
s fiasco. As long as the Scanners can spin the story online, spread rumors and such, we might be all right." He hoped.

    "Alright. That
’
s good news. Have you heard from Adam?"

    "No, I think he's arrived but I haven
’
t spoken with him yet. I'll give him
a call when we're done here."

    "Good, good. How is your skin holding up? Not burning I hope."

    "No, everything is fine. You
’
re a genius as always, your Majesty." He truly was.

    "Oh, stop with the Majesty crap. I'm working on something new as we
speak actually. I'll tell you more when I have it refined. I'm very optimistic."

    "That's great, your Majesty. I have to go. I'll report back at the end of the night."

    "Good luck Ethan. We're counting on you." He hung up.

Grea
t. That was comforting. He dialed Adams cell number and listened to his phone play some horrendously loud music.

    "Ethan. I was just going to call you." Adam said by way of greeting.

    "Yeah right. Are you at the precinct yet?"

    "Yes, just got set
tled in. The King sure is a genius isn
’
t he?" Adam laughed.

    "Yes, quite right. Anyway, I need a status report on what the police know."

    "Not much. Probably about as much as we do, with the exception of knowing the truth. They're calling this the Wo
lf Killer case, did you hear? Talk about clever, huh?" He laughed.

    "Yes, very original. Keep me updated on their progress, if any, will you?"

    "Will do boss." He laughed again.

    "Ha-ha." He hung up. They might have been friends for four hundred y
ears but he didn't miss an opportunity to remind him he wasn't in the same league as the others. Bastard.  After getting settled into his desk, with the exception of lunch and a bathroom break Ethan didn
’
t see Alex for the rest of the night. He thought ab
o
ut approaching her and demanding she listen to him, but he knew she would most likely never forgive him. Nothing could ever be between them. Even if she dropped down on her knees in front of him and begged he take her back, he couldn
’
t live a life with he
r
. Hmm. What happened after the begging, he wondered. The more he sat and fantasized, the more he wanted to see her. If only for a moment. Even if she refused to see him, he was still her boss until this case was solved. Reports must be given on progress,
r
ight? Yes. He would ask for a progress report. Calmly, matter of factly. She couldn
’
t refuse to do her job. Convinced he was only trying to preserve the friendly working environment, he got up and walked toward her office. As he was approaching, the young
man Alex had spoke to stared at him through the window of the lab. He looked worried. Ethan shook his head to say everything was fine. He hoped he looked convincing.