Marked for Vengeance (13 page)

Isaac
placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her forehead. “As
annoyin’ as you can be, Tanya,” he said, looking her square in the eyes, “you
have a good soul.”

 “Think
nothing of it.”

* *
*

While
on his way, Isaac drummed on the steering wheel as the radio blared a new song
from his favorite group, The Script. He was now one step closer to finding the
woman from the bistro.

The
closer his old truck came to her building, his mind reeled with questions. Was
she alright from her fall? Would she admit what she was
actually
doing
on the roof? Would she accept if he asked her to lunch? All he needed to do was
go to 1010 Peachtree Place, floor eighteen, and find Frederick Bachman. Then
all of his questions would hopefully be answered.

He
parked his truck in a metered spot one block away, threw in some quarters, and
hurried to the building. He pushed through the heavy glass doors, and as he
made his way past the security desk, a burly Samoan man stepped in his way. “What
floor are you headed to?” he asked gruffly.

Isaac
took a step back. “I, um, I need to go to the eighteenth floor,” he replied.

The
man waved toward the sign-in sheet on the wood podium. “You need to sign in as
a visitor then.”

He
nodded and went to sign his name before heading toward the elevators with as
much restraint as he could manage to keep from breaking into a full-blown
sprint. He felt like a child on Christmas morning, chomping at the bit to
unwrap all the shiny presents.

The
elevator opened on the eighteenth floor, and he hurried to the big, wooden desk
with “Bachman and Yorkshire” in gold letters. “How may I help you?” the
red-haired receptionist asked with a welcoming smile.

Isaac
shoved his hands inside his pockets. “I need to speak with Mr. Bachman,
please.”

Deborah
sized him up through narrowed eyes. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No
ma’am. I would only like to speak with him.”

She
slid a very professional-looking business card across the desk. “I’m afraid you
can’t see him without an appointment, sir. But you can call this number here,”
she said with a tap of her acrylic nail. 

“I
already have one,” he replied as he flashed the folded card.

She arched
a painted-on eyebrow. “Call that number and make an appointment then. Now if
you’ll excuse me,” she said and refocused on her computer screen.

He leaned
over the top of her desk with a lowered voice. “I’m not here as a client. I
know him personally and want to speak with him.”

She
wheeled her chair to the side as if he had a disease. “Can you
please
not lean on the counter?” she asked, her eyes glaring.

He
straightened his back. “Oh, sorry!”

“Thank
you. Now why can’t you just call that number?”

He feared
that she would ask that, and the white lie rolled easily from his tongue. “I
tried callin’ his cell, but it said it had been disconnected.”

Her
head jerked back, her glasses sliding further down her bulbous nose. “That’s
odd.” She tapped her pen atop the desk as she thought. “Take a seat over there,”
she said as she pointed toward the chairs across the lobby and scurried around
the corner.

While
he waited on the crotchety receptionist, he made his way to the area she
requested he wait in and planted into a plush, leather chair. A group of men
walked by in their expensive suits, fervently discussing important business
matters, and Isaac immediately felt underdressed in his worn jeans and leather
jacket. He peeled off his fingerless gloves and tucked them inside his jacket
pocket – the only improvement he could make for the time being.

Amongst
the rich, wooden walls and the shiny, marble floors of the law firm’s waiting
area, he appeared severely out of place in this corporate world where the girl
from the bistro so rightfully belonged. He would normally consider himself
foolish for tracking a woman like her down if it weren’t for their unusual
run-in last night, along with Tanya’s persistent encouragement.

He
glanced at the table beside him and picked up a business magazine to flip
through. Twenty mind-numbing pages in, she came back around the corner with
Frederick by her side, and Isaac shot up from the chair to make his way toward
him with an extended hand for a welcoming shake.

Frederick
eyed him with pressed lips, attempting to place where he had seen him, and
clutched his hand with a firm grip.

Because
he wasn’t shuttling food around the bistro, Isaac figured he might need a
little help. “The Market.”

“Oh…
Isaac, right?” he said as his face reanimated. “What’s up, man?”

“Not
much, not much.”

After
Frederick had displayed some recognition, the receptionist made her way back
around the desk to tend to her duties.

Fredrick
tugged on the lapels of his jacket. “So you had a hard time with my cell number,
I hear. That’s peculiar.”

Isaac
cleared his throat nervously. “Yeah, man. Sorry about trackin’ you down like
this.”

“No
worries. Did I at least win the free lunch, though?”

“I’m
afraid not.”

As Isaac
struggled to broach the subject of why he tracked him down, he regretted not
thinking of a way to do it delicately. Alyx worked as his assistant, after all,
and he had only met Fredrick two times at the bistro. How did
he
know he
wasn’t a perverted weirdo?

He
stared at the floor between them and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m not
here for a consultation or anythin’ like that, but I was wonderin’ about the
girl that you ate lunch with yesterday.”

Frederick
laughed and lightly bumped him on the shoulder with a closed fist. “Which one,
Isaac, the blonde or the brunette?”

The
receptionist stood to her feet again, and her eyes blazed into them from behind
her throne. Isaac shifted his weight to his right foot and cut his eyes back up
at him. “The brunette, actually.”

Frederick
cast a wary glance at Deborah and back at Isaac. “That would be Alyx.”

Alyx.
I like that.
“I was hopin’ that I could find out how to contact her.”

Frederick
coughed, forcing his grin into a straight line. “As much as I like you, man, we
aren’t able to give any information on our employees. Sorry.”

As
the rejection sank in, crushing his heart, a blonde girl traipsed around the
corner holding a box full of frames and potted plants. She pushed the elevator
button with her elbow as she eyed him conspicuously and bit her lips together to
keep from smiling. Isaac glanced back at the receptionist, who sneered with
crossed arms. He wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if laser beams were to
shoot from her eyes any minute now. “Ok, no problem,” he conceded. “Thanks for
your time.”

Frederick
smiled apologetically. “No problem. I’m sure I’ll see you again next week at
the bistro!”

“See
you then,” he replied and watched in disappointment as Frederick disappeared
around the corner, his one opportunity to speak with Alyx vanishing along with
him.

He faced
the receptionist who now texted away on her cellphone. “Thanks, ma’am.”

She
didn’t bother breaking her focus and flung a half-hearted wave.

 “Going
down?” the blonde girl asked.

 Isaac
whirled around and walked to her side. “Yes I am.”

“That
makes two of us.”

As
they waited, she sized him up with a sidelong glance.
What’s with these
people?
he thought.

The
elevator dinged, and he motioned for her to go in first. Once inside, the doors
had barely shut before the interrogation began. “You’re looking for Alyx, huh?”
she asked as a smirk pulled at her lips.

Isaac
nodded and stared straight ahead. At this point, he was utterly humiliated.

She
looked into the box she held in her arms. “Interesting…” she said with a
trailing voice.

He
wasn’t sure what she meant by that and wasn’t about to ask. All he wanted was
to leave as quickly as possible.

“Do
you recognize me at
all?
” she asked and peered back over at him.

He studied
her and shook his head. He couldn’t place her.

She
flashed her perfect, white teeth, their luster almost mesmerizing. “That
doesn’t surprise me.”

“
Should
I know you?”

“I
had lunch with Alyx that day too,” she replied as her eyes danced with
amusement.

 The
blonde
, he thought as the revelation jogged his memory. Isaac threw his
hands in the air. “Oh, of course you did! Yes, I’m so sorry.”

“It
doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t recognize me. You were
all
into Alyx.”

Heat
flushed his cheeks, and his eyes snapped back to the wall. When he found the
nerve to glance over at her again, he could tell she contemplated what to say
next by the way she stared at the elevator buttons in front of her, nervously
tapping her foot.

“Well,
I don’t want to get into trouble by telling you anything
too
specific-

What?
Did
he hear her correctly? Was she about to tell him what Frederick had refused to?
The dial on the elevator ticked down the floor numbers. Three… two…

Come
on!

“She
lives off of Juniper St near the intersection of Fourteenth,” she blurted out.

Isaac
grinned victoriously from ear to ear.

“If
you happen to run into her, then it was meant to be, I suppose.”

The
elevator doors slid open, and she bulldozed him out of the way to be the first
one off. He stepped back to avoid being pinned against the door jam with her
box, and after she scampered on her way, he trailed slowly after. 

When
close to the lobby, she stopped in her tracks and whipped her head to the side.
“This conversation never happened,” she asserted and darted off without giving
him a chance to respond.

Isaac
watched as the guard helped her with the doors, and he guided his hands back inside
his fingerless gloves with the grin permanently carved into his face.
Thank
you, Blondie.

Her
words revived the hope that Fredrick had squashed just minutes before.

* *
*

By
one o’clock in the afternoon, Alyx’s shoulder still felt moderately sore, but
she had regained a lot of her energy by resting. Even though she had improved
physically, she was still acutely aware of the weight bearing down on her weary
shoulders. The emotions of everything had worn her mind so thin that if she
didn’t give it a temporary break, she would inevitably crack. Instead of risking
that by mulling over her woes, she allowed her thoughts to escape by watching
TV and reading her book throughout the day.

The
book she thumbed through was a guide to the country of Australia, one place she
had always wanted to visit. Because of what she was, she had to stay nearby her
Marked at all times, and that never allowed for much travel unless
they
did, which unfortunately, wasn’t the case. So as a consolation, she enjoyed
reading about the different places she had never had the privilege of visiting,
and today was about the ‘world’s largest island’. Just off of the North coast
of this island, laid the world’s largest barrier reef. She sat cross legged on
the couch with her cheek rested in her hand and scanned through the photographs
of the vibrant sea life that inhabited it.

She
imagined snorkeling amongst the neon striped fish and taking her own pictures
of the vivid yellow and lavender corals that decorated the sea floor, with
anemones whose finger-like tentacles swayed between them from the soft ripples
in the water. One picture showed a fluorescent blue starfish that lay sprawled atop
the colorful coral as if to try and mute their brilliance by comparison. She
brushed her hand over the glossy pages and longed to be in that quiet, peaceful
place, floating amongst the sea life.

She flipped
a few pages ahead and glanced through pictures of the outback. It amazed her how
one island could inhabit a barrier reef, a rainforest, and multiple deserts all
at once. There was quite a stark comparison between the lush, ocean scenery and
the arid desert, but it also had its charms. The primary-colored parrots and
bearded dragons brought the dusty landscape to life, but what amused her the
most were the Red Kangaroos that hid their young protectively in their pouch.

But
with the splendor of this island, also came the grave reality that lurked
beneath its tempting façade -- its rich wildlife inundated with lethal animals.
Among her beloved barrier reef also swam the most venomous jellyfish in the
world, the Box Jelly Fish, which could be rivaled by the Blue Ring Octopus, to
which there was no known antidote. A sting from either of these creatures would
ensure one’s demise. The island also housed other fish, snakes, and spiders
that were considered the deadliest in the world. The prospect of a place being
so alluring and yet, still so dangerous intrigued her. And with that thought,
Alyx slapped the book closed. Most of her desires on Earth hovered around the
dangerous, yet alluring.
That’s how I got where I am
, she surmised.