Out of Options

POV: Adrian

“Fuck, fuck fuck!”, I yelled and threw my phone at the back of the driver seat.

I was on my way to the hospital in Valerie’s town car when Hendrix text me. There were no words to describe the amount of anger I had built up over the last week. Pissed off was an understatement and this only added to it.

My cover was blown, with Jared and Valerie knowing who I really was. Monica and Graham had left under the impression if I saw them again, they wouldn't be walking away. Cameron was acting like a needy little child and Valerie was eating it up. To top it off this fucking hospital commotion was bullshit.

Nothing went on in that hospital that I didn’t know about. I knew that bastard had gone to see her, even after I had threatened him to stay away. Leah was like a drug and every man that had tasted her became addicted.

I loved letting the others know that while they may temporarily pass through her bed, I wasn't going anywhere. It was just a matter of time for her to realize she and I were meant to be. This meant I would never stray away from an opportunity to mark her as my own.

Knowing he was in the closet was why I pleasured her and then left. I wanted to let him know who had control and it wasn’t him. Then I wanted him to hear that I was taking her out of this place and away from him.

Hannah texted me the moment he walked in. He thought he had smooth talked his way past the nurses, but he wasn't prepared for my reach. Then seeing her heartrate increase when I walked in was proof that she wanted me.

She could have said no or stop it to save Graham from watching, but she didn't. Her body told me she wanted me, her obinece confirmed it. He had nothing on me, and I saw her stare at the door while I was inside of her.

It wasn’t a surprise that he tried to conspire with her behind my back. And that damn sure wasn’t his baby that she was carrying. I had a feeling it was mine and I wanted to hear her say it.

I never wanted kids, but now I have two on the way. No part of me wanted to accept Monica’s, but there wasn’t an ounce of hesitation claiming Leah’s as my own. This was *MY* baby.

Having connections was only part of my success, the other half was Hendrix. He was the best cyber specialist that I had ever worked with. Whatever information I needed; he got for me with little to no trouble.

Hannah was in the hospital, and I had her keeping a close eye on Leah and her visitors. When she noticed that Leah tried to put Graham’s name on the visiting list, she had it removed for me. She was ensuring that the entire staff follow the visiting policies, per my orders

It didn’t come as a surprise when Hannah let me know Leah had signed an AMA this morning to check herself out of the hospital. Hendrix had eyes on Graham and Martin had eyes on Jared. It helped that Martin was dating Jenny, so he let me know she had left to visit Leah.

Graham was on the move toward the hospital, and we kept a close eye on him, but what we didn’t expect was Leah to run off with Jenny. Hendrix used the hospital security system to track their movements, but they went dark once they exited the stairwell. She was good, but he was better.

He picked up their movement when Jenny bought plane tickets, but there wasn’t enough time for me to get to the airport. Luck was on their side, but I needed to get back to the city as quick as possible. I wasn’t going to let my baby get too far away from me.

Especially when Leah had considered abortion and adoption at the hospital.

It made my blood boil when she called her pregnancy a treatable condition. That was the lie she was telling everyone, but I knew the truth. I just had to keep my cool and play it off like I was clueless.

After my outburst, I had the driver turn around and take me to the airport. There were a lot of moving parts right now, but my baby and my woman were my priority. I would have to delegate to the team to keep my other objectives rolling.

I was so close to finding Cooper’s ledger, so I had Hendrix stay behind to work with Valerie. It helped that she wasn’t letting Cameron out of her sight, so I didn’t need to worry about him. They were also monitoring Monica’s whereabouts to see if she could lead us to the ledger.

Martin would stay put with Jenny as he monitored Jared’s movements. He was staying over at Jenny’s a lot, so he would be able to gather intel for me from the inside. Jenny liked to talk, and she used Martin as her personal diary.

Hannah was no longer of use in the hospital, so I pulled her to trail Graham. He was the outlier to my plan because his movements were unpredictable. The one thing I did know was that once he found out that Leah went back to the city… he was going to follow.

I could count on this team, but at some point, I needed to tell Leah my secret before Jared slipped. We were both hiding something from each other. If she even considered I wasn’t honest, she would use her journalist skills to uncover the truth.

Once I had dealt with the delegation of tasks, it was time to deal with Hendrix’s text.

“Hey boss. I just got word that if we don’t submit a case progress report in the next four weeks; the Bureau would be pulling the task force under their new resource allocation plan.”

I had four fucking weeks to come up with enough intel to make this case valuable to the federal justice system. This means that we needed to find that fucking ledger. I would tear apart every house and every office until I found it.

Once I had checked into the airport lounge to wait for my flight, I had time to sit and make a list. Pulling out my notes I wanted to go over Cooper’s movements over the last few years. I knew about when the deals were taking place, so I just needed to know his movements before and after.

There had to be a common denominator. A place of complete secrecy and safety that he retreated to after every criminal dealing. It would be the place he visited before his travels because he would need to pick up the ledger.

I shot a text to Hendrix, “Get Valerie to make a list of the times he came to visit and any trips that have taken together. We are going to catch this bastard.”.

Valerie was our secret weapon and I had not exposed her in my reports yet. The second I bring her in then I will have to arrest her, and she will get shipped off to a holding facility. She can’t do this investigation any good held up in some black site.

It was time for my flight, and I had all of my pawns in place. This gave me time to get back to the city and check on Leah. She had been ignoring all of my calls and messages.

She had ruined any and all flights for me. Every time I was seated, it was a habit to look back for her. Each time wishing her sweet scent would flutter past me.

Each time my phone buzzed; I hoped it were Leah.

Hendrix called me, “Hey boss, they landed and made it back to the apartment. Martin is following Jared to keep him away. The cameras are up and running still. You can monitor them out from the apartment.”.

“Roger that. Thank you. Let me know once you get that list from Valerie.”, I hung up as the plane started to descend.

I didn’t waste any time deboarding the plane and heading for my car. Having a driver on standby was a perk of working for the Daybreak Corporation. Planning to utilize every resource I had until this empire was taken down.

The driver dropped me off in the front of Leah’s building. The door man tried to stop me, but a quick flash of my badge usually gets me in anywhere I want to go. I was willing to jeopardize everything for her and my baby.

*Knock Knock*

I could hear footsteps coming toward the door. They were soft, so it couldn’t have been Leah’s. Moments later, Jenny opened the door.

“She doesn’t want to see you right now.”, she cracked the door with the chain still attached.

I could break the door open if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to scare them.

“She isn’t responding to my messages and has declined all of my calls.”, trying to sound helpless to get a little sympathy from Jenny.

“I’m sorry Adrian. Give her time.”, she looked down as if she were disappointed in me.

Before I could respond she closed the door.

I yelled, “Leah, you can’t avoid me forever. I want you and I know you want me too.”.

Rushed footsteps approached the door and then stopped.

“Leah, please can we talk.”, this time my voice was lower.

Unable to make out the conversation, they were whispering to each other.

“Adrian, please go.”, Jenny pleaded with me through the door.

“Leah, I know…”, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Light sobbing was coming from behind the door. I took that as my que to leave. It was clear that I wasn’t getting in today.

Out of options, I decided to turn around and walk away. She couldn’t stay cooped in the apartment forever. And I won’t stop until she and my baby are safely in my arms.

-To be continued-