Chapter 34

The next day, when Dominic and Lumae went to work, Jackson was once again not there, so Lumae once again went to Scarlett to go find out if he called in sick. This time, Scarlett wasn't missing along with Jackson.

"Hey Scarlett."

"Oh, hi May. I heard you were looking for me yesterday."

"Yep, I wanted to ask the same question I'm about to ask, only this time Jackson really does seem absent, and I was able to find you. Eheh. So uhm, did Jackson call in sick today or something?"

Scarlett seemed bothered for a second and went to check her computer quickly. "Uhmmm.... Yup, seems so, he claims to have caught a nasty cold. He should be back within a few days or so. In the meantime, just keep up the good work." She smiled at Lumae kindly.

"Alright then. Thank you, Scarlett."

Lumae turned around and went back to 'the forest'. When she got to the desk, she noticed an unusual note on Jackson's side. She picked up the note and read it. On it was random coordinates. Lumae quickly grabbed her phone and searched those exact coordinates, which were not so far from Flos.co.

"What's Jackson doing with these coordinates? That place basically looks abandoned."

Lumae then decided to go check out the coordinates after work, but for now, she has a lot of papers to get through on her own. The next few hours were tiresome. Jackson surprisingly helped get through so much work in so little time. Just as Lumae was about to give up, a knock was heard from the door.

Lumae then grabbed her keys and opened the door. "Oh, Dom- Mr. Mortez. What's wrong?"

He stepped inside 'the forest'. "Lumae, we have a problem."

Lumae looked confused, but followed Dominic as he quickly hurried towards Jackson's side of the desk. "What's the problem?"

"Someone managed to steal a hard drive from 'the forest', now they have all the data on our recent project and even sent it through to the higher-ups, claiming that it's half of their research that they've done so far and there's nothing we can do to prove that it was ours right now. Help me find some sort of proof, otherwise everything you've done so far, was for nothing."

Lumae immediately jumped into action and helped Dominic search through every drawer, usb and hard drive they could find, but they couldn't manage to gather any evidence. "Don't you have Jackson's number or something. He might know where we could find some solid evidence."

"Uhmmm. No, no I do not." Lumae looked over to the random notes on the pin board.

"But I'm sure glad he did leave it here."

She took off a note that read, "Call me when you need me ; )." Then she handed it to Dominic.

"I have a few things to take care of, so why don't you just give this to Scarlett, so she can call him quickly."

Dominic took the note from Lumae, grazing her fingers lightly. "Alright then. By the way, do you wanna go out for dinner after this?"

Lumae smiled, "Yeah, sure. I just have something to do after work quickly, but I'll call you to come pick me up?"

"Alright then." Dominic took Lumae's hand in his and pulled her closer, giving her a light peck on the cheek.

"I'll be waiting for your call." Then he left 'the forest'.

Only a few hours later, Lumae quickly rushed out of Flos.co and into the alley where her phone led her too. At the end of the alleyway was the abandoned building Lumae saw on her phone, but she was so preoccupied with where she was going and discovering why Jackson had those coordinates, that she didn't even notice that someone was following her.

The hustle and bustle of the city covered the person's footsteps, causing Lumae to not even notice them at all. When Lumae entered the building, something immediately felt eery. She didn't know what Jackson wanted to do there, but she didn't want to stay a second longer. Just when she was about to turn around and leave, a person snuck up from behind her and covered her mouth with a cloth.

Lumae though, flung the person off her and into the wall, just before anything could take effect. She felt a little whoozy, but it was nothing her healing couldn't fix. She then walked back through the alleyway, stumbling over her own feet here and there, but she slowly started to come back to her senses.

She immediately then rushed back to Flos.co and called Dominic. "Hey, uhm, I think you can come get me now. I'm back at Flis.co."

Dominic smiled on the other side of the phone. "Alright then, I'm on my way."

It hardly took Dominic five minutes to get to Lumae. She then got into the car and swore not to tell Dominic what happened for his own sake. Dominic then went to the manor again. "There's an outfit I left out for you on the bed. Get dressed, then well get going."

"Okay, but, uhm, where are we going again?"

Dominic smiled, "It's a surprise."

Lumae then went upstairs as Dominic waited outside by the car. When she saw the outfit Dominic put out for her, she was immediately confused. Riding pants, a casual shirt, riding boots and a hair tie?

Lumae was completely confused. Where did Dominic plan to take her? Obviously he was planning on something with horses, but why this time of the evening? What place would possibly still be open at this time?

Lumae slowly picked up the clothes and examined them to see if she could find any clues, but she couldn't. She then carefully put them on, tied her hair into a low ponytail and went off.

When she got back down to Dominic, excitement struck her. He somehow also managed to change into riding clothes, and for some reason it suited him way better than a suit. Lumae and Dominic then sprang into the car, ready to embark on their journey towards their surprise date.