Chapter 27

**Artemis**


Abigail is able to have everything related to our problem project secured on my private server within an hour. She even went as far as to stand over each person’s shoulder and watch as they moved everything and deleted any trace of it off of their station computers.

I’ve been reading through code for several hours now and a headache is starting to start when a knock comes from my office door. It opens before I can say anything and Alan saunters in.

“What’s up brother?” He says loudly as he enters. “Man, it’s good to be home.”

He drops his body into one of the chairs in front of my desk and makes himself comfortable. His body is slouched low enough that he can rest his head on the back of the chair, and his legs are spread open. In short, the opposite of professional.

“I’m assuming you didn’t come alone.” I say instead of a proper greeting.

If he’s going to barge in here and not respect my space why should I be pleasant to him?

“You would be right! They’re waiting in the conference room.”

I stand and grab my jacket off the back of my chair. Alan waits for me to button it up and make sure I look the part of the man in charge. These men need to know who they are dealing with.

“This is going to be good.” Alan murmurs from behind me as we exit my office and head in the direction of the conference room.

As if sensing what’s about to happen all eyes move to us.

I walk into the conference room first and the men are on their feet as soon as they see me.

“Welcome gentleman. I’m glad you could make it here on such short notice. Please have a seat.” I say this all in my unnervingly calm voice.

I don’t smile at them even though my words seem harmless which confuses them. The continue standing and glancing at each other even after I sit at the head of the table.

“Sit gentleman we have a lot to discuss.” They look even more nervous when they take their seats again. “Alan, do you have the information I asked for?”

“Sure do boss.” He is sitting to my left and the seat the other men are sitting three seats away from me on both sides.

I take the folder from Alan and put on a show of reading a few pages. The truth is I don’t need any of this information to do this. We’re going to find out who was responsible for the breach at their company, but first…

“I have asked you here because I am looking for a team to protect my fiancé. She has been put in a difficult position and could be placed in harms way. I won’t let that happen which is why I asked you here. The problem is that there is a saboteur in your midst and there is no way I will trust the most important person in my life to that person.”

I catch Alan’s surprised expression from the corner of my eye but I don’t bother acknowledging it. He’s one of the only people who knows the truth between Blue and I so I have to play the protective fiancé in front of everyone else. I’m not sure why what I said comes as such a surprise to him when he knows the act I must put on.

“Let’s begin.”

For the next hour we interview the men together and work our way through them by pulling up all activity on their company’s servers. We start with smaller things first and then work our way up to the embarrassing things. As soon as it becomes uncomfortable hearing their dirty laundry exposed in front of the others it doesn’t take long for the one responsible for the breech to confess. Once he does, I contact his boss and explain the situation and that I will be sending the man back and expect him to be terminated.

The interviews had not only exposed the man who screwed with their system but it made me realize that these men are not good enough to protect Blue. Firstly, they are all below the age of twenty-five and with only a few years of experience in the security business. I don’t trust them to protect Blue the way she needs. Which brings me to the decision that I will give her Bryant and Dane to protect her, and I’ll use some of these guys.

I’m about to tell them this change in plans when my phone chimes. It’s sitting on the table, so I slide it over and see Blue’s name on the screen. It’s not a long message but the word ‘SOS’ gets my attention and has me on high alert.

“That will be all today. Alan is arranging accommodations for you, and we’ll talk again tomorrow.”

I stand and quickly leave the room. As I’m heading toward the elevators, I unlock my phone to read the full message. I stop short when I see why she’s called for my help. I’m torn on what to do. It’s not exactly a real emergency but she’s making threats so it can’t be good. That’s something I have learned from relationships I’ve seen, when the woman makes threats it’s serious.

“Mr. Rhodes are you going out?” Abigail says appearing next to me.

“I guess so. Blue sent an SOS.”

“Is she okay?”

I show her the message and she tries to hold back a smile.

“Do you think this is important or should I not bother?” I ask her since she’s a woman and the only person here who knows Blue.

“I would get their fast sir.”

I let out a sigh. “I figured. I’ll try to get back as soon as this is all taken care of.”

“Don’t worry sir I can handle things until you get back.”

“Alan is here if you need anything.” I call to her from my elevator door.

“Good luck!” She calls out as I step inside and the door closes.

Good luck? It must be bad. I’m not sure what Blue means by the dresses looking like marshmallows but I’m guessing that means their big and rounded. I don’t know much about fashion but that doesn’t sound like the sort of thing my sisters wore at their weddings. My mother has already chosen the cake for us and no doubt has a plan for every aspect of the wedding but Blue is going to have to wear this dress and it would be wrong for her to wear something she doesn’t like.

She must not want to speak up and upset anyone and that’s why she’s asking for help. I won’t let my mother walk all over her and she knows it. Rhea would try to help but she also doesn’t like confrontations with our parents, so she probably won’t try to intervene. I text Bryant for the address as soon as I reach my car and start the navigation system.

The shop is almost a half hour away!

I don’t think I will be making it back to the office during work hours today. It might be a night where I’ll have to stay over in my office. That has less appeal than it used to.

I make it to the shop in good time and see Bryant and Dane standing by the door. They’re diligently watching the area before they spot me.

“Mr. Rhodes? What brings you here?” Bryant asks.

“Got an SOS from Blue.”

His eyes widen with panic. He turns like he’s about to rush into the store but I stop him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry it’s not that kind of emergency. It’s a dealing with my family emergency.”

He relaxes and nods before opening the door for me. I’m immediately overwhelmed by the amount of white in the room. Everything is white. It’s almost blinding. I barely notice a woman walking toward me because she is also wearing a white outfit.

This place looks like a giant cloud, and she is it’s queen. God, that’s something Blue would probably say. That woman is getting in my head.

“Can I help you?” The soft-spoken woman asks.

“I’m here to see my fiancé, Blue.”

She gives me a confused look. “I’m sorry there is no client here by that name.”

I’m about to give her my mother’s name when someone calls my name.

“Artemis! Thank God.” Rhea rushes over and grabs my wrist. “He’s with us.”

She drags me toward the back and through a white curtain that leads to a large hall with doors on both sides. One of the doors is cracked and I hear familiar voices coming from it. Rhea pushes the door open, and I see Athena and my mother sitting on a small couch against the wall.

“Artemis? What are you doing here?” My mother asks when she sees me.

Before I can answer her Blue walks onto the small stage set up in the room. My mouth goes dry when I see her.

Holy shit…