CyberStorm Read Free Page B

sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I don’t know, okay? I feel lost. I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
    I relaxed, and my pulse began to slow a little.
    Lauren looked at me. “I’m going for brunch with Richard to talk about some ideas he had for me.”
    My pulse raced again, my cheeks flushing.
    “I think he beats Sarah.”
    Her eyes flashed angrily. “Why would you say something like that?”
    “Did you see her arms at the barbecue? She was covering up. I saw bruises.”
    Shaking her head, she snorted, “You’re being jealous. Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “What should I be jealous of?” I shot back angrily.
    Luke began to cry.
    “I’m going to get dressed,” she said dismissively, shaking her head. “Don’t ask stupid questions. You know what I mean.”
    Ignoring me, she leaned down and kissed Luke, whispering that she was sorry, she didn’t mean to yell, and that she loved him. Once she’d calmed Luke down, she gave me an evil look and stalked off into the bedroom, closing the door heavily behind her.
    Sighing, I turned toward Luke and picked him up. I eased his head onto my shoulder and began to pat his back softly.
    “Why did she marry me, huh, Luke?” I whispered under my breath.
    I answered my own question.
    “Ah, yes, well, we’ve got you, don’t we, big bruiser?”
    With two or three sniffling sighs, I felt his little body relax into me.
    “Come on. Let’s take you over to see Ellarose and Auntie Susie.”

December 8
     
     
     
    “HOW MANY OF these are there?”
    “Fifty. And that’s just the water.”
    “You’re kidding. I’ve only got half an hour before I need to be upstairs for the sitter.”
    Chuck shrugged. “I’ll ring Susie. She can watch Luke.”
    “Great,” I replied sarcastically as I struggled down the stairs holding four-gallon containers of water in each hand. “So two hundred gallons of water you’re paying five hundred dollars a month to store?”
    Chuck owned several Cajun-fusion restaurants in Manhattan, and you’d have thought he could store stuff at one of them, but he said he needed to have it close. A card-carrying member of the Virginia Preppers couldn’t be too careful, he liked to say. He had some decidedly non-New Yorker sensibilities.
    His family was from just south of the Mason-Dixon Line. He was an only child, and his mother and father had died in a car accident just after he finished college, so when he met Susie, they’d decided on a new start and had come to New York. My own mother had passed away when I was in college, and I’d barely known my father. He’d left when I was a kid, so my brothers had pretty much raised me.
    Our similar family situations had bonded us when we met.
    “That’s about the size of it,” laughed Chuck, “and I’m lucky I got this extra locker.”
    He snickered watching my efforts.
    “You need to hit the gym a little more, my friend.”
    I trudged down the last few steps to the basement. Where the rest of our complex was beautifully decorated and maintained—manicured Japanese gardens next to the gym and spa, an indoor waterfall at the entrance, twenty-four-seven security guards—the basement was decidedly utilitarian. The polished oak steps leading down from the back entrance gave way to a rough concrete floor with exposed overhead lighting. I guess it was because nobody really ever went down there.
    Nobody, that was, except Chuck.
    I halfheartedly laughed at his jab, not really listening to him. My mind was turning over and over, thinking about Lauren. When she and I had met at Harvard, anything had seemed possible, but it seemed to be slipping away.
    Today she’d gone for the interviews in Boston and was spending the evening with her family there. Luke had been at preschool this morning, but I hadn’t been able to find a sitter for the afternoon, so I’d returned home from work. Lauren and I had some heated exchanges over her going to the interviews, but there was more to it than that.
    There’s