His To Save

6) A surprise visit

     It had been a week since I last saw Jack.
He hadn't reached out to me for anything. Not even to say hi.
I had been frustrated and angry at him for not giving me any signal. Was he done with me? Had I stayed away from him for too long?

     Before we met again, I had been strong and never thought about him in order to keep me focused. But then fate decided to play a game. A game that seemed to only affect me the most. I wanted to see him. I had, to see him.

Making a rash decision and sticking to it, I found myself inside Shadows' headquarters.
    The building was still the same. Same colors, same decor. A few members of the staff had changed, but those were the ones working in the outer circle of the facade.

The receptionist snapped me out of my world. "The boss is not in ma'am."

      I stared at her as virgin shock shot down my spine. Had she just called me, ma'am? Did no one recognize me anymore?
I mean, she used to work here five years ago, must have gotten a promotion while I was away.

   "I know he's here." I insisted firmly.

She gave me a flat look. "Look ma'am, I work here and I'm telling you that he's not here."

I snorted. "You do know that I'm not a stranger right?"

   Seated comfortably behind the counter, the female sized me up with her emerald eyes that held some kind of hostility.
  "If you continue causing any disturbance, I will be forced to call the security."

My jaw dropped. Call security on me?
   Wow Jack! Just fucking, wow.

I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose. God knows how much energy was being consumed just to restrain the desire to slap the shit out of this female.
Her dislike was written all over her face like a title to a book.

  "Do you not know who the fuck I am?" I snapped, sending a glare her way.

     She took a deep breath, as if bottling in her own side of the irritating air between us. "This is the last time I'm saying this Miss. Our boss isn't around and even if he was, I don't think he'd want to see you."

   Something cracked in my body.
Right. It was the wall keeping my rage in check.

  I placed a hand on the counter and leaned forward. "You'll regret this." I promised in a hiss that scared my own soul.

     "Miss Raynatt?" Someone called.

My body slowly turned to check who was trying to get his ass beaten alongside this rude human.

It was him, Steve's younger self.

     His brown eyes held little to no emotions. It felt like I was looking into the void.
"This way please."

Before following him, I glanced back at the receptionist who was now on high alert with her nose in the air and her eyes sharp on the computer screen.
   "I'm not done with you." I reminded her.

The elevator ride was a silent one. There were some questions I wanted to ask, no, itching to ask. But I read his aura, and it was not as friendly as Steve's.

    
  As we walked down the corridor, I noticed that a few more offices had been added with vague labels as A04.

   My mind got lost trying to unravel their meaning that I failed to look ahead and notice someone standing outside the door that lead to Jack's office.
Only when his cologne savaged my nostrils did I bring my concentration back to the front. But it was a little to late as I ended up bumping into Jack.

    He pushed me back using his index finger, like shooing away an annoying Chihuahua.

  "Distracted." Jack breathed.

"So you're here after all."

Jack pocketed his left hand.
   "What are you doing here Annie?"

A furious frown immediately attacked me. I glared up at him, then to my side, searching for the man that had brought me here. To my surprise, he was standing in front of the elevator, his back at us.

    "What? Do you like him?"

Enraged, I faced Jack once more and pinched his arm.
   His surprised gaze caged mine.
Dang it!
What had I done?

Why on earth had I pinched him?
It wasn't a habit I had had before.

   My fingers smoothened on his arm while our eyes prolonged the staring.
Feeling the warmth of his flesh through the sleeve, made all the trouble to get here worth it. Even if it lasted for a few seconds, I enjoyed every damn millisecond of it.

Jack moved away, breaking the little contact.

      "Since you're here, you can help me with something."

My eyes lit up. Anything.
My soul wanted to hop out and dance around Jack.

    Two minutes later, I found myself playing around with his short hair while giving him a light head massage.

I picked up a sense of deja Vu while moving around my fingers. Some things never change. Head massages still helped him cope with his stress.

    "What are you doing here Annie?"

"Um...I..." What was I to say?
How to diffuse this question?

   "Forget it. I can use some advice right now."

My fingers froze for almost ten seconds before moving again. Did he mean that I now qualified to offer him advice? Like a, partner?

   You're super delulu Annie. He must be needing advice on dating.

   "On what?" I asked sternly.

Jack sighed and swung around on his chair till he now faced me. From his firm expression, I was sure that it had to be business.

   "Say, someone tricked you into doing something you never wanted, how would you deal with them?"

  My throat dehydrated in a blink.
Was he referring to me? Of course it had to be me. The bastard was testing me just to figure out how to deal with my ass.
All my nagging was now being considered as forcing him. Dear heavens.

     "I...would depend with, um...who they are."

  "Hmph!" Jack snorted studying me, careful not miss any detail. "What if the tricks they used would hurt the people you love?"

  Oh gawd! Did he have someone else he loved? I was the little bug squeezing its way in an unwanted place.

  My gaze fell to the side, on his desk while my heart sunk in a neverending abyss.
   "I'd get, rid of them." I muttered.

  "But what if this person has something that you don't want to lose?"

My heart suddenly did a summersault as it bounced out of the abyss. So he did care about me even after all of it?
  
Bottling up tears behind my eyes, I lifted them back on Jack who was still examining me. "I'd find a way to handle them till-"

    "You're still naive." Jack interrupted as he got off of the chair.

In a single step, his solid body stood right in front of me, hands in his pockets.
  My neck angled, supporting my head as I looked up at Jack. Standing this close, I couldn't help but notice a few strands of gray hair.

         Without permission, Jack leaned down till his mouth rested on my right ear. The sudden contact sent waves of mixed emotions throughout my body till my knees grew a little weak.
My mind was racing in anticipation of what he intended to do next.

   But my exploding excitement was cut short when he uttered in a frigid tone, "Why did you come?"