Detectives

57

Two agents from the unit drove her home. Allison assumed she wouldn't be seeing Liam for some time if, in fact, he did fly to Berlin. Then again, he could drop out of the sky and land in front of her at any second. She wouldn't have put it past him. With Liam anything was possible.

Will made the news for having surrendered to the authorities. He couldn't hurt anyone now, and as much as she hated to admit it, he did deserve to be behind bars. She didn't think he would ever get rid of his temper, though. She said a prayer for him and stopped worrying.

Except for the daily scream call from Aunt Jane, Allison could finally relax, which she planned to do just as soon as she figured out how. She went back to working out twice a week, sometimes more often, not because she wanted to stay in shape but because it made her feel better. She had dinner with Jordan and Noah a couple of times. Jordan couldn't stop talking about Brett's presentation, and each time she brought it up, she laughed about the pompous egotism it took for Brett to think he could get away with such a scheme.

Besides her workouts, Allison also played racquetball with Dan and his girlfriend, Margo, a few times. She thought she was getting better. Neither Dan nor Margo agreed, though Margo was more diplomatic. Dan just laughed and shook his head. Over beers late one night he told Allison the latest gossip about Brett. Rumor had it that everyone in Silicon Valley and beyond had heard what he'd done. Even though he was holding on to his story about the computer program being his and blaming Allison for the underhanded "trick" she had played to destroy him and all his hard work, no one believed him. Still, he wasn't going away quietly. Somehow he had gotten it into his head that he had enough of the program in his possession, and he could find a buyer. With each attempt that crashed and burned, he became more and more incensed. He'd gotten hold of her phone number and called several times just to let her know how much he hated her. If he had planned to scare her, he failed. Brett was a blowhard and so inconsequential she didn't mention his drunken calls to anyone but Jordan.

Two full weeks passed and not a word from Liam. No surprise there. She was trying to accept the possibility that she might never see him again. It wasn't as if he had deceived her. He'd been real up front about their relationship. Sex and only sex. No tender words of love. She didn't want to cry over him or sink to self-pity. No, she was more in the mood to give him a good smack. It wasn't a very ladylike thing to do, and she would never give in to the urge, but she certainly was tempted.

It was time to get the upper hand in this non-relationship. She was determined that, if she saw Liam again, she would tell him she didn't want him in her life. No more mind-blowing sex and then taking off. She'd better tell him over the phone, she decided, because she knew the minute she saw him her best intentions would go flying out the window and she'd want to tear his clothes off and attack him.

It didn't matter that she loved him or that he might feel something more than just affection for the woman he occasionally had sex with. He might even love her a little, but that didn't matter, either, because he would never do anything about it. His job came above all else. She saw how it was draining him. No one could keep up the frantic pace without paying a price. The stress alone would kill an ordinary man, and contrary to what he might believe, he wasn't superhuman.

Not so long ago she would have believed that spending time coding was all she ever wanted or needed. Not any longer, though. She wanted it all. She wanted marriage and eventually babies to love and cherish. She accepted there wasn't any future with Liam. Now all she had to do was find the courage to move on without him.

~~~~~~~~~

The doorbell rang in Emerson, and Aunt Jane opened it to find a young man standing there with a large envelope in his hand.

"Jane Trent?" he asked.