Page 95 of Anarchy Missing

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - CASE

“Hello?” Lulu croaks into her phone. She sits up suddenly, pushing on my chest to get untangled from my possessive arms. “What? Shit, OK. Well, that’s good, right? Yeah… I’m… right. I’ll be in soon.”

She ends her call and looks at me, sleep still in her eyes. “Who was that?” I ask.

“My boss,” she says, shaking her head.

“Randy Shits?”

She giggles, but doesn’t correct me with his real name. “He wanted to know where the fuck I was and why I wasn’t at work today.” She stops talking to shake her head one more time, like she really needs to shed the sleep away. “The riots ended last night.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And the power is back on. The cell phones aren’t working, obviously. But the landlines are. I guess I gotta go.”

I don’t want her to go. I’d like nothing more than to hide out here at Lincoln’s place and forget the real world—and all its very real problems—exist. Unfortunately… “I guess I should go to work too.” I sigh. “I’ll drive you down, OK?”

“Sure,” she says, leaning down to kiss me. “I wish I could stay here with you all day but…”

“No worries,” I say. “I can pick you up after work, if you want. We can go have dinner. You can stay at my house. Maybe never go home again.” I waggle my eyebrows at her.

She giggles and then forces herself to get up.

A knock at the door makes us both look. “Come in,” I say, stretching my arms behind my neck, allowing myself to enjoy this moment a little longer.

“Hey,” Thomas says. “Well, there’s been a bunch of updates since the two of you disappeared in here to…” He clears his throat. If Lincoln had come to deliver that message, he’d have coughed the word fuck at us. But this is Thomas we’re taking about. I’m one hundred percent certain he’s never coughed a word in his life and he skips over it now.

“We know,” I say, cutting him short. “Lulu’s boss just called and said the riots are over.”

“Yeah,” Thomas says, drawing out the word. But I can tell he wants to say more. Just not in front of Lulu.

“I’m gonna drive her down to Cathedral City and then go to work. You want to have lunch or something?”

“Yes,” Thomas says, in his clipped manner. “Early lunch. In fact, I’m taking the helicopter down to SkyEye so I’ll meet you at your office after I get that place sorted.”

“Got it,” I say. “Where’s Lincoln?”

“Took Molly to work a couple hours ago. He’s probably gonna pop by for early lunch too.”

Thomas backs out of the media room and closes the door behind him. “Early lunch,” Lulu says, snickering as she gets up and stretches her arms above her head. “Is that code for ‘we need a secret meeting to hash out all this shit that’s happening?’”

“Pretty much.” I laugh, forcing myself to sit up. I lean over, elbows on knees, and rub my hands up and down my face. “But we have time for a shower, right?” I look up at her, waggle my eyebrows again, and then throw in a wink just to make sure she’s picking up what I’m throwing down.

“Case,” Lulu says, walking over to a stack of clothes sitting on a chair. “If I get in the shower with you right now, I’ll never want to leave.”

“Dammit.” I watch her as she picks out a pair of jeans and a clean sweater. I’m half expecting her to go into the bathroom to change, but she doesn’t. She strips off her shirt right in front of me, wicked grin on her face, telling me she knows exactly how badly I want to jump her right now. And that she’s not saying no, she’s saying… later.

I can deal with later. “Let me go see if Linc has a fucking suit I can borrow. Be right back.” I grab her as I make my way towards the door and pull her in for a kiss, then reluctantly let go and make my way through the house and into the kitchen.

“Jesus,” Thomas says, pouring coffee as I enter. “We have real problems, man. Hurry up and get to town. I gotta head out right now and start putting out fires. You know, this whole cell tower thing is great for us and all. Like perfect conditions, right? But it’s also gonna make our plan highly suspicious in the eyes of… oh, pretty much everyone.” He’s already dressed, wearing his own suit.

“Yeah,” I say. But I keep walking. “We can deal with that when we have to. The thing that’s bothering me right now is the riots. Sheila,” I bark to the house. “Can you please find me something suitable to wear to work?”

Sheila pops into view, not too far from Thomas. “I have the helicopter ready. It’s in the hangar.” She turns to look at me. “Define suitable.”

“Work shit, you know? Surely Linc has something… professional?”

Thomas chuckles from behind his coffee mug, swallows, and then says, “Good luck with that. I’d offer you a ride to the city, but I’m in a hurry. You don’t mind taking a car, right?”