sighed what sounded like a breath full of relief. “Whew.”
“Never knew you all would be so thrilled at me being tired,” Annabelle said as she stood and stretched.
Her dearest friend smiled. “It’s nothing. Thanks for coming out with me tonight. I know it’s not your thing. But, Annabelle, please think about what I said earlier.”
“About what?”
“About your boss. You can’t move on, unless you, well, move on. Go home and get some sleep.”
“Oh, I’m not tired. I actually feel really rested. I was just saying that to get rid of Mike and all his weird hypnosis stuff.”
The color behind Katie’s glimmer makeup faded. She opened and closed her mouth, tapping her foot. “Oh no.”
Annabelle stopped stretching her back at the flicker of worry. This wasn’t good. Come to think of it, most everyone had hightailed it out of the bedroom with varying degrees of worry and anxiety etched on their faces.
Why was everyone acting so weird? And Katie led the pack in the odd behavior.
“What’s the big deal?” Annabelle asked.
Her friend tugged at the lining of her sleeve. “You were supposed to wake up refreshed and you said you were tired and—”
Annabelle shook her head and made a beeline for the door. “Katie, what are you talking about? I couldn’t have been in the chair for more than a few minutes.” She clinked the ice in her glass. “See? I still have my drink.”
“A few minutes? Annabelle, you sat in that chair for at least fifteen. Maybe we should find Mike again and have him—”
“Relax. I’m fine. Maybe with all the dark lighting I dozed off for a bit. You know how I could always take catnaps in school. Come to think of it, I did have a nice minidream. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling recharged. Besides, I’m immune to hypnosis, believe me.” She grabbed her purse and dropped her glass onto the oak end table.
“What, no coaster?” Katie asked, a line creasing between her eyebrows.
Annabelle lifted a shoulder. “Who needs ’em?” And she made a hasty escape out the door, but not before hearing Katie’s gasped intake of breath.
AFTER QUICKLY WEAVING through the mishmash of parked cars, Annabelle unlocked her used, but reliable, Volvo, fired up the engine and took off. At least Katie didn’t try to follow her. What was the big deal? So she didn’t use a coaster… that didn’t mean she’d been hypnotized.
She’d seen her share of hypnosis scams. Her father’s “clients” had sought him out to break bad habits, but the main thing he’d managed to make disappear was their money. Heck, she could write a textbook on the beaut her father had operated in Kansas. That time he’d offered a free session and people from the simply curious to the truly desperate flocked to the storefront he’d decked out to look as professional as any dentist’s office.
Of course, getting them through the front door was his sole goal. Once inside, he’d introduce them to his special vitamins, drinks and eventually the “investment club” only for his best clients. Hypnosis was only the hook—it was her father’s charisma and the sheer force of his personality which really mesmerized his unsuspecting patrons.
It was amazing how her father had become so proficient in “relieving” so many people of their money but never managed to keep any of it. When he’d died, he’d left her a mountain of bills, mostly money owed to her relatives. She’d never forget the hours after her father’s funeral when her aunt and uncle had asked about the savings and stocks her father had “invested” for them. And the sickening feeling of telling them they’d been fleeced. Like so many others in her father’s wake.
But this time had been different. This time he’d hurt family. A few weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday, she’d taken her GED and went to work to support her aging aunt and uncle. She’d also shed any remnants of the carefree teenager she’d been.
A self too much like her father.
Annabelle turned off the radio, letting the road noise be her music. What she’d told her friend was true. The tired excuse was just that, an excuse. She was more than fine, she felt exhilarated, charged with energy.
Nor was she ready to go home. She loved driving through Oklahoma City at night. A leisurely car ride around the lake would buoy her lifting spirits higher. Although she wouldn’t admit it to Katie, that party was exactly what she’d needed, after all. With a few deft turns of the steering wheel, she easily navigated the suburban streets and headed north toward Lake Hefner.
Some of her favorite memories were set around this lake. Several times while she had been in school, her father had signed her out and driven her to this very area. They’d sat on the hard rocks outlining the lake and fed the ducks bread. He’d said they were playing hooky together. She’d loved those special times. Now she recognized it as one more sign of her father’s gross irresponsibility.
She rolled down the windows to let the night air chase away the blues. Thoughts of her father always made her feel blue. The dark water lapped against the rocks, awakening her senses. Tonight turned out to be one of those singular, beautiful December evenings, warm with just a hint of a breeze.
The night air caressed her skin. It was a reminder that the promising days of spring would welcome her, if she could just get through the winter.
But right now, her life didn’t hold much hope.
Maybe Katie was right. Maybe it was time to fire up the old résumé. Wagner knew of her eventual goal to work as a financial counselor. She looked forward to helping people bail themselves out of debt and learn better spending habits. Leaving Wagner was only a matter of time. What she told Katie this afternoon was true. She was ready to move on.
Maybe it was time to stop fantasizing about her boss. Yeah, right. When, in the past four years, had she not gone to bed dreaming of Wagner Achrom?
Originally, the plan had been to serve as his administrative assistant until she completed the final credits of her degree and paid her father’s debts.
When her feelings had changed she wasn’t sure. Wagner was unlike any man she’d ever known. A powerful, respected and maybe even feared businessman, he’d walked away from a successful career as a corporate raider to set up his own company. Smart and shrewd, not a man who could be taken in by someone like her father. And whenever he looked at her with those dark blue eyes of his, she very nearly melted onto her swivel chair. Magnetic, confident and gorgeous, Wagner was a man who could appreciate order and precision. How could she not have fallen in love with him?
Annabelle pounded her palm against the steering wheel. Why did she have to be such an idiot? Wagner only had two things on his mind—building his business and keeping it at the top. And she didn’t figure into either one of those goals.
What she needed was to forget about work once in a while. Take a day off.
Katie had been telling her to do that for years, but until this moment, it never sounded like a good idea.
That settled things. She would start the weekend early. She was taking Friday off. Hey, she was due.
Flipping on her signal light, she turned right into a grocery-store parking lot. She hadn’t planned on shopping this evening. In fact, she’d never been in this store, didn’t know the layout. Usually, she hated not having an idea of where the items she needed were, walking the aisle clueless. But then, she didn’t know what she needed tonight. She just craved…something. Something sweet and full of calories. Yeah, that was precisely what she needed. Yummy.
WAGNER ACHROM LIKED nothing more than an early Monday morning. He despised the society-imposed restrictions on working weekends. How was a man supposed to build a business that way?
He flipped on his office light, powered up his computer and then scanned his desk.
And