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“You know in all my experience in finding criminal masterminds I have found that they do generally leave written confessions in their offices,” Taylor snapped and then rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, but I do know that is the only place I have access to his stuff.”
“Point taken.”
“Sorry,” she said, grabbing his hand, “I’m a little on edge.”
He nodded, “Me too.”
Taylor’s classical ringtone filled the space, and she fished into her pocket to retrieve it.
“He was supposed to call me,” Derrick said.
Taylor looked at the screen and then quickly answered. “Charlie?” she asked, but whoever was on the other end had hung up. “It must have been an accident. I couldn’t hear anything.” Less than a second went by and Taylor’s phone rang again. “It’s Charlie again,” she said.
“Put it on speaker,” Derrick commanded her.
“Charlie?” she asked.
“Taylor?” a hissed whisper came through her speaker.
“Charlie, is that you?” she asked.
“Yes,” the older man gasped into the phone.
“Are you okay?” Taylor asked, her eyes staring with concern at the screen.
“Todd is here,” he whispered into the phone.
“Where?” Derrick asked.
“Preston Corp,” Charlie hissed. “It’s bad, Taylor, I don’t know what to do—”
The phone clicked and Derrick looked at Taylor’s screen to see the call was disconnected.
“Shit, we have to go,” Taylor said, looking bug-eyed at Derrick, the pitch of her voice escalating. “We have to help Charlie,” she said hysterically.
“Taylor, what are we going to do? If Todd is this insane, he may kill us. Hewantsto kill us,” he reminded her.
“We can’t sit here and do nothing,” Taylor said. “Ben is going there. Call him—he can help us,” she reminded Derrick.
Derrick knew it was a bad idea, but he knew they couldn’t sit there and wait. He knew it would be worse if they did.
So they left the Preston Manor drive, and headed towards Preston Corp.
Twenty-Eight
Derrick pulledthe Tesla into the underground garage of Preston Corp and parked. “We stay together, okay?” he said, turning to Taylor.
She nodded, but when Derrick leaned over to open his door she grabbed his arm. Derrick turned back, surprised, and Taylor cupped his face in her hands. “I love you, Derrick Fletcher,” she said and kissed him softly on the lips.
Taylor went to slide her hands off his face and Derrick reached up and held them in place. “I love you, Taylor Preston-Fletcher,” he said, “and we are going to get this figured out,” he pledged.
They got out of the car and migrated to each other before Taylor grabbed Derrick’s hand and they hurried over to the elevator. They were halfway there when Derrick stopped, causing Taylor to lurch to a stop too.
“Should we get a weapon, you know, in case Ben doesn’t come to help us?” Derrick asked Taylor.
Taylor shrugged, “Do you have anything in the car?”
“Nope,” Derrick said. “It’ll be fine, we can wing it,” he said starting once again toward the elevator and pulling Taylor with him. Winging it did not seem like a good plan, but it was really all they had.