Let's Strike - Part 1
Fiona arrived at the apartment and parked her car ten minutes after James had walked in. She used the elevator up to the sixth floor and found James in the living room watching the news channel.
"When did you get here?" Fiona asked taking off her shoes.
She picked them up and walked into the living room.
"Is that the best way you can greet me?" James said and Fiona drew closer to him bent down and planted a kiss on his lips.
James grabbed her and deepened the kiss making her fall onto his lap. Fiona giggled pulling away from the kiss but remained in James's arms.
"So how did it go?" she asked.
"Well, the preparation pushed me through. I have a job and the salary is good," James replied.
"That is good," Fiona said and lowered her head.
"What is it?" James asked seeing her looking sad all of a sudden.
"I know you want to get back at Jason for putting you and your mother in prison, but can't you let it go? You have a new face, a new identity and a job. We have a baby. We can get married and no one will know your true identity. Let's start afresh, what do you say?" Fiona said playing with his shirt button.
"Get off me?" James said with a straight face.
"Why?" Fiona asked still sitting on his lap.
"I don't want to drop you on the floor," James replied and Fiona stood up from his lap.
"Jason will not hesitate to put me behind bars if he recognizes me even with my new face. Don't forget we grew up together. It is very easy for him to recognize me. We are in the wild now. To survive you need to kill," James said and stood up.
"Where is my child?" he asked heading for the staircase.
"I rented a place in town and hired a nanny to take care of her," Fiona said. "Mirenda comes here unannounced, I don't want her up in my business," she added.
"Good, I need the address of that house. I am moving there tonight," James said and started climbing the staircase.
"Why?" Fiona asked following him.
"It's a perfect cover. No one will suspect a handsome young man with a month-old baby," James replied and stopped at the top of the staircase.
His gaze shifted in the direction of what used to be Jason's room. He headed for the door and pushed the door open. It was empty and a little dusty in there.
"You don't clean this place?" James asked shifting his gaze to Fiona who was standing in the hallway.
"It's a huge apartment and I don't have cleaners here. I will call some cleaners over the weekend to do that," Fiona replied.
"I am not interested," James said, closed the door and headed for Fiona's room.
At Mr Wellington's house, Jane was doing better and Mr Wellington felt it was okay to leave her at home and go to work.
"So you will leave me all alone at home?" Jane asked sitting on the bed.
"I have been away from the office for weeks now. I need to go back before my employees start feeling they can mess around," Mr Wellington replied buttoning his shirt.
He climbed into bed and Jane drew closer, resting her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head and wrapped his hand around her.
"You will be fine," Mr Wellington said and Jane just nodded.
She raised her head and stared at his face and Mr Wellington just smiled at her. He planted a kiss on her lips and she rested her head back on his chest. They both drifted off to sleep.
The next day, Mr Wellington got ready and left home for work after kissing Jane good morning. She remained in bed and waited for Mr Wellington to leave. She exited the bedroom and walked around the house for a while. She runs into a couple of servants and some guards. She returned to the bedroom and fetched her phone.
"The old goat is out of the house. Do we have everyone in position?" Jane said on the call.
"Yes, but we need to find James. Matilda is being monitored," Maria replied and Jane frowned.
"How?" Jane asked.
"That stupid daughter-in-law of yours devised the most ridiculous plan ever. They didn't give her the money but rather offered to pay all her expenses. She put this into writing and Matilda was forced to sign. Matilda was given a copy, a copy was sent to the court and they are keeping a copy too," Maria informed her.
"How do we find James? Since he broke out of prison no one had seen or heard of him," Jane said.
"His mother should be able to help with that," Maria said. "I will call her. Now this is what I need you to do. You sent me some documents, but they are not original. They did give me an idea of what other business he owns. Now get me all the original documents. We can proceed from there," Maria said.
"Okay," Jane said and the call ended.
"Now where will you hide important documents to keep them away from everyone?" Jane whispered on her lips as her eyes scanned the room for any sign of a secret space.
At Jason's apartment, Jason had an online meeting with all the new employees. James was last to join the meeting as he struggled a little with his link.
"You are all welcome, and I believe you have gone through all the documents you were given to update yourself on the company's dos and don'ts," Jason began and James just stared at him on his laptop screen inside his office at the Wellington's company.
"You have met all the leaders of the company. So this meeting is to introduce myself to you, and also give you some general update on the company which will help you in executing your duties," Jason continued.
The meeting lasted for an hour and he opened the floor for questions. Everyone asked questions except for James.
"Mr Smith, hope you are okay?" Jason asked seeing the procurement officer had been completely silent all through the meeting.
"I am fine," James replied and Jason just nodded.
"Okay, that will be for today," Jason said and ended the call.
He fetched his phone and dialled a number.
"Hello, I have a job for you. Keep an eye on Mr Mark Smith and report everything he does to me," Jason said and ended the call.
He went back into his email and checked on all the documents on the applicant called Mark Smith.
"Calm down Jason. He broke out of prison. He doesn't have the money to change his face. It's just a look-alike," Jason said to himself and stepped out of the office.
James changed his face but he did nothing about his eyes and his mannerisms. Jason stood in front of his office, his gaze fell on Julia, Mary and little Jason on the balcony. He smiled seeing them happily chatting. Julia turned and met his gaze. Next, he saw her get up from the chair handing the baby over to Mary. He kept staring at her until she entered the living room.
"My love, are you okay?" Julia asked stopping right in front of Jason.
"I am fine, just exhausted," Jason said.
He was not ready to share what he thought and felt with Julia yet. At least not until he has some confirmation.
"You have been working too hard. Take a break," Julia said.
"You are right. There is a project I am working on. Once I am done, we will travel out of the country to make up for the honeymoon I messed up," Jason said and Julia smiled.
"Talking about work. I feel I have stayed home enough. Our baby will be eight months tomorrow. I was thinking if it was okay to go back to work," Julia requested.
"No, not when James is out there walking free and we don't know where he is," Jason said and Julia read fear in Jason's eyes for the first time.
He had never been afraid. Julia drew closer and hugged him.
"There is no way he can get to me without revealing himself to the public. I will be fine. I will put all the trackers on. And I will go in the company of any number of guards that makes you feel comfortable," Julia said.
"You can put a tracker in my lipstick if you want," Julia said, her lips curling into a twisted smile and it made Jason smile.
"I will be fine," Julia assured, hugging his side, and Jason just stared at her. "Plus he will be crazy to come to Haward International and come up to the second floor to find me," she added. "I will let the guards keep watch over the cars. Nothing will happen," she assured.
"Julia?" Jason whispered her name.
"I just want to go back to work. Those days I got attacked I was alone, naive, and a little scared, and you were distant from me. Now things are different," Julia said and Jason sighed.
"My break is over," Jason said to Julia. "Let's talk about this later," he added and Julia nodded allowing him to go back to his office to work.
Back at Mr Wellington's home, Jane searches every part of the bedroom. She ran her hand on the wall and moved pictures and the dressing table. She entered the walk-in closet and started searching the place. She searched the entire place and couldn't find anything. She stood in the room frustrated. Her eyes went around the closet to check if she had missed a spot. Out of annoyance, she stamped her foot on the ground and one of the single shelves for Mr Wellington's shoe popped out. She smiled and walked towards it. She pulled the shelve open and behind it was the file. She brought it out and it was all the documents she was looking for. She examined them.
"This has to be the original documents," she thought.
She returned to her room and picked up her handbag. She brought out a brown envelope and replaced the documents with the fake documents inside the brown envelope. She placed everything back in their place and returned to the bedroom after making sure nothing was out of place. She quickly called Maria.
"I have the original documents now," Jane reported.
"Good, time to leave?" Maria said.
"No, if I leave now, he will be suspicious. Meet me up at our usual spot for the documents and I will buy you some time to do what you need to do," Jane suggested.
"Okay," Maria acknowledged and Jane quickly dressed up.
She grabbed her bag and exited the bedroom.
"Ma'am, are you going somewhere?" the guard asked and Jane froze in place.