"Is Marcia next door?" Georgia softly asked as she stood in James' hotel room, having just taken him home from their evening together.
"Who cares?" James questioned as he leaned into Georgia to kiss her.
Georgia pulled back and walked to the other side of the room. "I just can't help but think that our relationship is over before it even starts."
"Marcia isn't a threat to us, Georgia," James tried to convince her as he walked over to her and massaged her shoulders.
"Can you promise me that?" Georgia turned around and looked into James' eyes.
"If she thinks trying to seduce me like that will get my mind off of you, then she's sadly mistaken," James told her as he brushed her hair over her ear and then proceeded to try and kiss her again.
Georgia gave in and kissed him gently.
"I'm sorry," someone said from the other side of the room, having just entered.
Georgia and James pulled away from each other and saw Kevin standing there.
"Kevin," James acknowledged in shock. "Any word on Lalie?"
"I've reported it to both the Saint Paul PD and Minneapolis PD," Kevin told him as he walked over to find his cell phone on the nightstand. "This is where I left that."
"Yeah, I tried to run after you to give you that but you had already gone," James told him before turning the topic back to Lalie. "So, where do you think she is?"
Kevin threw his hands in the air. "I don't know," he honestly said. "Hopefully, tomorrow we will learn more about it," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the paper Adelyn gave him with her name and number on it.
"I hope she'll be found and safe soon," Georgia cut in as she grabbed her pocketbook off the bed and turned to look at James. "I'll call you, okay? Keep me updated about Lalie."
"I will," James told her as he walked her over to the door. "Thanks for tonight."
"It was my pleasure," Georgia smiled as she turned and walked down the hall to the elevators.
Georgia pressed the button on the elevator and waited to go back down to the lobby. The elevator door opened a couple of moments later and Marcia was standing in there coming back from somewhere.
"Marcia Santiago," Georgia raised her eyebrows as Marcia strutted off.
"Hello," Marcia replied as she started to walk down the hall as Georgia stopped her.
"Wait a minute," Georgia called out. "Where were you this late at night?"
Marcia laughed. "Are you my keeper, in addition to my new supervisor?"
Georgia was taken aback. "I didn't mean to sound like that. Isn't it a little odd to be out by yourself at this time of night?"
"Odd?" Marcia asked as she tilted her head in confusion. "Nothing about me is odd."
"I suppose not," Georgia shrugged. "I guess you're wondering why I'm wandering around," Georgia figured.
"No," Marcia nonchalantly said. "I'm really not. I guess because I already know where you were."
Georgia gave her a surprised look and gave her an statement that encouraged Marcia to continue.
"With James," Marcia answered. "It's no secret that you two share an interest in each other."
"It's not a secret to you," Georgia shot back sounding a little angry. "You were trying to seduce him in a towel while I was on the phone with him. Why don't you save your shower ploys for someone else?"
"Well," Marcia seemed surprised that she knew about that. "You two must have done a lot of talking earlier. See, the different between my kind of date and your kind of date is that not much talking gets accomplished on my dates."
"Talking gets done on your dates, Marcia," Georgia started. "Trash talking."
Marcia closed her eyes and laughed. "And we're going to be working together? This ought to be good."
"As long as you keep your clothes on, we shouldn't have a problem," Georgia told her with a shrug as she flipped her hair.
"James isn't good enough for my assets," Marcia told her as she looked down at her watch. "Oh, my. Time for a shower and then bed."
"I should be getting home as well," Georgia prepared to walk back to the elevator before she called out, "When you take that shower, why don't you get dressed before you leave the bathroom this time?"
"I'll keep that in mind," Marcia sarcastically said as she put her key in her door and entered the hotel room.
Georgia laughed in disbelief as she waited for the elevator once again and then stepped on and went home.
Inside Marcia and Lalie's hotel room, Marcia turned on the light and put down her stuff. She left her cell phone on as she stripped down to go into the shower. She looked at Lalie's bed and said to the pillow, "Are you happy, Lalie? Oh, don't grin at me like that. You know I have no choice to keep my distance from James now that he and Georgia are together."
Next door, Kevin finished telling James about what happened at both police stations and how Officer Adelyn Brady would begin the search as soon as possible.
"Sounds to me like Lalie will be back in your arms in no time," James tried to sound encouraging.
"Who would kidnap an innocent person like that, though?" Kevin rhetorically asked as he squinted his eyes and looked like he was in pain. "This is going to be hard, but I have to do it - call Lalie's parents back home."
"It's so late," James tried to dissuade Kevin from doing that.
"They have to be aware," Kevin reasoned as he picked up the phone and began to dial the number.
At the Mills home, Carole finished putting her rollers in her hair and walked over to the bed just as the phone rang. She sighed as she reached up and answered it, "Hello?"
"Carole?" Kevin nervously spoke into the phone.
"Kevin, I think?" Carole asked in confusion.
"Yes," Kevin replied. "How are you?"
"Pretty good," Carole answered him. "How's the trip going?"
"Well, it was going pretty well," Kevin truthfully told her as he looked over at James. "Look, I don't want to beat around the bush so I have to tell you this."
Carole tightened her grasp on the phone as she said, "It's about Lalie."
"It is," Kevin admitted. "Carole," he started softly and slowly. "This morning, Lalie went out sightseeing while I went to a meeting and," he stopped for a moment. "I think Lalie was kidnapped this morning."
"How can you be so sure?" Carole asked, trying to be calm. "I mean, you know Lalie, she's always losing track of time. She could be anywhere."
"She wouldn't stay out this long without calling," Kevin replied to Carole's denial. "She left a note saying she'd be back before I got back from the meeting."
Carole took nervous breaths as her eyes flooded with tears. "No!" she screamed out as Harold jumped out of bed and rushed over to Carole. "You're lying! You're lying!"
"I'm not," Kevin softly said, his eyes becoming moist, also. "The police are going to be on it right away. They were the first people I went to."
"Why did you go to that meeting!?" Carole asked him in anger. "If you hadn't gone, she would be in that hotel room right now!"
Kevin thought about earlier that morning, when Lalie asked him if she could go to the meeting and he told her not to. A painful statement grew across his face. "You're absolutely right, Carole."
"Lalie's missing," Carole whispered between sobs to Harold who put his hand over his mouth and then grabbed the phone away from Carole.
"Where is she?!" Harold demanded to know.
"I've been asking myself that all day," Kevin admitted sadly.
"You should know, you went on that trip together!" Harold yelled.
"Look, if I could go back to this morning and change the course of what happened, I would!" Kevin told him.
"You're right, Kevin, you're right," Harold admitted.
Carole angrily grabbed each one of her rollers and ripped them out of her head and threw them across the room as she grabbed the phone away from Harold.
"We're going to be coming out to St. Paul tomorrow," Carole told him as she grabbed a pen and paper. "Tell me where you are and how to get there right now!"
The next morning, a woman laid on a lounge chair on her apartment balcony wearing nothing but sunglasses and a blue bikini. She flipped through the latest issue of Cosmopolitan and giggled at the Top Ten Ways to Satisfy Your Mate. She reached over to the table next to her and grabbed the Piņacolada drink. She put the straw up to her lips and set it back down. She applied more sunscreen to her legs and arms and put her head back when the cordless phone next to her began to ring.
"Hello?" she asked as she took off her sunglasses.
"Heather?" a voice on the other end spoke into the phone.
Chapter 11
Non-Nsync Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email Tracy