Leo looked up from the two small tablets side by side on his desk when the door to his office gently opened; a silent turning of the lever handle and a slow glide inward. None other than his wife acted with such consideration with the risk of disturbing his work on the line, especially without knocking first. “How’s Nicole?”
Nora closed the door behind her just as quietly as she opened it. “I’ve done what I can. Multiple broken bones, twisted and torn tendons. Everything is set and her hand is in a cast, but it may never be the same.”
He raked a hand along the length of his face, squeezed his chin, and reclined in his office chair. “What an idiot. Now I have a lock and an employee to replace,” Leo grumbled. “Nicole was brilliant, but apparently irresponsible with her credentials.”
Nora sprawled a hand on his desk and leaned her weight on it, looking at him with eyebrows knitted sympathetically. “You can take her research and make something more superior from it, darling. You always do.”
“She let her emotions get in the way of preventing a serious catastrophe for this facility,” he complained, looking back at his wife.
“Oh I do so hate it when you sulk,” she teased.
“I’m not sulking,” Leo countered. “I’m brooding over my misfortune to be surrounded by such inadequacy.”
Nora rolled her eyes and rounded the office chair to stand behind Leo, then placed her hands on his shoulders. Her fingers dug in using circular motions to help him relax. He closed his eyes, and when his head drooped forward she massaged both sides of his neck. Thoughtfully, she asked, “What if that had been me? Would you have acted without hesitation?”
“Don’t speculate, Nora,” he answered with disdain. “We both know you aren’t stupid enough to let yourself be infected, and we’re already immune to most any pathogen.”
“Anything can happen, Leo. You’re right, I wouldn’t do anything intentionally to become infected, but humor me,” she said in a soothing voice to caress his ear. “If it did happen. If either one of us were beyond saving because of our experiments here. What would we do?” Her hand slid under the collar of his dress shirt. Fingers touching skin, she continued to massage one of his shoulders, which sank as he huffed a defeated sigh.
“We already know the right call,” he answered, tone lower in pitch and volume for sincerity. “As much as I would never forgive myself, I would never let you die as anything other than the person you are now.”
Arms overlapping on his chest, Nora craned to kiss him on the cheek. “But we won’t let that happen to us, will we?”
Leo shook his head in response, wrapping his fingers around one of her slender wrists to reassuringly squeeze. “You’ll be delivering in Boston today. Don’t complete the trade until you have the money in hand,” he directed, offering one of the two tablets to her.
Supporting the tablet in one hand, Nora swiped through the information with the other. Her eyebrows ascended. “Two dozen?”
“Yes. This is no meager sale. I trust you to be vigilant,” he said, his voice a warning against failure. “They may try to take the product and run.”
“And risk ruining our business relationship? I certainly hope not,” she scoffed. “That would be worse for them than us.”
“One would think, but you never can tell.” Leo lazily appraised his wife’s figure in the flattering business suit as she casually strode to the opposite side of his desk. “I have a shipment of my own to pick up. A fulfillment of test subjects.”
“You know my rule,” Nora reminded tersely.
“No children,” Leo responded with a half-hearted smirk. “I know, dear. I assure you, they’re all grown adults. They’re coming from a federal prison. The driver will be swapped out along the way, and he is being paid handsomely for the diversion.”
“Good,” she chimed. “I’ll be back in time to help you secure them in storage.”
“Be careful, Nora,” Leo cautioned. “The traitor we tortured yesterday might have leaked genuine information about our drop off locations. I refuse to change the place of transaction or cancel at the last minute because that’s spooked buyers in the past and ruined relationships. We traffic material worse than drugs or humans. If any authorities catch wind of what we’re doing, we will never see each other again. It will be worse than if one of us became infected.”
“You can trust me, Leo. Though, I wouldn’t refuse the company if you decided to come along.”
Leo rose from the office chair which creaked at the release of his weight. He crossed the office and deposited his lab coat on the tree with arching hooks beside the door. “I should follow you in another vehicle,” he thought aloud, donning the fedora.
“That’s not exactly the same as keeping me company on the long drive. Leo, I have done this several times,” she implored. “I’ll be fine.”
“Nora, I trust you to handle the trade. It’s a simple exchange of briefcases,” he said, moving toward her. He cupped the side of her neck against his palm, fingers holding her nape. “You have the same passion for our product as I do. It’s your safety I worry about, which you are keen to forget. I won’t lose you when it could have been prevented.”
Moved by Leo’s concern, and his thumb stroking her jaw line, Nora’s defenses crumbled. “It’s a four hour drive one way. Will you be back in time for your shipment?”
“Roger was going to help me process them. I’ll inform him that I might be delayed,” he replied, tilting his head to peer directly into her hazel eyes. “He can start without me.”
“I see there’s no talking you out of this,” she sighed, receiving a kiss on the cheek as a reward for gracefully bowing out of the debate. “Two vehicles it is then. We better leave sooner than later.”
Kilena Shrelack 