RAY HOOK
2024
Summer, LUX Hotel
The urge to kill increases rapidly with each second he stays on the call.
"I don't work for free," he snapped.
The elevator doors swooshed open and he got out.
Instantly in the public eye, he lowered voice and hissed through his teeth, "I do my part, you do yours. You want me to spy for you, get me that interview!"
This woman. She's a virus coded to hoard resources. Ray glared ahead in contempt as his six-foot-three strapping body moved in its own pace along the pristine marble floor of a hallway that ushered its guests into the main lobby.
The voice at the other end continued yapping away, cheap-skating her way through the deal, and Ray's blood was reaching its boiling point.
At a stone's throw away, the hotel's main entrance pulled apart and someone in full white entered. Immediately, Ray decided: his youth is precious, and he's not going to squander it on some ice block.
"I've just settled everything on my end with my partners and the VCs." He concluded, his strides lightened.
"That's none of my business," his sister snapped.
And he tossed his I-don't-give-a-fuck tone back at her. "Then get on with yours. Move your fat CEO ass and get—."
His next word vanished as soon as the person in full white breezed past.
Kate! Ray spun around, his eyes frantic, searching; his nose clinging onto the scent like a lifebuoy, tugging his long, athletic feet along. They stretched effortlessly forward, bringing him closer.
And then he saw her: petite and slender, in a white pantsuit, disappearing into the elevator.
He dashed over and jabbed the button to hold the doors. But it was too late, the metal box had swam up to the next floor.
Damn it! He stamped an agitated fist on the panel. What should he do now? He backed away and searched around the elevator frame for clues to her destination.
But there was only one panel; and that panel carried one button to call for the elevator.
Fuck! He twirled around like a headless chicken, thinking furiously of his next step. The thought of meeting her again brought in great relief and joy. Yet that still felt tiny. Vulnerable like a bubble. And that made him more anxious.
He must get to her.
But how?
His sweeping gaze finally landed on the lounge in the lobby, and he remembered the hotel's floor plan.
There's only one way out of this building, so she's bound to pass by the lounge. He can wait for her there!
It was then he heard the high-pitched blabbering and cut the call to kill it. He side-stepped around a male escort to make for the empty lounge, when the silky laugh came to an abrupt halt, and a weary voice said, "If someone had walked by me dressed up like Jesus, I would've noticed."
Ray came to a screeching halt. His ears perked up.
"White from head to toe? Jeez, are you sure she's human?" There was a pause and then a weary sigh. "I know she's a snatched. But weirdos are on another level. The last one attacked my dick, know what I mean?"
No one calls his Kate a weirdo.
Ray turned around to have a good look at that guy, and just that nipple-hugging bright pink shirt was enough to send him through the roof.
Buttons are invented for a reason.
"O'course, I'm prepared." He flashed a smirk that made Ray want to stain his tiny white jeans red and patted his back pocket. "I'm gonna to make her feel so good, she'd beg me to take another five grand."
Ray has heard enough.
"Hey." He stepped closer, rage shooting like lasers from his eyes, and the guy glanced over with remnants of his laugh. Then, the Alpha found himself hissing through his teeth, "That woman you're meeting. She's my wife."
A vision of death crossed the escort's eyes, and he calcified. His phone dropped to the floor like a cry from a stab.
If his client wasn't Kate, Ray would've found it funny and laughed at it.
"Room number," he asked, his voice low and deep, his gaze menacing.
The guy stammered a couple of Ps before he uttered, "Presidential suite."
And Ray shut his eyes inside to calm his rage. What the fuck is she thinking splurging on a gigglo?!
More Ps, and the guy mewed, "Please, Sir. She called us, I swear." Then, something popped in and he jolted upright with a large grin. "Lessons! She said she needed lessons!"
And Ray grabbed that glossy pink collar, hoisting it like a rope around his neck, and growled, "What lessons?"
The Ps now turned to S-es, and the puny guy answered, "Sex lessons, what else! You know, I'm not a school teacher!"
That nearly knocked the wind out of Ray. Sex lessons with an escort?!
"Maybe she wanted to spice things up at home," explained the guy, forcing a smile to lighten his sentence. "You know what I mean?"
Ray released him in a shove and clapped his hands to remove the dust of disgust, then told him to scram, when the cowering guy leaned in cautiously to whisper more information about his deal with the woman in white.
"She promised us five grand, Sir."
*****
The elevator doors opened and Ray stepped out.
A red carpet pulled from where he stood towards a huge door with golden knobs. With a heavy sigh, he padded forward and arrived at the entrance of the Presidential Suite.
The pounding in his chest hastened, until he could hear it in his ears and against his skull.
Ten years. Two hundred and ninety million seconds of searching, praying and missing. And, he's finally here.
She's alive.
Would she recognise him?
Why would she? They had only met twice, briefly.
And she was severely burnt, remember? That would have a major impact on her. Ray had read something about PTSD somewhere. Maybe the emotional trauma had struck her too hard and she lost all her memories.
Ray shook the worries off his shoulders and eyed the doorbell.
Doesn't matter whether she remembers him or not. She's alive, and that's all that matters.
This time, he will stick to her like glue.
This time, he will bravely tell her his name.
His finger reached out and pressed the button.
Silence. And then, the door unlocked. But just before Ray was ready, it swung back to reveal the most beautiful woman in the human world.
Perfectly sculptured in golden ratio, the delicate features shifted into a slight surprise that seemed to say: I wasn't expecting this.
That surprise was as much as Ray's.
The scent cannot be wrong.
But this isn't Kate.