Into You

Chapter 25

Six o'clock rolled around far too quickly and Lauren found herself parked up outside the address Sinu had given her, wondering if she had the courage to do what she knew she needed to do.

She stared down at the piece of paper in her hand reading and re-reading the name before she was jolted out of her thoughts by the ringing of her phone.

"Athena, Lauren Jauregui speaking."

"Lolo, it's me. What are you doing?"

"I'm speaking to you, Camila, obviously."

"Have you gone into your meeting with Joanna yet?"

"I was just about to."

"No, you weren't. You were sitting in the car twiddling your thumbs and wondering how you could get out of it."

"I was not," she said, stuffing her things into her pockets and unclipping her seatbelt, struggling to hold the phone under her ear. "I've only just got here."

"Lo, you've been parked outside Joanna's for seventeen minutes. I know, I called the agency and I can see you on my computer."

'Fuck', she thought. She had seemingly been caught out again. She really needed to get Normani to sort out her new company car so she could get out of this monster truck.

Admittedly, it was a wonderful car and she loved driving it but the annoyingly clever little device under the hood had caught her out twice now. She'd asked Camila on the way home how she and Simon had found her at the Cemetery because she was pretty sure she'd given them the slip. It was then that the brunette admitted that all the Cabello family cars were fitted with tracking devices and that the agency that managed the contract could tell them the GPS location of the car down to a few meters.

"Lolo?"

"Camila, I'll call you back. I got to go in now."

"Let me know how it goes, Lo and stop worrying. Joanna's a wonderful woman, she's been a lifeline to me over the years."

"I'm not worried," she told her, hoping that her voice sounded more confident than she felt.

"Of course you're not," she replied and Lauren could almost see the grin on her face as she said it. "Go on, get in there now before you're too late."

She hung up the call and shoved the phone into her jacket pocket with a snort of disgust; climbing out of the Range Rover and slamming the door behind her. She stood for a second looking at the door when it suddenly opened and a woman in her mid to late forties beckoned her in.

"You'll be Lauren, of course," she said as she stepped across the threshold and closed the door behind her. "Sinu described you pretty well I think. 'Average height, dark hair and carrying a 'don't fuck with me' attitude' she said over the phone. Seems to suit you nicely if you don't mind me saying so." She paused briefly for breath and looked at the green-eyed woman carefully holding out her hand for her to shake.

"Hello, I'm Joanna Foster but you can call me Joanna or Jo whatever suits you. I'm not hung up on names personally, come in."

They shook hands and she followed her along the hallway as the woman showed her down a set of stairs into what she assumed was her consulting room. It wasn't at all what she was expecting; in fact, rather than a musty old room with a dirty looking couch, it was light and modern with a couple of nice black leather chairs sat on a light colored wood floor.

"Please take a seat, Lauren, can I interest you in a drink, tea perhaps? I was just about to make a pot."

"Er, thanks," she said a little taken aback by her demeanor which was not what she expected. "White..."