Capture Me

"When Will This Be Over?"

Ryder

I held Nara close, wrapped my body tighter around hers. I changed our arrangement so that she wouldn't get squished from my weight. I laid her head on my shoulder and the half of her body rested on me. Her breathing had slowed, and I knew that she'd fallen deep in sleep.

I stared at the ceiling, awake. Memories of my wife's faces flooded my mind, her laugh, the way her brown eyes sparkled, and her I love yous that made me feel like I was the king of the world. I was happy. She made me happy.

I couldn't lose her. I just couldn't.

My phone dinged from the nightstand, cutting my reminiscing.

I reached out to get it and saw that the text was from Gid.

'You need 2 come here. Now. Urgent.'

Here meant the headquarters.

'What is it?' I texted back.

'Key to operation prdtr success.'

Operation Predator was the plan devised to locate Alastair by scouting all the recorded places she was seen frequently. Once found and secured, she would be brought in for interrogation, after that the chances of her body being sunk in the ocean was high. The downer was that, the witch was all over places. Morocco, Germany, California, Dubai, Miami—she gets and she leaves like a motherfucking jet plane on steroids, I don't know how she did it because the time gap of the sighting reports were just hours apart. How could she do that when the other places needs half a day—or more than a day to travel to? I hope this key that Gid's talking about will help us take that devil with lady parts down.

I looked at my wife's peaceful face. I couldn't just leave her here alone.

My phone dinged again. 'Can't. Wait til tomorrow.'

His reply came fast. 'Nope, can't wait. Duty calls. If it's your wife, just bring her.'

I was pondering what to do when he texted again. 'She'll be safer here.'

I sighed. I hated waking her up like this.

"Baby, Nara." I shook her and she stirred.

"Mmm?" Her arms looped around my neck. Fuck, this made it harder to leave the bed.

"I have to go to the headquarters. It's urgent, but I cannot leave you here. It's not safe." I painfully disentangled her arms and got up.

She slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes, her hair spilling on her breasts and stops just above her navel. It still kicked me how beautiful my wife was.

"Now?" She asked in her groggy voice.

"Yes, baby." I searched the closet for my clothes and the ones that would fit her. I found my old university shirt, jogging pants, a hoodie, and laid it on the bed in front of her.

She stood up and went to the bathroom. "I need to shower first I reek of sex. Can I borrow one of your boxers? The one with drawstrings?"

What's wrong with that?

I didn't bother asking, it might lead to longer conversations and that was not going to help at the moment. "Okay, but you have to shower fast, baby, my boss will tear me a new asshole if we don't get there early."

"'kay." Was all I heard before the water turned on.

● ● ● ●

Ten minutes and we're both dressed and going out of the house. I carried Nara to the car despite her protests that she could walk, I couldn't just let her walk barefoot on the ground, it was October and it was fucking freezing.

Before Nara got out of the shower, I contacted Gid to get her flip-flops or shoes if he could and told him the size of her feet. He okayed, so I didn't think asking a multibillionaire to do a small errand was a problem, plus he should get out of the office a lot more. The man basically lived and ran his empire from there.

"I cannot just walk in there like this, Ryder." She told me as I started the car.

"What's wrong with you in my clothes, baby?" I asked her, maneuvering out of the driveway, to and out of the gate, the handy button installed in the dash of the car opens and closes them so no guard needed 'cause it was rigged with electricity that could fuck a living thing up. One touch and you'd be like a fly in a zap racket—it had a 'Do not touch, high voltage!' warning though, screwed on top of the doorbell in gold-plate with an arrow pointing to the gate.

Nara looked good in my clothes, even though they were freaking swallowing her. I still found her sexy. She didn't want to wear her neck-breaking shoes, complained that it made the soles of her feet ache.

"Uh, one, they're over the top big. Two, every two steps I take I have to pull them up and the cinched drawstrings aren't of any help at all, and three I looked like a freakin' penguin-thug with oversized clothes." She counted on her fingers.

I chuckled at her last reason. "We'll buy you clothes after this is over."

Silence dropped like a heavy curtain after that and when I looked at her she had her head turned to the window.

"When will this be over, Ryder?" Her whispery voice filled the car.

I sobered and felt my smile drop. I meant when whatever they wanted to tell me in the office was over. Not the whole thing, which now led to a somber topic. So I answered her truthfully. "Soon, Nara. And after, I'll quit and fully devote my time to the company and you. No more shady businesses." I promised her.

"No more shady businesses." She repeated, still looking out the window.

I could almost hear her voice telling me if I would be able to keep it.

The conversation stopped after that and only tense silence followed. My eyes slid constantly to my wife, who hadn't taken her sight out the window, unmoving. I would've thought she fell asleep if not for her relentless sighing.

Just like before, Nara didn't pry. She always and always waited for me to tell her and even if she did pry, I wouldn't be able to tell her anything that would not endanger her life.

And this thing that Gid told me to hasten the success of Operation Predator—I was still clueless about what it was, so I was left guessing in the dark. It was good that I wouldn't for long, because the headquarters was only half an hour away.