Chapter 13

The door clicked behind his father as he left the room. Elias had offered to walk him out but he'd refused saying that he'd appreciate the animosity and the silent walk.

"You have much to think about anyway," he'd declared as he left the office.

Elias was still unsure how to process what his father had told him, and he wasn't sure what to do either, he'd dismissed the thought of calling Austin because that would put his position as a member of the police department in jeopardy. Besides, he didn't know if he could tell someone that he suspected that his sister is in too deep with an underworld organization.

His father is a prominent businessman in the city, and their family has a long history in this place. That's why his father has all sorts of connections and was almost always aware of anything news worthy before it hit the public channels. and in this case he knew it before even the public channels themselves knew about it.

thinking back about his father's words, a shiver ran down his spine

"i heard from some of my acquaintances that some shady groups came into the city recently." He'd said in a low tone that he could've used to discuss the weather in a library "and they seem to be looking for Sarah's boss. He was the fella we met at the party last year wasn't he?"

"yeah, i was wondering why he would be there, it's not his usual circle"

"these people are big shots in the underworld and some consider them really bad news. i don't know if Sarah got herself involved somehow, but you two need to be careful, if it's about the research then you need to let go of everything and ley low for a while, you have to talk to your Fiancé and sort things out before this turns into a blood bath."

"Talk to my fiancé, huh." he muttered under his breath leaning back in his chair staring at the ceiling. If he spoke to Sarah eight now about this, she'd probably think that it was one of his attempts to make her leave the research program, which if she didn't do, things were probably going to get ugly very soon.

for the millionth time that day Elias wondered about Wattani's disappearance, now he was sure of one thing. It has something to do with these dangerous people, whether they were responsible or that Wattani fled from them by going under the radar, either way the man was in it deep with them according to his father, and he caught Sarah and Adam in the crossfire.

feeling restless, Elias picked up his phone and made a call hoping it was a good decision, running to Sarah like this wasn't a good idea, but he probably can do something from his side. after a few rings someone picked up at the other end.

"This better be important Elias, I'm in the middle of a maddening divorce dispute that has been taking most of my daily and yearly schedule." Ray grumbled his voice sounding irritated.

"It is, as a matter of fact, more important that the divorce of two wealthy people who want to get wealthier." He responded feeling sorry for his cousin, "check your email, my father must have sent something."

there was a snort in the other end, then silence a Ray checked his email.

"Holly ... Cow" He muttered from the other line, catching himself mid sentence, remembering that he was in the office. "Elias did you do something about this?" Ray asked his tone completely switching to a serious note.

"Nope, dad just left my office. I thought you'd be the best bet in this case,"

"Yeah, you thought well," he responded absent mindedly seeming to be already plotting something in his head, "I need to go, let me handle this, and not a word to anyone, Elias."

"my lips are sealed," Elias said

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Adam and Sarah sat in the cafeteria eating their sandwiches and chatting away while pretending to eat the meal they were having.

"ugh, remind me why i suggested that we eat at the cafeteria again?" Adam grumbled pushing his food around the plate.

"Because you're being targeted and if we leave the institute alone the person who tried to off you would have a better chance to end us both?" Sarah mumbled back with a monotonous tone and a straight face, knowing that she'd get under his skin.

"Yeah, right.... that..." Adam said with sarcasm "Thanks for the reminder."

"We sound like cheeky teenagers" Sarah protested wondering if her sense of humor got twisted under pressure.

"well, better than laughing and screaming like the mad scientists we are" Adam said with a smile seeming to find their weird conversation funny too.

"Since when did we become twisted like this?"

"I don't know, maybe when we started to get drugged to high heaven every day at work?"

Sarah opened her mouth to respond to that with another crazy unrelated respond when her phone rang again

"ugh, for the love of god don't answer that" Adam exclaimed, and Sarah sent him a questioning glance as she turned to get the phone out of her lab coat.

"since this day started whenever someone called you it's been a to knock us over with something shocking. so forgive me if i say i have a bad feeling about this." Adam said leaning forward to shamelessly peek into her screen

"It's Ray, the lawyer i was supposed to meet this after noon," she said her finger hovering over the answering bouton.

"Well, don't tell me that i didn't warn you" Adam told her then turned to his plate mumbling "At least let me finish my launch before you give me some other bombshell."

"Hello" she answered the phone feeling her stomach flip and her heart start racing again.

"Hello, Sarah. This is Ray," he responded in an urgent, cool tone that he hadn't used with her when they met. "I want to discuss something with you can you move somewhere more private"

"Yes of course, give me a minute." she said standing up mentioning for Adam to follow her.

"Go ahead" she told him when she reached the empty hallway

"I'd like to think that i can be direct with you Sarah, so I'm not going to beat around the bushes" he said sounding like earlier "What kind of crazy research are you involved in Sarah?"

Sarah's legs felt felt like air under her for the second time that day "What do you mean by that?" she responded trying to sound as cool and impersonal as him.

"I just received an email from someone we both know, and it contains some very concerning information about the relationship between your boss and a shady organization. and it's related to the research subject ." Ray said

Sarah Looked up at Adam in alarm and found him eying her with concern, he was leaning into the phone to hear the conversation and his face looked like someone had royally pissed him off.

"Elias ?" she asked weirdly wanting to make sure of this more than the other subject.

"No, it was his father." Ray said "He went to see Elias this morning so he knows."

"I don't need to tell you what this organization specializes on trading, do i?" Ray continued in a gentle tone. Sarah couldn't find the right words to say, she remained silent staring at Adam's face and he remained staring back at her.

"Listen, I'm unofficially your lawyer, but in order to know how to deal with this i need to know how much you're involved in this. Did you know about this Sarah?"

"No" she said in a quiet tone , Adam nodded at her giving her his consent to talk. "We just found out the truth this morning. we've been trying to conduct the experiment to make sure, we had our suspicions but someone has been tampering with our trials and we couldn't succeed until today." she told him trying to keep as much out of the explanation. She wasn't herself so she didn't trust her decision while she's still shocked and disoriented.

"Can gather proof of your experiments failure and all? " he asked "Sarah, I'm not going to lie, this looks bad and we need to move fast before something happens. you know why he left you the whole program now." Ray said

"Yeah, to frame me for his wrongdoings." she told Ray feeling like crying

"And for them to come after you and give him the chance to escape." Ray said making chills run up her spine, could it be that they were already inside the institute?