Page 16 of His Sweet Torment
Part Two
Six months later…
Henry Jones sighed as the Feld Office receptionist nodded towards his visitor. “Padme…this has to stop.”
Padme struggled to her feet, the cane she was using helping her up. Since being shot, she had gone through long and extensive – and painful – rehab, but her progress was slowed by the fact that every day, she came here, to her old workplace to ask Henry one question.
Where is Enver?
Padme, her lovely face pale, fixed Henry with a determined look. “Henry, I’m going to keep coming here until you help me. Where is Enver?”
Henry shook his head but said nothing, instead helping her towards his office. When she was settled in the chair, he sat back down opposite her, studying the young woman who had thrown everything away for the man she loved. “Pad, I’ve told you again and again. Enver Toscano took himself out of protective custody and disappeared.”
“If that were true, he would have come for me.”
Henry sighed again. “So you’ve told me over and over. Look, sweetheart,” he leaned forward, giving her a warm smile. “Enver is wherever he is, and the fact he hasn’t come for you…doesn’t that say it all? Pad, you gave up everything you had for him, and you still got shot, and even after that - he left you.”
Padme fixed him with a glare. “If he didn’t care, why did he pay for all my medical costs? Why are there hundreds of millions of dollars in my checking account? I haven’t touched any of it because…if I do, I’ll be admitting he’s gone. If he isn’t contacting me, it’s because he can’t – and that means he’s dead…” She choked over the words, “Or Frederick Ingles has him.”
“Or maybe it was Enver’s way of saying goodbye?” Henry’s words were soft, but Padme looked away from his gaze.
“No. He loves me.”
“Sometimes I forget how young you are,” Henry rubbed his hands over his head. “I never thought you were the type of woman who would abandon everything for the sake of some good sex and a handsome face.”
Padme rocked back. “I haven’t abandoned anything. I made an informed decision when I quit.”
“But you didn’t tell Severin or any of your friends that you were planning to disappear from their lives entirely.”
Padme was silent, then she got up. “I’ll come again tomorrow. If you don't help me, I’ll find a way to find Enver. He’s out there, and god knows what is happening to him. He put his neck on the line to help bring down the Ingles, and the F.B.I. just abandoned him.”
She limped out of the door, with Henry staring unhappily after her. He closed his eyes and thought for a long moment, before picking up his phone. “It’s me. I need to call in a favor.”
Padme saw Dale waiting outside her apartment and felt a wave of annoyance. He helped her from the cab. “Did you get sent?” She asked, not caring if she sounded pissed. Shewaspissed.
Dale, used to her moods by now, shrugged. “Henry’s concerned, like the rest of us.”
Padme let him help her inside her apartment. “How about I make us some coffee?” Dale said, making sure she was comfortable. As the coffee brewed, he studied her. “You don’t look so good, Pad. You sleeping?”
Padme shook her head. She felt exhausted now, drained, and worst of all, heartbroken. Tears came easily and they did now.
“Oh, Pad.” Dale’s arms were around her then, comforting and she let a few more tears escape.
“I miss him, I just miss him,” she started to cry in earnest now. Dale let her cry herself out.
“Sweets, I know you don’t want to hear this, but you need to move on now. Come on, I don’t have to tell you this.”
Padme sat up, drying her eyes with the palms of her hand. “Fuck, Dale, I don’t know how my life has turned out like this, I really don’t.” She moved and winced, and Dale frowned.
“You still in pain?”
She nodded. “Docs think it’s psychosomatic, but I swear they left something in there.”
“Like what?”
She gave him a grin. “Branding iron from the burn of it.”
“Hair straighteners.”
