Purge, Inc.
Into the Vortex
By: Everleigh Allen
Chapter 7
Mike's jaw tightened as he pulled out his phone and looked at the screen.
Kate was calling.
She must have just noticed he skipped out, after all.
He frowned, and sent her a quick text that he got called into work and didn't want to disturb her once he stopped at a red light. He then put his phone on auto reply because the last thing he needed was his wife's beaming face alit on his screen as he fucked brown eyes all night.
Mike suspected Kate probably knew something was up, but he also knew she probably wouldn't say anything about it if she did. He wasn't the kind of guy that had too much staying power, but he was trying with Kate.
Kind of.
She was a good mother to their child and an accepting wife.
It wasn't that he liked hurting her; he just couldn't stop himself from doing the things he liked to do, like other people that weren't his wife.
It was better that she remained oblivious.
Imogen passed through his mind for a slight moment before the memory wisped away into the back of his mind.
A trilling ring moved through his car and Mike narrowed his eyes, looking for the unknown device within the shadows.
Unbuckling his seatbelt, he got out of the car and pulled forward his seat. It was then he saw the blue glow of a phone.
It was a phone he hadn't seen in years laying under his seat.
His mind began to race… who could've charged it and put it there?
Kate?
Axel?
Mike's first thought was to chuck the phone as soon as he saw it, but his curiosity was always a flaw in his personality. He was always one to test boundaries of what could happen if boundaries were tested.
The light turned off as the unknown call went to an unknown voice mail.
He got back into his car and made his way to his destination with the phone on the passenger seat. He glimpsed at it as he drove every few minutes.
His mind ran wild with errant thoughts. They ranged from wondering if the phone was tracking him or would it detonate somehow and blow up.
Mike checked again to see if whoever called left a voice mail but it never alerted to receiving one that he could tell.
He hoped there was a phone number to investigate, but that seemed to be blocked, too.
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"Hey," A woman with bright smile in red lipstick moved toward his window. Mike looked her over carefully before pushing the unlock button of his car without a word or reaction.
The woman got in quietly with a smile, which did little for Mike's attention.
As soon as the door shut he was off tearing down the road to the closest, cheapest motel that he could find.
He hoped the encounter would give him a release of the tension he was suddenly feeling about the phone and with one quick glance in brown-eyes direction; he knew exactly what he was going to do with it.
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The dark car was covered with the light rain, shielding Tyler well as he watched Mike walking into motel room number one-oh-eight. It was carefully set up for him as Mike was a creature of habit with tells he tried too hard to hide, but for the investigator, he knew that there would be 36 minutes before Mike would leave the motel and head back home to his wife.
But that wasn't why he was following Mike.
He pulled out the ominous picture of a small woman with soft brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was grinning as if she was thrilled to take the picture, something he didn't often see in someone in his line of work.
But it wasn't the vibrant smiles of Imogen Dorsey that got his attention. It was the man who was in the background.
Mike Newton.
He was in the shadows, glaring at whoever was taking the picture of the woman that took up most of the frame and who hadn't been seen in years. The missing person's flier in his hands was the last know photograph pulled off of her social media before she went missing.
No one knew who the ominous man in the shadows was, until there was an anonymous caller putting Mike's name in the hat of possibilities.
The more Tyler followed Mike, the more he thought the caller might be onto something.
Beeping filled the car as the phone's little icon alerted that the next call was being placed. It was set to call Mike every 10 minutes for the next hour from various, random locations. It would trace the phone from cell the various nearby towers and then leave a voicemail prompt but no actual voicemail.
Once Mike would get rid of the phone, another one would be activated, as needed.
Right on time, Tyler watched Mike Newton leave the hotel room with his escort inside.
Tyler decided not to follow Mike this time.
Once Mike was in his car and driving away, Tyler got out of his vehicle and made his way to the door, hoping to ask the lady a few questions before she left the room for the night.
He pulled out a handful of bills and knocked on the door.
When the door opened a crack, Tyler smiled, glad to see the woman was still in one piece, and lifted the bills.
She opened the door and grabbed the bills with one eye on the money and as soon as she had it tucked safely away, she gave Tyler a soft smile, "What do you want baby?"
"I want to know what you know about a few things."
The woman nodded slowly. "What do you want to know?
.
Mike typed the phone number of the cell phone he found in his car as well as the one that had called. He wanted to give it to the brown eyed girl, but he didn't want to part with it quite yet.
Their time together was better spent relieving his tensions so he didn't lose it again on someone else, like his wife.
The phone rang yet again, which it had done for the past hour every ten minutes.
It was very distracting while he was trying to have his release session with Rena.
Mike knew he needed to destroy it, but there were few options available within the car and he didn't want to bring it home with him and have Kate find it.
Pulling into a dark, empty parking lot, Mike got out and put the phone in front of the tire to run over it a few times.
He had already removed the Sim card from inside it, and put it in a bottle of water in the trash.
Once the phone was broken apart, Mike grabbed it up with newspapers and put the shards of glass and plastic in the dumpster.
"Crab leg night at the buffet." He snickered. "Have fun guys."
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A/N: Smaller chapter… maybe two tonight to make up for it.
I had to work a lot so this chapter and The Journals are a bit late. I'll try to get that chapter out this weekend when I have time off. Thank you for reading and kind reviews.
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