Guarding Autumn (Crimson Point Security #3)

Chapter Fourteen

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“As you can see, this campaign is expected to generate the most impact and attention from your target demographic groups and overall audience.” Autumn paused to bring up the next image in her digital slide show on the large projection screen at the front of the room, detailing their projected numbers in reach and earnings using various graphs and charts.

The boardroom was silent, fifteen sets of eyes trained on her during the most important presentation of her career. This account was worth twelve million dollars for her small but upcoming advertising firm. Her boss had given her free rein to gather everyone and everything she needed or wanted to make this campaign a success.

Now it was up to her to sell the pitch. “And here’s why,” she finished after a meaningful pause to give the audience time to absorb the information.

Her assistant hit the lights, and she unveiled the advertisement package she and her team had been working on for the past seven months in preparation for this pitch. The owner and entire senior executive team from their biggest client, a luxury car brand, watched intently while she played the video of the ad.

Twenty-nine-point-three seconds, just under the thirty-second mark that copious amounts of industry research had shown was the most effective length for an ad. It had a dark, mysterious vibe to it, but with an elegant polish designed to appeal to both male and female high-end buyers, and a clever little hook at the end that their focus group data showed captured viewer interest. The overall feel was sleek and sexy without being pretentious, aimed at appealing to a wider demographic than the company had targeted before.

The lights remained off for just a few seconds after the ad finished for maximum impact, then her assistant turned them back on. The grins and interested expressions Autumn saw around the long table had her giving a mental fist pump. It was the edgiest ad they had designed for the campaign and therefore a bit of a gamble, but she’d felt in her gut it was the right one for this pitch.

“And there you have it,” she finished with a satisfied smile. “Any questions?”

Seated at the head of the table, the CEO shook his head slightly. He was several years younger than Autumn and already a billionaire after inheriting the business from his grandfather several years ago. “I fucking love it.” Everyone laughed at his colorful response.

“I do too,” their forty-something COO echoed from beside him. He was the common sense partner in their upper management, the voice of reason and experience. The brakes, whereas the CEO was the gas, all ideas and energy and fire all the time. They balanced each other out and worked together well. “Damn, now I really can’t wait for mine to roll off the assembly line next month.”

At more than a hundred grand for the base model, it wasn’t a vehicle Autumn and most other people would be owning in their lifetimes, but this ad would create a buzz amongst a wider demographic for the company. Increasing profits were what business was all about, after all. Her firm was small by advertising standards.

If they got this contract, they would not only have a record year to celebrate, but hopefully more record years from campaigns with this company and others like it going forward. Word of mouth was key in this industry. Buzz generated by this deal would have other companies coming to them directly.

No pressure.

“We love it too,” Autumn said, bringing it home, “and given the data generated from the feedback collected from our sample groups, we’re confident this will reach a thirty-percent broader base than your previous ads.”

“I’m sold. I’m fucking pumped ,” the CEO exclaimed, still grinning as he looked around at his team, then back at Autumn. “Can we see it again?”

“Absolutely.” Her assistant hit the lights, and she played the video again.

Ten seconds in, however, the fire alarm suddenly blared through the room, ripping her out of the moment. No one moved, everyone looking at each other.

She looked over at her boss, seated in the back corner, the shriek of the alarm a stark reminder of the trouble brewing down on the streets below. False alarm hopefully?

Moments later the conference room door opened and a uniformed security officer stood there. “I’m going to have to ask you all to leave this floor immediately and take the stairs down to the lobby. We’re evacuating the building.”

Her boss stood. “Is there a fire?”

“I don’t have any further information at this time. Please leave quickly.”

“Is this related to the protests?”

“I don’t have any further information to give, sir. Please evacuate the building immediately.” Or I’ll make you , his set expression said.

Her boss turned to face everyone. “Okay, we’ll pick this up again as soon as we get back. After you,” he said to the CEO.

Autumn grabbed her bag and followed the others out of the room, exiting last with her boss. “I need to go get Carly,” she told him as they headed down the hall with a stream of other people headed for the nearest stairwell.

“Of course. I’m sure this is just a precaution. I’ll meet you outside, and hopefully we can get back in here soon and finish up. Fantastic job, by the way. Almost makes me want to yank a chunk of my retirement savings out to buy one of those things. Almost,” he repeated with a wink, not seeming alarmed in the slightest.

But she was. Being evacuated outside right now while there were protests happening nearby didn’t ease the anxiety humming in the pit of her stomach. But if there was a fire, they had no choice.

The lineup slowed as the funnel of people narrowed as it moved through the emergency door. Through the open space she could see more people coming down from the upper floors.

Carly was in their room four floors up. She didn’t have the cell phone she’d been bugging Autumn for since last fall, so Autumn couldn’t message or call her except by calling the room directly, and she didn’t see a house phone anywhere in the hall. Though she had a feeling Carly would stay put until she came for her, she dialed the hotel to speak to reception and have them connect her with their room.

An automated voice answered, putting her on hold as she finally reached the stairwell. Autumn waited her turn, struggling to curb her impatience while soothing music played through her phone.

She pushed her way through the line of people descending the stairs, hugged the railing as she started climbing the stairs, her progress hampered by everyone coming toward her, bumping and jostling her and slowing her down. But when she reached the next floor, a security guard stepped in front of her to block her path.

“You can’t go up, ma’am. You have to—”

“My daughter is upstairs in our room, and I can’t reach her by phone.” The music kept coming through her phone. “I have to get her,” she said, and angled her body to get past him.

He grabbed her upper arm and stepped in front of her again, stopping her. “Staff members are checking the rooms on the upper floors one by one and evacuating everyone. I can’t let you go up. You need to leave the building now.”

She ripped her arm free and faced off with him, a burst of panic shooting through her. “I’m getting my daughter.” She pushed his shoulder, tried to step around him.

He set his jaw, seized her by the shoulders and turned her around to face down the stairs. “Go. Now. Or I’ll have to take you down myself.”

“Get your hands off me!” She whirled and shoved him, hard, instinct driving her. Her daughter was upstairs in their room waiting for her, and there might be a fire. This asshole had no right to—

“Hey.” Another officer appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her left arm.

She pivoted and swung at him without thinking. He reared his head back just in time to avoid her fist in his face. Part of her was shocked. She’d never hit anyone in her life. But she’d fight anyone who tried to stop her from getting to Carly.

“Ma’am,” the other one snapped, and trapped her arms against her sides. “ Enough . Let’s go.”

“No! Let me go ! My daughter’s up there alone. You have to let me get her!” She bucked and kicked as he practically carried her down the stairs. Her phone fell out of her hand, immediately vanished from view under the people streaming down the steps. “My phone! I need to talk to my daughter!”

Someone behind them bent to retrieve her phone and handed it to the officer. The screen was shattered.

“Someone on staff will escort her out of her room,” the officer snapped. “Now calm down before I have to charge you with assault.”

She struggled and argued with him all the way down the last three flights of stairs to the lobby. He muscled her through the doors into the lobby, shoved her busted phone at her and handed her off to another guard with a gruff, “Watch her. Make sure she doesn’t get back inside.”

Autumn immediately tried to duck back inside but the guard grabbed her, frog-marched her through the front entrance and out onto the street. It was chaos outside the main doors.

A large and growing crowd milled around close to the building in confusion, blocking her view of the main cross street and impeding the rest of the hotel occupants from exiting.

Guards posted around the area were shouting and trying to force everyone farther away from the hotel. When she tried again to veer back inside the one closest to her held out his arms and moved in front of her to prevent her from getting past him.

“My daughter’s still in there up in our room,” she yelled, frantically looking for a way back in. She didn’t see any smoke. Maybe it was actually a false alarm, but she wasn’t taking chances with Carly. “I have to get up there.”

“No way, lady,” he said, and dragged her farther away from the entrance.

“Goddammit, let me go!” She ripped free, retreated out of range and checked her phone.

Through the spiderweb pattern on the shattered screen, she could just barely make out a text message from Jonas.

Is Carly in your room? I’m still upstairs. I can get her for you.

He had sent it just two minutes earlier.

She tried to type a response but couldn’t get the keypad to work on the damaged screen, and the guard wasn’t interested in helping her, too preoccupied by the chaos unfolding around them. Scanning the crowd anxiously, she picked out her boss standing with some coworkers over by a large concrete planter, slowly being edged farther out into the street by the growing mass of people.

“Ross!” She pushed her way through the slow-moving crowd between them, heart hammering. “ Ross !”

He turned, spotted her, and pushed through the crowd to wrap his arm around her shoulders and shepherd her toward the others, his much larger frame shielding her. “I need your phone, quick,” she blurted. “Do you have Jonas’s number?”

“Yes.” He unlocked it, handed it over and kept guiding her away from the hotel while she pulled up the number.

There was no point trying to call him. It was way too loud out here. She’d never hear him. This is Autumn. Carly still in room, she texted back, struggling to stay calm. I’m outside. They wouldn’t let me up and won’t let me back in. Please get her!

Three dots appeared, then a message. I’ll get her don’t worry. What room?

Oh God, she could kiss him right now. Seven-one-nine , she answered. Our code word is Taylor Swift.

He responded immediately. Got it. Meet you outside in a bit.

She clutched the phone to her chest and closed her eyes, relief sliding through her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she breathed.

“Everything okay?” her boss asked.

She nodded but kept hold of his phone. When she was calmer, she edged away from the others, staying even with the doors so she could see the crowd filing out. The people who had been herded toward the main cross street were stalled in a big mass by the far side of the building, something clearly preventing them from going farther. The protests?

She texted Gavin, knowing his number by heart.

It’s Autumn. Phone broken so using my boss’s. Just evacuated our hotel due to fire alarm. Unsure if false alarm. Coworker bringing Carly down b/c they wouldn’t let me up to get her. Do you know anything?

She hit send and went back to scanning the exiting crowd. A warm breeze ruffled her hair, bringing the scent of the air freshener from inside the lobby—

And smoke.

Fear jolted through her. She whirled to face the far side of the building, the reason for the crowd’s reluctance suddenly and terrifyingly obvious.

The hotel really was on fire.