Chapter 10 Rooftops and Shadows #2
I didn’t question him, though. I didn’t want to start any bickering, and it was good I didn’t, because the elevator slid open at that moment, and the execs all stepped out. One by one, they walked by us, nodding as they did. We gave each one a pat down and then allowed their entry.
Ten minutes later, the elevator opened again, and out filed four large men, a hooded figure in the middle. They walked to the door. Von stepped out and nodded to me. She’d already insisted we not give X the pat down.
I stepped aside, nodding at the men, but intuition screamed at me. I couldn’t figure out why, but the men felt familiar. When I glanced at Raymond, I could see his tension. His jaw tightened, and he kept his eyes forward, making zero contact with the men.
X paused, their hooded head turning toward Raymond for a moment before they entered the room.
As they passed me, I got a distinct smell of heat, like after running in the summer sun.
It was a warmth that filled my nose and head.
It was misplaced. It was warm outside, yes, but the sun had set and the temperature dropped.
“That was weird.” I kept my voice low as I spoke.
“Was it? Didn’t notice.” He pointed to the tablet in my hand. “Look, I’ll take the perimeter checks. You stay here with the tablet.”
“What?”
“I think it’s better if one of us stays stationary.”
“You want to change up the plan now?”
“Yes.” He looked at me sternly, and there was a flash of something dark in his expression. Something was bothering him. If he was upset, it was better he was not near the clients.
“Okay, that works for me.” I nodded, and Raymond walked away.
Nothing happened. I stood outside the door alone, checking the tablet periodically, sometimes seeing Raymond and other times not. He returned just before the doors opened and the execs filed out, all drunk off their asses and grinning from ear to ear.
“Things must have worked out.” Raymond winked at me before the four guards stepped outside the room and, once again, he tensed up.
They filed out before X, who once again had the hood over their face—I wondered if they kept it on the entire meal. They still smelled of that summer heat when they left.
Is that a special brand of cologne or something?
“Jericha, Raymond, thank you so much for being here.” Von exited last. She draped a shawl over her shoulders. “You don’t have to stay. The chef will keep the room for the night before returning home in the morning.”
“Did everything go well?” I asked.
“Yes, perfectly.” Von looked like she was ready to pass out. “And I’m sorry. I didn’t know X was bringing their own security. It felt like a waste having you both here.”
“An added layer of precaution.” I said. “I understand, though. It would have been helpful to be in communication with their team.”
“Agreed.” She spoke with a long yawn. “Well, I’m going to head out. I have a long drive home. You two have a good night.”
“Drive safely!” I waved as Von walked toward the elevator. As soon as she stepped inside, I relaxed.
“That was worth the money.” Raymond nodded. “Ready to go?”
I returned his nod. “You go collect the cams, and I’ll meet you at the car.”
“Sounds good.” He smiled.
Raymond called the elevator, and, when it came, he stepped inside.
As soon as he was out of sight, I walked to the stairwell and headed up to the roof.
It was something I’d wanted to do for a while since seeing a report about the views from the top of the building.
It wasn’t something any normal visitor could gain access to, but I wasn’t a normal visitor.
When I reached the top, I pulled the seedling I had in my pocket and lifted it to the frame of the door.
With some coaxing, it grew, stretching its vines and slipping around the sensor that would sound the alarm once the door opened.
After I was sure it was safe, I picked the lock, and the door opened easily.
This way, when I left, there would be no damage to the door, no evidence of my presence.
“Thank you. I’ll make it quick,” I whispered to the plant that aided me. When I was done, I would take it back home with me and plant it in the garden so it could live a happy life.
Once out on the roof, I took a deep breath, opening my chest to the night sky and sighed.
It was as beautiful as I had imagined it to be.
I leaned on the railing, looking over the city, and wondered about the lives of all the people beneath me, those who were headed to or from work, going home to families or empty houses.
How many were healing, brokenhearted, or dealing with a cold?
“This isn’t a part of our perimeter.” Raymond’s voice startled me. “What are you doing up here?”
I turned to see him standing by the door. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re supposed to be meeting me at the car.”
“I changed my mind.” He joined me by the metal railing that wrapped the rooftop and peered over the edge. “Great view up here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Saw it on a news broadcast and wanted to experience it for myself. Besides, I needed a moment to clear my head, and this felt like the perfect place to do it.”
“What's so heavy on your mind that you had to come up here to get away from it?”
“Natalie mentioned something earlier today about me giving her more work. I asked her if you had talked to her, and she said yes.”
“Am I in trouble?”
I raised a brow at his question. “Should you be?”
“Look, I meant what I said. I believe you should hand over more of the workload to her.
She's more than capable and eager to take it on, but I'm not here to step on any toes.
Natalie told me she aspires to take on a larger role in your company, and all I said was that if she doesn't assert herself, you won't hear her.”
“It's not that I don't want to do it, okay?” I ran my hand across the back of my neck. “It's just hard thinking about handing over things that I’m used to handling myself. What if something goes wrong?”
“Something tells me you've done a lot of hard things in your past. You're telling me you can't face this? It's just some paperwork, Jericha. No one's telling you to hand over the plans to your business like you did with Rose. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You trusted once and got burned. I get that, but you will not get where you want to go if you don’t get over that and do what’s best for yourself and your business.”
“Ouch. I guess you just see right through me, huh?” I chuckled nervously.
He had hit the nail right on the head. My issue wasn’t that I didn’t trust Natalie.
It was that I didn’t want to be dropped on my head again.
“It didn’t happen once. It happened twice.
Need I remind you about why we’re working together to begin with? Mitch and his ploy to destroy me.”
“Right, and where is he with that business? Any clients? Last I checked, the guys who left with him are all looking for other employment now,” Raymond smirked.
“The people who hurt you are failures. You should thank them for packing up and getting out of your way. And no, I don’t see right through you.
There's a lot about you I'm still trying to figure out.”
“You can stop trying to figure me out.”
“Oh, trust me, I plan to. I have my own things to do, issues I need to take care of. Some things have come up recently.” He trailed off. “Regardless, I'm actually thinking of cutting our contract short.”
“Cutting it short. What do you mean—you're gonna leave me hanging out to dry?”
“No, I mean handing over assets to you sooner rather than later. This arrangement was a good one, but I don’t think it's necessary to finish it out.
Honestly, I think it's time for me to move forward.
I need to move on with my life. Some things are coming up, and if I stay here too long, it may cause me more problems than it's worth.”
“What kind of past are you running from?”
“That doesn't matter,” he said.
“Oh, so we can talk all about me,what I need to be doing, and how I'm running from my past, but yours is a secret. How is that fair?”
“I don't believe we agreed on having a fair exchange here. Besides, you don't want me around anymore. You've made that perfectly clear. All I'm doing now is offering you a way to make that happen sooner.”
“I never said I didn't want you around anymore.” I turned my attention back to the view of the city.
“What was that?” He turned and leaned his back on the railing so he could see my face.
“It was me correcting you. I didn’t say I didn’t want you around. What I said was, what we did was a mistake.” I set him straight. “This is supposed to be a professional relationship, and I want to keep it that way.”
He slowly rolled his tongue across his top lip. “Hmm. So should I sign the papers to hand over everything to you? That would end the professional relationship, wouldn't it?”
I could see where his mind was going and debated if I wanted to reroute him. Instead, I answered honestly. “Yeah, it would, actually.”
“And would you still view what we did as a mistake if that was the case?”
“Hadn't really considered it.” I shrugged.
He stood, moving to stand behind me. With his lips right next to my ear, he whispered, “Consider it now.”
“Why?” I turned to face him and pushed him away from me. “You just said you're going to be moving on from here, right? You're handing over everything early so you can move to the next spot. So why does it matter if I consider that?”
"I just want to know," he said, his voice so low it was almost a breath. “Curiosity.”
“For the sake of satisfying your curiosity.” I paused, staring up into those green eyes, and chewed my lip.
How daring did I want to be here? I thought of Natalie and the conversation about men.
Raymond was the sort I steered clear of, so why was I so drawn to him now? “No, I wouldn't consider it a mistake.”
“Why not?” he asked.