Chapter 46
READY TO ROLL
I roll my shoulders, straighten my long-sleeved, black, figure-hugging top, and check the mic on my wrist. It’s disguised in a bracelet with pink cat faces.
The micro speaker is nestled behind my ear but hidden under my wildly styled hair.
Apart from that, I feel like, maybe look like, a ninja about to scale a building. “Ready, Rasmus?”
“Yep. You’ll see if it worked in five, four, three, two, one. That window, top right, with the bright light showing. The sign on the building too. Are the lights gone?”
The REVENANT INSTITUTE sign fades and turns pale.
“Fuck, yeah. We have a go. Tell R and M that I am going in.” I rev the Phyllis’s engine and ease onto the street leading to the institute.
“The fire alarms will be going off. Take care. People will be leaving in vehicles due to the building evacuating.”
The gate leading through the main wall slides open as I drive up.
People are indeed flooding the outside and the underground area, jogging to cars, and staring back at their workplace.
Some are pouring out through the front doors.
The sensible ones do that. The ones who value their cars more than they should are down here in the garage.
There’s a bump under the wheels as I drive down the ramp and go over a drainage grill.
I drive past the people, smiling, and swing into an empty park near the elevator. I get a few odd looks as I walk in the opposite direction to those obeying the alarms.
Ignoring the flashing warnings on the left-hand display and the blaring noise—and god, those alarms hurt my ears—I punch in the code to allow my elevator to go anywhere I want it to go.
The doors slide open. I wish I was certain enough to head where Rasmus told me Kail will have gone.
I cannot be sure, so I punch the button for Clay’s floor.
“Time, Rasmus?”
“Six zero five.”
The display counts upward, accompanied by only a quiet hum and the now muffled alarms. When the doors open, the alarm noise blasts to full volume.
A security guard, make that three of them, are waiting for me.
All wear the Revenant Institute blue, with the logo on their shirts, a tactical belt, and pistol.
“I have an appointment with Clay Skinner.” I say it loud enough to be heard over the annoying alarm. I smile and wait with eyes narrowed.
Make or break time.
Guard One speaks into a lapel mic while the others stare at me, guns unholstered but not raised.
I made sure to wear something so molded to my skin that weaponry would be instantly visible, if I had any.
“Yes, sir.” Guard One turns to me. “She can go in. First though, spread your arms and legs.” He shoots a glance at the ceiling. “Can’t someone turn those fucking alarms off?”
Haha. I’m smiling. “I can.” I purse my lips and pray Rasmus has this correct, then pretend to count, starting at one. On nine the alarm falls silent, though the ones on other floors are clearly still sounding. “Magic. Done.”
The computer systems should still be failing to run anything but a few specific operations. Unless their IT department is really good, according to Rasmus.
“Fuck.” Guard One says. He fondles the grip of his pistol. “That ain’t suspicious at all. Andy, do it.”
Guard Two steps up to me and waits for me to adopt the spread-out position.
Are they enjoying this? I cannot help but wonder as they pat down my body. “I’d have to be a magician to be carrying, sirs. Want to use a metal detector on me? A sniffer dog? An expelliarmus weaponus spell?”
“One never knows.” Guard Two steps away with my phone in his hand. No sense of humor, this guy. “Nothing else on her.”
“Follow.” Guard One marches down the corridor to the left.
I’m led to Clay’s office door, surrounded by these three, and only let loose when I’m before the inner door that I recall from previous time. Behind me, the secretary’s desk and reception room are deserted. I drag open the door.
The walk down the short corridor is lonely and loaded with fear and my thoughts spin off into all the what-ifs. This could end up a total clusterfuck, yet I cannot let fear dictate my actions.
When I raise my hand to knock on the black steel door, with the fancy logo and Clay’s name written in gold, it slides open.
“And there he is, Mr. Clay Skinner, asshole in charge.” I advance into his office, smiling as if I have everything under control, which I do, to some extent.
To the left of Clay and his arrogant ass, which he has wedged onto his desk, a dark-suited man stands. The left wall holds a long wall-screen showing a scrolling sign: Stay here, Clay. Hailey is coming to visit you.
It was possible he would not obey the sign, so phew, this first hurdle has a checkmark.
The second man looks like he’s also security. He’s heavily built, with short, brown, soldier-style hair and a stern jaw. Under that suit is probably a shoulder holster, but he remains passive while Clay has sprung upright and is grinning.
“Well, nice to see you again, too, Hailey. Your handiwork is impressive. What can we do for you today?”
I halt mid floor and try to look assertive. Want something? Imagine that goal is yours.
“You mean the lights and alarms? That’s nothing. I want you to release Kail and Esau. Do that and all the evidence I have will remain out of the public eye. If not, it gets sent to fifty different agencies. Think of me as a god sent to punish you and reveal your evil to the world.”
Unobtrusively, I do a small drumroll with my fingers on the cat bracelet.
“My evil?” Clay bellows a laugh. “You are a meddling, whiny, fucking fool.”
As the light in the room changes, he swings around.
The wall behind him fades from a solid dark blue to translucent blue and then becomes completely transparent glass.
The vista beyond is of Revenant and the far mountains where Kail and I trekked days ago.
That seems ancient history, at a time when he was hiding bodies, and I was wondering if I could trust him.
“Pretty view, isn’t it. So, you can control my wall.
Wow.” He returns his attention to me. “If only I could release them.” Mouth downturned, Clay pretends sadness for all of one second, then regards me as if I am a child or maybe a lab specimen.
“It’s a pity but one of them was killed when they invaded the institute. ”
Fuck, fuck. My throat bobs as I swallow. The bastard wants me to ask which one died. Does he know that I’m in love with Kail? How could he?
“Who?” The squeak in my voice is barely discernable, I hope.
“Who died? Let me think… Can you recall, Cannon?”
“No, sir.”
Clay stretches the pause, while I fight the urge to stride forward and punch him. “Esau Wrath died. Don’t worry, we kept his body on ice.”
Another reason for Clay to be cast into Hell, injected with wasabi, and skinned alive while he watches every knife cut.
Esau has died. Poor Esau. Sometimes I…I don’t even know who we need to tell once I get out of here.
If we do get out.
Think positive. I am still alive. Imagine that damn goal. What time is it?
It’s not going to be exact. “Bring Kail up here, so we can start the exchange.”
“You think it’s that easy? But I will humor you. Have him brought up, Cannon.”
The soldier in the suit lifts his wrist and speaks quietly into a band strapped there then goes to the door and exits. I’m alone with Clay, a situation I would never wish on myself. He’s creepy as fuck and clearly willing to break every law in existence, if he can get away with it.
I fold my arms.
For several minutes, we don’t move. Stalemate. Then he pulls a phone from his pocket as some message comes through. Since their systems are down, the intercoms will be too.
He reads the message then he tucks away the phone, smiles, and advances. “They’re coming.” The man smiles like a snake.
He circles me, studying every inch of me from my boots upward. I turn to follow him. The way he lingers on my ass and my breasts then stops and flexes his hands at his sides, it’s meant to be provocative, antagonizing, and potentially sexual.
“Why are you not worried about having that video released, of you being fucked at that party? Tied up and with a dildo spear up your ass and damn those orgasms when you screamed…” He blows out his cheeks. “So, again. Why?”
He has a real video then. Who took it? Zedder? Dawid is dead, but I guess that doesn’t rule him out.
“Because I don’t. I just do not give one fuck about that, or you. Once I leave here with Kail, you can go fuck yourself sideways or have that man of yours do it for you. Cannon? What an apt name. You can have a cannon up your ass.”
“Bold of you. You have no clue as to how far I will go to keep everything a secret, do you, Miss Tarrant? I might copy what that creature did to you when I fuck you, but before I have you killed, of course.” He stares at my breasts again.
“We’re going to pull him apart in a few days, to see if he can recover.
I really should let you watch, shouldn’t I? Then I can have you killed.”
Sweat gathers on my forehead.
What time is it? I don’t dare ask Rasmus. Flight or fight? It felt like my heart dropped out of my body when he said he’d kill me. I cannot do anything to him. I have no weapon, no martial arts skills. He’s bigger and has men he can call on.
“Promises, promises,” I tell him, refusing to budge an inch. Until he reaches out as if to grab my neck. I step backward.
He follows, slowly, still displaying that superior, irritating smile.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” I grate out. Kneeing him in the balls is tempting. Result—uncertain. I imagine him punching me in the face in return.
Adrenalin spikes my heartbeat, makes my nipples harden, and kicks me in the stomach. Breathe. In. Out. The seconds ooze by.
“You’re really on your own here. Stupid, stupid girl. Kail won’t be able to help you. You’ll soon see why.”
What fucking time is it?