Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“Then what did you guys do?”
Eliana stared at Carolena across the cafeteria table and frowned. Their plates were empty, but she still had eight minutes on her lunch break. “Nothing. He gave me a ride home. I checked on my neighbor, tried to call my mom. She didn’t answer. Then I went to bed.”
“Huh.” Carolena smoothed hair back behind her ear.
“What?”
Carolena scanned Eliana’s face with a steady gaze. “Maybe you need a makeover.”
“Carlos and I have known each other our entire lives. A makeover isn’t going to make a difference at this point. And I don’t even know if I want one.” Eliana looked down at her security guard uniform, black slacks and a white short-sleeved shirt.
There wasn’t any ketchup from her burger on her clothes, just some sesame seeds that had fallen off the bun as she ate. She brushed them off.
Her hair was in her usual work wig secured in two braids. Minimal makeup, but not none like her mom. She didn’t wear it thick and heavy, like some women did. Like Luci had always caked on her when they went “out.” That had never been her thing.
Carolena’s makeup was skillful and understated. She looked great, and it made Eliana want to ask how to do that. Made her want to buy some stuff, or a kit or something. But she had slightly more important things to do than to figure out makeup in her midtwenties.
Eliana wasn’t going to quit trying to get in the vault just because she’d learned it required DNA access.
And she didn’t plan to conduct a heist, or drug Tony to use him so she could get in.
Though both of those ideas did sound adventurous.
What she was going to do was stick to the script and find a new way to discover the secrets Dominatus kept locked up in the vault.
Maybe there was even something about the Reverence Sisters in there. It could all be connected.
Maybe if this was a case her mother was working it would be.
Eliana was going to have to wait and see if the same held true for her, but she wasn’t going to count on it.
“A dress. And heels.” Carolena leaned back in her chair. “You guys can talk over dinner with candles and sparkling wine.”
“Pretty sure a cop can see through what is a date and what isn’t.”
Carolena shrugged. “Maybe he wants to take you out.”
Eliana was about to argue with that when something slammed into the window behind her. Conversation throughout the cafeteria stopped, and Eliana turned to look. A heavy splash of purple paint dripped down the window.
She pushed her chair back and went to the window, which started at her knees and stretched above her head, its width the entire east wall of the room.
Normally, she loved the sunlight that lit the whole cafeteria, but today the clouds hung heavy with moisture threatening rain.
Which would be good to rinse the paint from the outside of the window now.
“What on earth?” Carolena stood beside her.
Below them on the street, the usual group of a dozen or so protestors had swelled to a throng of almost a hundred.
Eliana shook her head. “They’re going crazy.” She spotted a man slam his picket sign over someone else’s head. Two women scrabbled, vying with each other for…she didn’t know what. “I need to go to the lobby. Make sure we’re good.”
“Of course, we aren’t good! Look at it down there!” Carolena spoke loudly over the raised conversation around them. She flung her arms up and nearly smacked the older guy, a scientist, standing closest to her. “It’s pandemonium.”
Eliana grabbed her elbows, holding them gently but firm enough that her friend focused on her. “Go back to your office. Let me worry about outside. By the time you leave at the end of the day, I’m sure things will have blown over. And if they haven’t, I’ll walk you to your car.”
Carolena nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”
Eliana put her dirty dishes in the tub by the door and headed for the lobby. She didn’t like the idea that people might be getting hurt outside, but it was better than rehashing everything that had happened with Carlos the day before.
At the last second, she turned to the room. “Everyone stay in the building until Security clears the entrances and exits!”
No one responded, but that didn’t matter. They had their orders.
She opted for the stairwell and raced down, pushed out into the lobby.
Today’s crowd had remained light, and she spotted the group she’d seen the other day, after Sylvia handed her that knife from the board.
She weaved between a couple of older ladies in white sneakers and found Tony at the entrance.
One glance back told her the group, who’d split up to learn what they needed to know, were on their way through the World at War exhibits to the Advanced Scientific Research gallery.
The noise out front of the building was audible even through the glass windows.
Eliana looked up at the domed ceiling above her and the balcony on the second floor.
She spotted Sylvia Caughton speaking with a scientist. A couple of young adults searched the bookshelves to the right, one of them running a finger along the glass case that enclosed the volumes.
Reading the spines of old books that held decades of secrets.
Something she needed to do more of.
Eliana didn’t want to hide from the dark parts of her family history, even if her parents wanted her to. It was more interesting that the young adults seemed oblivious to what was going on outside.
Tony spotted her and lifted his chin. “Cops are on their way. We should advise anyone in here to either use the side exit, if it’s clear on that wing of the building, or to wait until the police clear the street out front before they leave. Otherwise, it could be dangerous.”
“Copy that.” She peered out the glass of the front doors, looking for a police officer. Fine, her police officer. Give or take what she precisely meant. Carlos was family, that was all.
Tony lifted one of their security phones to his mouth and squeezed the side buttons. “Position two, head out the west exit and give me a sit rep out there.”
“Copy that.” Miller was on today, and he worked that side of the building.
“I can stay here and man my post if there’s somewhere else you need to be?” she offered, waving her arm.
He looked out the doors, through the glass etched with their opening hours.
She widened her stance a fraction and folded her arms, just so no one decided to challenge her so they could leave.
Her radio crackled with a report from the side exit, which was apparently clear for now. The crazies out front hadn’t run down the side of that wing of the building.
Eliana turned to look through the doors as well. At least four patrol cars pulled into view, lined up between the protestors and the entrance steps to the museum. But the crowd wasn’t concerned with them, they’d turned on each other.
“It’s bad out there, but the cops will get it under control.” He looked down at her arm. Frowned. Grabbed for her.
“Ouch.”
He turned her arm one way, then the other, his hands grasping tight. “You got into the vault? How’d you do that? They authorized you access?”
“Tony—” She shouldn’t call him that.
He pulled on her arm, dragging her closer to him. “Who gave you access?”
“It’s not from the vault.” She hissed. “This needle mark is from something else.”
“Only one person can access the vault!” His gaze drifted, almost as if he’d lost focus. On her. On anything.
Eliana tugged on her arm, trying to break free. “Let go of me.”
She looked around, trying to ensure they weren’t making a spectacle. Across the lobby, she spotted a woman swing her purse and crack it over the head of an older man. She gasped, about to yell at them, when Tony grabbed her shoulders.
He leaned in. “Only one person goes in the vault, and that’s me!”
“Let go of me!” She hissed the words, trying to whisper, then shoved at his shirt. Pushing him back, away from her. Trying to find someone who could help her. “Tony, let go!”
Someone behind her, across the lobby, screamed in anger.
A loud crash followed, and then the sound of glass shattering on the tile floor.
Tony’s fingers curled hard into her shoulders, gripping her so tightly it was painful. “Only one person!” His eyes were fully glazed now, far too bright. They almost looked shiny. As if he was on something.
She didn’t want to think it, but he sort of looked like he’d taken Elysium.
Could she say anything to get through to him?
“Fine.” Placating him was going to be better than arguing. “One person. Only one person.” She shoved at him. But the guy was bigger than her, and even with her being younger, she couldn’t force him to back off if he didn’t want to.
Sure, she had the sheathed knife in her pocket, but she wasn’t about to cut someone.
At least, she hoped she didn’t have to do that.
“Listen to me.” She grabbed his bearded jaw with one hand and forced him to focus on her. “Listen! What’s happening outside is obviously happening in here, too. So calm down.”
She needed to get a hold of herself as well.
His expression didn’t clear. It still seemed as if he was miles away.
He’d reacted to seeing the needle mark in her arm, but she didn’t have it because she’d been granted access to the vault.
She had it because someone had knocked her out and stuck her with a needle, taken her blood, or given her something.
Was he going to understand that? She hadn’t even told Carolena about it, not wanting to deal with all the questions. Instead, though, she’d had to deal with questions about her and Carlos. As if that would ever be a thing.
Tony pushed her back, shoving her against the glass front doors.
“You need to listen. This…” Her voice cracked. “This isn’t about the vault. It’s—”
“The vault!” He grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm around her back. The lobby spun around her, and she faced the other way. Before Eliana could gasp or cry out, he had his arm around her waist. Another around her neck.
To the left, she spotted two people struggling over something that fell to the floor. They continued wrestling. Over on the right, a stroller had been left unattended, and two women hit and slapped each other, screaming loudly.
“Stop.” The word erupted from her mouth as barely a whimper. She couldn’t force all these people to stand down when she couldn’t even jog Tony out of whatever stupor he was in.
What on earth is happening?
Tony stumbled forward, and they nearly went down together. He started walking, dragging her along with him.
“Let me go.” She shoved at his arm around her, trying to keep up with his pace. She couldn’t get a good look at his face from this close. “Tony, what are you doing? Let me go.”
His arm around her waist tightened, practically lifting her off the floor as she tried to get out of his hold. Pushing on his arm didn’t work.
“Tony, let go!”
He hauled her easily, as if she didn’t weigh that much, and her feet didn’t touch the floor.
Eliana bent her knees and kicked back at his legs. Frantic adrenaline added a desperation she hadn’t realized she was feeling. Twisting around, she managed to elbow him in the nose.
He didn’t even slow.
Down the south hallway, to the elevator at the end.
“Help! Someone help!” Eliana prayed someone could hear her, but didn’t see anyone. In the distance somewhere, she heard a cry.
Whoever it was needed as much help as she did.
Tony tossed her on the floor, and she slammed into the elevator door. He hit the button to go down, and the doors opened behind her. She spilled back into the car.
He grabbed her by the hair, dragging her back. The wig started to come off, tearing at her scalp where she’d secured it.
Eliana cried out, scrambling away from him and grasping for the knife in her pocket.
He swiped his keycard on the display, and the doors shut.