Chapter 9
Victoria
All fifteen cameras were working fine. Victoria leaned back in the security office chair, her feet now up on the desk.
Apparently, Erin and Miguel were more vigilant about monitoring the cameras after Victoria mentioned it in the logbook.
Erin had even put some electrical tape around camera twelve’s connections to keep the wind or whatever from knocking it loose.
Victoria laced her fingers behind her head and closed her eyes.
No, she wasn’t going to take a nap; she was just resting.
It was Friday night. She was stuck in this locked, fenced-in storage facility, with nothing to do but make sure the paint didn’t peel.
She’d been working out every shift in Kimo’s unit for about two solid weeks now, and tonight was no exception.
Her own workout had been quick. She did some cardio with the jump rope, but when she tried to head out, he asked for help spotting him first on the bench press and then with squats.
He was a decent guy. He didn’t pry into her life, and she didn’t pry into his.
He was, like, in his early twenties, maybe fifteen years her junior, so they were kind of from different generations almost.
But nevertheless, they found common ground in working out. Once she’d escorted him out, she made sure he drove away. She did that every time.
Victoria had gone to the Scarlett Dungeon that afternoon, but Lauren hadn’t shown.
Victoria had been disappointed, especially because she’d scripted out the intricate scene Lauren had requested.
Victoria even brought in a bag of toys for the scene.
The muscle at the door raised an eyebrow after checking the contents of her bag, but Victoria only grinned.
And then, after all that, Lauren didn’t show.
Maybe she’d gotten cold feet about her fantasy scene.
And since they had never exchanged phone numbers and weren’t friends on Kinks, Victoria had no way to get in touch with her.
She considered picking up another woman; there seemed to be a few eligible singles, but she didn’t.
What if Lauren was just running late? Victoria waited a couple of hours and then took herself out to dinner at the nearby Rose’s Diner before going back to Erin’s apartment to change for her stimulating job as a nighttime security officer at Addison’s Storage. Yawn.
The only bright spot at the dungeon had been that Tillman was there again.
They talked a little, getting to know each other a bit more.
Apparently, like Victoria, Tillman had grown up in the area.
Unlike Victoria, Tillman had played every sport she could get her hands on but had really wanted to play football.
In elementary school, when Tillman told her mother she wanted to play Pop Warner football, her mother hit the roof, absolutely forbade her from doing so, and made her become a Pop Warner cheerleader, cheering for the teams she had so desperately wanted to play on.
Tillman simply shrugged at the memory, but Victoria could tell she was still bothered by it.
Tillman was in her early thirties, with elementary school long in the rearview mirror, so the fact that it still bugged her told Victoria there was more to it, but she didn’t pry.
She knew parents had a way of trying to mold you into the vision they had for you.
Something her own mother painstakingly tried to do for ten years.
And then she left, giving up on both Victoria and Victoria’s father. Whatever.
Victoria grunted. Tillman left after an hour, saying she was heading to Venus Rising and that Victoria should come along. Victoria politely declined. She wasn’t in the mood for people, and she certainly didn’t want to drink before her shift. Tillman’s final words were, “See you here next Friday.”
Victoria had simply nodded, but wasn’t sure she’d be going to Scarlett next week.
Getting stood up sucked, so the jury was still out on that one.
But then again, maybe she’d give the woman the benefit of the doubt and go one more time, and if she didn’t show, Victoria would simply head to Venus Rising and check it out after all these years.
Who knows, maybe Lauren had gotten called in early to cover for one of the other bartenders or something.
A quick glance at the security camera feeds showed nothing out of place, as usual.
The skin on the back of her neck prickled.
A flash of urgency hit her core. She sat bolt upright, feet flying off the desk.
Her head whipped around to look behind her.
There was just the painted cinder block wall.
There was no one. Nothing. She walked over to look out the security office windows to the walkway beyond.
She listened intently. Nothing. She rubbed the back of her neck. The hairs were still standing up.
“What the hell?” She had learned to trust her spidey senses. Something was off. Was it Kimo? Did he forget something? The two parking-area cameras showed her pickup, but nothing else.
She checked her belt. The taser and pepper spray were intact.
She jammed her phone in her pocket and grabbed her insulated windbreaker, the word security emblazoned on the back.
Once buttoned up against the mid-October cold, she left the office to patrol, taking a different route than she’d ever gone.
If anyone was up to something, she wanted to take them by surprise.
As she walked, she thought about the urgent feeling she’d had in the office.
She hadn’t heard anything; it was more a slow realization.
But her investigations didn’t root out anything.
She refused to let herself get freaked out.
She’d handled some shit in the Reserves, and no one was going to get the drop on her in her cousin’s place of business.
She paused and listened at units that weren’t locked from the outside, tempted to open them and see if anything was amiss.
Camera twelve’s wire was still attached, and Kimo’s unit was still locked.
She gave the lock a tug to make sure. In fact, she needed to go around again and tug on all the locks.
It was easy to fake a closed lock, even though it wasn’t.
But wait. How could someone do that if they were inside the unit?
She couldn’t work out the logic of that but decided to check the locks anyway.
She usually didn’t patrol twice, so if anyone was trying to get a bead on her routes, this would throw them off.
She scoffed. “I’m so fucking bored that I’m making up conspiracies. Jee-zus.” She finished her second check and resumed her very important chair-warming job at the security desk.
She closed her eyes and waited. Nope. There was no sense of urgency, no spidey senses tingling. Good.
She pulled out her phone and instantly relaxed. Madison had left her a couple of messages on Kinks.
little_peanut: Hi, Daddy Vic. 1. Cranes are birds that work at construction sites.
(I had to think about that one. Mistress got it before I did, but she let me figure it out on my own).
2. Oh, yes. We go to Rocco’s every time.
Miss Rikki and Miss Bernadette are always there, too, except when Miss Bernadette is making her math videos for that college series.
She’s a YouTube star now! 3. That’s so cool there’s a dungeon there.
We went to Dominique’s recently and saw a wax demonstration, and now Mistress wants to try that on me!
OMG! I called yellow when she mentioned it, but she just smiled at me.
I know what that means. Another soft limit will be explored.
Yeesh! 4. The bird count thing is this Sunday.
Wish me luck. I’ve never done one of those.
Miss Jaleesa is bringing Kari. Kari’s cool.
She’s tall and plays first base for our summer team.
She’s not a little, but she’s not really a grown-up yet.
It’s kind of weird, but Mistress says she’s searching.
For what, I don’t know. Do you have any idea?
Anyway… 5. I miss you. 6. Write me back, pls. 7. Bye for now.
little_peanut: I forgot. 8. Please come home for the winter Masquerade Ball. It would be good to see you. 9. Why do birds fly south for the winter?
Victoria was just about to reply when an incoming text dinged on her phone.
Aunt Jenny: Hello, stranger. You’re coming to dinner here Sunday after next.
That gives you a week to rearrange any plans you have.
I’m making pot roast and potatoes. There will be cheesecake for dessert.
You can’t say no. Erin told me you have Sundays off, so she’ll take off, too.
You’ve been here, what, almost a month already, and we haven’t seen you.
Always make time for family, Victoria. 2:00.
You don’t need to bring anything. You know the way.
Well, how about that? Victoria refused to reduce down to the child Aunt Jenny probably still thought she was.
Do all parents do that? Think their children, or niece in this case, are still na?ve and dutiful little things?
Victoria scoffed. She would go to the dinner.
She had to. Loyalty to family, and all that.
But she would not be the same rambunctious teenager they’d seen over twenty years ago, blindly following her two older boy cousins.
She hadn’t seen Eddie and Donny since she’d been back, either.
Purposely. Erin hadn’t pushed her to see them, probably on account of the shit that went down that got her sent to the Army.
She quickly closed the text. There was no way she was going to answer Aunt Jenny back right away. That might start a conversation, and if Victoria remembered correctly, Aunt Jenny was one of those adults who gave unasked-for advice, which frequently turned into an extended criticism session.