Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Mara Eliot parked her car, marveling at the crowd already gathering at Nightfall on Friday afternoon. “How early do these people line up for a Friday night party?” She couldn’t imagine leaving work at noon to stand for hours in a queue.
Walking purposefully toward the entrance, she bypassed the crowd. Mara ignored the protests. She wasn’t here for the nightclub. At the door, she pounded on the blackened glass.
Finally, a gigantic man appeared beside her at the locked entrance. “If you break the glass, you’ll pay for it and be banned for life.”
“I’m from the bank. I need to talk to your CFO,” Mara reported, looking at her watch. She should have already been back at her desk. After weeks of Darius Spanos failing to reply to her efficient emails, Mara had come to him.
“CFO?”
“Chief Financial Officer. Darius Spanos. Is he available?” Mara asked, keeping herself from rolling her eyes at the muscle man’s lack of knowledge.
“Darius? Have you tried sending him a message? The bank has his contact information.”
“I’ve called, texted, and emailed. I need to stress the urgency in the reason I’ve reached out to him,” Mara explained.
When she saw the man’s face was unmoved before her, she knew she’d never get through the guard.
Taking a chance, she blurted, “Look, I could lose my job for sharing some critical data with Mr. Spanos. I can’t put anything in writing.
I don’t want to see anything mess with his accounts—on the contrary, I’m trying to stop someone else. ”
The man really looked at her that time. Mara forced herself to maintain intense eye contact. Finally, the large man said, “I’ll give him your card. I’m Marcus. CSO.”
“Chief Software Officer?” Mara took a wild stab at the initials.
“Chief Security Officer,” Marcus corrected her. “Title acronyms can be confusing.”
That makes sense. Mara controlled her facial expression as she realized how pompous she must have sounded. Sometimes brawn and brains did go together. “My apologies, sir. Could you escort me to Mr. Spanos?”
“He says he’ll take your card and perhaps contact you later. Darius is extremely busy.”
“That won’t work for me,” Mara said quickly, trying to keep him talking.
“Then your best bet is to attend Nightfall tonight and hope to run into him. Darius isn’t coming to the door. Fair warning. He doesn’t show up on the floor often, so even if you get inside, the chances are slim to none that you’ll meet him.”
Slim chances were better than nonexistent ones.
“Fine. Could you please ask him to have a drink with me this evening? Let me give you my card.” Mara pulled out a slick leather portfolio from her oversized tote and withdrew an embossed card with her name and the bank’s logo.
“Thank you for meeting with me. I had to exhaust every possible method to communicate.”
“Good luck, Mara Eliot. Better get in line if you wish to want in. Stow that bag in your car first. We don’t allow purses that big inside,” he warned.
Mara would be stuck working on her phone for the rest of the afternoon. “Good to know. Please stress to Darius that I have an excellent reason to need to chat with him. He’ll want to hear what I have to share.”
“I’ll do it. Have a pleasant day.”
Suddenly, she was alone. How does a large man like that move so quickly and quietly?
Mara headed back past the now jeering crowd who celebrated that she hadn’t successfully bypassed the line.
She locked her bag in her trunk and walked to the end of the line.
With another sigh, she pulled out her cellphone and dived into answering emails.