14. Tessa #3
“Let’s go,” Greer said, casually moving them down the walkway.
Opening the door and stepping into a marble-tiled entryway, they could see ahead of them a room with large, dual winding wooden staircases, more tiled floor, and several display pedestals featuring various copper sculptures.
Looking around, she was half surprised that she didn’t see a security guard near or at any sort of obvious station.
Perhaps because it wasn’t quite to the end of the day yet?
Either way, the last thing she’d pictured was having to go hunting for one.
“Okay, I thought there was probably going to be a security guard around here,” Tessa said, having a look to her left and then to her right.
“You’d think,” Greer remarked, having a look around himself. “Let’s try in here.”
He took her hand and moved them into the next room. It was relatively large by old standards, and she wondered if maybe it was once two rooms turned into one. It faced the western sunlight, which was currently alighting the room in the most beautiful golden glow.
However, when she spied a small door at the far end of the room, yielding what looked like a closet-sized room with some monitors on the wall, she pointed it out to Greer.
“That has to be it,” he confirmed, gripping her hand firmly in his as they made their way to the door.
Approaching it slowly, Greer knocked his knuckles against the wood of the doorframe as Tessa peeked inside, finally catching sight of a man in a black cap and white button-down shirt.
He was sitting half-draped over a chair behind a modest-looking desk, eyes transfixed to a flat screen on the opposite wall, watching, of all things, a public court show.
“Excuse me?” Tessa asked, putting on her best smile as she approached him. To her surprise, he barely lifted his eyes to them, looking more than put out and clearly not interested in interacting with the public.
Still, she forged onward. “I’m Tessa Montgomery. I’m here to pick up a necklace?”
“Sorry, can’t help ya,” he said, his eyes drifting back to the television screen.
Wait, what?
“Sir,” Greer said, taking a slow but casual step forward toward the security guard, who stared back at them blankly. The flat tone of his voice brokered no nonsense. “We were told that the general manager was going to box it up and leave it in here. With you.”
“Well, nobody gave me anything,” he said, sitting back so far in his chair that Tessa wondered how he didn’t tip straight over backward. He lifted his hands, palms up. “Don’t know what to tell ya.”
“Perhaps someone left it at your station?” she asked, tilting her head to look at the desk he sat at. It had drawers and cubbies. Surely a necklace could fit in there?
“Lady, I don’t have time for this,” he said, huffing out a sigh in exaggeration. “We’re closed. You both need to go.”
Tessa shot a panicked look at the monitor in front of him, the time showing they had ten minutes to closing time.
“Could you please just have a look? Or if you don’t want to, let me have the general manager’s number. I’m happy to call her and clear up the confusion?—”
“Lady,” the guard clipped, standing and grunting as he did. He looked terribly out of shape, with the way his body seemed to be in pain just from the very motion of standing, not to mention his pale, clammy skin, indicating he hardly got outside. “I said leave.”
“And we said we would,” Greer said, taking another casual step toward him, his face morphing into the elite fighter that Tessa had seen on his reel footage.
She wasn’t sure if it was to scare the man or perhaps show him who he truly was, in hopes he might recognize him.
“As soon as you give us what we came for.”
When nothing registered on the man’s face apart from general apathy, Tessa knew that even Greer wasn’t going to make progress with this man.
“Listen, pal,” the guard said, reaching his hand threateningly toward his phone. “All I need to do is push a button, and that’ll get me every Boston cop within a three-mile radius. You feeling like dancing with a guy in a jail cell tonight? Be my guest.”
“Please,” Tessa said, a burst of desperation as well as fear exiting out of her. Was this guy for real? She took a step back as the man turned vicious eyes toward her, something she instantly knew was going to set Greer off.
He’d handle any amount of rudeness directed at himself, but someone threatening her? On any level?
She could already feel him bristling as he stepped toward the man.
She threw her arm up in front of him, his stomach bumping into it, and very clearly wanting to push forward. But they hadn’t come this far to have everything blow up on them. Trying her hand at civility one more time, she implored the guard, “Sir, it’s very important. The general manager said?—”
“I don’t care what she said.” The guard snapped back, clearly done with talking. She heard Greer growl low in the back of his throat, and she stiffened her arm against him, hoping he wasn’t going to add gasoline to this fire.
Or the match.
“Alright,” Tessa said, holding her hands out as she stepped back into Greer, hoping he’d get the message that they needed to go. “Please, let’s not get upset. We’re just here to pick up my property.”
“You can come back next week,” he said, definitively, crossing his arms over his chest as she continued to walk backward into Greer. He’d taken her upper arms in support as they moved toward the door, not taking their eyes off the guy until they found themselves back in the large adjoining room.
Glancing once more at the man’s station, hoping to see the necklace sitting there, quite possibly waving hello and waiting to be plucked up into her waiting hands, Tessa felt bitter disappointment flood her veins as she realized all of their efforts over the last few days had ultimately been for nothing.
He wasn’t going to help.
They needed to leave.
She wasn’t going to be able to get the necklace.
As they turned and began making their way back to the main door of the gallery, she could only hear their own footsteps, giving her a sense of relief that the guy wasn’t following them.
She figured, lazy as he apparently was, he was probably looking forward to a nice, cushy night-duty where he was all alone and had nothing to do.
But he was literally running the fifth side of a triangle, trying to avoid doing his job. All he needed to do was check and pass over a box.
Simple.
Instead? He was arguing. Threatening. Taking way more time trying to get them to leave than it would to have a friendly interaction and give them what was theirs.
And because of that, it meant that Tessa would have to go home empty-handed. Which, after everything that they’d done, was more than a bitter pill to swallow.
She could feel herself choking on it.
Walking back into the marble-floored room, tears of frustration began to spring to her eyes.
“Tess,” Greer said, slowing her down and turning her to him. She frustratedly wiped away the tracks over her cheeks.
“Just trying to think about what I’m going to tell my dad,” she said, sniffing. “That I’m sorry, of course. That we found the necklace, which is good. And also, that it isn’t going to be in time to give to my mom as a proper anniversary gift.”
Greer’s face darkened as he looked back from where they came, then to her. He clasped his hand to her cheek and informed her, “No, that’s not happening.”
“I know my dad will be happy we helped him find what he’d been looking for,” she continued to prattle on. “Still, I can’t say it’s the outcome I wanted.”
“Tess.”
She refused to look at him, knowing that if she touched down on his eyes, she wouldn’t be able to hold it together.
Of course, that’s when he pressed a knuckle under her chin, gently tipping her gaze upward.
“Is this the outcome you want?”
“No, I want the necklace.” Her brows furrowed as she shook her head. “But it’s over. He won’t help us. There’s nothing we can do.”
“Oh, yes, there is.” He stopped for a moment, gritting his teeth. “I’ve got an idea.”
The tone he used was one she’d never heard come out of him before. It was gritty and… dark. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking,” he said, darting his eyes around before connecting with hers once more. “We’re getting your family’s necklace back.”