CHALKE: We’re always watching her.
JOHANNSEN: And what’s she doing?
There was a long pause like Chalke was considering it.
CHALKE: What we ask, mostly. We have her bugged to hell and beyond, RATs in her phone, traditional audio electronics in her apartment, a web of surveillance watching her while in public, and she seems...compliant. Hardly an “above and beyond” type, though. And her mouth makes me want to stick a gag in there sometimes. Or have an old-timey executioner cut out her tongue.
KORY: As I understand it, she’d just grow a new one.
CHALKE: Unfortunate, but probably true. We’ll make do with her. As Bilson said, she’s not been the boon to our project that we might have hoped, but she’s not the apocalypse, either. She needs to show us some utility and obedience soon, though, or...
Chapman stared at the ellipsis. Waiting for Chalke to finish.
CHALKE: Well, I don’t know what. I guess we’ll talk about it when we get closer to that situation.
Chapman shrugged, blinking his bleary eyes as everyone said their farewells and logged off one by one. He tossed his phone aside, staring out the windows into the darkness. How long had he been up?
Too long. Too long.
A tapping at the window woke him gently out of a sound sleep. He blinked, looking around.
Her black hair glistened in the moonlight outside the windows, her freckles disappearing in the dark. Her eyes peeked in at him, though, blue and bright, with an aura of mischief and a smile like she always knew something others didn’t.
“Gwen,” he muttered, hurrying to open the door.
She kissed him and breezed in. “Sorry to wake you.”
“No, it’s fine,” he said, voice thick with sleep. “Long day?”
“You have no idea,” she said. Her nose piercing glinted in the overhead light. “Same for you?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I swear, if we weren’t both running our own companies, we might actually get to see one another in the light of day.”
Gwen chuckled, and it was such a lovely sound. “Yeah, well, I doubt I’d be as interesting to you if I wasn’t busy doing my own thing as much as I am. Scarcity makes a thing more valuable, after all.”
“That explains why your time means so much to me,” Chapman said, running his hand along the thin, pale hairs on her forearm. “So...how was your day?”
“Terrible,” she said. “Fire drills every hour, on the hour. Not the literal kind, either. Accounting had some major snafus come to light today.” She rubbed her brow. “I swear, I don’t even want to know what this would be like after an IPO. Reporting to the Street feels like a headache I don’t need, not on top of everything else I deal with.”
Jaime smiled. “I know exactly what you mean.” He brightened. “Hey, did I tell you I met Sienna Nealon yesterday?”
Gwen’s smile froze on her face. “No, it must have slipped your mind. And I forgot to ask. I saw the news blast that there was an incident at Socialite.” She looked down at her phone. “Wait. Did we talk yesterday?”
Chapman thought about it for a second and just laughed at the chaos of their schedules. “I don’t even remember, honestly. Been that kind of week. But, yeah, I met her.”
She stared into his eyes, curiosity lighting hers. “Well? What did you think?”
Chapman thought about it, tried to figure out how to encapsulate his opinion. “She’s kind of an asshole.”
Gwen just laughed. “That sounds about right.” She locked arms with him, and pulled him toward the couch. “So...”
He enjoyed the feel of her at his side. “So...what?”
She smiled. “So...other than meeting an asshole superhero yesterday...how was your day?”
Jaime just thought about it for a second, trying to decide how best to explain it. This really was the high point of his week. Everything else seemed distantly behind this, in terms of excitement. Still, he had to try. To impress her. He started with a smile, trying to keep cool.
“Well...”
115.
Sienna
Two Months Later
New York City
It was a club in Midtown called Rocket, on a Friday(!), with a crowd that extended well beyond the rope line.
Which I did not have to wait in, fortunately, because some two months after Friday’s Socialite/Instaphoto post and my subsequent apology, people were still saying douchey things to me on the street about shit I didn’t even say.
The bouncer at the back of the place took one look at my backstage pass and waved me through. The sour look on his face told me he probably had something else to say, like so many people I met these days, but whatever. I wasn’t here to see him.
I was here to see the star.
The backstage pass had shown up at the office. No note, just an envelope with my name on it. Because that was the deal these days. He was anonymous, and that meant separating himself from me.
But I was okay with that. It worked for both of us that way.
Having a backstage pass didn’t make me stay backstage, though. I slipped out through a side door and into the crowd, listening as I passed through. The energy was electric.
“How did you hear about him?” I heard a lady ask the guy she was with.
“I saw him on Kat Forrest’s show,” the guy hummed. “I heard he sold fifty thousand copies of his debut album the next week.”
“I was one of them!” she squealed. “I heard him when she went to his concert and I was like, ‘I need this music in my life’!”
I left them behind to other conversations. Similar ones.
The energy in the place was jacked. Off the charts. Not my usual scene, but this I was looking forward to with a little hum of excitement in my belly that filtered through my skin.
The lights went down out in the audience.
The stage lights when up.
And there he was, the latest star, with a bassline for his background.
Not Friday anymore.
Swole H.
116.
Not Friday
The stage was lit.
The party was lit.
The music was as kittens as he could make it.
The crowd was ready.
This was the life.
No deuces, dropped or otherwise.
He took a breath and stepped up to the mic.
“How y’all doing, New York City?”
The roar was genuine.
But in the back of it all, as the stage lights went down, with his meta eyesight, he saw...
Her.
Watching.
Smiling.
Nodding her head to the music.
His music.
She didn’t wave. Couldn’t. That was the deal.
But she watched. And she listened.
She even danced a little.
And that was better than anything else.
What a great day.
What a great life.
Sienna Nealon Will Return In
MUSIC
OUT OF THE BOX
BOOK 26
Coming August 12th, 2019!
Get it here!
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading! If you want to know immediately when future books become available, take sixty seconds and sign up for my NEW RELEASE EMAIL ALERTS by CLICKING HERE. I don’t sell your information and I only send out emails when I have a new book out. The reason you should sign up for this is because I don’t always set release dates, and even if you’re following me on Facebook (robertJcrane (Author)) or Twitter (@robertJcrane), it’s easy to miss my book announcements because … well, because social media is an imprecise thing.
Come join the discussion on my website: http://www.robertjcrane.com!
Cheers,
Robert J. Crane
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Danica Peña for the help translating the dialogue for Friday’s angry Spanish-speaking “landlady” early in the book. Much
as gracias, Danica!
Thanks to Lewis Moore, Jeff Bryan and Nick (https://nickbowman-editing.com) for editing and proofing. Thanks also to Karri Klawiter of artbykarri.com for the wonderful cover, as per usual.
Thanks to Sharyl Atkisson for writing her amazing book, The Smear. Lots of what it elucidates involving politics and the smear machine made its way into this story in simplified form to explain the dealings of Governor Warrington and Mitchell Werner. It’s an eye-opener of a book and I highly recommend it.
And finally, thanks to my wife and kids, parents and in-laws, for keeping things running around here. Or just for running around here, in the case of the kids.
Other Works by Robert J. Crane
World of Sanctuary
Epic Fantasy
Defender: The Sanctuary Series, Volume One
Avenger: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Two
Champion: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Three
Crusader: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Four
Sanctuary Tales, Volume One - A Short Story Collection
Thy Father’s Shadow: The Sanctuary Series, Volume 4.5
Master: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Five
Fated in Darkness: The Sanctuary Series, Volume 5.5
Warlord: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Six
Heretic: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Seven
Legend: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Eight
Ghosts of Sanctuary: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Nine
Call of the Hero: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Ten* (Coming in 2019!)
A Haven in Ash: Ashes of Luukessia, Volume One (with Michael Winstone)
A Respite From Storms: Ashes of Luukessia, Volume Two (with Michael Winstone)
A Home in the Hills: Ashes of Luukessia, Volume Three (with Michael Winstone)
The Girl in the Box
and
Out of the Box
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
Alone: The Girl in the Box, Book 1
Untouched: The Girl in the Box, Book 2
Soulless: The Girl in the Box, Book 3
Family: The Girl in the Box, Book 4
Omega: The Girl in the Box, Book 5
Broken: The Girl in the Box, Book 6
Enemies: The Girl in the Box, Book 7
Legacy: The Girl in the Box, Book 8
Destiny: The Girl in the Box, Book 9
Power: The Girl in the Box, Book 10
Limitless: Out of the Box, Book 1
In the Wind: Out of the Box, Book 2
Ruthless: Out of the Box, Book 3
Grounded: Out of the Box, Book 4
Tormented: Out of the Box, Book 5
Vengeful: Out of the Box, Book 6
Sea Change: Out of the Box, Book 7
Painkiller: Out of the Box, Book 8
Masks: Out of the Box, Book 9
Prisoners: Out of the Box, Book 10
Unyielding: Out of the Box, Book 11
Hollow: Out of the Box, Book 12
Toxicity: Out of the Box, Book 13
Small Things: Out of the Box, Book 14
Hunters: Out of the Box, Book 15
Badder: Out of the Box, Book 16
Nemesis: Out of the Box, Book 17
Apex: Out of the Box, Book 18
Time: Out of the Box, Book 19
Driven: Out of the Box, Book 20
Remember: Out of the Box, Book 21
Hero: Out of the Box, Book 22
Flashback: Out of the Box, Book 23
Cold: Out of the Box, Book 24
Blood Ties: Out of the Box, Book 25
Music: Out of the Box, Book 26* (Coming August 12th, 2019!)
Southern Watch
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
Called: Southern Watch, Book 1
Depths: Southern Watch, Book 2
Corrupted: Southern Watch, Book 3
Unearthed: Southern Watch, Book 4
Legion: Southern Watch, Book 5
Starling: Southern Watch, Book 6
Forsaken: Southern Watch, Book 7
Hallowed: Southern Watch, Book 8* (Coming in 2020!)
The Shattered Dome
(with Nicholas J. Ambrose)
Sci-Fi
Voiceless: The Shattered Dome
The Mira Brand Adventures
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
The World Beneath: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 1
The Tide of Ages: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 2
The City of Lies: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 3
The King of the Skies: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 4
The Best of Us: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 5
We Aimless Few: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 6
The Gang of Legend: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 7
The Antecessor Conundrum: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 8
Liars and Vampires
(with Lauren Harper)
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
No One Will Believe You: Liars and Vampires, Book 1
Someone Should Save Her: Liars and Vampires, Book 2
You Can’t Go Home Again: Liars and Vampires, Book 3
In the Dark: Liars and Vampires, Book 4
Her Lying Days Are Done: Liars and Vampires, Book 5
Heir of the Dog: Liars and Vampires, Book 6
Hit You Where You Live: Liars and Vampires, Book 7* (Coming Spring 2019!)
* Forthcoming, Subject to Change
Blood Ties Page 39
