by Leslie North
Anna nodded. “Gage is right—the emergency protocol for a gas leak or possible spill is to go up and wait on the roof for evacuation.”
Marcella let out a breath. “If there was something leaking, we’d smell it. I’m going down. You coming?” She headed down the stars. Linda glanced from Anna to Marcella, then darted after her.
Gage glanced at Anna. “Come on. Let’s move.”
He grabbed her hand but she pulled back. “Wait. We should use the stairs on the other side. The alarm supposed to be loudest on the side of the building where the leak’s been detected—meaning this side.”
He strode for the door, taking her with him. She still had her camera in hand. “Do the others know this?”
“They would if they attended the safety meetings or read the memos. It’s HR’s job to make sure—”
A hard-edged boom echoed, shaking plaster loose from the walls and dropping ceiling panels. Gage grabbed Anna and pulled her into the stairwell doorway. The alarm went dead. So did the lights. Not good, Gage thought. This had gone from possible emergency to a definite problem.
Anna coughed. He glanced down at her. Daylight drifted in through the windows, but emergency lights had come on in the stairwell, making it look red as hell.
“You okay?” he asked. She nodded. “Good. Come on.” He pulled her with him, heading up. On every floor, he paused to check the doors, feeling the back of it with his palm—no heat so far.
“How many floors?” Gage asked, starting up the next flight.
“It’s a thirty-story building and we started on the tenth.” Anna was still lugging her camera with her. He wanted to pull it from her, but it was her choice to carry it.
Gage rounded the next set of stairs. “Tell me about yourself, Anna Middleton.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “What? Like a first date?”
“More like you’re pale, you’re thinking way too much, and nothing beats passing the time like chit-chat. You seeing anyone?”
She laughed again, this time with less tremor in the sound. That was good. The last thing he needed was a hysterical woman. “Is that an offer?”
He glanced at her. “Just a question. You don’t date much, do you?”
“It’s that obvious?” She sounded a touch bitter, and Gage wondered who’d left her that way. He checked his phone. No signal. But they were making good time.
“What’s the worst thing that ever happened to you?” he asked.
“Besides this?”
He grinned at her. “This is a nice hike with a nice guy.”
She pulled a face. She was puffing a little—needed to get more exercise. She shrugged. “I went through a sliding glass door when I was a teen.” She pulled back the collar of her shirt, showed a network of fine white lines. Scars. “I don’t know how it happened. Someone must have put something in my drink. Next thing I knew, I woke in hospital. My mother pulled me out of school and hired a tutor for me. I was homeschooled after that.”
Gage stiffened as she talked, imagining a young Anna in trouble and hurt. He didn’t like the image. “Did they go after whoever did it?”
“And prove what? Besides, growing up in D.C. you learn the only good scandal is one that happens to someone else.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to stir bad memories.”
“It’s okay. They’re better than nothing.”
“You do that often?”
She glanced at him. “What?”
“Go for the sarcasm.”
“Why not? It’s better than pity.”
They’d made it to the twenty-first floor. Gage glanced at the number painted on the door. Anna was having difficulty breathing. Sweat trickled down the side of her face. She swayed and leaned against a wall. Gage caught her elbow. “You gonna make it?”
She nodded. “Shouldn’t have skipped that cycling class.”
He kept hold of her arm as he started up. “Seem odd to you that we haven’t run into anyone else?”
“It was after lunch. Most of marketing and editorial are in New York at a conference—meaning their staff’s going to be taking late lunches. Some might have thought the same thing as Marcella—it’s a drill, so why bother leaving their desks. Do you think the others are all right?”
He shook his head. “The explosion was on that side of the building.”
She stopped. Her throat worked. “Oh.” The word came out flat and dull. “I—I—”
“Don’t worry. She came across as a touch b—”
“Bossy?”
He glanced at her. “That wasn’t what I was going to say.”
“I know. But if she’s injured or…well, or, then I’d hate to be thinking how she’s got a voice that could rival the alarm system.”
Gage smiled and nodded. “Fair enough.”
On the twenty-fifth floor, the security door stood ajar. Gage yanked at the handle, but something had jammed it in place. Reaching for his cellphone, he tapped the flashlight app and stuck his arm through the door to look around. He couldn’t find what was holding the door open this crack.
Pulling in his arm, he saw that he had a single bar. He started a call to Scotty, but just as fast, the bar disappeared. “Dammit.”
Anna called his name and said, “Do you smell smoke?”
He did. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up with him. She was gasping now, and he was tempted to swing her up over his shoulder. But he wanted to keep her on her feet for as long as he could. He wrapped one arm around her waist. “Don’t talk. Take slow breaths. We’ll be fine.” The place stank of smoke now, and he wished he had a mask. Modern furniture out-gassed too many things that weren’t good to breathe when they burned. Anna coughed and choked.
On the thirtieth floor, they got the door open. They stumbled through and Gage paused. The entire floor looked as if it was mostly a reception room and one office. Coran Williams’ office, he’d guess.
Anna moved to the walnut door that stood open. She gave a gasp and Gage came over to see what had started her.
He was surprised to see the office in disarray—the door lock broken and a hole where it had been, chairs overturned, a sofa ripped apart, a computer on the floor, files tossed on the floor. Glass windows opened onto a rooftop garden and helicopter pad.
Gage picked up the laptop, but Anna put a hand on his arm. “Now isn’t the time to clean up.”
He turned to face her. “Any idea what happened?”
Anna shook her head. He heard an engine start. Helio, he knew. Glancing out the glass windows, he saw a chopper rise, turn and move away.
Walking onto the rooftop, Gage looked over the wall. “Looks like emergency response is here.”
Anna shivered and stepped close. “That helicopter—who was it?”
Gage glanced back at the trashed office, thought about the boom that had gone off. He was going to bet the two were connected. But what the hell was going on at this place? He put an arm over her shoulder and settled in to wait.
Emergency staff reached them faster than he expected. Good crew, he thought. They had the fire contained, elevators working, and Anna rode down with a mask on her face and oxygen helping her breathe. Gage took the guys up on a mask, too. Saved him having to talk too much. On the street, he saw Scotty and Spencer. He shook his head at them—he needed them in reserve right now.
Once inside an ambulance, he let the medics check him out. He signed a waiver for non-transport—the last thing he needed was to waste time. Climbing out of the ambulance he eased over to where Anna sat in another rig, talking to the police. Her answers were vague, even more so than his had been. No, she didn’t know what had happened. Didn’t have any idea. Gage knew that either meant she was innocent or guilty as hell.
He saw Marcella in another ambulance, sobbing and in hysterics, the medics swapping looks and getting an injection ready—probably because the woman was about to give herself a heart attack. Linda was in another ambulance—and she didn’t look so good, strapped down to a gurney. Someone had cru
shed the Gothic fairy good.
Movement caught his eye and Gage looked over as Anna stepped out of the ambulance. “You good to go?” he asked.
She looked at him with wide eyes. Her white blouse was smudged, dark circled her eyes, and her hair was no longer pulled back tight but hung loose around her face. She looked great. She was alive and breathing and managed a shaky smile that wasn’t all that happy. She waved at the cameras—she still had hers still in one hand. “I prefer to be on the other side.”
“You were leaving without saying goodbye?” he asked.
“Well, you looked busy.” She hugged her camera to her chest. “Distracted.”
He took her arm. “Not for you, Anna. Never too busy for you. Besides, it’s a SEAL tradition. After a mission like that, you gotta go out for steak. So have dinner with me. Besides, after what just happened, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
Chapter 5
Anna waited outside for Gage. In the end, she’d insisted on going home first. She’d wanted to have a bath—a long one. She wanted to think.
What the hell had happened today?
She hadn’t been allowed back in the building. Firefighters and police were still searching, there was apparently considerable smoke damage, and there also was a question of if the building was stable. Words like terrorist bomb had been floating around. Linda and Marcella were both hospitalized, and no one had been able to reach Coran Williams.
Anna turned on the tap to put more hot water in the tub. Her legs ached as if she’d run five miles, all of it vertical. She was definitely starting back at the gym next week. But why had this happened? Coran Williams published fiction, a tiny bit of non-fiction, and not much more. Was this personal? The more she thought about it, the more she believed it must be—how could this have anything to do with the company?
Well, it was the police’s problem now—hers tomorrow if she couldn’t get back to work. Did this mean she was out of a job? She couldn’t think about that, and for the first time ever her mother’s advice came in handy. When in doubt, put on your best dress and a brave face.
She had pulled out a dress that matched her eyes. It came up high in front and low in back, hiding her network of scars. She added diamond-stud earrings, black heels and a black clutch, and painted out the dark circles under her eyes. A touch of Chanel No. 5 and she was ready to go.
Would she be allowed into the building tomorrow to get her things? She needed to call the credit card companies—and see about new ID. Her head began to pound again. What she needed was some food, a drink, and to not think about it for a few hours.
Glancing down the street, she saw a truck pull up with Gage behind the wheel. He got out and walked around to the passenger side to open the door for her. “You look fantastic.” As he slipped behind the wheel, he said, “I know I mentioned steak, but what do you think about the Fish Market instead?”
“I’d like that,” she said and slipped on her seatbelt.
The sun was beginning to set when they pulled up in front of the market, which was really two small docks in the tidal basin off the Potomac River. It was off the tourist track, but it was popular with locals. An open-air market offered fresh fish, fisherman’s platters, or just about anything else you could want.
Gage parked the truck and walked with Anna along the dockside. To the west, the sun lit up the sky in stripes of red, orange and yellow, balancing like a fiery ball on the horizon. Smiling, Anna stepped closer and rested her head on his shoulder. “This is one of my favorite times of the day.”
He gave a grunt and a nod. Odd that she didn’t mind that he wasn’t a guy who talked a lot—or maybe it was just the day they’d been through.
The sky darkened, lights coming on in a blaze of color, and Gage headed to Captain White’s. “Have you been here before?” he asked.
She smiled and nodded. “Used to come here with my grandparents. Grandpa had a boat. I learned to swim in the Potomac. But I haven’t been out on the water in years.”
Gage offered a tight smile. “Glad I thought of it.”
She frowned at the comment. Had he known she’d been here before? It was almost as if…as if he’d dug up some of her past. The server came to take drink orders. Those appeared, and someone else came for their order.
Gage ordered steamed Chesapeake blue crab, blackened catfish, crab cakes, corn pudding, a side of mac-and-cheese, and two strawberry lemonades. Anna stared at him. “Feeding an army?”
He smiled. “Trust me. You’ll want more.” He added a dozen oysters, and jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce to the order. Once he’d paid and picked up the food, he gestured to Anna to grab the drinks. “I know a sweet little spot overlooking the Tidal Basin.
On the way, he grabbed a blanket from his truck. He spread it out on a rise looking out on the water. They dug into the food—everything was great. The cocktail sauce had a tang, the fish was perfect—flaky and moist—and Anna found herself wishing Gage had ordered more mac-and-cheese.
Leaning back, Gage asked, “Any news about what happened?”
She shook her head. “I wish I knew. They’re going to let us back in tomorrow—I hope. But I can’t figure out why anyone would go after a publishing house.”
“Author files or manuscripts? Some of it’s got to be worth something.”
“All our files are kept in a central database that every department has access to—it’s just fiction!”
He frowned. “Why would everyone have access to it?”
She sipped her lemonade and shrugged. “Our author files have everything from contact information to current photos to book sales to manuscript data. If someone in marketing wants to know what other books are similar to a particular title or production needs to contact the author with questions on the manuscript, it’s all there.”
“That doesn’t seem very safe.”
She smiled. “Oh, come on. In the world we live in, if someone wants to hack a server, no amount of safeguards will prevent it. But…what happened today was…oh, I don’t know…old school.”
Gage coughed into his drink. “Old school?”
She waved a hand. “Who tears apart an office looking for something when it would be far easier to hack a computer?”
“Unless whatever they wanted wasn’t on the server. Does your boss have a safe? Keep stuff there?”
She shrugged. “If he does, it isn’t at the office. I would have known about it. It’ll be at his bank or home—it’s not like he lacks for assets or resources.”
Gage gave a nod and an odd hum she couldn’t read—did that mean he didn’t believe her? He gathered up the debris of the meal, stood and reached a hand down to her. “Care for a walk on the waterfront?”
Her muscles had stiffened up over dinner and she was glad to stretch them. “Oh, my—look. A carnival!” The noise, lights and tents had been set up near the waterfront. Anna dragged Gage into the music and crowd. She spotted a sharp shooter game. Glancing at Gage, she gave him a smile. “Come on, win me something.”
He gave her a sideways look and shrugged. At the tent, he pulled out a five-dollar bill and handed it to the attendant. Picking up the gun, he sighted and shot. Five more shots and he set the gun down. The attendant pushed a stuffed rabbit at Gage, which he handed to Anna.
Anna rubbed the rabbit’s ears. “No one’s ever won a prize for me.”
He glanced at her, his expression unreadable. She grabbed his hand. “Look, hand-dipped ice cream. My treat.”
“Aren’t you stuffed yet?”
“Hey, I burned a lot of calories today,” she told him and pulled him toward the vendor. Anna ordered two cones, Gage amended that to one, telling her, “We’ll share.” He left her juggling rabbit and cone, but he kept his hand on the small of her back.
They wandered the carnival. It smelled like cotton candy and childhood, Anna thought. And it was getting late. The booths were starting to close, the lights were shutting down, the music clicked off.
Gage steered her
toward where he’d parked the truck. She slowed her pace. Looking down at her, he asked, “Something wrong?”
She heard the tension in his voice and knew he’d gone on alert. Smiling, she shook her head. “No, not at all. It’s just that I had such a great time, I can’t believe…this day has been so weird.”
At the car next to Gage’s truck, a little girl stood rubbing tears from her eyes, staring up at a man who had to be her dad. “Melissa, I’m sorry. We got here too late.”
Anna didn’t hear what else her father had to say. She glanced at her rabbit, and bent down. “Excuse me. Melissa? This rabbit just happened to jump into my arms over there. He said he was looking for a little girl named Melissa—would that be you?”
