Life had an order to things and Sean’s murder messed that up. Big time.
The news didn’t say what happened or give a motive, but in my heart, I knew where he’d been before getting shot.
My place.
I swallowed the guilt and planned to do my best to focus on the task at hand.
Sean said the documents were enough to ruin our employer, All American Bank, but what would be worth killing over?
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened way before I was ready. I stepped out, only to be met by the shine of a weapon. I screamed and jumped back, my fingers searching for another floor on the elevator pad, but a second man stepped in the way, holding his hand out to so the doors didn’t close.
Gun!
Holy shit.
I’m going to die.
“Calm down, Drake,” the man in a suit said, and instantly the gun lowered.
The enormous guy with the weapon took a step away but didn’t hide his gun as he watched me cower in the elevator’s corner.
So going to die.
Did I have life insurance?
Who would inherit?
The person holding the door wore a three-piece suit like he owned the suit shop. Each section was buttoned up impeccably as if he wasn’t with his friend holding guns on women, but in a board room somewhere conducting business of extreme importance.
I took him in slowly, trying to regulate my breathing and thanking God I’d had nothing to eat or drink for breakfast. Surely, I’d have a repeat of the time in first grade when William Decanter jumped out at me from behind the classroom door and scared me so badly I peed my pants.
If I died, I wanted to go down with dignity… and dry pants.
The two men stared at me and then, when I was fairly certain my heart would not explode, the one in the suit spoke again. “Who are you?”
“I’m looking for TerminalChaos. He said I’d find him here on the fourth floor.”
He circled his hand in a hurry fashion. “Sure, but you are?”
“Um… I’m Hazel Webb.”
The man with the gun grunted and jerked his head to the side, signaling I needed to step off the elevator. I did so only after the suit-guy turned on a heel and walked down the short hallway. Quiet coated the air. Not even a whisper. Had they abandoned the building?
My gaze fell to the suited guy’s ass and the way his pants cupped it perfectly. I’d seen plenty of men in suits, but none of them fit like this one. Even on the run and fearful of her life, a girl noticed a fine ass.
It wasn’t the time or the place, but I guess when your brain thought you were a few minutes away from death, taking time to enjoy the little things in life had new meaning.
At the end of the hall, a large office with an entire wall of windows waited with an open door. He gestured for me to enter and I did so only because a desk with two chairs sat in the room. Surely, he wouldn’t shoot me and splatter blood on his expensive furniture.
He waited for me to sit and then took a seat behind the desk, toppling his fingers together into a triangle. “How did you find out about me?”
He didn’t say how did you find out about TerminalChaos, but me. The man with a nice butt in the well-fitting suit had to be no other than the best hacker in the United States. I expected a gamer in a hoodie, not a CEO type. Shouldn’t he be living in his mother’s basement or something?
My chance finally arrived to spill my guts and make this problem someone else’s.
“I work for All American Bank as a project coordinator. We tried to hire you a year ago. Everyone said you are the best in the country, but you declined to develop our new encryption software.”
I saw the news report about Sean and couldn’t go to work for fear my life might be next. I had the card for a well-known hacker, TerminalChaos, in my card holder on pure happenstance. Fate.