Crossing Hathaway (28 page)

“I’m not, I … wait—I thought I told you not to spy on me.” I growled at the phone, shut it off, and returned it to the clip on my belt. Why did he have to be so fucking observant? For once, I just needed him to go away and work.

Brent found me on the sixth floor fifteen minutes later. His blond hair fell over his eyes, and he sucked wind as if he’d sprinted down the stairs the whole way. “There you are. I’ve been looking all over this floor for you.”

I crawled out from under the desk where I’d just finished connecting a new printer to the back of a computer. When Brent offered me a hand up, I grabbed his arm and pulled him down to me. I glared and lowered my voice. “Tell me Ben didn’t send you.”

He hung his head. “Don’t yell at the messenger. You know I have no choice.” Brent’s sigh held barely contained fear. “He wants you to come to his office, right now.” His gray eyes lifted to meet my gaze. “He knows something’s up, Eva. I swear I just sat at my desk all day like normal so I don’t know how he knows.”

Spying on me, that’s how. I released Brent’s arm and slumped against the side of the desk, resting my forehead on upturned knees. The tapping of shoes on the tile silenced me until the two men in white lab coats passed by. “Ben’s been watching me over the surveillance, and I’ve been … jumpy, to put it mildly.” I looked at my watch. Four forty-five. “Shit.” Although I drew in an enormous breath, the sudden drowning sensation didn’t subside. I fiddled to unbuttoned the top of my shirt, but opening my collar didn’t bring oxygen to me any faster. How had the day gone by so fast?

“I can’t go to his office, Brent, you know that. Just stall getting back up there and then tell him I wouldn’t come.” I rolled my shoulders, the tension weaving around every bone and muscle, pulling them tight enough I thought they’d snap. “By then, I’ll be with Richard.” With the help of a grunt, I climbed to my feet and started for the door. “I need to get down there. I can’t risk someone stopping me along the way and making me late.” My hand reached for the door handle.

“Eva…”

I peered back at Brent over my shoulder. “Yeah?”

He wrung his hands in front of him, rocked from heel to toe. “I want to tell you it’s going to be okay, but I know you hate it when people say that. I-I don’t know what to say.” Arms wide, he jumped at me and hugged me with one big squeeze before pulling the door open for me.

I kissed his cheek. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Thanks for everything.” Mind fixed on my task, I walked into the hallway and pushed the button for the elevator. The doors opened to reveal a heavy load of people. By the jackets hung over arms and lunch bags in hand, most of them were headed for the main floor.

Keep it together. You can do this.
I stepped inside and turned to face the mirrored doors, unable to look myself in the eye.
It’ll be okay. Ben will give Richard what he wants and we’ll all go home.
So why didn’t the knot in my stomach believe it? Would Richard come for me again? I considered not fighting Richard when he kissed me, but the thought of Ben misinterpreting our interlude stopped that idea dead in its tracks. He’d be angry either way, but the part of me that cared for him didn’t want it to be directed at me.

On the first floor, while everyone else turned left and headed for the lobby, I turned right toward the back of the building. Shallow breaths rasped in my chest. I cast my eyes down and took tiny steps to the door that would bring me to Richard. Even the rubber soles of my shoes echoed around me like thunder, reminding me I was alone, awaiting a predator. I paced back and forth between his door and the exit, twenty steps one way, twenty the other. The minutes ticked by with a painful slowness.

My legs turned to jelly and shook after a few minutes. I stopped and feigned interest in a glassed-in message board on the wall, fiddling with the buttons on my left sleeve. Tears stung the corners of my eyes, but I pressed my lids together and willed them away.
Not now. Damn you, Ben.

A door clicked behind me. Jolts of electricity traveled the length of my spine, up into my head, and along my arms. Panic grabbed me by the throat. I pressed my palms against the wall in front of me, forced air in through my nose, and exhaled until the initial surge of adrenaline passed. A check of my watch confirmed the time: 5:00 p.m.

I turned, straightened my back, and walked toward the door. My heart crashed against my ribs as if trying to escape and run like I should have done. Silence met my ears as I reached for the knob. A twist. A push. The door swung inward with a squeak to a darkened office, the only light spilling in from the hallway behind me. The silhouette of a desk loomed to my right. A chair behind it had a jacket hung across the backrest. The sickening odor of Richard’s cologne assaulted me.

Summoning will from the deep, I cleared my throat, steadied my voice. “Hello? Anyone in here?” I stepped inside the room, my gaze scanning left and right. My hand didn’t want to release the doorknob, but I yanked it away and shoved it into my pocket to prevent the shake. The door swung shut and clicked behind me, locking me in with the beast.

Richard grabbed me around the waist from behind at the same instant he flicked the light switch. Although I knew he’d be there, a scream pealed out of me all the same.

He nuzzled my throat, his right hand sliding inside my shirt to my bare stomach. “That’s my good little kitten.” His snicker made me want to smack him. “Showtime.”

The room spun in a dizzying blur. When my brain registered that Richard had spun me to face him, his hands gripped my upper arms so tight I winced and blinked at his nearness. He pushed me against the desk, lifted me off the floor, and shoved me across the surface until only my lower legs hung over. Just like the night before, he forced his way between my knees and grabbed a handful of my hair.

My hands instinctively pushed against his chest.

He bit along my throat. “Squirm for me, baby.” Richard raised his face, a shadow of deranged glee clouding the depths of his green eyes. He crushed his lips against mine, his tongue filling my mouth.

My whole body stiffened and tiny, pathetic sounds escaped past his lip-lock. I pounded on his chest, kicked my legs, but only met air.

The phone on the desk rang.

Richard paused, lips still pressed against mine as laughter bubbled out from between them. Whiskey flavored his breath. Oh hell, he was drunk? “There’s Benjamin, right on cue.”

I swallowed a retch.
Why is he calling? Why doesn’t he come?

Still sniggering, Richard yanked me from the desk and turned me to face the camera in the corner. The phone ceased its shouting. His teeth clamped down on my shoulder hard.

I cried out in terror, and my body seized like a cat held by the scuff of the neck. The pain and pressure of his bite limited my movements while his fingers ripped open the bottom of my shirt and played along my abdomen. Tears poured out in a steady stream, airy gasps spurting out from my gaping mouth in a rhythmic pattern.

Richard’s teeth released me, and he pressed his cheek against my ear. “Looky, looky what I have, brother. Your play toy is quite exciting, isn’t she?” His singsong tone entered my ears like broken glass, slicing through me to the core.

“Fuck you.” My voice came out as a growl.

“Oh, I love it when you talk dirty to me.” He drew my earlobe into his mouth and sucked.

My skin crawled. A rush of angry heat consumed me. “Stop this!” I looked up at the camera, and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

The shuffling of many feet sounded in the hallway, along with the low murmur of voices.

“We’re coming up now, brother. Be a good boy and clear the security team I hear assembling outside my door.” Richard withdrew his right hand from my shirt and reached behind. A swish of fabric. A click of metal against metal. A moment later, something cold pressed into the side of my neck. His other hand slipped up to the front of my throat. “The paperwork had better be ready, or the rest of the show will happen on your boardroom table while you watch.”

I froze—heart, lungs, brain. Everything ceased to function as I realized Richard had a gun trained on me.

Oh God.

Richard removed the gun he held to my neck and walked to the door with the barrel pointed to the floor. Looking far too smug for my liking, he held out his hand. “Let’s go, kitten.”

His nonchalant smirk sent a shudder through me. Stiff from shock and terror, I put my shaking, clammy hand in his sweaty one.

After straightening his clothes as if the paparazzi waited for us, he tugged me against his body, opened the door a crack, and peered out. With one arm locked around my waist and his other hand pressing the gun into my side, we entered the hallway. I stumbled to keep up with Richard’s brisk pace. From my tour of the security cameras, I knew there wasn’t one in that section of the building. Unfortunately for me, he wasn’t as stupid as I needed him to be.

Men in blue uniforms—the only occupants of the small corridor—stood beyond the stairs, shifting their feet. Watching. Waiting. Their hands hovered around holsters on their belts, and all gazes locked on to our approach.

We arrived at the elevator a moment later. Richard pressed the Up button and smiled. “It’ll all be over soon, Evangeline.”

Over? As in, over-over? I swallowed and closed my eyes.
What did he mean by that?

The doors slid open. Richard shoved me in front of him with such force I slammed against the back wall, bracing my forearms in front of me. That was gonna leave a mark. I whirled around, rubbing my tender elbows as he stepped in and pressed the button for the twentieth floor. When men approached the opening, Richard gripped my arm and positioned me in front of him, the cold barrel of the gun once again kissing my cheek, halting their progress. The mirrored panels closed us in and them out. My breath hitched.

In desperation, my thoughts scrambled for a way out, but every pathway ended with a bullet in my head.

“Your heart’s beating so fast.” Richard sniffed at me, a lion at a kill. “I can almost smell the fear on you. Like sweet cherry pie.” His snicker sickened me. “Frankly, I’m disappointed in you, Evangeline. I expected you to be tougher.”

A whole list of barbed responses assembled in my mouth, but I kept my lips closed. Not a good idea to piss off the guy with the gun, no matter how big of a dick he was.

Just breathe.

The doors opened. Richard pushed me out, one hand around my throat, the other shoving the gun into my lower back. More security lined the hallway there, their hands out to their sides as we sped down the center of them. I stared forward, feet slapping against the carpet in a staccato pattern at Richard’s nudges, avoiding everyone’s eyes. If the security team looked as terrified as I felt, it would only serve to rip my self-control to shreds.

Ben framed his doorway as we approached. Tall. Rigid. Kingly. He stared at me with unreadable eyes before they shifted to look at Richard. “Why are you doing this? I gave you my word.” Ben’s voice lowered to an octave I’d never heard before, rattling through me like notes from a bass drum in the hands of an enraged warrior.

“Let’s just say I don’t trust you, brother.” Richard squeezed my throat.

I tried to hold still but my hands shot up to pry at his fingers and a strangled sound came out. God, I hated that guy!

Green eyes blazing, Ben lurched forward but halted, chest heaving. He must have seen something in Richard’s face, because the bastard laughed behind me.

“Shall we go inside?” Richard asked in his playful tone as he loosened his grip on me.

I coughed, wondering if Ben could see the terror in my eyes.
Look at me, Ben! Do something!

A few breaths passed before Ben disappeared into the shadows of his office. My heart faltered, leaving a deafening silence in my head.
He left me. He really left me.

Richard pushed me along in front of him as we followed Ben’s retreat.

The room had returned to its darkened gloom, the brightness from days ago only a distant memory. Only two lights in the ceiling cast circles on the middle of the carpet. Ben stood at the edge, his arms held straight at his sides. His fingers curled into fists.

Richard’s body twisted behind me a few times as if he strained to look behind him. “Lights on, brother. I want to know you don’t have any more security stashed up there. You know how I hate surprises.”

One by one, lights blazed to life on the upper tier. The main part illuminated as Ben clicked buttons on his remote. When it confirmed he didn’t actually have any more security, the tightness in my chest worsened. We were neck deep in alligators and not an exit to be found.

“Are the cameras disabled in here as I asked?” Richard said.

Ben nodded toward the surveillance room, his lip curling in a snarl. “See for yourself.”

“After you.” Richard’s malicious amusement smothered his tone.

My pulse leaped against Richard’s grasp on my throat as we followed Ben up the stairs and along the corridor. Inside the monitor-filled room, he leaned around me and cycled through the feeds on the main display with a click of the mouse. He didn’t look at very many, so he must have known which camera numbers existed in the office. That didn’t bode well. If I had any chance of tricking him out of his plan, it needed to be a damned good trick to get it by him. Not that I really thought I had a chance of getting out completely unscathed, but a girl could still hope.

“Good.” Richard turned with me, and I shuffled to keep up, concentrating on each inhale and exhale to keep the panic at bay. “Now, where’s the paperwork?”

A fierce determination sparked fire into Ben’s eyes. I didn’t understand it, though it still sent spiders crawling along my spine. I was certainly glad those lasers weren’t because of me. “The deal was that you leave Evangeline out of this. You broke your word so you get nothing.”

You could have knocked me over with a light breeze. The bottom fell out of the world and left me swaying. “What?” My voice came out as a shriek. “What are you doing, Ben? Are you fucking nuts?”