Hostile Territory (Blackbridge Security 1)

Walking around the hotel suite, I shake my hands by my sides but nervous energy wins out. After a quick peek through the peephole and realizing there isn’t someone standing guard out there, I make the decision to leave. I’ll just head to the park and maybe go for a walk. A coffee sounds like an amazing idea right now. Even if I don’t talk to anyone, just being around other people will be better than going crazy all alone up here.

I change out of my lounge clothes. Just because I may be having an existential crisis about the direction my life has taken, I’m nowhere near the point I can go out in public looking like a train wreck.

My phone rings in my purse as I reach the elevator. It’s a local number, but instead of sending it to voicemail, I accept the call, desperate for even a robocall right now.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

My hand freezes above the call button to the elevator.

“Umm…”

“Anna.” The warning is clear in Wren’s voice, but it still doesn’t hold the same power as it would if it were Deacon on the other line. “You’re not supposed to leave.”

“I can’t stay here!” I screech.

“Overdramatic much?”

“You don’t even understand.” I sag against the wall in defeat.

I’m not trying to cause problems for Wren. I don’t want Deacon jumping on his ass because I can’t do what I’m told but staying here isn’t an option.

“I’m going crazy. Before long I won’t even have to worry about Russian mobsters because I’ll be in a secure institution on twelve different psychotropic drugs to manage my insanity.”

He sighs, but it ends with a chuckle.

“How did you know I left the room?”

“I don’t divulge my secrets.”

“Oh my God! Do you have cameras in the suite? Did you watch me doing yoga earlier?”

My cheeks heat because I attempted yoga sans clothes a couple of hours ago, both wanting Deacon to show up and praying that he didn’t. Like I said, my mind is a scary place right now.

“Were you…” he clears his throat. “Why, would that bother you?”

“I didn’t have my hair fixed,” I say stupidly, and when he laughs again, I know there aren’t cameras in the suite. At least not in the media room.

“I’m tapped into the hotel’s system. I know when the door opens. The suite to your door opened and the elevator wasn’t triggered prior. There’s no order to your room for room service and no one has checked in for a delivery to your room.”

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath before speaking. He’s only doing what I’m sure Deacon told him to, but I’m not used to having someone so invasive in my life.

“If you’re keeping such close tabs on my every move, why would it be unsafe for me to go down the street to get a coffee?”

“We have coffee here.”

“I’m not there,” I mutter.

“You could be.”

My mood shifts immediately. “Really?”

“If you go back inside and give me twenty minutes, I can have a car there to pick you up.”

My pulse begins to pound with the prospect of getting out of here even if it’s to head to the BBS offices for a little while.

“Deal,” I squeal and turn back to the hotel suite.

***

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman so happy to see me before.”

I scoff at Wren when he meets me at the elevator outside of the BBS office.

“I find that hard to believe,” I tell him with a smile.

“How so?” He tilts his head a little, intent on hearing what I have to say.

“Fishing for compliments?” I slap him on the shoulder because running up to him and hugging him for helping me escape the hotel suite would be weird, right?

He winks at me before holding the door open for me to enter.

“This is Pam.”

“Anna,” I tell the middle-aged woman at the front desk, holding out my hand.

“She’s our mother hen. The only one around here who can keep all of us guys in line.”

Pam rolls her eyes as she takes my hand.

“I’m the office manager and client liaison.”

“Lovely to meet you.”

Pam wasn’t here the other night when I arrived, but it’s nice to know that it’s not just the guys running this place.

“We’re going to hang out,” Wren says as if he needs to explain my presence.

“Don’t let—”

“I know the rules,” Wren interrupts like a grouchy child.

“Rules?” I ask after we leave the front office area and head back to the big breakroom I met the other guys in when I came here the first time.

“We deal with a lot of sensitive information. She was just warning me to be careful with what you see.”

I follow him across the room to the door on the far side.

“This is my office.”

A blast of cold air hits me in the face when he swings the door open wide.