She told herself to simply calm down and count. After all, she was safe. She laughed out loud, a little hysterically, when she realized she had probably stupidly put herself in more danger by fleeing. But she couldn’t seem to stop her full tilt descent into the bowels of the building. She just desperately hoped she wasn’t about to launch herself into the arms of a man with a machine gun.
A serious stitch in her side caused her to finally slow down and take stock of her surroundings. She had no clue what floor she was on. Her mad dash must have carried her down several floors. She should be getting close to the ground floor, but she didn’t want to come out into the mess that used to the the impeccable lobby. There was a good chance she might run into Daniel Mercer in the lobby. How could she avoid that possibility?
“The garage,” she muttered to herself.
She would have to go to the very bottom, until there were no more stairs, and try to find her way out of this maze down there. She hoped it would lead her into the garage, which would lead her out onto the street. And hopefully not into the arms of a bad guy or an angry head of King security. Or hit by a car. She wasn’t sure at the moment which option would be worse.
Clutching her side and gasping in lungfuls of ventilated air, Addison forced herself to take calm, measured steps the rest of the way down to the bottom of the building. She took slow breaths, in and out, and came up with a plan. She had to take care of herself, more than an average person. She couldn’t just go running out into the street and hope everything would be okay.
Eerie silence greeted her when she reached the last step. Her shoes barely made a sound when they hit the bottom. Only her gasp sounded too loud in her ears. She clutched her denim jacket against her throat and, holding her purse tightly, groped her way along the wall until she felt a door. Praying desperately that it wasn’t attached to any kind of alarm, she shoved against it. It gave way under her weight and released her into the dank, oily smelling garage beneath the King Tower condos.
Addison sighed in relief. She turned her face in every direction and decided she could vaguely make out a light source in one of the directions. Lightly running her fingers along the concrete wall, she followed it toward the light. Terrified that she would be stopped, she walked faster as the light grew stronger until she stepped out into the full light of the morning.
It seemed shocking that it would still be Sunday morning after the terrible events that had occurred. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, Addison took several purposeful steps away from the building and into the arms of a man. She jumped back with a scream and clutched her purse tightly, bringing a hand up in front of her for protection.
Almost immediately a calm, male voice said, reassuringly, “I’m sorry ma’am, I didn’t see you there. I was just keeping the sidewalk clear. I didn’t know anyone got past me.”
The breath rushed from her lungs when she realized he was neither Daniel Mercer nor a depraved gunman. He was most likely a police officer. She pasted on her best ‘damsel in distress smile’ and dropped her eyes, which had a tendency to make sighted people uncomfortable.
“No need to apologize. I came out through the garage,” she said. “I’m visually impaired, which is why I ran into you. I should be the one apologizing.”
She felt the moment his professional disposition melted at her helplessness. The fragility she felt at the moment wasn’t entirely fake, but she found it helped get her out of certain situations if people thought she was less capable of taking care of herself than she actually was. She hoped he didn’t notice her lack of cane or dog. It was pretty unusual for a blind person to walk completely unaided.
“I take it you have no idea what took place in the lobby of your building this morning?” he asked gently, his voice clearly doubting that she would know a thing.
Addison was very glad she wouldn’t be expected to meet his eyes. She frowned a little. “No, sir,” she said. “Did something happen that I should know about?”
She injected just enough worry into her voice that he stepped closer, drawn to protect her. He patted her shoulder gently and said, “An isolated incident. It’s over now, nothing for you to be worried about. Can I help you get somewhere? You shouldn’t be walking around by yourself. Isn’t that dangerous?”
Addison had to bite her tongue to hold in the instant retort. She wanted to snap that the only dangerous thing she’d done recently is inhabit the same building as a shady billionaire and his uncivilized security chief. She’d never been shot at in her many years of wandering around in the metro downtown area. Instead she gave him her best shy smile and waved her hand around helplessly.
“I had a cab coming to pick me up, but I’m sure with the commotion around here it must’ve been scared off,” she said worriedly, biting her lip and hoping there had been enough commotion to corroborate her story. “I don’t know what I’ll do now.”
He rubbed her arm soothingly. “Don’t worry about a thing ma’am, I’ll find one for you.”
She smiled brightly and gave his arm a grateful squeeze before he could step to the edge of the sidewalk and wave a cab down for her. “Oh, you’re so kind! Thank you so much, officer…”
“Jonathon Finely,” he supplied quickly.
Within minutes Officer Finley had her comfortably seated in the backseat of a taxi and speeding away from King tower. Addison relaxed against her seat with a sigh. She’d made two narrow escapes that morning!
Chapter Six
Daniel should have warned her.
If she ran, he would hunt.
He turned from her empty apartment, closed and locked the door behind him. She had several hours head start on him, assuming she left the moment his back was turned. He strode toward the elevator, but stopped before he reached it, turning instead into the stairwell. She wouldn’t have taken the elevator down to the lobby, knowing her familiar route was blocked to her.
Entering the stairwell, he stopped. Every fibre of his being told him she had been there. He could almost smell her delicate flowery scent imprinting in the air, calling to him.
He was tempted to follow her steps down, tracing each footfall with his heavier ones. His brain worked swiftly through each of her steps, having come to know her well enough over the past months to understand how her clever mind would have worked once she forced herself to calm down. It was part of the reason she was more than a passing attraction for him. Her weakness combined with her strength and perseverance made her the perfect prey for his twisted mind.
Instead he forced himself to take the concrete steps up into the farthest reaches of the tower, climbing two at a time with militaristic precision. His apartment was on the 25th floor, right beneath King’s parking garage. The entire 25th floor was technically storage for the security equipment and training for the security unit, but Daniel preferred it to a traditional living space. The rest of the security team shared the 24th floor or lived off property. King and his woman used the top two floors of the penthouse.
Daniel reached the 25th floor in minutes, his heart rate completely normal despite the gruelling climb. He punched in the code, releasing the door to his sanctuary. He strode toward the surveillance section, swiped his security card and entered another code, releasing the door to the locked cage. He sat down at the terminal and brought up the camera system.
It was easy for Daniel to track the woman once she left the building. King's influence opened the entire city to his fingertips. He watched through the building’s surveillance system as she subtly and deliberately seduced a young police officer into finding her a ride. As the vehicle rounded the corner, Daniel brought up the city's surveillance system, entered the passcode and timestamp and tracked the vehicle to its destination. It pulled up outside of a bar on the outskirts of downtown toward the river district, entering into the trendier business area. Daniel watched as Addison stepped out of the cab, resting her hand on the cab driver’s arm as she paid her fare, and walked inside.
