Good. Get some rest. Maybe you’ll dream of me.
The next morning,I’m a nervous fucking wreck.
I have on my outfit from Teresa’s that made me feel like I could conquer the world yesterday. But today, it makes me feel like an imposter. Like a fake grown-up. A fraud. My hair is falling flat, my makeup just isn’t right, and I feel a little softer than I normally do. Nothing about me is giving confidence, and it has me chomping on my thumbnail as I sit in my apartment, my knee traveling at a hundred bounces a minute.
The Everetts insisted on paying for and arranging everything today. They have a car coming to pick me up, but not one of theirs. Something a little more inconspicuous. The brothers are going to be waiting in the garage for me. Then we are supposed to have a debrief lunch afterward.
It all feels like a lot.
And I can’t escape from the anxiety and sadness I feel over Brooks not being here today. It makes me feel that much more uneasy that the trouble brother, who has come to be my comfort brother, won’t be in attendance.
I draw in a long breath, and a knock on my door makes me jump. I look at the time. The car isn’t supposed to be here for another half-hour, and that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I look through the peephole, and I see Eddie, Brooks’s driver. He’s standing in the hallway with a bouquet of flowers and a paper coffee cup. I open the door.
“Eddie?” I ask.
He smiles, hands me the flowers, then the cup, then holds up his phone.
I see Brooks on the other end, smiling. He’s outside, somewhere loud.
“Morning, Sunshine,” he says. That smile could calm me down on the edge of a damn cliff.
“Hi,” I say, looking at the roses and the coffee then back to him.
“It’s a flat white,” he says, “which I didn’t know was a thing until you. Wasn’t sure what flowers you liked, so roses seemed safest. I’m about to board the jet, but I just wanted you to know that you’re on my mind. And that you’re going to kill it today.”
The gesture almost makes me weak.
I can probably count the number of times I’ve been told that in my life.
You’re on my mind.
“Thank you, Brooks,” I say, suddenly aware that poor Eddie is the host of this mushy little session we’re having. I clear my throat. “I hope your meeting is quick and painless.”
He winks at me.
“I’ll be in touch,” he says. “Go get ‘em.” He hangs up.
“I’ll be downstairs whenever you’re ready,” Eddie says then turns and heads back downstairs. I go back inside and put the roses in water, setting them in my window and admiring their deep-red color.
And as I’m sitting here, preparing to go meet one of the most dangerous men in the world, I realize that I might be falling for his son.
Twenty minutes later,Eddie and I are almost at the address Cato’s assistant sent in the email. It’s not headquarters but one of Everett Enterprises' smaller satellite buildings. Not done on accident, I’m sure. We follow the instructions to pull into the garage and make an immediate right. There is a gate and an attendant who asks for my name then lets us by when he hears it. Eddie finds an open spot and pulls in. He gets out and walks around, looking me in my eyes. He’s older, maybe fifties, with tufts of gray hair mixed in with dark brown. This is the first time I’ve really looked at him.
“I don’t know all that’s going on, Miss Wright,” he says. “But I know that you’re going to great lengths to stop some bad people from doing more bad things. And it’s an honor to be here with you while you do. Give ‘em hell,” he says. I smile as I take his hand, giving him a squeeze.
I might not believe in myself right now, but Eddie does, so that’s something.
“Thanks, Eddie.”
“I’ll be right here,” he says with a nod as I walk toward the service elevator that I was instructed to get on.
Fuck.Elevators suck in general. But give me an even smaller, dusty, old elevator in a dusty, old building, and that’s even worse.
But I shake my head and close my eyes as I press the “five” button. I refuse to let an elevator be my downfall today.
After what feels like a thirty-minute elevator ride, the doors open, and I draw in my last breath before I can’t go back.
