Moonlighter (The Company, #1)(104)

“Would Rolf know, too?”

“Absolutely.” The corridor gets more interesting as we go along. There’s a copy center, a mail room, and a boiler room. Then it branches off to the left and right. Alex takes a right-hand turn, and I follow her toward double doors marked loading dock. She waves her security pass at the scanner.

Nothing happens.

“What? No!” she yelps. “How do I not have access?”

I study the doors. “There’s a fire alarm override.”

“But the alarm isn’t going off,” she points out.

“True.” So Rolf probably didn’t go out this way. I pull out my phone. There’s a text from Max. He’s not in the lobby. Nobody saw him. Reviewing elevator tape next. Got anything?

Not yet, I reply. Which means he might be in this goddamn basement somewhere. Unless he got off on another floor? “Alex, are there exits on other floors? A mezzanine level, maybe?”

She shakes her head.

“Why don’t I poke around down here, while you go up to the lobby? Max needs your help in the surveillance room.” In the nice, safe security office.

“Okay.” We walk back the way we came, but this time Alex stops to peek into every door along the way.

“Move along, now,” I whisper as she lingers in front of a door marked brooms. I give her ass a little swat.

She turns around, and I assume she means to tell me to keep my hands off her backside. But she beckons me closer instead. I lean down so she can whisper in my ear. “The light just went out under the door.”

Hell. He could be right there. I’m about to mouth: “Stay out here in the hall,” when Alex grabs the door handle and flings it open. Light from the hallway spills into the dark space, illuminating the tiny room just enough to show us the shadowed figure of Rolf.

And the pistol he’s aiming at Alex.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Rolf says in a trembling voice. “Both of you are going to step forward. Put your phones on the floor. Slowly. And then Alex and I are going out the loading dock door. Together.”

Shit. My eyes are fixed on that gun. It’s pointed right at Alex’s belly. “The alarm will go off,” I say, watching that gun.

“Yeah, that can’t be helped. Alex is going to walk with me to the Subway entrance. Once I get there, she’s free to go.”

“O-okay,” she breathes.

“You won’t hurt her,” I snarl.

“Not if I make it down into the station.” He lifts his pointy little chin. “Move forward. Both of you. And Eric doesn’t leave this room until after the fire alarm stops.”

“Okay,” I grunt.

“Come on. Tick tock. Put your phone on the floor and kick it to me.”

“I don’t even have mine,” Alex says tightly. “It’s upstairs on my desk.”

“Whatever. I want the jock’s. What’s your pass code?”

I raise one hand in the air and slowly reach for my phone with the other. “My passcode is my father’s birthday. April 20, 1943.” I put it on the floor and kick it toward him.

Holding my gaze, he begins to reach for it.

“But the phone is traceable, man. Just saying. They might be listening to us right now.”

Rolf blinks. He’s a man who’s making this shit up as he goes along, and this bit of information throws him off.

And that’s the hesitation I’d been waiting for. The point of the gun dips, so that now it’s aimed at Alex’s thigh.

That’s the opening I’ve been waiting for.

My right hand closes around one of the brooms hanging on the wall beside me. With a snap of my wrist, the handle slices through the space between Rolf and Alex, catching Rolf’s gun hand and bouncing it off the nearby wall.

The pistol falls right to the floor before Alex even has time to scream.

I lunge forward, grabbing Rolf and shoving him chest-first into the wall. His hands are behind his back a microsecond later. “You stupid fuck. You point a gun at my girl, and I’ll break you in half.”

He lets out an angry cry. “It’s not loaded!”

“You are still a stupid—” I bounce his face off the wall. “—Fuck.”

He lets out a sob. “He gave me money. I put my grandma in a nicer nursing home.”

“Who did?” I demand, tightening my grip on his arms.

“Xian Smith!”

“Did you know he was going to kill people?”

“No! I swear. He just said he wanted to get closer to Alex. For business. He wanted to curry favor.”

“What did you give him?” Max asks from the doorway. “How much does he have?”

“The visitor’s pass. And the schedule,” Rolf stammers. “Her home address. He said he wanted to send flowers.”

“Flowers!” Alex shrieks. “He broke into my apartment to hack my phone.”

“I didn’t know! And when I told him I was done, he threatened me.”

“Of course he did,” Max says with a sigh. “You really are a stupid fuck. Eric, don’t break his arms.”

“Here’s a zip tie!” my father says, pulling one out of his pocket. Some families carry tissues and gum. We carry restraints.