Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(41)

Saturday night in the city.

She wondered if Owen was out and about, enjoying his first few nights in a brand-new town. Her lips curled up as she imagined all the women who would likely think about fainting so the handsome Scot would catch them.

She packed up and for a moment thought about falling back into routine. It was right there, the instinct to call and explain that she’d changed her mind and couldn’t do dinner this evening. She could stop at the café and grab a salad and watch the same movies for the hundredth time and fall asleep on the couch. In the morning, she would call Lawyer Larry and let him know she had a work emergency and she could spend tomorrow here, too.

It was comfortable. It was safe, this routine of being alone.

It was cowardly and not what she’d promised the woman who’d given birth to her.

With a long sigh, she vowed to try. Tonight she would be all social and sparkly and meet River and Jax’s friends. Tomorrow she would smile and see if Lawyer Larry was at least a lust match.

She put her purse over her shoulder and opened the door to leave. She stepped out into the hall and realized how quiet it was. It wasn’t like she didn’t leave after everyone else did on a regular basis. She was usually the last one left with the singular exception of the janitorial staff and Chuck, who ran night security. But there was always ambient noise. There was the hum of printers left running or the heater. Not tonight. An eerie silence filled the space, as if sound could have weight.

Becca stopped, listening for something, anything that might tell her someone else was in the building because in that moment she realized she was being watched. She could feel it, knew it as surely as a rabbit knew a wolf was around, its eyes searching for prey.

But she didn’t hear a sound. No one moved or even breathed. There was absolutely nothing that let her know that instinct deep inside her was telling the truth. She glanced around and not a damn thing moved in the wide bank of cubicles that dotted the floor.

Of course those cubicles could also hide a person.

What the hell was she doing?

It was ridiculous. She shouldn’t have watched that stupid horror movie with her stepmom the last time she’d come into town. Melissa loved them. They gave Becca bad dreams and apparently made her paranoid that there was a serial killer in her office.

Her shoes clicked on the marbled floors, echoing through the space.

That was the moment when the lights went out.

She stopped, the place going dark, and then she could hear someone breathing. It came from her left, low and rattling through the room. Someone coughed and she took off, her heart pounding, adrenaline coursing through her veins like wildfire.

She raced for the bank of elevators, the light above the doors the only illumination in the building. She wouldn’t be able to get in the elevators, but it was the only light to be found so she ran for it.

She could feel it; something was there behind her. Something was chasing her and if it caught her…

The elevator doors opened and a flashlight beamed in the darkness.

She stopped, her feet planted to the floor, and for a moment she couldn’t breathe.

“Dr. Walsh?” a familiar voice rang out. “We’re having some problems with the lights on this floor. Are you all right?”

Chuck. Her hands shook as the lights came back on and the world went from terrifying to normal in the space of a heartbeat.

Chuck clicked off his flashlight and concern showed on his face. “Dr. Walsh?”

She took a deep breath. “I’m okay. I just got a little scared. Is anyone still here?”

He slid the flashlight back into the belt around his waist. “There are a couple of researchers working in the cancer center. And Frank from human resources is sleeping in his office again. I know I shouldn’t let him do that but he’s been having…”

She was being paranoid. She shook her head. “If I was Frank’s wife, I would have kicked him out, too.” He was a jackass, but he wouldn’t scare her like this. “The lights went out and I could have sworn I heard someone coughing.”

A sound rattled through the room and she nearly jumped.

Chuck sighed. “It’s the heater. You don’t notice it when everyone is here and talking. We need to have it fixed. I’m sorry, Dr. Walsh. Come on and I’ll escort you down. I promise I’ll talk to maintenance the first thing Monday morning.”

She nodded and didn’t argue with him. She did notice the heater. That hadn’t been the sound that frightened her, but she was being silly. She started following him toward the elevator. She glanced back and could have sworn she saw a shadow move in the rear of the building.

But it was nothing more than her eyes playing tricks on her. She could describe easily how the brain filled in spaces, how memory could make the mind twist and turn and see things that weren’t actually there.

She went through it in her head as she forced herself not to give into fear, not to look back to make sure that thing she’d felt before wasn’t still there. Wasn’t waiting for the lights to go out again.

She banished the fear and promised herself she wouldn’t let it affect her.





Chapter Eight





Owen glanced up at the clock and realized she was late. Fifteen minutes late. The party had started at six thirty, with Jax mixing cocktails while his pretty wife laid out her appetizers.