Chapter Seven
It was coming! Nature had called, and it had called loudly. Screamed. She gritted her teeth and bent over. Squeeze those Kegel muscles. Fuck. After this, her Kegels would be able to lift weights. The sensation passed.
“No. I got it.” She stepped off the sidewalk toward the building. At the van, she glanced in the driver’s side window and saw an apron and clipboard. Looking around and seeing no one watching her, she opened the door and grabbed both items. She tied the apron around her waist and put on a pained expression. People seldom talked to others who looked mad. If she came in like she was supposed to be there, then maybe no one would notice.
The fancy bracelet Sheldon gave her caught on the apron’s material. She slid it off and shoved it in her back pocket. It didn’t seem like women here wore anything expensive. In her back pocket, no one would steal it. She wasn’t going far. There’d be no need to be tracked.
When she walked around the back of the van, she was startled to see armed guards standing on each side of the door. She didn’t miss a beat, though. She pulled a pen from the top of the board, frowned and pushed down her brows, and looked at the ground as she walked in the door. The guards didn’t move. She wasn’t sure they were even awake.
Out of sight of the door, she hurried down a hall, checking each door. There were three doors down each side. Most looked like conference rooms with tables in the center. One room was filled with gold items. They shined like a thousand mirrors. It took her breath away. She slipped the apron off and set it on the floor inside the door. A couple catering employees passed her. They didn’t even look at her. She came to the end of the hall and found no bathroom.
The space opened into a huge lobby-like area with amazing artwork and paintings on the wall. This had to be a museum like Sheldon had said. Everything was too incredible, too ancient-looking to be anything else. There had to be a restroom in a public place. She tried a door close to the corner. The sight that greeted her almost made her cry.
She rushed in and never in her life had she gotten her pants down as fast as she did now. As she sat, she sighed. So much better. The room was very small. Must be for the staff who worked in that area. After washing her hands, she stepped out and closed the door behind her.
On the wall next to her was a beautiful framed painting. She couldn’t read the artist’s name, but it looked old, the paint faded. That would make sense. Museums weren’t for new things. That would be called a store.
Across the way, a group of men came around the corner. The one in front of the group was dressed in flashy clothing and looked important, but the others were wearing the same uniforms as the two guards at the back door. And they were dragging another guy who looked unconscious. The guy in the shiny clothes abruptly stopped and stared at her. Oh shit. He must be a manager.
He pointed a finger at her and yelled words she didn’t understand. That wasn’t what made her run. It was the guns leveled at her. She had no idea they shot people who didn’t pay for a ticket to get in. She should’ve never assumed this place was like the U.S., the greatest country in the world.
If she headed to the back door she had come in through, she’d never get out once those chasing her yelled to the guards outside the exit. She had to hide and find another way out.
She grabbed a doorknob and threw herself inside. She tripped on the carpet, rolled, then popped up to her feet and ran for the door on the other side. As she opened it, the door behind her opened with guards stepping in. This was bad. She couldn’t do anything right.
Slamming the door, she ran to another door. She didn’t see the guards, but heard the door open. This room had a twenty-person conference table in the middle. The room being somewhat narrow, and her not being narrow, she bumped into an antique buffet and went down. She rolled under the table, wondering if she could hide.
The door at the other end of the table opened. The swishing of clothes headed toward the door on the far side. The second door opened, then she heard someone yell a word she didn’t know, but the sound of moving clothes stopped.
Chairs clunked as they were moved around, scooted away from the table. She held her breath and squeezed her eyes closed and lay as still as she could. After several seconds of silence, the voice said another word and everyone left the room.
Air rushed out of her lungs. She reached up from where she lay curled up on the floor, pushed away from the table, and promptly rolled to the floor. She had extra padding, so nothing hurt, too much, when landing. After getting to her feet, she peeked into the room she just left and saw nobody. She rushed to another door, hoping to find the hallway to the lobby where she could walk out the front door. Bingo!
She stepped out at the same time one of the guards did two doors down. Shit! She dove forward into the room across the hall. The room was dark, no lights. Her hand slid along the wall which felt like books. She kept going, came to a corner. The door opened. She flattened herself against the wall.
Lights came on, but they were small spotlights shining on the rows and rows of books lining the walls. She was awed by the amount of leather and paper this room held. At the end of the shelf, she squeezed back, hoping they wouldn’t see her.
The small of her back rubbed against two small objects in the wall behind her. Wait, she wasn’t against a wall, but a double door. She quietly opened it and backed in. Her eyes stayed on the men on the other side of the room, searching for her. Her shaky hands eased the door closed with barely a snick. She blew out the breath she held.
A throat behind her cleared. She jumped and twirled in the air, then flattened against the doors, her heart beating way too fast. Standing behind a desk was the sparkly important man who had pointed and sent the men after her.
Perhaps this was her last time she couldn’t trust herself to do anything right.