Chapter 12 - Stay With Me
I told Carter to meet me at eight forty in my office. I kept the text short the way he liked things. Need ten minutes. Door closed. No assistants.
The tower was different at night. The cleaning carts were parked by the freight elevator, and the hallway lights had dropped to half. Through the big windows behind my desk, the city looked gray and wet, and the dark floor threw back the warm pool from the desk lamp. My chest felt tight just walking in. I set my fresh inhaler and the empty one with the wrong counter side by side on the wood so I could see them.
Elena got there at eight fifteen. She still had on her light blue uniform, apron folded over her arm. Her hair was pulled back.
"You sure about the closet?" I asked.
She nodded toward the storage closet by the side wall. It was narrow, mops and extra paper, the door with slats that never quite shut right. "I can hear fine through it. And the phone will pick up."
I didn't like it. I hadn't liked it since I'd asked her that afternoon in the parking lot. "If he sees you —"
"He already wants me gone," she said. "This is the only way he talks without HR in the room."
I breathed in, counted without thinking. One, two. I hated that I needed the count to stay steady.
At eight thirty-eight the elevator dinged. Carter came in with his coat still on, loosening his tie like he owned the air. Mid fifties, close haircut, foundation pin on his lapel. He glanced at the desk, at the two blue inhalers.
"You said it was urgent," he said.
I shut the office door. "Close the box. Where is it?"
He didn't blink. "What box?"
"The supply box from my office. My spare inhalers. Elena logged it for disposal and it never made it to the bin. I want it back."
Carter smiled a little and set his briefcase down. "Julian. You called me up here at night over restock? Talk to building services."
"I'm talking to you. You ordered a clean sweep before the board walk-through."
"I order a lot of sweeps," he said. "That office looked like a pharmacy. You can't have meds sitting out with donors coming through."
I stepped closer to the desk so the lamp was between us. My breathing hitched and I forced myself to breathe out first. "One of them came back empty. Counter read zero. Pharmacy said it had been actuated. Fired into the air until it was drained."
For a second his eyes cut to the inhalers. Then back to me.
"I told cleaning to dispose of extras," he said. "Old product, liability. If a kid on a tour picks that up — you know how it looks. I didn't drain anything. That's on the crew if they were messing around."
"You had Elena pull them," I said. "She didn't mess around."
"Elena," he said, and his voice flattened. "The maid's got you doing her errands now?"
My hands were shaking. I put them flat on the desk. "Give me the box, Carter. With the log sheet. Tonight. And you leave her out of the write-up."
He laughed once, short. "You think I pocketed your inhalers? Check the loading dock trash. Check her cart. Ask the night crew what they tossed. Don't put this on me because you're embarrassed you can't breathe without help."
The closet door creaked. It was tiny, just the latch settling, but in that quiet office it sounded loud. Carter stopped and turned his head.
"What was that?"
My stomach dropped. I tried to keep my eyes on him. "Building settling. Old air vents."
He took two steps toward the closet. "There's someone in here."
Elena went still. I could hear it, the held breath behind the slats. Then her phone shifted against something metal and clicked.
Carter pulled the closet door open.
She stood there with mops behind her, phone in her hand, screen lit. Her face was white, but she didn't lower it.
"You recording me?" Carter said.
"I was cleaning," Elena said. It was a lie and we both knew it. "Please —"
"Give me that phone." He held out his hand. "You recorded a private executive conversation. That's termination. That's theft of supplies, too. I saw the report."
I moved between them before I thought about it. My chest burned. "Don't touch her."
"She's in my closet with a phone," Carter said. "You lured me up here for this? You want to play this game, Julian? Then let's play it in front of HR tomorrow. With your medical file on the table."
Elena looked at me. Her eyes flicked to the inhalers on the desk, then to my face. She mouthed one thing without sound. Breathe.
I forced air out slow, then in. I could feel the rattle low in my lungs.
"Carter," I said, low. "You admitted you ordered disposal. That's on her phone now. You can fire her tomorrow and everyone will know why."
He stared at me, then at Elena. He shut the closet door hard enough the slats rattled, but he didn't take the phone.
"You have no idea what you just did," he said to me. "For her." He pointed at Elena. "Bring your badge in the morning. Don't go near his office again."
He picked up his briefcase and walked out. The door didn't slam. It clicked shut, worse.
For a moment neither of us moved. The lamp buzzed. Rain started hitting the big windows.
Elena let out a breath and her hands shook so bad she almost dropped the phone. She pressed stop with her thumb.
"Did it get it?" I asked.
She nodded, eyes wet. "Most of it. The disposal part. Not the draining. He said the crew did it."
I sat down hard against the edge of the desk. "He saw you. God, Elena. He saw you."
"I know," she said. She stepped out of the closet and stood close, not touching me, just there. "Stay with me a minute. Breathe out first, okay?"
May you like
I did what she said. One, two, three, four. The tightness eased a notch.
Outside, the elevator dinged again, going down.
