I opened my mouth to tell him that yes, that’s what I thought. He didn’t let me say anything, cutting me off to make a sound like he was snoring.
“Boring,” he said.
I took a step to retrieve my manhandled briefcase. Max wrapped a hand around my elbow. “No you don’t. Let’s go.”
He dragged me out onto the sidewalk. I was so surprised I couldn’t even protest. He released me, looking up and down the street as if deciding where to go.
A cab drove by and he flagged him down, holding the door for me and climbing in behind me. “Take us to the closest bar,” he told the driver.
“Have you hit your head recently?” I asked. If I wasn’t so sensible, I might think aliens had invaded his body.
He didn’t answer, which made me think he had hit his head. Then I thought of something else. “Where is your car?” I hadn’t seen it parked on the street near the building lately.
He muttered something beneath his breath that sounded suspiciously like “freaking lawyer” before he turned to me to reply. “It’s in the shop.”
We were dropped off at a bar I’d never noticed before just a few blocks from our place. I was a little wary to go inside. I mean, what if it was unsafe? What if this was the kind of place that pedophiles congregated in to think about their next kidnapping.
I stopped walking.
What if the men who tried to kidnap me were inside?
“Charlotte?” Max said, turning to face me.
“This place could be full of criminals,” I said.
He laughed. It was a deep laugh. “It’s a piano bar.”
“A piano bar?”
“Yeah, can’t you hear the piano playing?”
Well, now that he mentioned it… “Criminals might like pianos.” I pointed out.
“Is there an off switch for the lawyer in you?”
I felt my eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
“Come on, Charlie, you need a drink.”
“Who the hell is Charlie?” I yelled as he dragged me toward the entrance.
“Charlotte,” he corrected.
“Charlie is a boy name,” I muttered as he paid the cover fee and we were waved inside.
Piano music filled the air, along with the deep tone of someone singing what sounded like an Elton John tune. The lighting was low in here, round tables scattered the room, and in the center was a giant wooden piano along with a small stage and various other instruments propped along the wall. People were laughing and singing along to the music. Waitresses weaved through the tables with trays full of drinks and chips.
“So what do you think?” Max said as he turned to me. “Are we gonna stay?” His smile was lopsided as he took my hand, waiting for me to give in.
The lawyer in me was ready to give a solid case of why we should leave.
The rest of me…
The rest of me wanted to stay.
He must have seen the look of surrender on my face because his smile turned smug as he towed me farther into the bar.
13
Tucker
I didn’t find it. I searched Max’s office endlessly. I looked in every possible place in the tiny space and came up empty.
And the phone.
His phone on the desk rang all day long. I stopped answering it after a while because I didn’t have answers to any of the questions being thrown at me. I didn’t understand his job or what he did. The corporate world was a long way from being an Armorer in the Marine Corps.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked money. It would likely be nice to have a lot of it. But for someone who never really had a lot of it, I didn’t understand why anyone would want to work with it and the people who had a ton of it all day long.
Money wasn’t everything.
But clearly Max had been good at his job. His office was organized meticulously, his notes were thorough, and everyone in the office seemed to like and respect him.
Except of course for the Wallace men. It sure felt good to imply that I knew he tried to kill me and that I still had the drive he wanted. It was like plunging a knife in a terrorist and twisting it just a little to watch them squirm.
I’d done it once. I would do it again.
Of course, every time I would see one of them and the looks they cast in my general direction, I began to realize that while baiting Wallace Jr. felt good, it wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done.
I pretty much painted a target on my back that screamed come and get me. They wanted me dead before and now they wanted it worse. They were going to come for me. It was just a matter of when.
I was going to be ready.
After I searched the office top to bottom and had enough of the damned ringing phone, I left. I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving. I just walked out. I even left my office unlocked. Why not? What they wanted wasn’t in there. I noticed a few gaping stares as I walked out, but I ignored them.