My purse wasn’t that big, and I searched the bottom thoroughly. “Desk,” I said sadly. “I was locking my drawer when that stupid beeping started—and you came out…” I tipped back my head. “Fuck.”
“So, I’m to blame?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “Yes, you are to blame for all of this.”
“I see.”
I balled my hands into fists. If only he knew how much he was to blame.
He looked at his watch. “If we hurry, we should be able to get your keys and still get out.” He slapped the executive floor button as soon as the doors started to open. He tapped the close button a few times and finally, we were moving again.
“So, how locked in are we talking here? I mean, you own the building, right? There’s an override or something? Just talk to the security people and say sorry?”
“No. If we don’t get out of the building, then we’re sleeping here.”
“Who came up with that?”
“Me.”
I bit my tongue at the finality in his tone. It was a stupid idea. There should always be a failsafe, just in case. It seemed…asinine.
No, itwasasinine. He was such a control freak in all ways, butthiswas where he didn’t have a safeguard?
As soon as the doors opened, I shot out and across the office. Had it always been this big? Sure enough, the keys were splayed out on the end of my desk. I grabbed them and raced back to the elevator. In my rush, my sweater fell.
“Hurry, Ms. Copeland.”
I scooped it up and skidded through the doors as they started to close. I jingled my keys as the numbers slowly went down.
“It’s not a huge deal. I’ve slept in my office before.”
“Well, awesome for you. I don’t have a real office to sleep in. And as comfortable as those chairs are in the reception area, I don’t want to give them an all-night test run.”
He glanced at his wrist. “You might have to.”
“We can make it.” I tapped my finger against my strap. “We have two minutes.”
I slapped the doors to the elevator as we slowed. Third floor, second…open. “Open!” I finally said out loud and squeezed through the doors as they finally slid apart. “Stupid huge lobby.”
“We should just stay. We’re going to get stuck down here. You can sleep in my office.”
I reached back and grasped a handful of his suit jacket and dragged him after me. “I have been in this building way too long. There’s no way I’m sleeping here too.”
We’d made it out the main lobby door to the large glass vestibule when the heavy mechanical locks engaged. He turned around to try and open the inside lobby door, but it was already shut.
He slapped the door. “Dammit.”
I turned around in the ten-by-ten-foot enclosure. “No.”
“Yes, Ms. Copeland. Looks like we’re not spending the night in my comfortable office that happens to have a pull-out bed. But in here.” He yanked at his tie. “On a cold slate floor.”
Chapter Twelve
“No, no, no.” I paced the three steps it took to get to the outer door and back to him. “You can call someone.”
“With what signal?”
I blinked. Memories of Jack telling me that there was no cell signal within one hundred feet of the building had me shaking my head. I scrabbled through my purse, dropping my keys and sweater to the floor. I pulled my phone out—no signal.