Page 13 of I Am Salvation

I walk out into the lobby, wave to the receptionist, and tell her I’ll be back in an hour.

It’s a brisk autumn day in Denver, so I choose not to leave the building. I descend in the elevator to the ornate lobby on the first floor, find an empty chair, and make my call.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

My father’s voice. So calm and clear and full of strength. My father, Talon Steel, has been through hell in his life—a lot of which I didn’t know about until recently.

“Hi, Daddy,” I say on a sigh.

“Everything okay, Diana?”

“I’m fine.”

“How’s the investigator working out for Dragon?” Dad asks.

“Honestly, I’m not exactly sure. He won’t tell me everything.” I purse my lips. “But that’s not why I called.”

“Why did you call, sweetheart?”

“I need to talk to you, Daddy.”

“Of course.” I hear him typing. “I’m supposed to get on a phone conference in about ten minutes, but I’ll delay it.”

“Crap. I don’t want you to neglect your own work because of mine.”

“This has to do with your work?” he says. “Isn’t this just your second day?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, Dee. What’s going on?”

“I don’t want you to miss your call.”

He chuckles. “Screw my call. When one of my kids needs me, that’s where I’ll be. Always. You know that.”

I scratch my arm. “I should be able to handle this myself.”

“You’re a capable young woman, Diana. And I have every faith in you that you can handle anything yourself. But sometimes getting some advice from someone who’s older—and may I say it, wiser—is never a bad thing.”

I draw in a deep breath. “Okay, Daddy. Here goes. You know that big mountaintop resort project I told you about?”

“Yeah. It sounds great. I know you’re excited about it.”

“I was. Still am, really, but I found a problem in the plans.”

“Does that mean they put you on the project?”

“No, not exactly. Yesterday, my first day, my boss had me look over some of the firm’s projects. The mountaintop project was included. But I found an issue on the blueprint.”

“What kind of issue?”

“It has to do with the irrigation and plumbing system. One of the pipelines is a little too close to a cliff. I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say it could cause major problems.”

“And you brought it to their attention?”

“They already know, Daddy. And they should. Any architect worth their salt would’ve pointed it out. The problem is?—”

“Don’t tell me. The problem is fixing it will cost a lot of money.”

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